MAM
DoubleClick announces Q3 online ad trend report
NEW YORK: DoubleClick, a leading provider of marketing tools for advertisers, direct marketers and web publishers, has announced results of its third quarter Ad Serving Trend Report based on more than 144 billion advertisements from thousands of clients. The data reveals that ‘online advertising’ continues to prove its effectiveness for marketers. The majority of ‘online ads’ are now targeted and rich media usage has increased. In addition, the data shows that the click-through rates have remained constant whereas view-through rates have increased.
Some of the highlights of the report are as follows:
Marketers show continued sophistication in planning and creative: The data reveals that over 73 per cent of all campaigns incorporated some form of targeting criteria in the third quarter. The fact that only one quarter of all advertisements served are run-of-network, attests to a continued sophistication in the online planning process. Furthermore, ‘keyword’ and ‘key value’ remain the most common type of targeting used by advertisers with 82 per cent of targeted ads. This includes both ‘keywords’ on search engines served by DoubleClick and ‘content targeting’ on specific sites. Marketers have used geographic targeting in 12 per cent of all targeted ads and targeting by ‘time of day’ is now three per cent of all targeted ads served.
Rich media continues to grow in importance for marketers: According to the data, ‘rich media’ usage has grown by 34 per cent from the first quarter to the third quarter. In the third quarter nearly 25 per cent of all advertisements served by DoubleClick were ‘rich media’. ‘Rich media’ has been proven to have higher response rates and greater branding impact than the ‘static banners’. Average click-through rates for ‘rich media’ held constant at 2.7 per cent in the third quarter as compared to 2.5 per cent in the first quarter, while click-through rates for ‘non-rich media’ declined from 0.4 per cent in the first quarter to 0.27 per cent in the third quarter.
Marketers should also place importance on view-through rates : As a result of better planning and more dynamic creatives, average click-through rates remained constant at around 0.69 per cent in the second and third quarters, compared to 0.7 per cent in the first quarter, indicating an increasing maturation of the industry. In addition, view-through rates – which assess users who convert within 30 days of seeing an advertisement, but do not click on a banner – have risen from 0.36 per cent in the first quarter to 0.51 per cent in the third quarter. This translates to five consumers per thousand who respond to an advertisement that they do not click on. As a result, marketers who use click-throughs as the only response metric, are missing these conversions.
Brands
AI becomes key tool for Indian travellers, Agoda report finds
68 per cent plan to use AI for trips as 33 per cent already rely on it.
MUMBAI: Holiday planning is getting a software upgrade less “Where should we go?” and more “What does the algorithm say?” Indian travellers are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to map their journeys, with new data from Agoda’s 2026 Travel Outlook Report suggesting that AI is fast becoming central to how trips are imagined, planned and booked.
While 33 per cent of respondents said they already use AI tools for travel planning, a far larger 68 per cent indicated they are likely to rely on it for their next trip pointing to a sharp acceleration in adoption in a market already comfortable with digital-first travel.
What travellers want from AI, however, goes well beyond basic search. The report shows 38 per cent are looking for recommendations on local attractions and activities, while 37 per cent expect personalised itineraries. Destination discovery remains a key use case at 29 per cent, with dining suggestions (23 per cent) and budget management (22 per cent) also emerging as practical applications.
The shift reflects a broader change in expectations AI is no longer a novelty but a planning companion expected to work across every stage of the journey, from inspiration to execution.
Trust levels appear to be keeping pace. Nearly 88 per cent of respondents said they either trust or feel neutral about AI-generated recommendations, including 53 per cent who expressed clear confidence. This builds on earlier trends, with Agoda’s 2025 survey showing nine in ten Indian travellers already using apps to book travel suggesting AI adoption is more evolution than disruption.
The company has been testing this appetite through initiatives such as its 2025 AI-powered Vacation Planner campaign, which generated customised itineraries and visuals based on user inputs, delivered with a layer of celebrity-led engagement.
For platforms like Agoda, which aggregates more than 6 million properties, over 130,000 flight routes and 300,000 travel activities, AI offers a way to navigate scale without overwhelming users turning abundance into relevance.
As AI continues to embed itself into everyday decision-making, India is emerging as a market where travel planning is not just going digital, but decisively intelligent.
