Wal-Mart's Ad Pitch; Facebook's Political Segments

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Carrying Bricks

Walmart wants to ramp up its ad business. As reported by Digiday, its pitch to advertisers tracks closely with Amazon’s: Let us match your first-party data to our shoppers and then connect the resulting ads to sales. It’s a powerful offer, since Walmart does about three times more in annual sales than Amazon and has a lot of sway with product suppliers, but its in-store conversion data is weaker than Amazon’s login-based tracking. “If Walmart.com can relaunch its advertising with the Jet.com back end, this will buy it some clout and some breathing room,” says one buyer who’s worked with Walmart’s Exchange service. Read on.

Recipe For Disaster

Facebook gave advertisers a blueprint for targeting a divided US prior to the 2016 election, according to BuzzFeed News. Reporter Alex Kantrowitz obtained a sales pitch in which Facebook breaks the US population into 14 self-serve segments spanning the political spectrum, from very liberal to very conservative. Buyers could work with Facebook directly to find more granularity in those buckets. “We typically help marketers across all verticals understand audiences this way, and we briefly used this framework to help inform how a small number of marketers built their campaigns,” a Facebook spokesperson said. But another source, a senior Democrat who has run digital political campaigns, saw an opportunity for those looking to create political turmoil. Read on. The segments are no longer available.

Just Browsing

Facebook is not much of an ecommerce player, but it’s slowly gaining ground. A survey from the research firm Open Influence found Facebook and Instagram were the first and second most common social networks for purchases, with 47.7% and 8.6% of social media sales, respectively. (Actually, the second most common response was “never purchased an item through social media” at 34.6%.) Another survey found Facebook to be by far the most influential social platform for US purchase decisions. Though, in that survey, Facebook was eclipsed by “none.” More at eMarketer. Related: Facebook continues to expand its year-old marketplace. TechCrunch.

Channel Surfing

Google debuted a smart-TV app for YouTube TV, the streaming cable bundle it launched with 40 networks this spring. The app exists only on Android and Xbox devices for now but will soon expand to smart TVs by manufacturers like Samsung and Sony, as well as platforms like Apple TV. The app makes TV viewing easier and enhances content discovery. Over half of time spent watching YouTube TV is on a TV set, writes Okalo Ikhena, YouTube TV product manager, in a blog post.

But Wait, There’s More!