Tag Archives: Facebook

Next to Now for November 23

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Next to Now is thankful for . . .

 

Improvements in Mobile Ad Targeting

Nielsen reports that the ability to target specific demos on targeting has increased to 60% of mobile ad impressions (up from 49% a year ago). This indicates that post-Cookie targeting capabilities are improving.

#mobile #targeting

 

Facebook Working toward Measurement Transparency

Related: We’re also glad we never migrated to Atlas ad serving because they’re shutting it down. 

#facebook

 

The End of Black Friday as a Stand-Alone Event

Let’s spread the wealth among a few days and stop the stampede.

#blackfriday

 

Ad Agencies Waking Up to What People Are Really Aspiring To

Ad agencies rethink data and recruitment post-election. 

#data

 

Snapchat Spectacles

Especially that they’ve opened a pop-up store near us in time for Christmas.

#snapchat

 

 

Next to Now for Nov 17

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What’s the best way to use hashtags on every social network?

Facebook is not Twitter is not Instagram is not Snapchat. This Click Z post helps you craft your voice to the social network you use.

#social

 

10 Creative Exercises That Are Better Than Brainstorming

Creativity is crucial to advertising (duh). But classic brainstorming methods don’t always bring out the best in your team. Especially if you have a good number of super creative introverts in the room (cf. Susan Cain’s Quiet). Hub Spot posted several good and different ways to generate new ideas.

#creative

 

LinkedIn Opens Up In-Mail Targeting

Combining LinkedIn’s targeted business readership with the power of email marketing makes the new in-mail targeting option a very interesting one for reaching the business audience.

#business #social

 

Facebook Continues to Reveal Problems with Its Reporting

Caveat emptor: campaign data is crucial if it’s accurate, but there remains a good amount of question about how accurate the numbers are. The most powerful companies in the world also have a worrying tendency to be walled gardens re: their data. “Just trust us” is not a line that should go very far with any responsible media buyer.

#facebook #data

 

Speaking of Facebook: Ads Are Coming to Messenger

We saw this coming. And despite our concerns about measurability (see above), we welcome ads that reach readers wherever they are—and a lot of people are using Messenger.

#facebook #messaging

 

Photo of this week's Union Square Subway Station post-election post-it wall (c) 2016 Martha Otis

Next to Now for September 23

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THE FT: “HOW THE MAD MEN LOST THE PLOT”

In the FT, ad strategist Ian Leslie goes to battle with the notion that legacy media is dead and digital hypertargeting is the savior. Leslie cites the study that showed Pepsi’s decision to forego traditional advertising for a social media campaign delivered a large number of clicks and comments but very few sales. The FT goes on to talk about Byron Sharp’s provocative book, HOW BRANDS GROW:

“Sharp’s first law is that brands can’t get bigger on the back of loyal customers. Applying a statistical analysis to sales data, he demonstrates that the majority of any successful brand’s sales comes from “light buyers”: people who buy it relatively infrequently. Coca-Cola’s business is not built on a hardcore of Coke lovers who drink it daily, but on the millions of people who buy it once or twice a year. You, for instance, may not think of yourself as a Coke buyer, but if you’ve bought it once in the last 12 months, you’re actually a typical Coke consumer. This pattern recurs across brands, categories, countries and time. Whether it’s toothpaste or computers, French cars or Australian banks, brands depend on large numbers of people — that’s to say, the masses — who buy them only occasionally, leave long gaps between purchases and buy competing brands in
between.”

Not many book publishers have enough followers to employ retargeting, but for those that do, this article is worth reading to consider if retargeting is the best use of your limited marketing dollars. While all good marketing starts with the core audience, if you want to turn a predictably solid-selling book into a blockbuster, you need to reach beyond passionate, existing fans to a wider potential readership.

#retargeting #oldschool #mass

 

“ONLY DEAD FISH” REANIMATES THE ZOMBIE PLOT

On his blog, Only Dead Fish, Neil Perkin picks up Ian Leslie’s thread and runs with it in his commentary on a “Google Firestarter” event in London, along with reports on talks by Tom Goodwin and Tracey Follows. Worth a read for a dose of what advertising strategists are thinking these days: invisibility, authenticity, and bio-integration.

