Local Marketers to Focus More on Organic Search As Most Feel Google is the New Local Biz “Homepage”Proximity to the searcher's address is seen as the top ranking factor, but Google may be favoring proximity too much.December 7, 2018

Almost two-thirds of local marketers (64%) agree that Google is becoming the new “homepage” for local businesses, according to The State of Local SEO Industry Report 2019 [download page] from Moz. Within that environment, it makes sense that... READ MORE

Here’s How Marketers Are Evaluating The Success of Their Digital Display Ad SpendMarketers seem happy with their primary metrics, but also very much open to change.December 6, 2018

Roughly 8 in 10 marketers around the world agree that it’s essential for digital campaigns to drive a direct correlation with business results such as online and offline sales, and a near-equal percentage also agree that the ability to meet business... READ MORE

US Out-of-Home Ad Spend Rises Again in Q3; Digital Fuels Growth WorldwideDigital accounted for more than one-quarter (28%) of US out-of-home spending in Q3, according to the OAAA's figures.

Another quarter, another rise in US out-of-home (OOH) ad spending. This time OOH ad revenues grew by 3.8% year-over-year during the third quarter, per the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA), as the sector continues to roll on for closing in on... READ MORE

How Marketers Are Using Video In 2018The majority of marketers feel that video converts better than other content - but only a third have integrated video data into their CRM or marketing automation systems.December 5, 2018

Video marketers continues to be viewed enthusiastically by marketers, with 83% reporting that video content is becoming more important to them, according to the latest “State of Video Marketing” report [download page] from Demand Metric and... READ MORE

Agencies Seem Confident in the Year AheadAgency leaders are facing numerous headwinds - such as insourcing - even if the trend towards client use of consultancies may have cooled off.

Slightly more than half of agency leaders are reporting both revenue (56%) and profit (55%) growth for 2018, and even more (79%) are confident in more profitable growth in 2019, according to the latest annual Global Digital Outlook from the Society of... READ MORE

YouTube Is A Very Important Source of How-To Videos For More Than One-Third of the Adult PopulationMore than half of YouTube users also say it's at least somewhat important in their purchase decisions.December 4, 2018

Video is an increasingly popular content channel for marketers, as branded video has a high impact on consumers’ purchase decision-making. For brands looking to reach video consumers, new data from the Pew Research Center highlights the importance of... READ MORE

Programmatic Expected to Near Two-Thirds of Global Digital Media SpendSome 83% of digital media will be transacted programmatically in the US this year.

The slow, seemingly inexorable rise of programmatic trading continues. At least that’s the takeaway from a new Zenith forecast, which at the same time has revised downward its outlook for programmatic as a result of new privacy regulations and greater... READ MORE

Are CMOs and Management In Alignment on Marketing’s Goals and Expectations?A new report turns up some interesting perspectives concerning the value of brand awareness and the importance of marketing efficiency.December 3, 2018

More than one-third (36%) of CMOs around the world believe that their role has changed in the past few years to drive more overall business growth, with one-third likewise feeling that their role has significantly gained in importance. So finds The Trade... READ MORE

The US’ Most Valuable Brands: Tech Dominates, Entertainment RisesTech brands are 20% of the number of brands in the top 100, but almost 40% of their collective value.

Technology brands continue to dominate the list of America’s most valuable, according to the second annual BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable US Brands report [pdf]. However other sectors are making inroads with faster brand value growth year-over-year,... READ MORE

Holiday 2018 Data Hub [Updated]: Cyber Week RecapLooking at the 2018 holiday season, in numbers, including a recap of Cyber Week.November 30, 2018

With Thanksgiving weekend and Cyber Monday (mercifully?) behind us, shopping results are coming out from several sources. Although the precise figures differ from one source to the next, it seems that yet again the key takeaways include a new record for... READ MORE

Mobile Devices Becoming the Most Important Shopping Tools for More US ConsumersAlthough a growing number are interested in mobile payments, the incidence of mobile payments use in the US remains low.

Almost half of US adults (45%) agree that their mobile device is quickly becoming their most important shopping tool, marking a considerable jump from last year, when fewer than one-third (29%) felt that way. So finds GfK in its latest FutureBuy study... READ MORE

Almost Three-Quarters of Americans Over 55 Now Own A SmartphonePenetration is now at 74% for the over 55 crowd - up from 53% just three years ago.November 29, 2018

Older Americans are catching up in terms of smartphone penetration in the US, according to the latest annual mobile consumer survey from Deloitte [download page]. Some 74% of adults over the age of 55 now own a smartphone (up from 67% last year), making them... READ MORE

E-Commerce Grows in the Fashion IndustryStats from several studies report strong growth in the fashion and beauty industries, with male influencers a driving force.

