Street Fight Daily: How Google’s Ad Changes Affect Local Biz, Snap Ups Its Ad Game

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…

Unpacking the Increasingly Complex Local SERP (Street Fight)
“While I think [these local ad changes] might be better for many small businesses AND consumers, it gives Google a great deal of power to approve or disapprove participants,” Mike Blumenthal tells David Mihm in their biweekly column.

Media Buyers: Snap Is Focused on Enabling Commerce in Ads (Digiday)
Snapchat is working on developing new commerce units to bolster its e-commerce offering, according to two media buyers who spoke to Digiday. Recode: Snap is giving small startups free ads.

People Are Talking About You: The Hidden Value of User-Generated Content (Street Fight)
Damian Rollison: Simply put, insights gleaned from reviews can help you do business better. Though reviews may contain bias of various kinds, they are still the best source you can find of detailed feedback from real customers.

Digital Video Industry Continues to Grow in Size and Complexity (eMarketer)
The growth of the US digital video advertising industry is unmistakable: Between 2018 and 2021, it will increase by double-digit percentages annually, topping $22 billion by the end of that period.

Why Old-School Brands Need to Learn New Tricks to Survive in the Digital Age (AdWeek)
On the third floor of Gap Inc. in San Francisco, near the western terminus of the Bay Bridge, a bank of 14 big-screen monitors displays web visits, order volumes, sales funnels, and other real-time analytics to a constantly rotating team of employees.

AR Set to Blow by VR (MediaPost)
Within five years, augmented reality — including mobile AR and smart glasses — could reach an installed base of more than 3 billion.

Triple, the Marketplace for Local Travel Experiences, Acquires Competitor Local Guddy (TechCrunch)
Founded in 2016, Triple is described as a marketplace where “passionate and outgoing individuals can organise their own activities, and earn money by acting as hosts in their hometowns.”

Ad Density Can Be Just as Problematic as Bad Ads (AdExchanger)
Daniel Meehan: Ad density — pages being far too packed with brand messaging and creative — is rarely talked about with regard to online and mobile media, yet the overload of ads is just as annoying to consumers as the disruptive formats.

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