Digital Connect May 1, 2025

Welcome to DCW Media’s May 1st edition of Digital Connect, our bi-weekly coverage of platform updates and vertical trends. This week is all about the former as we dive into Facebook, Chrome cookies, digital video, and YouTube’s birthday.

Platform Updates

Meta's rival product to X/Twitter, Threads, is inching closer to largescale ad inventory. Threads, which is connected to Instagram accounts, has been testing out ads in limited markets in the US and Japan. Meta has announced a full-scale rollout of Threads ads soon for all markets, reaching all of the platform's 300+ million users worldwide. The ads will initially be in-feed images, similar to the static ads on Twitter, and be activated on the Meta ads platform already used for Instagram and Facebook. DCW is prepared to fully POV this new platform for new and existing clients and will keep up with all emerging developments.

Google is backing off (for now) from its war on cookies. Google had previously announced in mid-2024 that it would have a special prompt on the Chrome browser for third-party tracking cookies. It was recently announced that this will not be happening, meaning cookies that are essential to channels like Programmatic and Social re-targeting will be able to operate as per usual for the time being. This is great news for advertisers who rely on this data from the top browser in the country for precision targeting.

Digital video ad spend eclipsed linear TV for the first time ever in 2024. It is estimated that digital video spend will exceed $70 billion in 2025 across CTV, social, and online video. This is coming at the expense of linear TV as over a third of advertisers have stated they expect to cut back linear spending as they increase their digital presence. DCW is here to help advertisers explore efficient digital video opportunities, working with clients and prospects to be seen where it matters most as audience habits continue to evolve. We're pros at planning, purchasing and optimizing campaigns on CTV, YouTube, Meta, PreRoll, and more. Although linear TV is down, it certainly is not out – we also specialize in this traditional buying and have worked with many clients on successful campaigns that blend both channels.

YouTube is celebrating its 20th birthday with some new features on YouTube Music, YouTube TV, and YouTube premium, including personalized AI-created radio stations and voice-reply video comments. YouTube continues to be both a digital video juggernaut and pioneer, now eclipsing Netflix as the most streamed video service on in-home TVs. DCW has been doing YouTube campaigns for over a decade, mastering its powerful Google targeting, driving low cost-per-view, and offering in-feed, in-stream, and un-skippable strategies.