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](mailto:advertising@mobiledevmemo.com). The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on: - Spotify - YouTube - Apple Podcasts