The global online fashion market is predicted to reach $765 billion by the year 2022, a projected increase of $281 billion, or 58%, from this year. In fact, in 4 years, 36% of total fashion retail sales are expected to occur online, up from 27% this year,... READ MORE

MarTech Is Now CMOs’ Biggest Resource Spend, Plus 4 Other Budget HighlightsBudgets are stabilizing and digital is favored over traditional for ad spending.November 28, 2018

CMOs in North America and the UK now spend more on marketing technology than on any other resource area, declares Gartner in its latest annual CMO Spend Survey. This year, the more than 600 senior marketers surveyed estimated spending an average of 29% of... READ MORE

Email Benchmarks: Almost Half of New Subscribers Churn Within A YearOnboarding is critical, as one-third churn within the first month.

On average, 56% of new subscribers remain on program emails lists after their first twelve months, meaning that close to half churn within the first year of being on a list, according to a recent study on subscriber engagement [download page] from Return... READ MORE

The 10 Brands Topping the US Customer Advocacy Rankings in 2018Amazon suffers a rare drop in a brand ranking list.November 27, 2018

There’s a new leader atop the US brand advocacy rankings and it’s not Amazon. This year Band-Aid moves to the top of YouGov’s latest annual rankings as the most likely to be recommended by its customers from a list of 1,630 brands. Band-Aid... READ MORE

Discount Stores Find Strong Appeal With Consumers Across Age Groups and Income LevelsDollar stores are the most popular discount store type, as reflected by increasing store counts over the past decade.

Roughly 9 in 10 US adults say they shop at various types of discount retailers, according to recent survey results released by the NRF. The study indicates that the appeal of these value retailers extends across demographic groups, including Millennials... READ MORE

Brand Trust Matters… A Lot.Trust plays a large role in purchase decisions for consumers, who tend to favor established brands over new startup ones.November 26, 2018

Two-thirds of adults in the US say that trust in a brand has a great deal (31%) or a lot (37%) of influence on their decision when making a big purchase, reports SurveyMonkey in recently-released research. Adults in the US aren’t alone in the... READ MORE

Where Pay-TV Measures Up – And Doesn’t – With Streaming ServicesStreaming services are winning on general content availability and quality, while pay-TV maintains an edge with its sports and local programming.

Pay-TV penetration is gradually falling every year from its peak in 2010, and streaming services likely have a large role to play. New data [pdf] from The Hollywood Reporter (THR) and Morning Consult reveals that among people who stopped subscribing to a... READ MORE

Milestone: Netflix Tops Live TV As The Destination For Viewers’ Favorite ShowsIt's the first time Netfix has topped live TV as the destination for viewers' favorite shows. The signs are that these favorite Netflix programs are going viral.November 21, 2018

It’s the era of peak TV, and it looks like Netflix is winning the content wars over traditional TV. In its latest annual Conquering Content study [excerpt download page], Hub Entertainment Research finds that TV viewers are becoming pickier about the... READ MORE

Mobile’s Now Up to Almost Two-Thirds of US Digital Ad SpendMobile ad spend accounted for 63% of the total in H1 2018, and mobile video ad revenues surpassed desktop video ad revenues.

Online advertising revenues in the US reached $25.6 billion in the first half of 2018, with mobile accounting for 63% of the total, according to the latest revenue report from the IAB and PwC. This represents an overall increase of 23.1% year-over-year.... READ MORE

Smartphones Are Now Responsible For the Majority of Global Digital Video PlaysDigital video is growing quickly, but ad dollars still favor linear TV.November 20, 2018

Smartphones reached a new milestone in this past quarter, declares Ooyala in its latest quarterly Global Video Index [download page]. For the first time in Q2 the devices exceeded a majority share of all digital video plays worldwide, hitting 52%,... READ MORE

Private Label Purchase Intent, Value Perception Remain HighMore than 8 in 10 US adults purchase private label products to save money. That's unlikely to change anytime soon.

Favorable economic conditions aren’t blunting consumers’ appetite for private label products. In fact, 83% of adults surveyed by IRI [pdf] in Q3 2018 reported buying private label products to save money, while 73% said they try new, lower-priced... READ MORE

Personalization Grows More Common; 8 in 10 Report Uplift From Their EffortsCompanies report that only one-third of their tests, on average, produce a clear winner.November 19, 2018

Some 71% of organizations – primarily based in the UK and Europe – undertake some form of personalization in their marketing activity, according to the latest Optimization Report [download page] (previously Conversion Rate Optimization Report)... READ MORE

How Corporate Marketers Use Event DataData and KPIs gathered from events are not only used to improve the experiences, but also to inform wider marketing strategies and planning.November 16, 2018

Corporate marketers use event data to improve event portfolios and experiences in a variety ways, according to a study from Freeman and Chief Marketer. But as the Freeman Data Benchmark Study [download page] illustrates, event data and KPIs are also being... READ MORE

Programmatic Advertisers Grow More Worried About Fraud, Turn to DSPs With Proven Track RecordsAmazon Advertising Platform has edged Google DoubleClick Bid Manager as the most commonly used demand-side platform (DSP).

