Season 7, Episode 28: Digital Advertising's M&A Resurgence (with Maor Sadra)

On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Maor Sadra, the co-founder and CEO of INCRMNTAL, to discuss the current cycle of M&A in digital advertising and the industry-wide shift toward intelligence-based measurement. Maor is well-positioned to discuss this topic, as INCRMNTAL was recently acquired by Smartly.
Maor and I analyze how acquisitions are moving away from simple inventory reach toward deeper integration of data, identity, and causal signal. Among other things, we discuss:
Why causal measurement is becoming a strategic necessity for large-scale creative and media optimization platforms
How the transition from legacy to AI-first companies creates opportunities for consolidation across the advertising stack
Whether enterprise clients will prioritize deep domain expertise over general machine learning capabilities when selecting partners
If the recent investment in AppsFlyer signals a permanent shift toward a collaborative industry-wide attribution infrastructure
What the rise of zero-click platforms like ChatGPT means for traditional performance marketing metrics and models
How e-commerce and retail media giants are leveraging CTV acquisitions to challenge established advertising platforms
When the current wave of AI-labeled startups will face the reality of high-volume performance requirements

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:
⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.
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