#onlydeadfish #googlefirestarter

 

PANDORA INTRODUCES NEW SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

In an announcement that included improvements to their paid model, Pandora also announced changes to their ad supported model: with opportunities for brands to sponsor more playbacks and skips. Pandora continues to lead in the business of offering listeners value in exchange for their attention. They have proved a strong partner for book advertising in the past, and this announcement makes it clear that they intend to stay that way in the future.

#pandora #streaming

 

ADIDAS SAYS SNAPCHAT USER ENGAGEMENT IS “INSANE”

Adidas has seen much more engagement from their Snapchat videos than they have from YouTube. Here’s Business Insider with more details about what’s working for them on Snapchat, from experiments with Stories to Geofilters.

#snapchat #sports

 

ARE VIDEO ADS WORTH IT?

New surveys from various video measurement companies—including Nielsen and Limelight—suggest that 52% of U.S. users skip pre-roll whenever possible, and a majority do not like video ads at all. In fact, nearly 27% of users surveyed in the U.S., Australia, UK and Canada say that without an option to skip pre-roll they’d abandon the video they’d wanted to watch. So, while video engagement remains strong, it may be that paid ad resources are better put to other outlets.

#video

 

FACEBOOK ADMITS TO INFLATING VIDEO METRICS

So if pre-roll isn’t the answer to getting people to watch your video, is Facebook? While the social network has touted itself as the premier advertising platform for video, Facebook recently revealed that it has inflated its users’ average time spent watching video for the past two years. Here’s CNET on the controversy. 

 

#facebook #video #metrics

 

TEENS ALL IN WITH YOUTUBE

A new poll from the National Cyber Security Alliance and Microsoft suggests that many more teens use Gmail than use social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat—and even more (91%!) use YouTube. Here’s the link to eMarketer’s story about the findings.

#teens #youtube #social

 

Photo (c) 2016 Martha Otis: A view from the Park during the fall PAMA event sponsored by Goodreads, and hosted by PAMA president Christian Toth

Next to Now: Sept 16

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MIC REIMAGINES SPONSORED POSTS

The Wall Street Journal reports on how the millennial news platform .Mic is rethinking video sponsorship. Mic is allowing advertisers to sponsor their highly popular videos on Facebook:

“Instead of selling…ads based on content genre or audience demographics, Mic is putting its editorial videos into categories, such as clips that elicit emotions or videos that celebrate innovation—two popular genres that typically incite people to share, and letting advertisers run ads next to these types of videos.”

While this kind of sponsorship is not useful for any book that needs time to tell its story, it could be very interesting for a book with immediate appeal to millennials with a high education and relatively high HHI.

#mic #facebook #news

 

GOOGLE DISPLAY BENCHMARKS

Have you played around with Google’s Display Ad benchmark tool recently? It can be very useful for setting expectations. Click-through rates seem to be going down across the board. If you set it for U.S. Book ads, the display CTRs range from .04-.6% depending on the size. Mobile only sizes such as 320×50 fare a little better with a .18% CTR. While this is certainly the case for the industry as a whole, Verso’s own click-through rates continue to beat industry averages—ranging from about .10% for desktop to twice that for mobile.

#CTR #Google #data #benchmarks

 

OUT OF HOME GAINS AN EDGE WITH DIGITAL

Long a staple of advertising plans for all manner of products, out-of-home advertising has gained a new edge with digital billboards. Digital capabilities mean advertisers can move much more quickly on campaigns instead of having to plan six to eight months ahead for each iteration. As CMO magazine puts it:

“The integration of data and technology means advertisers can tap into OOH like never before. ‘And it’s really shifting into bringing back the things that digital has kind of lost–the sensory experiences, feelings, and interactions.'”

There’s a reason spending on out of home advertising continues to grow.

