Advertisers Must Find the Friend Who Pays for Everyone: PayPal Ads’ Asaf Davidov
Advertisers have spent a fortune trying to figure out who influences purchase decisions. PayPal Ads has a novel suggestion: Find the person who’s always stuck paying for dinner while everyone else promises to Venmo them later.
That person might be worth a lot more to marketers than their dinner companions, according to Asaf Davidov, head of global ad insights and analytics at PayPal Ads. In an interview with Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at the Beet.TV Leadership Summit with Omnicom Media during Advertising Week New York 2026, Davidov explained how the payments giant is using transaction data to identify influential shoppers, spot emerging cultural trends and help advertisers reach consumers before they make a purchase.
Meet the chief friend officer
Davidov calls these influential consumers “chief friend officers,” or CFOs, although they’re considerably more interesting than the executives who spend their days asking why the marketing department needs another $2 million.
“I love the chief friend officer concept because I think it’s relatable to everybody,” Davidov said.
Every friend group has someone who organizes dinner, books the vacation or decides where everyone should go. They’re the ones who initiate plans, gather opinions and eventually put down their credit cards while their friends suddenly develop a complicated relationship with the Venmo app.
PayPal’s data suggests these unofficial social directors have considerable commercial influence.
“On average, a chief friend officer has 23 different people that they influence when they’re actually making a restaurant purchase,” Davidov said.
That’s potentially 23 customers influenced by someone who probably just wanted a decent table and didn’t expect to become an unpaid marketing department.
PayPal is examining similar behavior across retail, fashion and travel to identify what Davidov describes as micro-influencers. Unlike the Instagram variety, these consumers don’t necessarily need 100,000 followers, a ring light or an inspirational quote about their personal journey.
They just need friends who trust their recommendations.
Your customers are shopping around, and PayPal knows
Davidov also argued that advertisers often have an incomplete picture of the customer journey. Brands may know plenty about what shoppers do on their own websites, but they’re less familiar with what happens when those same consumers wander off to investigate competitors.
And increasingly, those journeys begin somewhere entirely different.
“In the old days, you might have started with an Amazon,” Davidov said, noting that consumers are increasingly beginning their shopping journeys with AI chatbots.
From there, shoppers might visit competing merchants, search for discounts and compare offers before finally deciding where to spend their money.
PayPal believes its combination of PayPal, Venmo and the PayPal Honey browser extension can help advertisers understand more of that activity.
“Being able to see all of those signals, even before a purchase happened, is super valuable for an advertiser,” Davidov said.
For marketers accustomed to celebrating when someone visits a product page, the possibility of identifying purchase intent across multiple shopping environments could offer a considerably more useful perspective.
It also means the customer who abandoned a shopping cart might not have abandoned shopping at all. They might simply have found the same merchandise somewhere else for $17 less.
Another audience segment? Please don’t hurt the CMO
Kaplan raised a reasonable concern: What should PayPal tell a chief marketing officer who’s already endured approximately 9,000 presentations about revolutionary audience segments?
Davidov’s answer centered on authenticated identity and actual transactions rather than the behavioral assumptions that underpin much of digital advertising.
He cited 293 million PayPal users in the United States and more than 100 million Venmo users as evidence of the company’s ability to connect consumer activity to logged-in accounts.
“There’s a person behind them. The identity match is incredibly strong,” Davidov said.
Combining purchase information with Venmo activity and browsing signals from Honey allows PayPal to develop audience segments without relying on cookies, he explained.
That’s an appealing proposition for advertisers who’ve spent much of the past several years attempting to understand consumers through a confusing collection of identifiers, inferred interests and digital breadcrumbs.
The distinction is straightforward: Someone reading six articles about luxury watches might be researching a purchase. Someone spending $8,000 on a watch has provided a somewhat more definitive signal.
Davidov described authenticated purchase-level information as a “goldmine” for marketers seeking to identify and activate valuable audiences.
