News and Analysis
What You Need to Know about the Google My Business Name Change
The GMB name change brings with it a fair degree of uncertainty. Google may be retaining, for instance, the model of an API that helps partners manage listings for both SMBs and larger brands, but if the company is simultaneously building out a snazzy new interface for those same multi-location brands to manage Google profiles on their own, does this fact represent an existential threat to listing management companies?
Marketers Want Multiple IDs to Replace Third-Party Cookies
Marketers and publishers asking which will be the next-generation ID to rule them all are misguided, according to a new study by data solutions provider Lotame. The company surveyed 200 senior US marketing and publisher decision-makers, and 33% of marketers said they were open to “any number” of IDs, while 33% said three identity solutions would do the trick.
What’s Behind Google’s Fake Review Problem?
In an analysis of more than 4 million store reviews on Google, Facebook, Yelp, and TripAdvisor, Uberall and The Transparency Company found that Google has the highest average percentage of inauthentic reviews across business categories. More than one in 10 reviews on Google’s platform was identified as fraudulent or fake in Uberall’s analysis. The category with the highest percentage of fake reviews was locksmiths, while pharmacies came in as the category with the lowest percentage of fake reviews.
Commentary
5 Questions Brands Must Ask Their Agency About Location Data
Advertisers are unknowingly wasting 30 to 50%, and as much as 80%, of their location-based targeting spend on inaccurate, poor-quality data, some of which is fraudulent. They are being told by their partners that “everything is fine,” but the answers to a few questions could reveal a very different story.
Here are five questions brand managers should be asking their agency partners about location data. The answers will help vet the quality of the data you are purchasing.
Behind the Rise of Data Transparency
As technological capabilities accelerate and data regulations increase, brands should home in on data privacy. Focusing on data transparency will ensure you stay out of legal trouble while also earning more loyal, trusting customers. Consumers understand that you have data — it’s how you use it and share your practices that can make or break these important relationships.
To Share or Not to Share: How Gamification is Swaying the Modern Consumer’s Loyalty
Although 94% of C-suite leaders consider customers’ data to be of paramount importance, privacy continues to be a hot-button issue. Data privacy practices have come under increased scrutiny with the passing of regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation, aimed at protecting individuals from the misuse and exploitation of personal information. Even as consumers continue to debate the tradeoff between convenience and control, one thing is clear—they are craving a more intuitive and personalized experience. How, then, can companies reconcile the differences and walk the tightrope as they acquire a 360-degree view of their audience?
Gamification is one path forward.
Latest Posts
Street Fight Daily: Snap’s Secret User Data Paints a Dismal Picture, Mobile Shopping on the Rise
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Snap Employees Leak Data That Doesn’t Bode Well for the Secretive Company… Mobile Shopping Saw a Steep Jump Over the Holidays… Verizon’s Oath Explores the Drivers Behind ‘Brand Love’…
6 Self-Service Location Intelligence Solutions
By opening their platforms up as self-service solutions, location intelligence firms are hoping to provide clients with more open access and to inspire creativity in using existing tools in new and innovative ways. Here are six examples of vendors providing location intelligence capabilities to clients through a self-service model.
Street Fight Daily: Voice Takes Center Stage at CES, Pizza Hut Bets on Self-Driving Future of Delivery
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Marketers Are Racing to Reach Rapidly Growing Audiences on Echo and Google Home… Pizza Hut, Toyota Team Up for Pizza Delivery in Driverless Vehicles… Vox Media Takes a Measured Approach in Growing Its Programmatic Marketplace…
Why CMOs Will Be the Most Important Executives in 2018
To today’s consumer, products and brands are plaited into a single entity. Thus, a company’s “product” now encompasses a consumer’s brand perception, interaction with its products, and affinity for its communities.
‘SMB OS’: Expanding the Local Pie
SMB OS isn’t a new concept, though it’s now emerging and crystallizing in new ways. Advancing it are supporting technologies like cloud computing, mobility and cash-flow friendly SaaS pricing. Much of this trickles down from enterprise world, as it often does.
Street Fight Daily: Facebook Dives Deep on Video Ad Data, Uber Gears Up for 2018
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Releases Research Examining Complexities of Video Ads… Uber Powered 4 Billion Rides in 2017. Its COO Explains How It Will Do More in 2018… Could Snap’s Unusual and Generative Structure Also Be Its Breaking Point?…
Raise Report: New Funding for AxleHire, Digital Genius, Happy Returns
Every two weeks, we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. This week’s edition includes new funding for SendBird, TrendKite, Rubikloud, and Dahmakan.
Street Fight Daily: How AMP Beat Instant Articles, AI Shapes Brand Relationships
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… How Google AMP Beat Facebook Instant Articles… How Invisible AI Shapes Our Brand Relationships… Video-Streaming Service Customers Widely Pan Use of Ads…
Why Even Top Local News Sites Can’t Compete With Facebook on Ads
Facebook isn’t going away, and it shouldn’t, for local news providers. But news providers will use their own resources to engage the fraction of traffic that chooses to make its way to the narrow part of the funnel and into the subscription revenue pot.
Simpli.fi Leverages Unstructured Data to Target Auto Buyers on a Granular Level
Using a local business’s inventory management software to serve dynamic ads in real-time sounds good in theory, but the process can quickly get gummed up. In an effort to streamline that process, Simpli.fi is releasing an upper funnel dynamic creative solution that leverages unstructured data to target buyers.
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Meta Is Automating Ads, But Brands Still Face a Bigger Problem