Jason Del Rey says, “EBay, which makes some of the most popular shopping apps in the U.S., will start running ads within its apps on phones and tablets in the fourth quarter, the company’s lead advertising executive told Re/code in an interview Thursday. This will be the first time eBay will place advertisements in its apps or on its mobile websites, other than a brief test in 2012, the company said. The initiative will let marketers place advertisements on the home screen of eBay’s main tablet and mobile phone app and target shoppers based on their shopping and search habits on the giant... [...]

Kurt Wagner says, “Facebook is asking users to provide more feedback on its ads, and the best way to make sure your voice is heard is to speak up — rarely. Confused? Here’s how it works: When users hide an ad from their News Feed, Facebook will now ask them why they’ve decided to hide that ad, and feedback from users whorarely provide it will be given the most weight, according to a company blog post. That means that if you rarely hide ads in News Feed, the one or two times you do will have a greater impact on what ads you’re shown in the future”. Want to Get Facebook’s Attention?... [...]

Re/code team says, “Alibaba Group Holding founder Jack Ma on Monday gave potential investors little new information about his Chinese e-commerce giant, but surprised them by addressing governance concerns, including a controversial 2010 spin-off of its online payment service. Ma made the remarks at a luncheon at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York in front of hundreds of hedge funds, mutual funds and other institutional investors, as the company kicked off a two-week, multi-city marketing blitz for its initial public offering. Alibaba was expecting about 500 investors to attend the first stop... [...]

Re/code team says, “Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba on Friday filed to sell up to $24.3 billion in stock, making it the biggest U.S. initial public offering ever. Yahoo cut its stake in the company to 16.3 percent from 22.4 percent and Soft Bank cuts its stake to 32.4 percent from 34.1 percent earlier, Dow Jones reported. The company is expected set its initial share price at between $60 and $66, a source told CNBC on Friday”. Alibaba Files to Sell up to $24.3 Billion in Stock Re/code  [...]

Amy Schatz says, “Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler said Thursday that Americans don’t have enough choice when it comes to high-speed broadband providers and the government needs to do something about it. More than half of Americans have only one choice of providers that can offer 25 Mbps download speeds, adding, “[T]here is simply no competitive choice for most Americans.” Wheeler’s conclusion might seem like a no-brainer for most Americans who’ve shopped for lower-cost high-speed broadband service only to find they have just one pricy option. But it’s actually... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Google has introduced a new ad extension in AdWords called callouts, which give advertisers more space to tout the benefits of their sites such as free shipping, sales, and other promotions. While many advertisers today use precious ad copy real estate to promote free shipping and sales, we’ll likely see advertisers adjust their ad copy as well as sitelink strategies with the advent of callouts”. Google AdWords’ New Callout Extensions Give Advertisers More Promotional Room Marketing Land  [...]

Peter Kafka says, “Another installment from the “Facebook Giveth, Facebook Taketh Away” story that all Web publishers are following with intense interest: Below is a chart of Gawker’s U.S. traffic, courtesy of editor Max Read. That first peak, from June, was the site’s third-best month. The peak on the right, from August, indicates that this month will be Gawker’s second-best month. But since you’ve already read the first sentence of this post, you know what happened to create that giant traffic valley in July”. Why Building a Web Business Built on Facebook Is So Scary Re/code  [...]

Pratik Dholakiya says, “Retargeting relies fundamentally on collecting user data and applying it intelligently to expedite conversions. This post looks at the case for retargeting, the working behind it, and how to design ads”. Display retargeting 101: a handy guide to the buzziest ads on the internet ‘Econsultancy’ Blog  [...]

Peter Kafka says, “The last time we checked in on Upworthy, the viral Web-sharing startup, we found that itstraffic was sagging. Not a big deal, said CEO Eli Pariser: The company was training more people to find stuff to share, so it hadn’t spent as much time sharing stuff. Three months later, Upworthy’s traffic is still headed down. After peaking in November, the site is now back to where it was a year ago. In July, it had about eight million visitors, down from a high of 18 million last fall, according to comScore”. Upworthy’s Traffic Goes Lower, but Revenue Is Climbing Re/code  [...]

Richard Joyce says, “The acquisition of [X+1] by Rocketfuel signals the beginning of the end for “programmatic” ad networks. Since the industry’s shift to programmatic, countless ad networks have changed how they market themselves, adjusting their sales language to mimic legitimate programmatic platforms. The “programmatic” ad network insertion order-based and flat-rate business model has prolonged the black box opacity that spurred the need for demand side platforms and exchange based media buying. It’s only fitting that one of the industry’s most successful “programmatic”... [...]