Glut of Ad-Buying Services Roils Industry

Any advertiser that wants to run a digital campaign faces a complex collection of ad-buying software and exchanges. That conflict has brought the industry to a stalemate, with a dividing line drawn between the tools built by the big tech companies and those sold by smaller ad tech firms.

Whatever advantages of scale enjoyed by big tech firms, advertisers are still reluctant to trust their data on ad performance. That gives independent ad tech firms a reason to hope they can keep carving off a portion of the business.