News and Analysis

Self-Serve Ad Units Level the Playing Field for Emerging CPG Brands

Large CPG brands have traditionally had a leg up over smaller competitors when it comes to shoppable advertising. With the budgets to spend on managed service solutions, global brands like Campari, Heineken, and Chinet have enabled shoppers to add their products directly to retailers’ online carts, efficiently using digital advertising to grow offline sales at the stores of their choosing. Now, the shopping list marketing platform AdAdapted is bringing that same technology to smaller retailers and emerging brands.

retail order pickup third-party data

Locally Satisfies Shoppers’ Demand to Find Popular Online Items Near Them

Popular brands with successful online storefronts can integrate Locally’s technology to show shoppers where they can pick up specific product merchandise immediately at retailers in their own neighborhoods. For example, a shopper who clicks on a 30oz Rambler Tumbler on YETI’s website would see a link to purchase the product online, alongside a list of retailers that have the product in-stock nearby.

AUDIENCEX Rolls Out DSP Access for Mid-Market Brands

With Admatx, small and mid-size businesses, and middle-market performance brands and agencies, will have access to enterprise-level DSP technology through a self-serve platform, without the constraints of monthly spend minimums. The platform is a strategic complement to AUDIENCEX’s core managed-service offering, providing an enterprise-level tool to drive performance at lower prices than what most category leaders and Fortune 5000 firms are currently paying.

Commentary

For Publishers, When It Comes To Display, Blame the Format, Not the Targeting

A controversial new study by Carnegie Mellon University found that digital publishers get roughly 4% more revenue for an ad impression that is cookie-enabled — or personalized — versus one that isn’t. That’s not much. And while the sample was limited — they only reviewed ads for one “large U.S. media company over the course of one week” — it highlights a question publishers have been grappling with for a long time. 

Is cookie-based ad-targeting worth it? Given the mounting costs of investing in data stack technology; reputation issues (the “creepy factor”) and regulatory concerns like GDPR and CCPA that publishers routinely face as a result of behavioral ad-targeting, is the value really there? And is it justified? The Carnegie Mellon findings suggest that the benefit is minimal. However, as I see it, publishers are focusing on the wrong issue.

The Importance of Online Review Management for SMBs

Operators of small- and medium-sized businesses can get by ignoring many of the tech innovations that large companies adopt. Managing online reviews is not one of them.

Like it or not, the widespread usage of review sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, and even Google and Facebook have changed the landscape of how local businesses attract and retain customers. Left ignored or handled the wrong way, a business’s negative online reviews can be a deterrent to potential new customers. Managed the right way, however, those same review sites can be a valuable marketing and customer service tool that leads to improved revenue.

How to Identify and Connect with Your Ideal Podcast Ad Audience

While just over half of Americans have listened to them, podcasts are finding new audiences every day. U.S. advertisers spent $479 million on podcast ads in 2018, up 53% year-over-year; that figure is expected to hit $1 billion in 2021. And those people who do listen to podcasts listen to them a LOT. Podcasts are the number one audio source by time of consumption among podcast listeners, and weekly listeners consume an average seven podcasts per week, according to Edison Research.

Podcast advertising is rapidly evolving, as are podcasts themselves. It’s no wonder, then, that advertisers could use help identifying the right podcasts for their products and connecting with podcast audiences. Here’s what you need to know about podcasts and their audiences to find the right home for your podcast advertisements. 

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