#billboards #OOH #digital

 

ESPN BRINGS LONGFORM SPORTS JOURNALISM TO PODCASTS

As part of IAB’s recent podcast upfronts, ESPN announced that it’s bringing it’s acclaimed 30 for 30 series to podcasts. With in-depth reporting about sports news, 30 for 30 videos appeal to sports fans of a more thoughtful bent . . . which is to say, sports fans who might be inclined to buy books on a subject in an effort to go deeper than in-game color commentary or talk show style chatter.  For book publishers who might not be able to afford a :30 ad on ESPN, running mid-roll on a podcast might be a highly targeted ad solution.

#sports #podcasts #espn

 

Next to Now: Friday links for Sept 9.

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PODCAST ADS CREATE HALO EFFECT

While podcasts still don’t deliver the ad metrics of other digital products, evidence continues to mount that podcast advertising is effective.  A new Edison Research study commissioned by the IAB suggests that 65% of podcast fans “are more willing to consider purchasing products and services they learn about during a podcast.”

#podcasts

 

INSTAGRAM IS BIG & GROWING WITH MILLENNIALS

Four charts from eMarketer show how Instagram’s U.S. audience is substantial and growing, that more than half of US millennial internet users are “active” on Instagram, how the app is favored by college students, and how their user base trends toward higher incomes among U.S. teens.

#instagram #millennials #social

 

INSTAGRAM IS KING FOR RETAILERS

As reported in Mediapost, a new study from research company L2 suggests that Instagram is the top social platform for retailer engagement:

“’Instagram remains the king of engagement,’ with interactions that are ’10 times higher than Facebook, 54 times higher than Pinterest, and 84 times higher than Twitter.’

It also says Instagram users are considerably more open to what brands have to say on that platform, with 50% of users following brands. ‘Not all brands are benefiting equally on the platform,’ it says, ‘with the top seven brands in terms of engagement capturing 77% of total Index brand interactions over the past year.’

Further, a third of Instagram users made purchases on their phone, which makes them 70% more likely to do so than non-Instagram users.”

#instagram #retailers

 

WHY FACEBOOK LIVE IS WRONG FOR ADVERTISERS

In an article for Ad Age, Carrie So argues that Facebook Live mid-roll ads are stuck in the past: 

“Essentially, the concept strives to resurrect the 20th-century TV broadcasting model within the context of a 21st-century social network. Having just recently started testing mid-roll ads, Facebook Live wagers that viewers who log onto the site to see photos and updates from family and friends will not only want to watch live broadcasts — but will also stay tuned for the ads that scroll in the midst of the live programming.”

The two main problems: (1) mid-roll ads are easy for users to skip since it’s so easy to put down your phone during a break in the programming, and (2) there’s a distinct lack of quality control; even major publishers such as the New York Times are forced by their deals with Facebook to stream too many video hours to sustain high standards.

#facebook #streaming #video

 

AD FRAUD REPORT POINTS TO CHROME AND INTERNET EXPLORER

A recent ad fraud report cited by the Wall Street Journal suggests the most ad fraud happens with Google’s Chrome and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browsers. While both companies fault the study, it’s clear that since the two companies have the most users they also make the most attractive targets for fraudsters. While Microsoft has failed to patch security holes on IE (especially discontinued but still popular iterations), Google continues to work hard to try to stay ahead of the fraud where possible.

#adfraud #microsoft #google

 

PEW RESULTS ON AMERICAN READERSHIP

The Pew report on reading in America is out, with results in line with what we’ve seen in recent years: overall adult reading is slightly down, ebooks remain plateaued, and the core demos of America’s strongest readers remain affluent, educated women:

“In the most recent survey, those most likely to be book readers included women; young adults (those ages 18-29); [and] those with higher levels of education and higher household income . . . These patterns largely hold for overall book reading and for the different reading platforms – printed books and e-books.

“The average woman read 14 books in the past 12 months, compared with the nine books read by the average man, a statistically significant difference. The median number of books read by women was five, compared with a median of three for men, which was not statistically significant.

