Business.com staff says, “Two new Facebook product updates are aimed at small businesses. Here’s how they work. The first is an update to local awareness ads, first introduced in 2012 to provide the ability to target ads to users who check into your site within a certain distance from a store or business location. If you have multiple locations the new update provides the additional capability to target users to those specific sites. In a blog post, Facebook explains that, “If a cafe with multiple locations across the UK decides to run local awareness ads, they could choose to automatically... [...]

Ben Davis says, “‘Please turn off your ad blocker!’ The plaintive cry echoes down the tubes of the internet. Although the ad blocker dilemma is a complex and important one, I get perverse enjoyment from reading the different messages that publishers display, imploring users to disable their ad blockers. Here are 10 of them. For colour, I’ve embedded tweets by the websites’ often disgruntled users. 1. GQ I haven’t seen this anywhere else. GQ is resourceful enough not only to request you disable your ad blocker, but to allow you to purchase access instead (if... [...]

eMarketer team says, “eMarketer expected a strong 2015 holiday season for ecommerce and total retail sales. In eMarketer’s upcoming webinar, Lessons from Holiday Shopping 2015—What You Need to Know for 2016, we’ll take a look at the final results and review what retailers need to know about changing consumer behaviors to keep up in 2016. Register here for this complimentary eMarketer webinar to learn: – How the overall retail sector performed during the 2015 holiday season – Why experiential gifts were one significant holiday trend of 2015 – How consumers used their... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “After taking many steps in this direction, Google announced Tuesday that it will finally stop serving Flash formatted display ads. As of June 30, 2016, advertisers will no longer be able to upload new Flash ads into AdWords or DoubleClick. The final hit will happen on January 2, 2017, when Flash ads will no longer be eligible to run on Google’s ad networks. All display ads are to be built in HTML5. Oddly, video ads built in Flash won’t be affected by these deadlines, the company says. There’s no word when similar changes will affect video. This is the final of many... [...]

Rob Litterst says, “Every publisher wants to stand out from the crowd, but the days of one-size-fits-all content creation are over. The reason why? Content marketing is a double-edged sword. As companies realize that it works, they want to invest in it more—which means that there’s more information being published on the Internet than ever before. Some media companies are responding and trying to outsmart the crowd by producing more content, generating more listicles, and writing more ‘quick wins’ and listicles. But keep in mind: many consumers view these actions as noise. The tech... [...]

Ayaz Nanji says, “Do consumers actually notice online display ads served on Web pages? Which format of ads do people look at and engage with the most? To find out, Meditative conducted an eye-tracking study of 39 participants of mixed ages who were assigned certain search tasks. Digital display ads were shown in the leaderboard (728×90), skyscraper (300×600) and big box (300×250) positions across both Web-page mock-ups and actual sites. With data from the study, the researchers were able to generate heat maps showing the length of time spent looking at various parts of the... [...]

Greg Sterling says, “In 2012, investors were anxious that Facebook was behind the curve of consumer mobile adoption. Since that time, Facebook has built a massive multi-billion-dollar mobile business that captures a huge chunk of available mobile ad spending. Yesterday, Facebook announced a $5.8-billion quarter, the majority of which is ad revenue ($5.6 billion). The company also reported that an astounding 80 percent of its ad revenue ($4.5 billion) was generated by mobile advertising. That represented revenue growth of 81 percent year over year. The company added that 90 percent of its... [...]

Daniel Burstein says, “Unlike many hotel brands that strive for a consistent look and feel, part of the value proposition of The Leading Hotels of the World (LHW), a hospitality consortium with 425 hotels worldwide, is that each hotel is unique. From the fabled King David Hotel in Jerusalem to The Ritz Hotel in London (featured in the film “Notting Hill”), customers have a plethora of experiences to choose from. With such a diverse offering, online advertising, content and customer journey challenges that face every brand loom especially large for LHW. I sat down with Debbie Johnsen,... [...]

Greg Sterling says, “Depending on whom you talk to, ad blocking is either overblown or an emerging crisis. There’s data to support both positions. One thing is clear, however: it’s an issue that’s not going away. That’s partly because entrepreneurs have now latched onto it as an opportunity. The latest example is a new mobile browser called Brave. It’s still in beta and not yet widely available, but it will be soon. Brave was developed by a team led by Brendan Eich, who co-founded Mozilla and created JavaScript. Brave is for both the desktop and mobile devices. Its primary adoption... [...]

Zak Stambor says, “Google appears to be testing a layout on search results in which Product Listing Ads take up nearly the entire search results page. Google Inc. appears to be testing a new display for its Product Listing Ads—the listings that show a product’s image, price and the retailer selling it prominently in Google results for product-related searches. In the new format that appears on some searches Google showcases 16 PLAs to consumers on desktops, far more than the usual number. Google typically presents PLAs in one of two ways to desktop users: It may show a “container”... [...]