Performance advertising is entering a decisively algorithmic phase—and Cognitiv is riding the center of that wave. The advanced performance partner reported strong business momentum in 2025, led by 388% growth in ContextGPT™ and accelerating adoption of its deep learning advertising platform across brands and agencies.

The results reflect more than a good year. They signal a structural shift in how performance marketing is executed as marketers contend with signal loss, media fragmentation, and rising expectations for measurable outcomes. In that environment, Cognitiv’s pitch—custom deep learning algorithms operating in real time—has found a receptive market.

Industry forecasts help explain why. Algorithm-driven spending is expected to account for 71.6% of global ad spend in 2026, rising to 76% by 2028, placing Cognitiv squarely in the fastest-growing segment of digital advertising.

From Self-Serve Optimization to Deep Learning Systems

For years, performance marketing has relied on incremental optimization inside self-serve platforms. That model is starting to show strain.

“Our growth reflects a clear shift in how brands and agencies are approaching performance marketing,” said Jeremy Fain, CEO of Cognitiv. “Advertisers are moving beyond self-serve optimization toward automated deep learning systems that can understand context, interpret intent, and drive outcomes at scale.”

Cognitiv’s differentiation lies in how those systems are deployed. Rather than running containerized models that process data after the fact, Cognitiv co-locates its infrastructure with leading SSPs, allowing algorithms to make bidding decisions in milliseconds.

According to the company, that architecture delivers up to 10 times the computing power of many competing solutions, enabling real-time optimization of metrics like viewability, video completion rate (VCR), and clicks—while impressions are still being auctioned.

In an environment where milliseconds increasingly determine outcomes, that speed advantage matters.

The Curated Contextual Era Takes Shape

At the heart of Cognitiv’s growth is what it calls the Curated Contextual Era—a move away from static audience segments toward real-time, algorithmic decisioning driven by content and context.

This strategy centers on ContextGPT, which Cognitiv positions as the industry’s first real-time contextual targeting intelligence platform. Unlike legacy contextual tools that rely on keyword matching or rigid taxonomies, ContextGPT uses deep learning and advanced language models to interpret content with human-like nuance.

The platform allows advertisers to activate performance without cookies, pixels, or user IDs, a capability that has become table stakes as privacy restrictions and signal loss reshape digital advertising.

In 2025, ContextGPT customer adoption grew more than 44%, fueled by continued product innovation. New features such as Interactive Audience Exploration and an upgraded Relevance Engine delivered up to 40% greater accuracy in connecting brands with custom-defined audiences.

The result is advertising that is not only more privacy-resilient, but often more relevant—because it’s grounded in real-time intent rather than inferred identity.

Performance Gains Drive Customer Expansion

Cognitiv’s momentum isn’t limited to adoption metrics. Customer performance improved meaningfully over the course of the year.

In 2025, the company saw:

• A 67% increase in new clients year over year

• A 29% improvement in average ROAS from the first half to the second half of the year

Those gains translated into deeper customer relationships. Existing clients expanded spend and launched more campaigns as results improved, particularly across verticals like CPG, pharma, and travel, where contextual relevance and brand suitability are critical.

This performance-driven expansion highlights a broader trend: advertisers are increasingly willing to consolidate spend with partners that can prove incremental value, not just incremental reach.

Talent and Leadership Signal a Scaling Phase

Cognitiv’s growth in 2025 wasn’t purely technical. The company also invested heavily in organizational readiness as demand increased.

Over the year, Cognitiv added new talent and promoted dozens of team members across engineering, data science, product, customer success, and go-to-market functions—a sign the company is building for scale rather than chasing short-term growth.

A notable milestone was the promotion of Justine Frostad to Chief Marketing Officer, marking the company’s first CMO appointment. The move signals a more deliberate investment in brand, narrative, and executive visibility as Cognitiv enters a new phase of maturity.

The company also added four new VP and SVP leaders, alongside multiple senior-level promotions, reinforcing a stated commitment to developing talent from within.

At the board level, Cognitiv strengthened its strategic perspective with the addition of Michael Kassan, a longtime marketing and media industry veteran—an appointment that underscores the company’s long-term ambitions.

Why This Matters for the Ad Industry

Cognitiv’s results arrive at a pivotal moment for digital advertising.

As identifiers disappear and platforms fragment, performance advantage is shifting toward infrastructure, algorithms, and execution speed, not audience ownership. Contextual intelligence—once viewed as a fallback—has become a primary strategy, especially when paired with deep learning that can operate in real time.

Cognitiv’s growth suggests that advertisers are no longer experimenting at the edges. They are committing budget to systems that can autonomously interpret context, optimize bids, and adapt continuously.

If forecasts around algorithm-driven spend hold, companies built natively around deep learning—not retrofitted onto legacy stacks—will shape the next phase of performance marketing.

The Takeaway

Cognitiv’s 2025 momentum tells a clear story: performance advertising is becoming a machine-led discipline, and contextual intelligence is no longer optional.

With ContextGPT growing nearly fourfold, improving ROAS, and a platform designed for speed at scale, Cognitiv is positioning itself not just as a tool provider, but as an infrastructure partner for the algorithmic future of advertising.

As the industry moves toward 2026 and beyond, the question may not be whether deep learning drives performance marketing—but which platforms are fast enough, smart enough, and close enough to the exchange to matter.

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