Pickleball is out, we’re carrying heavy backpacks now
PayPal’s transaction data also offers a window into cultural trends, including which fitness activities are attracting consumer spending.
Davidov pointed to pickleball, whose transaction activity surged after the COVID pandemic before declining over the past year.
Meanwhile, Hyrox, a competitive fitness format combining running and functional workouts, has been gaining momentum. Other emerging wellness activities include rucking, which involves walking or hiking with additional weight, and sauna use.
Apparently, regular walking wasn’t sufficiently miserable, so humanity decided to strap on heavy backpacks and call it recreation.
For advertisers, however, these shifts have practical implications.
“If you’re using pickleball creative, that might be passe at this point,” Davidov said.
That’s potentially unfortunate news for the agencies that recently convinced their clients to spend six figures producing commercials featuring attractive people in coordinated athletic outfits enthusiastically swinging paddles.
The larger point is that transaction data may help brands recognize changes in consumer interests before those changes become painfully obvious.
Surveys can tell marketers what consumers claim to enjoy. Search activity can reveal what they’re curious about. Spending behavior offers evidence of what they’re actually willing to support financially.
Follow the money, not just the conversation
Davidov’s broader argument is that advertisers should pay closer attention to the relationship between cultural influence, shopping behavior and actual transactions.
PayPal’s advantage, he suggested, comes from its ability to observe activity across different merchants and categories rather than relying exclusively on a brand’s own customer data.
That could help advertisers identify emerging interests, reach influential consumers and recognize purchase intent earlier in the shopping journey.
It also offers a useful reminder that cultural relevance doesn’t necessarily begin with a viral social media post. Sometimes it begins with someone booking a restaurant, buying concert tickets or convincing 23 friends that carrying a weighted backpack uphill sounds like a wonderful Saturday morning.
And somewhere in PayPal’s data, there’s probably a chief friend officer who’s still waiting for everyone to pay them back.
You’re watching “The Beet.TV Leadership Summit with Omnicom Media at Advertising Week 2026,” presented by Cuebiq, Databricks, Newton Research, Roku and Teads. For more videos from this summit, please visit this page.
Advertisers have spent a fortune trying to figure out who influences purchase decisions. PayPal Ads has a novel suggestion: Find the person who’s always stuck paying for dinner while everyone else promises to Venmo them later.
That person might be worth a lot more to marketers than their dinner companions, according to Asaf Davidov, head of global ad insights and analytics at PayPal Ads. In an interview with Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at the Beet.TV Leadership Summit with Omnicom Media during Advertising Week New York 2026, Davidov explained how the payments giant is using transaction data to identify influential shoppers, spot emerging cultural trends and help advertisers reach consumers before they make a purchase.
Meet the chief friend officer
Davidov calls these influential consumers “chief friend officers,” or CFOs, although they’re considerably more interesting than the executives who spend their days asking why the marketing department needs another $2 million.
“I love the chief friend officer concept because I think it’s relatable to everybody,” Davidov said.
Every friend group has someone who organizes dinner, books the vacation or decides where everyone should go. They’re the ones who initiate plans, gather opinions and eventually put down their credit cards while their friends suddenly develop a complicated relationship with the Venmo app.
PayPal’s data suggests these unofficial social directors have considerable commercial influence.
“On average, a chief friend officer has 23 different people that they influence when they’re actually making a restaurant purchase,” Davidov said.
That’s potentially 23 customers influenced by someone who probably just wanted a decent table and didn’t expect to become an unpaid marketing department.
PayPal is examining similar behavior across retail, fashion and travel to identify what Davidov describes as micro-influencers. Unlike the Instagram variety, these consumers don’t necessarily need 100,000 followers, a ring light or an inspirational quote about their personal journey.
They just need friends who trust their recommendations.
Your customers are shopping around, and PayPal knows
Davidov also argued that advertisers often have an incomplete picture of the customer journey. Brands may know plenty about what shoppers do on their own websites, but they’re less familiar with what happens when those same consumers wander off to investigate competitors.
And increasingly, those journeys begin somewhere entirely different.