“Those with higher levels of education were more likely to have read multiple books than those with high school diplomas or less. The typical college graduate or someone with an advanced degree read an average of 17 books in the previous year, compared with nine for high school grads and three for those who did not graduate from high school.”

#pew #readers #demos

 

FACEBOOK’S FIRST VERTICAL VIDEO ADS

The first vertical video ads have gone live on Facebook, and the results suggest a 3x improvement in performance and efficiency. This might be simply an example of a format getting increased attention mostly because it’s new, but given how video and social consumption have moved to mobile, we do think vertical video is here to stay.

#facebook #video

 

BILLBOARDS CONTINUE TO MAKE NEWS

The New York Times reports on the continued importance of out of home advertising, even as online ads steal budgets from print and broadcast. The continued growth of digital innovation with billboards—both with creative and with user targeting—means the venerable ad platform is just as vital today as it was 100 years ago.

#outofhome

 

MOBILE APPS CONTINUE TO GROW

An article in Marketing Land points to a new report from ComScore that shows that two-thirds of all time is spent on mobile, and over half of time spent on mobile happens within apps.  But while mobile has most total user hours, desktop still is king of the conversion. When the consumer is ready to pull the trigger, s/he still heads for the desktop. Here’s Business Insider’s take on the ComScore report.

#desktop #mobile #apps

 

Ceiling photo detail (c) 2016 Martha Otis

Next to Now for August 25

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IS THE FUTURE OF ADVERTISING A BOT?

Venture Beat details how messenger bots in services such as Facebook Messenger, Kik, and more are changing the nature of how we can advertise, bringing the promise of 1:1 customized marketing closer to fruition. While current messenger bots are fairly crude, more nuanced bots are in development:

“A.I. bots with advanced brains . . . will change the advertising industry — both online and offline — forever. They can create and deliver completely measurable advertising campaigns that bring together all the elements of integrated marketing: video, mash-ups, voice, music, images, photos, personalization, and mass coverage on an individual basis. They do this by automating their analysis of ‘conversation logs’ generated in the code’s back end when you interact with a bot — with your permission, of course.”

#bots #messaging

 

INSTAGRAM KEEPS UP THE PACE OF INNOVATION (OR IS THAT COPY-CATTING?)

On the heels of introducing its version Snapchat Stories, Instagram introduces a new channel called “Events” that will live within its “Explore” tab and allow for live video. Innovation or high-speed copy-catting, either way it will prove a serious entry in the live video market with Periscope and Facebook Live.

#events #streaming #video

 

IN HOLIDAY EMAIL MARKETING, IS GREEN THE NEW BLACK?

A study from Yes Lifecycle Marketing suggests that the best time to send a holiday marketing email might be December 12, 2016—a date dubbed “Green Monday.” A retail industry-created holiday like Black Friday or Cyber Monday, Green Monday  falls on the second Monday of December:

“Only 10% of retailers deployed Green Monday campaigns in 2015, according to Yes Lifecycle Marketing, indicating that competition for the inbox may be lower than more popular retail holidays such as Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

Green Monday saw an average email open rate of 14.5% in 2015, while open rates for Cyber Monday email campaigns has an average open rate of 12.9%. In addition, Cyber Monday open rates fell year-over-year while Green Monday open rates have increased.”

#email #holiday

 

THE STATE OF FACEBOOK (FOR MARKETERS)

eMarketer posts seven charts about the current state of Facebook: over-35-year-olds v. millennials, mobile v. desktop use, and more.

#facebook #userdata

Corn at Union Square Market photo (c) 2016 Martha Otis

Next to Now: Independence Day

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DO MEDIA BRANDS EVEN MATTER ANYMORE?

Columbia Journalism Review asks the question at the heart of advertising: In a world where information is coming at you from all sides, does it matter who says what and where? According to  study by CJR and the George T. Delacorte Center for Magazine Journalism, yes it does matter:

“Readers are less likely to trust a longform story that appears to have run on BuzzFeed than the same article on The New Yorker’s website.”