Amazon Advertising Platform (AAP) has edged ahead of Google DoubleClick Bid Manager as the most commonly used demand-side platform (DSP) among marketers and advertisers, with 41% using the former as opposed to 35% the latter. That’s according to... READ MORE

Pay-TV Penetration Continues Its Slow Descent From 2010’s PeakThe percentage of adults ages 18-44 with a pay-TV service has dropped by 13% points in just 5 years.November 15, 2018

Pay-TV penetration in the US continues its decline, though it’s by no means a drastic drop. The latest annual survey figures from Leichtman Research Group (LRG) indicate that 78% of TV households in the US subscribe to some type of pay-TV service.... READ MORE

Cash Back is the Most Popular Type of Loyalty Scheme for ConsumersSome 31% of US consumers feel very rewarded by cash back, compared to just 9% for tiered programs.

Consumers value cash for their loyalty over other loyalty schemes, according to a study [report download] from Dosh. Of the 3,000 US consumers surveyed, 83% feel rewarded when receiving cash back (31% of the whole sample feeling very rewarded and 52% a... READ MORE

B2C Marketers Try to Stand Out From the Crowd to Acquire CustomersA heavy reliance on discounts and promotions may not be helping matters.November 14, 2018

Eight in 10 digital marketers are feeling greater pressure this year than last to meet acquisition and revenue goals, and many feel that they’re “running on a never-ending hamster wheel.” So finds SheerID in a survey [download page] fielded... READ MORE

B2B Marketers Focus on Early-Stage ContentAlmost half of demand gen content in 2018 is designed for the early stage of the buying process.

Nearly half (47%) of the content created by B2B marketers in 2018 was created for the early stage of the buyer’s journey, according to a recent study [PDF] from the Content Marketing Institute. Creating content targeted at the top of the funnel aligns... READ MORE

Free Report: Global Email Deliverability BenchmarkReturn Path shares the state of global email deliverability, including inbox placement rates and trends.November 13, 2018

[Sponsored by Return Path] Email marketers have had a busy year. With GDPR coming into effect and mailbox providers like Gmail, AOL, and Yahoo making changes to their platforms and infrastructure, there has been no shortage of challenges. Even with all of... READ MORE

US Consumers’ Attitudes Split on TV Advertising; No Effect Seen on Service ChoiceDislike for TV ads doesn't seem to be directly affecting service subscriptions, but may be starting to have an impact on viewing habits.

Broadband consumers in the US are as likely to not mind advertising on TV (36.7%) as they are to dislike it (36.5%), according to a Q3 2018 survey from Ampere Analysis. The relative acceptance of advertising on TV among consumers in the US (and UK) stands in... READ MORE

B2B Marketers Are Having Difficulties Implementing Analytics TechnologiesData management and analytics technologies are considered the most difficult to implement.

Most marketers today are working on implementing necessary marketing technologies at their organization, according to a new Ascend2 report [download page], which finds that their martech strategies revolve primarily around increasing ROI and improving... READ MORE

85% of Millennials Say They’ve Made A Purchase After Viewing A Marketing VideoMost 18-34-year-olds say they find video more engaging than other forms of marketing content.November 12, 2018

Video marketing has been growing in popularity in recent times, and new statistics from a Brightcove study provide some reasons why that’s the case. Fully three-quarters (76%) of the almost 4,500 adults surveyed in the US, UK and Australia report... READ MORE

Digital Marketers Forecast Increased Spend on Amazon Ads, But Challenges RemainInadequate reporting is a key complaint when it comes to advertising on Amazon.

Amazon is poised to become the third-largest advertising platform in the US this year, and new survey results [download page] from Third Door Media indicate that marketers have plans to dedicate more of their budgets to it in the coming year. Of the 681... READ MORE

Almost Half of Consumers Report Having Abandoned A Customer Feedback Survey. Why?Report recommends making the process simple and concise, with real-time feedback a key feature.November 9, 2018

Some 44% of consumers across the US, UK and Australia say they’ve abandoned a customer feedback survey without completing it, according to a recent study from Medallia [download page]. The report suggests that survey design – and the channels... READ MORE

Google Owns the Three Most Popular Tools For Leading SaaS BusinessesGoogle Tag Manager, Google Analytics and G Suite are each used by more than 7 in 10 leading SaaS businesses.

