News and Analysis
How Brands Can Prepare for a Federal Privacy Law
The American Data Privacy and Protection Act inched its way closer to reality earlier this month, advancing in the House and moving to the full Energy and Commerce Committee for approval. With support from both House and Senate committee leaders, it’s beginning to look like advertisers and marketers might finally be getting uniformity in privacy and data regulations across all 50 states.
Commentary
SMB Resellers and Agencies: How to Make the Most of the Conversions Objective
ROI is, of course, the ultimate goal of any advertising effort, so one might naturally ask, “Why would I ever choose an objective that’s not conversion optimized?”, or even “Why would I choose to optimize towards anything but purchase conversions?” It turns out the latter is the more complicated question, but one you can answer when armed with the right information.
It all has to do with how Facebook’s ad bidding works, which involves a combination of factors: your advertiser bid, estimated action rates (i.e. how your target audience responds to the ad), and overall ad quality. As Facebook notes, “together, estimated action rates and ad quality measure ad relevance. In fact, we subsidize relevant ads in auctions, so more relevant ads often cost less and see more results.”
Amazon’s Just Walk Out Cashierless Solution Is an Antitrust Signal
It’s well established that Amazon dominates at dominating industries adjacent to retail. But that’s what makes its Just Walk Out solution more suspect. By doubling down on retail as a service, Amazon is courting enterprise customers in the very industry — brick-and-mortar retail — that its main e-commerce business gutted. The Seattle behemoth is asking firms like Walmart and Macy’s to pay it for the chance to meet the same Amazon-driven standards that put some of the retail champions of yesteryear out of business.
CCPA and Beyond: Where Privacy Will Take Us in 5 Years
Although the language of CCPA leaves a lot open for interpretation, one thing is clear: The consumer data and privacy landscape has fundamentally shifted beneath the feet of today’s enterprises, and privacy compliance will forever be an important requirement for sustainable business going forward. But where exactly do we go from here? In a regulatory environment where there are currently more questions than answers, what do consumer privacy requirements look like in five years? Here are a few likely outcomes of current initiatives and momentum.
Latest Posts
Will AR Bring Together the Best of Online and Offline Shopping?
Mike Boland: We know about the advantages of e-commerce. There’s more supply, transparency, cost efficiency, inventory (a.k.a “endless aisle”), and the ability to dynamically search and filter product attributes. AR can engender a sort of hybrid UX that brings these features to store aisles. The losers in the next era of retail will be those who try to fight this experiential innovation.
Publishers, Advertisers Turn Focus to In-App Mobile Video
Mobile video ad spend may capture more than half of all digital video dollars in 2018 and is projected to grow 54% year over year, according to PubMatic’s Quarter Three Quarterly Mobile Index. The popularity of mobile video ads is in large part driven by consumer behavior, said Osbaldo Franco, PubMatic’s director of marketing research.
Why Are Retailers Hesitant to Explore Omnichannel Opportunities?
More than 90% of shoppers combine digital and physical channels on the path to purchase, and four in 10 online shoppers are using buy-online, pick-up-in-store (BOPIS) checkout options. But the big news coming out of the 2018 holiday season isn’t how many shoppers are taking advantage of online-to-offline fulfillment. It’s how few retailers are offering it.
Study: SEO Suffers From Lack of Context
Consumers frequently use the same terms in different ways, making it a challenge for marketers to accurately understand their online queries. Professors Jia Liu and Olivier Toubia found that digital marketers are at a distinct disadvantage as they attempt to infer content in quantifiable ways.
LBMA Podcast: Amazon’s Search Re-Targeting, Target’s Use of Runerra
Listen to This Week in Location Based Marketing, a weekly video podcast from the Location Based Marketing Association with Asif Khan & Aubriana Lopez. On the show: Amazon’s search re-targeting, Target using Runerra, Intraposition raises $1.5M, Buick integrates Yelp, Walmart goes with maps and faster checkout, Macy’s invests in VR roll-out.
How Content Partnerships Have Made Yelp a Data Amplifier
Damian Rollison: It became clear to me, during Yelp’s presentation at the recent Brandify Summit, that the company has become a data amplifier. Here I’m making use of Gib Olander’s helpful term for companies whose data finds its way into a multitude of consumer-facing channels. In this column, I break down the significance of that state of affairs for hyperlocal marketing.
Heard On the Street, Episode 15: Expanding the Local Marketing Suite, with David Mihm
As the media world continues to expand and fragment, services targeted at local businesses are likewise evolving into a more holistic set of marketing channels. A good example of that evolution can be seen at ThriveHive, as we discussed with the company’s newest member and longtime Street Fight contributor, David Mihm, on the latest episode of Heard on the Street.
The Road Ahead: What Autonomous Cars Teach Us About Marketing Automation