Cookie deprecation blinds ad platforms like Google and Meta to on-site conversion quality. Marketers can gain a significant performance edge by creating a feedback loop, pushing their attributed first-party data (like lifetime value and margins) back into the platforms' AI systems in near real-time.

For new brands, directly allocating advertising budgets to platforms like Meta can yield a better return than hiring traditional ad agencies. These platforms' powerful algorithms and reach can develop more effective campaigns than human-led creative teams, democratizing access to high-quality advertising.

New measurement tools are moving beyond probabilistic models (guessing based on IP/device) to deterministic view-through attribution. By using first-party data like platform logins, marketers can now directly match an ad impression to a purchase, solving a major measurement challenge.

6AM City treats its reliable cost-per-subscriber from Meta lead ads as the baseline for evaluating all other growth tactics. For any new initiative, like a community event, they compare the cost against the number of subscribers it would have generated via Meta ads. If a $5,000 event doesn't yield 5,000 subscribers, the ROI is considered negative.

Previously, marketers told Meta who to target. With the new AI algorithm, marketers provide diverse creative, and the AI uses that creative to find the right audience. Targeting control has shifted from human to machine, fundamentally changing how ads are built and optimized.

With Meta's Andromeda algorithm automating audience targeting, the primary reason for poor ad performance is no longer incorrect targeting settings. Wasted money is now almost exclusively a result of insufficient or non-diverse creative, making creative strategy the most critical component of a successful campaign.

Meta's new "Value Rules" feature allows advertisers to set account-wide bid modifiers that are independent of ad-set targeting. This enables them to bid more for high-LTV customer segments and less for low-LTV ones, optimizing ad spend for long-term profitability over simple, immediate conversions.

Despite platform fragmentation, Digitas's CEO argues the job of advertising is fundamentally the same. For a data-driven "quant," the North Star has always been whether an action drove sales. The challenge isn't new complexity, but rather marketers clinging to outdated, unmeasurable goals like "setting culture."

The next major shift in ad tech is performance-based CTV. This merges the attention of linear TV with the accountability of digital media, allowing advertisers to tie ad spend directly to outcomes like sales—a revolutionary change from traditional television's limitations.