There’s something rotten in online publishing. I’m no Shakespeare, but we’re an industry under siege. The rise of programmatic ad buying is devaluing and commoditizing our lifeblood (our owned and operated inventory). As a result, some people are compromising user experience by piling on more ads and artificially inflating traffic numbers — hoping to boost their financial performances.
The key programmatic advertising shifts for 2026, covering AI, media quality, commerce media complexity, CTV, and changing discovery paths.
Failing to treat SPO as a strategic priority comes with a price tag: wasted spend, degraded inventory, and performance left on the table.
While TikTok's future is finally stable, this new era comes with unanswered questions that advertisers would do well to keep tabs on.
