Google Adds Retargeting Controls; Ebiquity Joins Marketing Tech Fray

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You The User

Google announced major changes to its advertising control features. Users can now see brands that are targeting them for retargeting campaigns – what Google calls “reminder ads” – and decide whether to shut them down. Next it will expand the tool to Gmail, YouTube and Search. Users can also “mute” ads across all devices associated with their accounts. Check out the blog post by Jon Krafcik, group product manager for data privacy and transparency. Google’s update came two days after Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said at an event in Brussels the social platform plans to launch a user privacy center for managing account data.

Word To The Wise

Consulting and analytics firm Ebiquity has launched a marketing technology arm, Ebiquity Tech, under former Collective product strategy director Tim Hussain and a team of agency and ad tech vets. Ebiquity CEO Michael Karg said the new group “builds on the back of real client demand for impartial advice around data, marketing and advertising technology.” Read the blog post. The move is likely to incense some holding company execs. Ebiquity was one of two firms, along with K2 Intelligence, employed by the ANA for agency audits for its ad rebates and transparency report. Agencies grumbled at the time for having to expose sensitive data to a consultancy that could foreseeably end up competing with them for accounts.

Programmatic Pockets

Netflix signaled this week that it would boost its marketing spend from $1.3 billion to $2 billion this year, and the acceleration could be a boon to the programmatic market, Digiday reports. “I think Netflix will spend its increased marketing budget mostly on digital media,” said Pivotal analyst Brian Wieser. “But keep in mind, most of its growth is international, so I’m sure there will be different [media-buying] choices by market.” Netflix told shareholders in April that it would invest more money in programmatic to “do individualized marketing at scale and to deliver the right ad to the right person at the right time.” More.

Lukewarm

Some media executives are skeptical that Snapchat’s Stories Everywhere update allowing users to share stories off-platform will open up new ad budgets. While the feature is meant to bring more users to the platform as Snapchat faces slowing growth, any boosts in engagement and ad rates may be short-term, Mike Richeson, director of social and content strategy at Mechanica, tells Adweek’s Lauren Johnson. Keeping content within its own platform has been a part of Snap’s success in the past, says Angela Yang, director of connections at T3, and opening up sharing capabilities with other platforms “doesn’t necessarily mean it will draw the audience our clients are seeking to reach within the platform.” More

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