In a bid to stay one or two steps ahead of Facebook, Snap has launched new camera ads, Bloomberg reports. The ads, or promotional "Lenses" superimpose brand logos and other images on a user's photos and videos. Notably as its user growth slows, "Snap is also selling Lens ads for audiences smaller than its national deals," Bloomberg reports. While a campaign on Snapchat typically costs anywhere from $300,000 to $700,000, "a national campaign for the more real-world-focused ads could go for 30 percent more," according to the Bloomberg report. say people familiar with the matter. Snap is also offering advertisers a way to play with …

Mashable explores how a strange alliance between Google and ad blockers could beat down bad ads. Recently, Google said it's even looking at launching its own ad blocker. While the pairing might appear strange, "it's more understandable when you consider one fundamental truth about ad blocking companies: They don't exist to block ads — they exist to serve as middlemen between ads and consumers. The biggest ad blockers charge the biggest advertising vendors to let their ads pass through their software. They're better described as ad filters than ad blockers," Mashable reports. Further, the report suggests that "ad blockers aren't all …

As marketers demand more transparency in the programmatic media buying process, media holding companies are trying to meet their needs. Omnicom "clients are opting for an 'unbundled' deal structure, 'which puts us in a position of treating it as if we were their agent and not selling them a product,'  [said]  Omnicom Chief Executive John Wren on an earnings call last month," according to a Wall Street Journal report. "An unbundled model typically involves itemizing costs instead of the approach in which media costs are bundled with agency and tech costs. That has had an impact: the company said first …

Analytics firm Media Radar estimated that 5% of the leading advertisers suspended advertising on YouTube due in April compared to the prior month due to brand safety issues that emerged a couple of months ago.  The 5% are reportedly "customers of Google Preferred, YouTube's program for advertising on its top-tier videos," according to a CNBC report. CNBC reported that media buying firm Havas pulled its U.K. clients, and several brands including L'Oreal, McDonald's, Audi, Starbucks, Pepsi, Dish Network, and General Motors ads from YouTube and other Google platforms. Google is working to address the problems.

Data is now the world's most valuable resource according to The Economist, which reports on antitrust concerns about Alphabet (Google's parent company), Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft, all of which have tons of data.  The report said Amazon captures half of all dollars spent online in the U.S., while Google and Facebook accounted for almost all the revenue growth in digital advertising in the U.S. last year. Along with all that profit, comes data. "Smartphones and the internet have made data abundant, ubiquitous and far more valuable. Whether you are going for a run, watching TV or even just sitting …

In a bid to take advantage of Google's brand safety woes, News Corp. has launched a new service that aims to make sure digital ads don’t appear next to fake news or offensive videos, according to a Bloomberg report. The company's Storyful division will track websites that are known as "purveyors of fake news or extremist content and share that list with advertisers, who can use it to keep ads from appearing in controversial places." Google's YouTube has scrambled to reassure advertisers that their ads are appearing in brand-safe environments. GroupM and Weber Shandwick are the first two customers that …