While CJR is focused on journalism, the implications are clear for contextual advertising as well: it matters where information is coming from. While it’s true that some study members did not notice the media brand—a growing phenomenon captured by the Reuter’s 2016 Digital News Report—those that did notice  tended to be older and better read. That is, a better match for the core hardcover book buying audience.

#media #brands

 

LINKEDIN OPENS TO PROGRAMMATIC EXCHANGES

LinkedIn announced that it is opening its advertising to open exchanges to deliver increased banner impressions on the network. This is good news for anyone wanting to target the LinkedIn audience with a business or self-improvement book, especially those who do not have the budgets to take advantage of LinkedIn’s sponsored content opportunities.

#linkedin #business #programmatic

 

SNAPCHAT DROPS AD MINIMUMS

The minimum buy for a Snapchat campaign is reportedly dropping from $750,000 to $100,000. Book advertisers are likely to be waiting for another round or two before buying ads through the platform’s API. That said, there are co-branded Snapchat opportunities with such partners as People magazine that are workable for bigger book-size budgets. Contact your Verso account executive to learn more.

#snapchat #social

 

THE LIMITS OF ALGORITHMS

Facebook announces a new service that curates local events as selected by a team of people, not algorithms. This is good news for Facebook users (and other humans), but less good news for local media players such as Time Out:

“The product is launching in 10 U.S. cities: Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. The curated program appears to take on local publishers such as Time Out New York and the Village Voice as well as mobile apps like Eventbrite, Like a Local, Scout and Field Trip.”

#facebook #local #human

 

FOOD PORN MOVES TO SNAPCHAT

AdWeek reports that many of the most popular foodie brands on Instagram are moving to Snapchat. 

“‘As Instagram has really slowed down the last four months or so, you can just see what’s happened on that platform and it’s obviously changing a lot,’ said Andrew Steinthal, co-founder of The Infatuation, a restaurant review site that’s heavily leaned on Instagram to build a following since launching in 2009.

‘Our entire audience is on Snapchat now—it’s the most reactive social network that we have. You can just see the impact on Snapchat and feel it right away right now. People are so deep into Snapchat and reacting to it.'”

While Snapchat requires more hands-on engagement from brands, it’s precisely that hands-on quality that makes it an effective platform.

#food #snapchat #instagram

 

FOX NEWS DELIVERS FACEBOOK ENGAGEMENT

For years, the highly engaged Fox News audience has made the site one of our best performers with digital ads. Readers on the site are hungry not only for news and information you’d expect, but also for high quality commercial fiction, especially thrillers. While Fox News is not the biggest media property, this engagement is translating to superlative response from the brand’s audience on Facebook:

“Fox News had nearly 120 million likes, shares and comments on its page in the first six months of the year, well ahead of digital natives including No. 2 NowThis (80 million interactions) and The Huffington Post (61 million). Mark Zuckerberg himself recently cited Fox News in defending Facebook against charges that it’s politically liberal, saying Fox ‘drives more interactions on its Facebook page than any other news outlet in the world. It’s not even close.’”

As the digital landscape evolves, Fox News continues to draw a passionate, curious audience that loves books. Click here to read the Digiday article. 

#foxnews #targeting #facebook

 

HOLD THE VIDEO

Columbia Journalism Review reports that social media’s influence on news consumption is growing. While there are more and more social conversations around news topics, the fact that the conversations are taking place on social networks means that Facebook and Twitter are becoming more dominant as brands for news and traditional brands such as The New York Times and The Guardian are  beginning to lose some of their traction with readers. One surprising bit of information from the study was the continuing importance of text to news consumers despite the rise of video:

“Platforms and publishers alike have been pouring money into video sharing, such as Facebook Live. One Facebook executive even predicted last week that in the next five years video will replace the written word. But the report suggests that many news consumers are resistant to watching video because it is faster to read an article, and because of the ads that often precede videos.”

http://www.cjr.org/analysis/reuters_report.php

#social #video

 

Photo (c) Martha Otis

Next to Now: Welcoming in Summer with New Targeting, Better Engagement, & Mergers that Matter

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TWITTER INTRODUCES EMOJI TARGETING

Adweek announces that Twitter is set to allow advertisers to target by emoji. From showing a travel book to users of the airplane emoji to a soccer book to users of the soccer ball emoji, there are endless ways to put this new targeting to work for your title.

