November Overview: Digital advertising news & trends

Every month, we select a few digital advertising industry insights to help industry players stay updated with trends and news. Enjoy November industry insights and stay up-to-date!

Retention vs. Acquisition: Where Should iGaming CMOs Invest?

The iGaming market is noisier and pricier than ever, and the first signs live in your media plan. Cost per thousand and platform fees rise while lookalikes tire faster, so cost player acquisition (CAC) keeps rising even as the quality of new traffic dips. Meanwhile, player lifetime value (LTV) is under pressure from bonus fatigue and tighter KYC flows, stretching payback windows. In this squeeze, every dollar must prove its worth on marketing ROI in iGaming, not promise it.

The truth is simple and uncomfortable: new users are expensive, kept users are profitable. When you compare player acquisition vs retention over a full season, retention wins because extra months of activity carry near-zero acquisition cost. Shaving churn by a few points boosts LTV more reliably than forcing CAC down a few dollars. That is why iGaming CMO priorities are shifting from the next click to the next deposit.
Continue reading: UBIDEX

People are having stronger emotional reactions to gen AI ads... that’s not always good

Last week, Andrew Tindall tested 18 AI-generated long-form ads from the US, UK, and Australia, and posited that gen AI ads are more effective than traditionally produced content. He argued that marketers can take that as a green light to use GenAI tools.

We put his hypothesis to the test by analyzing more than 350 ads created with gen AI, and the results were a mixed bag. The broad landscape of gen AI ads isn’t as rosy as it appeared. We know that humans can create both good and bad ads. Turns out, so can AI.
Continue reading: The Drum