AdSense Add On; BuzzFeed's Mobile Performance

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

AdSense Direct

Google rolled out Tuesday an AdSense feature allowing publishers to manage ads sold through direct channels. In a blog post by AdSense Product Manager Matt Goodridge, Google explained the process: Publishers working directly with advertisers (regardless of whether those advertisers use AdWords) can enter terms of those deals into an AdSense account. Google will furnish publishers with links to send to advertisers, where the ad can be uploaded and paid for via Google Wallet. The product is restricted to the US for now.

Mobile BuzzFeed

Mobile ads are performing better than desktop for BuzzFeed, CEO Jonah Peretti said in a Tuesday appearance at AdExchanger’s Industry Preview conference. Adweek’s Mike Shields notes Peretti explained the higher click-through and share rates this way: “People are more focused on mobile… On the desktop, there are all those distractions.” Read it.

Facebook: Text Doesn’t Cut It

Are all text-based Facebook updates created equal? No, according to Facebook News Feed Product Manager Chris Turitzan. “The latest update to News Feed ranking treats text status updates from Pages as a different category to text status updates from friends,” Turitzan writes in a blog post. “Page admins can expect a decrease in the distribution of their text status updates, but they may see some increases in engagement and distribution for other story types.” By “other story types,” Turitzan refers to more media-heavy updates, such as video, images or posts that leverage Facebook’s Link Share tool. Read the blog post.

Lowe Acquires Profero

Interpublic Group’s (IPG) London-based advertising agency, Lowe and Partners, has acquired digital agency Profero. Financial terms were not disclosed. The combined agency will be known as Lowe Profero and will be led by the current Profero management team, according to The Wall Street Journal, which also reported that the merged companies will seek to build a fully integrated offer in Australia, China, Singapore, the UK and the US. Read more.

Beyond Auctions

Amazon and eBay may differ fundamentally, one being an ecommerce marketplace and the other an ecommerce auction site, but mobile may align the two more closely, according to Mobile Commerce Daily. A report from Macquarie Capital revealed eBay is working on a direct-to-consumer service called The Plaza, giving brands an opportunity to sell outside of the auction environment. “Mobile is a place they are very comfortable with and their popular commerce-enabled app means they can leverage location-based functionality for push messaging, real-time customized discounts, etc. in a way the competition might find hard to match,” said Wilson Kerr, vice president of business development and sales at Unbound Commerce. Read more.

Twitter’s TV Push

You don’t need a crystal ball to tell you that Twitter is angling to hitch its data and analytics to TV advertisers’ budgets as the go-to for second-screen engagement. After all, Twitter did acquire social TV insights provider BlueFin more than a year ago and it’s also working with Nielsen to add its knowledge of how its users’ chatter impacts TV ratings. Adweek’s Garett Sloane talked to a bunch of CES ad-industry attendees — mostly on background — about their excitement at Twitter being ready for prime time. “New insights around television-watching behaviors and simultaneous media consumption are making multiscreen strategies an imperative for brands,” said David Rittenhouse, Neo@Ogilvy’s managing director. Read more.

Twitter Targets Demographic Groups

In addition to video, Twitter is also ramping up its pursuit of demographic groups. Before it went public, Twitter rarely drew attention to its racially diverse user base. Things have changed. “Now, as a newly minted public company needing to generate revenue, it is moving to capitalize on its demographics,” writes The Wall Street Journal’s Koree Koh. Twitter tapped marketing veteran Nuria Santamaria for a new position as multicultural strategist, Koh reports, leading the company’s efforts to target black, Hispanic and Asian-American users. Read more.

Cloud Services

Global consulting firm Accenture has planted a stake in German Salesforce.com partner company ClientHouse, according to VentureBeat’s Jordan Novet. Though the terms of the acquisition were undisclosed, Accenture will gain access to ClientHouse’s sales and services businesses, which brings products like the Salesforce.com Sales and Marketing Clouds, QlikView business intelligence and Veeva CRM to end customers. Accenture is getting closer to the customer relationship. Read more.

Mobile Ad Market Growth Slowing?

Gartner released a report anticipating a slowdown in mobile ad-market growth due to the basics of supply and demand. The research shop predicts from 2015 to 2017, more mobile ad inventory will be available than is needed. Despite this, the report expects global mobile ad growth to be strong, expected to increase from $13.1 billion in 2013 to $18 billion this year. And by 2017, Gartner projects a mobile ad market of $41.9 billion. In terms of format, video will grow the most due to the proliferation of tablets, though display will continue to make the most revenue. Read more.

Growing In South Africa

Publicis Groupe is taking a stronger hold of the promising South African advertising market with its announced acquisition of top-10 South African media agency Applied Media Logic (AML). AML will be aligned Publicis’ ZenithOptimedia global media unit and will be branded ZenithOptimedia South Africa. AML Managing Director Kim Weissensee will be appointed the rebranded unit’s CEO. It makes sense that Publicis would dive in, as ZenithOptimedia has identified South Africa as the eighth fastest-growing advertising market between 2013 and 2016. Read the press release (PDF).

Image Acquisition

Celebrity and lifestyle publisher POPSUGAR has acquired PICT, a tech platform that turns photos into shoppable images. The service and team will be integrated with POPSUGAR’S ShopSense affiliate marketing service for sister shopping search engine ShopStyle. According to Brian Sugar, POPSUGAR’s founder and CEO, the integration will “help publishers, bloggers and developers monetize their fashion and lifestyle content.” Read more on TechCrunch.

But Wait, There’s More!