#twitter #emoji #targeting

 

HIGHER ENGAGEMENT WITH ARTICLE-EMBEDDED VIDEO

A new study using eye-tracking software suggests that video embedded in news articles has significantly higher levels of engagement than video viewed in social media. The report found that 50% of users scroll more in social media and cover more content, but engage less with any single piece of content.

#video #native

 

PODCAST LISTENERS: A SMALL BUT ENGAGED AUDIENCE

In a new study reported on eMarketer, only 21% of internet users said they listened to podcasts. But of those who had listened to a podcast in the last 6 months, 85% tune in at least once a month and 33% say they listen more than once a week. This is more evidence that podcast listeners are a highly engaged audience.

#podcasts

 

FACEBOOK SET TO TRAFFIC IN-STORE IMPACT OF ADS

Facebook is joining Google and Four Square with its plan to track in-store behavior of people who see ads on Facebook. This is potentially good news for real-world bookstores and we look forward to learning just how digital ads affect the in-store experience.

#facebook #instore

 

LINKEDIN PURCHASE MAKES MICROSOFT A BUSINESS COMMUNITY LEADER

The combination of LinkedIn’s social chops with Microsoft’s deep data-rich information about the tools used in most businesses means this merger could be good news for advertisers looking to reach the business community.

#business

 

THIRD PARTY ADS COME TO SNAPCHAT

Third party access usually mean technological assistance improves and minimum spends come down. So this is good news for advertisers looking to reach the Snapchat generation, but who don’t have the six figure budgets that have been the easiest way to promote stories. Here’s Adweek’s take on the Snapchat news. Here’s more on it from The Drum and from Bloomberg. 

#snapchat #social

 

LOOKING TO REACH ENTREPRENEURS?

A new partnership between iHeartRadio and WeWork promises to be a great way to reach entrepreneurs:

“According to WeWork CMO David Weiswasser, music has played an important role for WeWork during its history. The company already hosts a number of events each year centered around music, and in the past, it programmed its own streaming station and hosted a three-day event in the Adirondack Mountains featuring live bands for members. He said the iHeartMedia partnership is a chance to build in a way that’s both community- and member-driven.”

#business #radio #streaming #audio

 

CONTEXTUAL COMMERCE

Commerce is coming to a messenger app near you. Soon a conversation on Facebook Messenger about finally getting those “Hamilton” tickets could lead to an invitation to read the book that inspired the musical. You could then buy the book through one click, then go on chatting.

#contextual #targeting

 

photo (c) Martha Otis at Union Square Market

Next to Now: Things Are Looking Up

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What’s the cause for optimism? Our latest readings on advertising and what it means for book publishers. The links below point to new intelligence on fresh data, smart research, inspiring creative, reader-centric design, and the potential for real world impact.

 

SNAPCHATS WANTS YOU TO AMP UP THE AUDIO

In a reminder that different platforms call for different standards, Snapchat is telling its video creators to pay close attention to the audio. This is in direct contrast with Facebook’s recommendation to create video that works without sound at all. They’re different platforms with different audiences and content expectations, so it makes sense to create different video for both. If you want to compare the platforms though, Snapchat says a recent study with MediaScience gives them an edge over TV, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. According to AdWeek,

“The study encompassed biometric testing to capture emotional responses, as well as eye-tracking and exit surveys . . . Snapchat says its ads garnered twice the visual attention of Facebook, 1.5 times more than Instagram and 1.3 times better than YouTube. When compared to those platforms and TV, Snapchat claims that its ads generated greater emotional response and twice as much purchase intent.”

