Oct 7, 20144 min read

Marketing Day: Google+ Thriving (Google Says), Facebook’s Local Awareness Ads & More

Here’s our daily recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web.

From Marketing Land:

Google+ Says It’s Thriving But Refuses To Give User Figures Google+ is alive and thriving, says Google’s head of social David Besbris, serving a devoted base of users who love the emphasis on privacy, the top-notch photo tools and the state-of-the-art multi-party video conferencing. Besbris, in an interview published today by Re/code, said hundreds of millions of people are using the Google+ mobile app. But […]
Survey: Users Show Interest In Ad-Free Social Network After the recent uproar over Facebook’s real names policy that provided rocket fuel to competing social network Ello, the company apologized to the LGBT community and is even readying a separate app that will allow Facebook usage under a pseudonym. These moves are designed to blunt any potential exodus of users and the related PR […]
Facebook Announces “Local Awareness Ads” For SMBs Facebook introduced a new ad category principally targeting small businesses: local awareness ads. These ads can appear on desktop or mobile; but, they’re really focused on mobile users. It’s essentially mobile geofencing. Larger or more sophisticated advertisers can also access these ad units via API. In the SMB context, business owners use the company’s Ads […]
Google Launches Custom Affinity Audiences For Display Ad Targeting Today, Google announced it is rolling out custom affinity audiences aimed at giving advertisers more flexibility in their targeting users based on their interests across the Google Display Network. Google launched affinity audience segments last year to allow advertisers to target users based their interests as reflected by their search and site behavior. The affinity […]
Facebook’s Audience Network Rolls Out Worldwide, Gains The Ability To Drive Mobile Traffic We knew that Facebook’s expanded ad network was in the works. Well, today Facebook’s”Audience Network” has arrived for more marketers worldwide. The Audience Network positions Facebook as a player in the mobile ad space and grow their earning reach outside of the Facebook interface and take a chunk out of the Google dominated display market. With the […]
Study: Holiday Ad Campaigns On Facebook Should Start Earlier Than You Think Here we are on the cusp of the holiday retail frenzy in which every retailer will be vying for consumer attention and wallets. According to eMarketer, retailers will increase ad spending by 20 percent over the holiday season. According to new research from Marin Software, retailers aren’t getting their timing right when advertising on Facebook […]
Celebrities #FeelingNuts About Testicular Cancer Awareness Campaign It’s the latest challenge-driven social media campaign for a good cause, and it doesn’t even require pouring ice water over your head.
Brewing Our Own Disenchantment In Agency-Land Feeling trapped carrying out other people’s agendas in your job? Contributor Kendall Allen asks that you consider the alternatives.
BuzzFeed “Hidden Beacons” Story Gets It Almost Totally Wrong There’s a lot that the media get wrong when covering location and privacy. A recent example of that is BuzzFeed’s inflammatory story about “hidden” tracking devices in some of New York City’s phone booths. The story was widely picked up and plays into the “surveillance state” meme that has persisted since the NSA-Snowden revelations. It’s […]
Optimizing Your Paid Search Bids Around The Holiday Rush Retailers often underbid PPC campaigns pre holiday and overbid when the rush ends. Columnist David Rekuc explains how to maximize holiday bidding.
If You Promote It, They Will Come: Putting A Spotlight On Your Digital Campaigns It’s not enough to simply launch a great campaign — contributor Andy Lombard explains how to build momentum for your digital promotions.
Men’s Health Magazine Trolls Female Sports Fans With A Perfectly Patronizing Tweet Men’s Health Magazine threw back to another era today with a painfully misogynistic tweet about explaining sports to women: She sees the game differently than you. Here’s how, and what to do about it: http://t.co/AaQXS1bsWY pic.twitter.com/fh83bb6Zc4 — Men’s Health Mag (@MensHealthMag) October 6, 2014 The tweet linked to a three-paragraph post — The Secret to […]