A tale of two Pizzerias on Google Maps
June 15, 2016: Google Maps is an important Google product used by millions of people each day on mobile and desktop devices. As we mentioned several weeks back, Google is now letting marketers place local search ads there, a move which that Morgan Stanley analysts believe will let Google make an additional $1.5 billion next year, […]
Why Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn makes sense
June 13, 2016: Microsoft is acquiring LinkedIn for approximately $26 billion, and while it will obviously take a while to bring these two companies together, CEO Satya Nadella and LinkedIn LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner have stated that the acquisition had been in the works for some time, and that the “purpose” and “structure” of both companies […]
The evolution of B2B content marketing
June 13, 2016: The Content Marketing Institute just released its annual report on the state of content marketing. Compiled from survey data submitted by 1521 North American B2B respondents, the report sheds light on how B2Bs are using content marketing and whether they’re happy with the results it supplies them. Here are some highlights: 1. […]
Time.com invites ad blocking web surfers to “break” site
June 9, 2016: Ad blocking, which grew 90 percent in the past 12 months, represents a growing existential threat to the digital publishing ecosystem. Different publishers have been trying a variety of tactics to get ad blocking users to disable them or “whitelist” their sites. Some publishers, including Forbes, GQ, the Washington Post, employ “ad […]
Google adds “Business Friendly“ Mobile Friendly Testing Tool
June 8, 2016: For more than a year, Google been attempting to persuade site proprietors to make their sites mobile-friendly, and its original Mobile Friendly Test Page has proved very useful in this task. And back in March Google doubled down, announcing that mobile-friendliness would increase as a ranking factor in May of 2016. At […]
Snapchat cleans up Discover with hopes of pleasing advertisers
June 7, 2016: Today, Snapchat users received an update that changed the layout of the network’s “Stories” and “Discover” tabs. The new layout is a sign that Snapchat is really starting to take itself seriously as a media provider. With large graphics, attention grabbing headlines, and a newspaper-esque template, it’s a big difference from the […]
Facebook again pinches organic reach: is “Context Collapse” to blame?
June 7, 2016: New data developed by SocialFlow, a firm providing publishers with content distribution and analytics services, shows publishers continuing to lose organic reach on Facebook, possibly due to recent algorithmic changes made to reverse a decline in organic content sharing among Facebook’s users. According to The Financial Times (one of SocialFlow’s data partners), […]
Facebook adds video viewing to Custom Audiences targeting
June 6, 2016: Facebook just added a new way for marketers to create and target Custom Audiences: through video viewing behavior. This gives marketers a quick and handy way to target users who’ve engaged with video content on Facebook and Instagram. Custom Audience Basics If you’re comfortable with the basic process of creating a Custom […]
Mary Meeker’s annual state-of-the-internet report: gloom without doom
June 3, 2016: The publication of analyst/investor Mary Meeker’s annual survey of macro internet trends is a ritual event among the digirati. Meeker has been putting these presentations together since the mid-1990s, first for Morgan Stanley and now for Kleiner Perkins, a prominent Sand Hill VC firm. Here are the highlights for this year’s report: […]
Report: ad blocking rose 90 percent in past year
June 2, 2016: A new report from PageFair reveals that ad blocking rates continue to rise across the world. Here are some top-level findings: 1. Ad blocking grew by 90 percent between January of 2015 and January of 2016, rising from 198 million users worldwide to 408 million. Today, 22 percent of the 1.9 billion […]