#snapchat #social #video

 

BEN EVANS THINKS THROUGH MOBILE

In a recent blog post, Ben Evans does some smart thinking through the issues around mobile video and the problems of trying to compare TV ads with Facebook video plays with Snapchat Stories. They’re different animals with different metrics. Bonus video: Lyrical School puts it all in context for you with Run and Run.

#mobile #video #TV #facebook #runandrun

 

WHAT ADVERTISERS NEED TO KNOW

R/GA boils down Mary Meeker’s epic deck to the slides brand advertisers need to focus on. Here’s our boil-down of R/GA’s boil-down for book advertisers:

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#data

 

PANDORA REDESIGN

With over 1,000 different audience segments to use for targeting, Pandora has been one of our strongest ad partners in recent years. We are pleased to note that their redesign improves on their strengths. AdWeek notes:

“The streaming-music service is introducing responsive mobile display ads that automatically adjust to a phone’s screen size and that live in the square space housing album art. The format, which also applies to images that accompany audio ads and first impression takeover ads, is a move away from pop-up ads. A second major update for the app is the introduction of muted video ads, which will allow advertisers to serve promos within a responsive display unit that can be unmuted and watched in full-screen view.”

Other aspects of the redesigns go even farther to allow users some choice over the ads they see by allowing users to swipe right to dismiss ads. Anything that enhances the user experience is good news for book advertisers.

#streaming #pandora

 

MORE ON PANDORA TARGETING

AdExchanger has more on the new units in this interview with Pandora’s group product manager Eric Hoppe.

#streaming #pandora #data

 

IS IT OVER? DID FACEBOOK AND GOOGLE WIN?

No, but it can feel that way, especially after reading the New York Times piece that suggests Google and Facebook take up 85% of total US ad revenue. This article from April suddenly popped up in our feed this week with comments and criticism from The Motley Fool, AdWeek, IAB, Business Insider and more. As mammoth as the two platforms are, it’s unlikely that 85% number is accurate. And while book publishing is certainly not representative of the larger advertising market, it’s worth noting that Google and Facebook advertising products are nowhere near 85% of what we run at Verso.

#facebook #google

 

PINTEREST MEASURES REAL WORLD IMPACT OF PROMOTED PINS

Pinterest studied the effect of Promoted Pins on real-world store purchases:

“The study found that Promoted Pins drive 5-times more incremental in-store sales per impression when compared to other campaigns measured by Oracle Data Cloud, which include social media platforms as well as programmatic vendors and publisher websites, said Jon Kaplan, head of global sales at Pinterest.”

#pinterest #realworld

 

Photo (c) Martha Otis

Next to Now: On Streaming, Targeting, and Cheating

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NATIVE AD PERFORMANCE

Commenting on a study of native advertising click-through rates, Media Post is surprised to see that native ads do better on mobile. We are not. Mobile remains the best platform for high engagement—and not just because of mistaken clicks:

“The research found that click-through rates (CTR) for premium native ads were highest on smartphones, at 0.38% in 2015, while tablets saw an average CTR of 0.33%. Native ads on desktop computers saw CTR rates of 0.16%.”

#native #mobile

 

SNAPSHOT: SPOTIFY LISTENERS

72% of Spotify listeners are Millennials, and they’re listening mostly in the afternoon. Here’s a link to Adweek’s infographic on the Spotify audience and its listening habits.

#streaming #spotify

 

GENIUS STEALS?

Creatives should have their eyes and ears wide open, looking everywhere for inspiration, including Reddit. Just remember, that if you’re using someone else’s idea (especially when you use it word-for-word), you should pay them. Ask Axe.

#creative

 

DEMOGRAPHICS ARE NOT A BLUNT INSTRUMENT

A little reminder from Google that easy assumptions about demographics—such as, “only men are interested in video games” or “only people with babies in the house buy baby products”—are often overturned when you look at the data.  

#data #demographics #targeting

 

FACEBOOK LIVESTREAM COMMERCIALS

Digiday reports that Facebook is testing commercials in their live stream.

#facebook #livestream #video