News and Analysis
At Retail Conference, Google Dangles Shiny New Visual Ad Format
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
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
“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
As Gannett Acquires ReachLocal, Some Lessons From Its U.K. Exit
As news filtered out earlier this week that media giant Gannett had bought ReachLocal for $156 million, it capped off several years of speculation in the local marketing industry about where the public company would end up. As a former ReachLocal employee (2010-2014) now living in Norway, I’ve watched the company as it has faced steep challenges […]
Latest Posts
Targeting Consumers on the Holiday Purchase Path Means Reducing Friction
Around the holidays, consumers tend to spend a lot more time on multiple devices, altering standard shopping habits and behaviors. This means brands and businesses need to ensure they are accurately and competitively represented in search, social, and mobile channels, and that social engagement and advertising efforts are properly targeted to the right consumers at the right times.
Webinar Recap: Marketing and Customer Engagement Tactics for the Holiday Season
Black Friday is a week away. Is there anything brands and merchants can do before then to make their local marketing stand out amid the holiday crush? Yesterday’s Street Fight webinar, “Real-Time Location-Based Marketing Strategies for the Holidays,” in conjunction with Brandify, indicated there’s still time to implement some practical tactics that can make a difference.
Street Fight Daily: Square’s IPO Pricing Lower Than Anticipated, Google Brings App Content into Search
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… For Its IPO, Square Scales Back Valuation by $3 Billion (New York Times)… Google Just Scored a Huge Win for Its Mobile Search (Business Insider)… Starboard Urges Yahoo to Drop Alibaba Spinoff Plan (Wall Street Journal)…
StructuredWeb’s Nissan: We’re Just Starting to See the Complexity Curve Going Up
Long sales cycles, smaller target audiences, higher transaction values — all these characteristics separate B2B from B2C marketing. “There’s a level of precision that you need to have in the B2B space, because otherwise you can spend a lot of money without seeing any results,” said StructuredWeb president and CEO Daniel Nissan.
All Politics Is Data for 2016 and Beyond
The saying used to be that “all politics is local.” A more appropriate term for the 2016 election cycle might be “all politics is data.” In fact, with their emphasis on audience and local targeting and their growing adoption of programmatic buying, political campaigns have begun to increasingly resemble marketing campaigns.
Street Fight Daily: Google Brings Back Google+, Angie’s List Says No to Acquisition (Again)
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Four Reasons Why Google Is Bringing Google Plus Back to Life (Recode)… Angie’s List Turns Down IAC’s Second Offer to Buy It — This Time for $512 Million (Business Insider)… Lyft Executive Says on Track to Hit $1 Billion in Gross Revenue (New York Times)…
The Challenge for ‘Indie’ News Sites: Monetizing Highly Engaged Audiences
When they met at their recent Chicago convention, independent community publishers and editors talked a lot about what might be called “reve-news.” On everybody’s mind at the Local Independent Online Newspaper (LION) Publishers’ annual meeting was how to monetize news. Even weddings and obituaries can contribute to local news publishers’ bottom line.
5 Tools for Display Ad Creation and Distribution
Programmatic-driven ad spend is expected to reach $14.2 billion worldwide this year. However, research by AppNexus indicates 97 percent of programmatic campaigns still lack targeted creative for individual audience segments. To satisfy this need, more hyperlocal vendors now are creating tools that businesses can use to generate targeted ad content without hiring their own in-house teams. Here are five tools for display ad creation and distribution.
Street Fight Daily: Google Gets Mobile Support from Facebook, Apple Maps Adds Foursquare Data
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Gets Surprise Ally in Mobile-App Search Push: Facebook (Wall Street Journal)… Foursquare Joins Apple Maps Data Sources as Company Builds Out Ecosystem (Search Engine Land)… Uber Is Creating a Ride-Sharing Mesh Network with Its New ‘Destinations’ Feature (The Next Web)…
Retail, Restaurants, and Roofers: Where Does On-Demand Work (and Not)?
A year into the on-demand revolution, the question persists: Where’s it going next? So far, it’s gone into nearly every local vertical, but there are still areas with the right conditions for on-demand models to take root, some of which remain underdeveloped. These include higher-end professional services like lawyers and doctors, project-based work like design and writing, and, of course, SMBs, especially when it comes to local marketing and advertising.
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