AdTech Platforms The Economics of Advertising Have Changed. The Industry Hasn’t Caught Up By Chris Pettit, CEO & Co-Founder of Revving. Most industry events talk about what’s coming. This one tackled what’s already happening. The Advertising Economic Forum NYC didn’t feel like a conference. It felt like a room full of operators quietly acknowledging the same thing: The economics of advertising have changed. The infrastructure hasn’t. The Industry is Growing, But the Model is Under Pressure On paper, the advertising industry looks very strong. Global Digital ad spend is approaching $900 billion, within a $1.2 trillion total market. Growth is being driven by platforms like Google, Meta, Amazon and TikTok – who now control more than half of that spend. So yes, the market is growing. But zoom in, and the story changes. S&P 500 earnings are up ~12%. Agency revenues? Largely flat. We’re seeing that growth isn’t disappearing. It’s concentrating. And when growth concentrates, pressure follows. Power, Scale, and Control are Shifting As spend consolidates, so does power. Players like The Trade Desk and Publicis aren’t just participating in the ecosystem anymore. They’re re-shaping it. Which raised an important question. Does scale outperform transparency? This isn’t just a commercial question, it’s a structural one. As the ecosystem becomes more complex and more automated, understanding where value sits – and who controls it – becomes harder. And with that, trust becomes more important, but also more difficult to maintain. AI is Accelerating Change – Unevenly AI was across the agenda, but the nuance was important: adoption isn’t uniform across industries. Some sectors, like automotive and financial services, are moving quickly out of necessity. Others are still working out how to apply it meaningfully. At the same time, consumer behaviour is shifting faster than enterprise adoption. Regardless of industry, AI is compressing timelines. Campaigns are built faster. Planning cycles are shorter. Targeting is more dynamic. And in some cases, the traditional funnel is being bypassed entirely – replaced by AI systems surfacing high-intent demand without the journey we’ve spent years optimising for. Whilst that creates opportunities, it also creates pressure on everything around it to keep up. New Growth is Coming. Just Not Where You’re Used to Looking Looking ahead, there’s significant growth expected. There’s another $365 billion in ad spend anticipated over the next five years. But in a few unexpected spaces including: Retail media Influencer marketing Addressable video Community focused platforms (e.g. Reddit) AI-driven discovery environments At the same time, traditional channels continue to decline, with a few exceptions like live sports. The Real Question No One Could Ignore Across all of these discussions of scale, AI, new channels, power dynamics – there was a more practical and operational tension. How does the industry actually operate day-to-day in this new era? Because while performance, targeting and distribution are accelerating quickly, the underlying mechanics and business operations are not. And this gap presents itself in: How quickly businesses can act on opportunity How confidently businesses can invest How businesses can manage partners across increasingly complex value chains A lot of businesses aren’t just struggling with strategy, they’re also struggling with the operations behind that strategy. Where This Starts to Matter In one session, I spoke alongside Tom Triscari (Co-Founder of Advertising Economic Forum) and Sarah Glickman (CFO of Criteo) and the conversation shifted from theory to reality. We spoke about how advertising moves fast, but often the money behind it doesn’t always keep up. We spent time unpacking the practical realities of that gap, how working capital is managed across long, fragmented value chains, where pressure builds, and why payment terms and liquidity are becoming increasingly strategic. This isn’t theoretical. It shows up in the day-to-day mechanics of the business: How quickly campaigns can actually be funded How partner and supplier expectations are managed Where financial pressure builds and who ends up carrying it The advertising ecosystem has become faster, more dynamic, more performance-driven. But the financial infrastructure supporting it still operates like it’s 2016. That’s not a small inefficiency. It’s a structural constraint. The Implication If the industry is already operating on a new model, then the infrastructure around it needs to evolve with it. Financially, not just operationally. Because pace isn’t just a function of technology anymore. It’s a function of economics. The ability to act, invest, and scale increasingly comes down to how well your financial model matches the reality of how advertising now works. That was the underlying takeaway from the Advertising Economic Forum. Not a prediction of what’s next, but a recognition of what’s already changed. The models, speed, and opportunities in advertising have moved forward. The way money moves hasn’t kept up. And that gap isn’t just inefficiency. It’s where friction builds, decisions slow down, and growth gets constrained. It’s also where the next phase of advantage will be created. Not just in better campaigns. In better economics. At Revving, we’re helping digital businesses create this advantage by aligning revenue with performance. Talk to our team today to learn more.
