News and Analysis

At Retail Conference, Google Dangles Shiny New Visual Ad Format

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The visual-first ads are here. Google announced at the retail conference Shoptalk on Wednesday that it is launching shoppable ads in image search, propelling the search giant into the center of the visual zeitgeist that has made Pinterest, Instagram, and Snapchat hot targets for advertisers.

Native Ad Industry Booms, Capitalizing on Hunger for Ads That Don’t Look Like Advertising

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Native ad firm AdYouLike is staking its reputation on the assumption that the ads you like may not look like ads. That bet appears to be paying off, as a report from the firm shows the native ad industry set to grow to $400 billion by 2025, a 372% jump from the projected size of the market in 2020.

Poor Data Quality Is Hurting Location-Based Campaigns—Here’s How to Fix It

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“Location data offers the ability to turn universal ads into local ads. Same as local TV. The issue is how location targeting is being executed,” says location-based ad veteran Warren Zenna. “People don’t look at ads on their phones when they are out doing things like shopping and driving around. They look at them, sometimes, when they are inactive. Mobile ad creative needs to be better — more engaging and more contextual — and presented when someone is in a contextually relevant mindset.”

Commentary

Can Google Shift Its Revenue Model From Advertising to Products?

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“Google rolling out integrated hardware and software is a big change,” Mike Blumenthal says to David Mihm. “They have tried their hand at manufacturing many times and failed, but this feels more strategic. Clearly their AI assistant effort is central and it seems that AI is table stakes for the coming battles.”

5 Ways to Rethink Marketing Measurement

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New advances in advertising technology finally allow marketers to better understand how online ads impact offline behavior. Here are five ways that every marketer needs to rethink marketing measurement in order to better reach their consumer base.

The Google My Business API Takes Another Step Forward

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Google has many paths for sourcing local content, from user edits to third party licensed data, but none provides as comprehensive or accurate a source of truth as data that comes directly from businesses, so there’s every reason to remove friction from that path wherever possible.

Latest Posts

5 Self-Service Predictive Analytics Platforms

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Vendors with business intelligence software are introducing more self-service platforms. Many of these platforms include predictive analytics capabilities that business owners can utilize to make smarter marketing and operations decisions. Here are five examples…

Street Fight Daily: Yahoo Faces Major Layoffs, Inside Uber’s ‘God Mode’ Privacy Battles

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Yahoo Is Prepping to Lay Off 10% or More of Its Workforce (Business Insider)… Uber Settles with New York Attorney General Over ‘God View’ Tracking Program (BuzzFeed)… GoButler, the Messaging-Based Personal Assistant, ‘Pauses’ Operations in Germany to Focus on U.S. (TechCrunch)…

Facebook Continues to Experiment in Local — But Its Focus Is Long-Term

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The company isn’t trying to build a unified local search portal at all. Instead, they’re launching trial balloons, turning developers loose to experiment with the company’s local data in order to surface features and nuances that might eventually be useful as subtle additions to the Newsfeed…

How the Rise of ‘Mobility as a Service’ Will Impact Local Marketing

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Autonomous vehicles will put pressure on all kinds of players. The pressure will be felt not only by car manufacturers but all kinds of other industries including auto dealers, insurance companies and transit systems…

Street Fight Daily: Learning from Target’s Digital Turnaround, AT&T’s Google-Like Plans

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… How Target’s Bet on Digital Helped Its Turnaround (Digiday)… Inside AT&T’s Plans to Be Everywhere You Are (AdAge)… Ad Tech Growth Hits Speed Bump (Wall Street Journal)…

How Top Marketers Are Curating the In-Store Mobile Experience

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With consumer behavior in place, and solutions making technology like beacons as simple as a media buy, mobile proximity is poised to become the fasting growing piece of mobile advertising in 2016. The brands that have tested and learned early on are in great position to scale up and reach their audiences this year.

5 Tools App Marketers Can Use to Drive Mobile ROI

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Whether they’re looking to monetize local news, social channels, or virtual marketplaces, app marketers are finding that the key to generating revenue from mobile freemium apps has to do with personalized messaging and automation with real-time data.

Street Fight Daily: The Relationship Between Mobile Messaging and Commerce, GM Invests in Lyft

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… The Future of Mobile Chatting: Commerce (Wall Street Journal)… General Motors, Gazing at Future, Invests $500 Million in Lyft (New York Times)… For Sensors Focused on Local Commerce and Loyalty, Privacy, Battery Life, and Location Accuracy Are Top Concerns (GeoMarketing)…

Washington Post Uses Its Journalism to Breathe New Life into Display Ads

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The display ad, which has powered the revenue behind much of online media in the past, has taken a lot of flak in the past couple of years, as many publications have touted new formats (like native advertising) as the future. But Washington Post Director of Ad Product and Engineering Jarrod Dicker thinks the paper’s […]

Raise Report: New Funding for Gusto, PepperTap, Innovid

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Every two weeks, we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. This week’s edition sees new capital for several companies enabling the local on-demand economy.