The Latest in #DigitalMarketing & #SocialMediaMarketing – December 23, 2015

Here is our take on the most notable stories in Digital and Social Media Marketing from last week.

Considering we are in the midst of the holiday season, we wanted to highlight a few articles that we believe touch on some of the things on marketers’ wish lists going into 2016. Here’s a hint: transparency behind how ad blockers conduct business and investments in marketing technology.

What Do Marketers Want For the Holidays?: Transparency into Ad Blocking.

Adblock Plus just revealed for the first time exactly how it makes its money

Business Insider | December 16, 2015

In order to make good on a promise to advertisers and ad tech folks, the company behind Adblock Plus released how they are making money for the first time. A majority of their revenue comes via their Acceptable Ads Program, where ads that meet AdBlock’s specifications are allowed to bypass their filters.

According to Adblock Plus’ website, companies that serve over 10 million ad impressions a month are charged “a licensing fee for the whitelisting services requested and provided to them.” How much do they charge? “For these entities, [Adblock Plus’] licensing fee normally represents 30 percent of the additional revenue created by whitelisting its acceptable ads.”

On top of their revenue model, AdBlock Plus also released which ads they deem “acceptable.” Their full criteria, which can be found here, covers a number of different specifications including placement, size and distinction. Hopefully with these specs finally published to the public, advertisers can buy ads based on their likelihood to get through the ad blocking filter so a smaller percentage of their ad dollars are being wasted.

It is also worth noting that users can opt-out of the Acceptable Ads program. Users who do opt-out will not see any ads at all – acceptable or not.

What Do Marketers Want For the Holidays?: Complete, Cross-Device Integration

Cross-Device Targeting High in Demand, but Still Underdeveloped

eMarketer | December 16, 2015

Surveys conducted by Signal and Econsultancy revealed that just “6% of marketers worldwide reported an adequate single view of customers or prospects across all devices and touchpoints.” The largest challenges from stopping this single view are budgets and technology limitations.

It is no secret that we now live in a digital age where customers are engaging and buying across many different devices. For Marketers, receiving a complete picture of how each customer is interacting with your brand across every device they use will lead to a deeper customer understanding and more effective marketing campaigns.

What Do Marketers Want For the Holidays?: To Better Meet Customer’s Needs and Behaviors

What Technologies Are Marketers Investing In?

eMarketer | December 16, 2015

According to a Gartner study, over 60% of marketers are investing into technology that will enable them to power their social marketing efforts, their digital commerce efforts and their marketing analytic efforts.

Here is the full chart provided by eMarketer:

Going into 2016, a few things are for certain: customers will be on social and digital channels more than ever, and they will continue to have high expectations for user-experience and customer service. Three out of the five top areas marketers are placing a prioirity on address these patterns. The two remaining priorities, marketing analytics and ad operations, will provide fuel for further insight into how customers are behaving and how their expectations will evolve next.

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