Opaque Trading Desks; Hootsuite Acquires BrightKit

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.

Marketer Mistrust

Marketers are still concerned about a lack of trading desk transparency – so worried, in fact, that investment in agency trading desks declined 15% YoY, according to a WFA report that surfaced Thursday. The hesitancy could explain why companies like Rocket Fuel are building programmatic products for marketers to license, wrote WSJ’s Jack Marshall. According to those surveyed, 9.5% of online media budgets are spent programmatically today.

Social Consolidation

Business-oriented social management platform Hootsuite snapped up BrightKit, a tool used by marketers such as Kentucky Derby and Dwell to customize their social marketing campaigns. Press release. The deal follows Mixpo’s acquisition of another social ads player, Facebook PMD ShopIgnite. AdExchanger story. Is social ad tech ripe for a shakeout?

YouTube Converts

YouTube is often perceived as an ocean of eyeballs – most suitable for upper-funnel goals. But among social media, it also happens to be a top driver of clicks and conversions, says a study via AOL Platforms, which analyzed data from 550 million clicks and 15 million conversions in 2014’s first quarter. “YouTube’s own search volume and preferential positioning on Google’s results help drive large amounts of traffic, of course. But when you get to YouTube, the content is rich, descriptive and usually helpful,” Convertro CEO Jeff Zwelling told VentureBeat. Facebook took a close second, followed by Google+ (really?). More.

Attributable IPG

Interpublic is expanding its mobile attribution capabilities through an investment in, and partnership with, Placed. “Mobile spend is the fastest-growing media category,” said IPG Media Lab managing partner Chad Stoller. “Placed allows our network to easily and confidently measure attribution and provides marketers with valuable, actionable data to help shape mobile spend.” Terms weren’t disclosed, but IPG CEO Michael Roth called the partnership an example of IPG “delivering the full promise of attribution and automation to our clients.” Read the press release.

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