Beating out the likes of Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft, Google tools are more prevalent in large, high-performing SaaS businesses. Their products, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics and G Suite are the top 3 tools used by SaaS businesses, according to a... READ MORE

C-Suite Execs See Tech Disruption As More Opportunity Than ThreatThe ability to adopt new technologies is both an opportunity and a challenge, though.November 8, 2018

Fully 71% of C-suite executives around the world believe that artificial intelligence (AI) will be a game-changer for economic growth and competitiveness, according to a report from A.T. Kearney [pdf]. That type of optimism surrounding emerging technologies... READ MORE

Mobile App Developers Say Social Media’s Their Primary Marketing ChannelApp developers and marketers count daily active users as their main success metric.

User acquisition is the primary goal of app marketers, although retention is certainly a challenge that also needs to be overcome. So how are app developers and marketers going about encouraging downloads? The 2018 App Marketing Survey from The Manifest... READ MORE

B2B Marketers Increasingly Integrate Traditional Demand Gen and ABM ProcessesABM efforts are only generally meeting expectations, as marketers struggle to prove the ROI of their efforts.November 7, 2018

B2B marketers continue to largely prioritize traditional demand generation over account-based marketing (ABM) efforts, although the trend seems to be towards greater integration of the two, according to a Demand Gen Report (DGR) study [download page]. This... READ MORE

Companies Struggle to Understand the External Costs for Marketing TechnologyCompanies are also having difficulty measuring the impact of the optimized digital experience.

Marketers are prolific adopters of technology, but it appears that the companies they work for do not understand the external costs of connecting it all. This is according to findings from a new study [download page] from Sitecore and Econsultancy. Close to... READ MORE

Parents Are Active Online Shoppers, Subscription Box Service CustomersAlmost half of US online shoppers with kids in the household shop online on at least a weekly basis.November 6, 2018

The frequency with which US consumers make purchases online is growing, says Pitney Bowes in its 2018 Global Ecommerce Study [pdf]. Indeed, 30% of US respondents this year report shopping online at least weekly, a considerable uptick from 19% last year.... READ MORE

National TV Advertising Revenues Remained Flat During the 2017-2018 SeasonCable fared better than broadcast, though both upped their ad loads.

National TV advertising spending stood at $45.5 billion during the 2017-2018 Broadcast Season when excluding the impact of the Winter Olympics and World Cup, with that figure unchanged from the previous year, reveals Standard Media Index (SMI) in... READ MORE

Latest Teen Survey: Instagram Looks Like It’s Gaining Ground on SnapchatFacebook and Twitter are rapidly declining in popularity among US teens.November 5, 2018

Snapchat has reigned supreme as teens’ favorite social platform for a couple of years now, according to Piper Jaffray’s semi-annual teen surveys. But Snapchat’s rise may be cooling off, and Instagram may be seeing renewed interest from... READ MORE

Here’s A Look At the Tech Platforms And Tactics In Use by B2B MarketersB2B marketers are comfortable using web analytics, but not so customer data platforms.

B2B marketers are expressing confidence in their sophisticated use of web analytics but have a ways to go in adopting customer data platforms. So finds Dun & Bradstreet in its 2019 Data-Driven Marketing & Advertising Outlook survey [download page],... READ MORE

Organic Search’s Share of Site Visits StabilizesOrganic search refers about one-quarter of visits to US brand sites, overall and on mobile.November 2, 2018

Under pressure from a greater number of search ads and the rise of social platforms, organic search’s contribution to brand site visits has been falling over the past couple of years. But that appears to have stabilized in recent quarters, according to... READ MORE

B2B Adoption of Programmatic Advertising Levels Off, but Spending to IncreaseMore than 6 in 10 B2B marketers (63%) are involved in buying or selling programmatic advertising, unchanged from last year.

B2B marketers’ use of programmatic advertising may be reaching a plateau, but not so their spending on programmatic, says Dun & Bradstreet in its 2019 Data-Driven Marketing & Advertising Outlook [download page]. The survey of 237 B2B marketers... READ MORE

“Global Business Influencers” Rely on Intuition As Well As LogicSenior executives appear more confident relying on cognitive than intuitive factors, but admit that emotions also play a role.November 1, 2018

Global Business Influencers represent less than 1% of the population, but are an important target for B2B marketers, considering their spending power and control over company budgets. So says Ipsos in a recent report [pdf] on these senior business people in... READ MORE

Agencies’ Snapchat Ad Spend Primarily Directed to SnapAdsSnapchat's ad revenues haven't been rising as quickly as expected.

Snapchat advertising spend by national marketers was projected to have increased by 10% in Q3 and by 8% through the first 9 months of the year, according to recent figures from Standard Media Index, which sources its data directly from the invoices of 5 of... READ MORE

Here Are Some Characteristics of Top-Performing B2B Content MarketersTop-performing content marketers are more likely to enjoy executive buy-in, to use technology proficiently, and to personalize content.October 31, 2018

Some 27% of B2B content marketers in North America rate their organization’s overall level of content marketing success as “extremely” (4%) or “very” (23%) successful, while 22% rate it as “minimally” (20%) or... READ MORE