The Ledger #6: GDC 2025 Ad Tech News and a Third Report

Five items of GDC 2025 ad tech news from the past fortnight, including a third short report on AppLovin, each with a note on what it means for buyers.

GDC 2025 ad tech news: AI creative front and centre

One theme dominates this fortnight's GDC 2025 ad tech news. Generative AI creative tooling closed out the conference in San Francisco last week as the main floor topic, moving from panel talk to working booth demos across video generation as well as localisation and playable variant production. What it means for buyers: expect a wave of vendor pitches over the next month claiming GDC-validated tooling. Ask for a live demo against your own brief before committing budget. Not a canned reel.

Unity names its rebuilt ad model Vector

Unity used GDC to unveil Unity Vector, an AI-driven layer for bidding and prediction that is meant to fix the underperformance flagged in its February Q4 results. It rolls out as a phased migration through the second quarter. What it means for buyers: hold a stable comparison budget elsewhere through the migration window, since performance data from Unity Ads and Grow will be noisy until Vector fully replaces the old model.

A third short report lands on AppLovin

Muddy Waters published a third short-seller report on AppLovin this week. It follows February's allegations from Fuzzy Panda and Culper Research but focuses on e-commerce attribution and data practices rather than repeating the earlier claims about ad targeting and minors. Nobody has independently confirmed the report's figures. What it means for buyers: AppLovin's ad products haven't visibly changed service during any of the three reports so far, but treat any performance claims from either side with the same scepticism you would apply to a single vendor's benchmark deck.

TikTok keeps expanding Smart+ automation

TikTok continues to broaden Smart+, its automated campaign tool, to more app advertisers, part of a wider platform push toward algorithm-managed budget allocation. What it means for buyers: automation cuts manual optimisation work. It also cuts your visibility into why the algorithm is spending where it is. Keep a manual benchmark campaign running in parallel if creative-level learning still matters to your team.

Two launches worth watching for structure, not scale

Supercell's invite-only mo.co rollout and Assassin's Creed Shadows' big-budget launch earlier this month sit at opposite ends of the spend spectrum. They share a lesson, though: sequencing pre-launch demand before performance spend starts changes day-one economics more than the size of the budget does. What it means for buyers: whatever your launch budget, build the pre-launch phase in before the performance media plan, not alongside it.