“In the old days, you might have started with an Amazon,” Davidov said, noting that consumers are increasingly beginning their shopping journeys with AI chatbots.
From there, shoppers might visit competing merchants, search for discounts and compare offers before finally deciding where to spend their money.
PayPal believes its combination of PayPal, Venmo and the PayPal Honey browser extension can help advertisers understand more of that activity.
“Being able to see all of those signals, even before a purchase happened, is super valuable for an advertiser,” Davidov said.
For marketers accustomed to celebrating when someone visits a product page, the possibility of identifying purchase intent across multiple shopping environments could offer a considerably more useful perspective.
It also means the customer who abandoned a shopping cart might not have abandoned shopping at all. They might simply have found the same merchandise somewhere else for $17 less.
Another audience segment? Please don’t hurt the CMO
Kaplan raised a reasonable concern: What should PayPal tell a chief marketing officer who’s already endured approximately 9,000 presentations about revolutionary audience segments?
Davidov’s answer centered on authenticated identity and actual transactions rather than the behavioral assumptions that underpin much of digital advertising.
He cited 293 million PayPal users in the United States and more than 100 million Venmo users as evidence of the company’s ability to connect consumer activity to logged-in accounts.
“There’s a person behind them. The identity match is incredibly strong,” Davidov said.
Combining purchase information with Venmo activity and browsing signals from Honey allows PayPal to develop audience segments without relying on cookies, he explained.
That’s an appealing proposition for advertisers who’ve spent much of the past several years attempting to understand consumers through a confusing collection of identifiers, inferred interests and digital breadcrumbs.
The distinction is straightforward: Someone reading six articles about luxury watches might be researching a purchase. Someone spending $8,000 on a watch has provided a somewhat more definitive signal.
Davidov described authenticated purchase-level information as a “goldmine” for marketers seeking to identify and activate valuable audiences.
Pickleball is out, we’re carrying heavy backpacks now
PayPal’s transaction data also offers a window into cultural trends, including which fitness activities are attracting consumer spending.
Davidov pointed to pickleball, whose transaction activity surged after the COVID pandemic before declining over the past year.
Meanwhile, Hyrox, a competitive fitness format combining running and functional workouts, has been gaining momentum. Other emerging wellness activities include rucking, which involves walking or hiking with additional weight, and sauna use.
Apparently, regular walking wasn’t sufficiently miserable, so humanity decided to strap on heavy backpacks and call it recreation.
For advertisers, however, these shifts have practical implications.
“If you’re using pickleball creative, that might be passe at this point,” Davidov said.
That’s potentially unfortunate news for the agencies that recently convinced their clients to spend six figures producing commercials featuring attractive people in coordinated athletic outfits enthusiastically swinging paddles.
The larger point is that transaction data may help brands recognize changes in consumer interests before those changes become painfully obvious.
Surveys can tell marketers what consumers claim to enjoy. Search activity can reveal what they’re curious about. Spending behavior offers evidence of what they’re actually willing to support financially.
Follow the money, not just the conversation
Davidov’s broader argument is that advertisers should pay closer attention to the relationship between cultural influence, shopping behavior and actual transactions.
PayPal’s advantage, he suggested, comes from its ability to observe activity across different merchants and categories rather than relying exclusively on a brand’s own customer data.
That could help advertisers identify emerging interests, reach influential consumers and recognize purchase intent earlier in the shopping journey.
It also offers a useful reminder that cultural relevance doesn’t necessarily begin with a viral social media post. Sometimes it begins with someone booking a restaurant, buying concert tickets or convincing 23 friends that carrying a weighted backpack uphill sounds like a wonderful Saturday morning.
And somewhere in PayPal’s data, there’s probably a chief friend officer who’s still waiting for everyone to pay them back.
You’re watching “The Beet.TV Leadership Summit with Omnicom Media at Advertising Week 2026,” presented by Cuebiq, Databricks, Newton Research, Roku and Teads. For more videos from this summit, please visit this page.
