Allison Schiff is the editor-in-chief of AdExchanger, where she covers mobile, Facebook (sorry, Meta), measurement, privacy and the app economy. Allison received her M.A. in journalism from the Dublin Institute of Technology in Ireland (her favorite place), and a B.A. in history and English from Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.
When Snap acquired location-based data company Placed over the summer, agencies got excited about the prospect of intermingling the data sets – but that won’t be happening anytime soon. Placed will not share any advertiser or partner data with Snap, Placed CEO and founder David Shim told AdExchanger. “Keeping the data set separate is important if […]
A stark juxtaposition: At the same time Facebook’s general counsel was getting grilled by members of Congress in Washington, DC, on Wednesday about how the platform was abused by Russian election meddlers, Facebook beat revenue expectations for the third quarter. Ad revenue was up 49% YoY, from $6.8 billion to just over $10 billion. Mobile […]
The tech titans have testified about Russian election meddling. And after two days and multiple hours of questioning by members of Congress aimed at top lawyers from Facebook, Twitter and Google on Tuesday and Wednesday, it’s clear that Russian operatives continue to spread propaganda and sow social discontent using social media platforms and that said […]
The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a looming reality set to take effect on May 25, 2018 – and the digital advertising industry is just starting to get woke. But misconceptions about the regulation are pervasive. And despite the substantial amount of work that companies need to do in order to prepare for and […]
Facebook and Twitter both took steps last week to provide more transparent paid political advertising on their platforms. But although political ads will be clearly labeled and users will be able to access more information on who purchased the ads and how much the buyer is spending on electioneering, it’s primarily up to the advertisers […]
Sometimes, it can feel to B2B marketers like programmatic technology just wasn’t built for them – but the B2B guys are starting to successfully retrofit programmatic to meet their particular needs. Hewlett Packard Enterprise, for example, and its agency Digitas wanted to use programmatic to power the brand’s account-based marketing strategy and reach key decision-makers within […]
After a string of lackluster quarters, Twitter seems poised for a rebound and potential profitability, with early plans to launch RTB buying capabilities on its platform – but it’s still slow going. Although the company beat revenue expectations for the third quarter Thursday with $590 million, that number was down 4% year over year from […]
Dynamic creative optimization has thus far largely overpromised and underdelivered. Now Facebook is tossing its hat in the ring. Can it succeed where others have floundered? On Wednesday, Facebook introduced two tools to help advertisers tailor creative assets on the fly: one that automatically throws together multiple ad variants based on the basic components of […]
Publishers still struggle to make enough video content and inventory. Text-to-video platform Wibbitz, which announced its $20 million Series C on Tuesday, aims to help them meet that need with technology that automates creation. The round, led by Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments with participation from The Weather Channel TV network, the Associated Press, existing investor […]
Responsible data collection is possible – and it’s good for businesses and consumers alike, says Will Carty, the Network Advertising Initiative’s newly appointed VP of public policy. “The benefit to businesses is not in conflict with the benefit to consumers – in fact, they’re actually completely aligned,” said Carty, who joined the industry group after five years […]
If lawmakers have anything to do with it, political ads on Facebook, Google, Twitter and other online platforms may soon be subject to the same disclosure requirements as traditional political advertising. Senators introduced a bipartisan bill on Thursday to do just that, prompted by revelations of Russian meddling before and during the 2016 US presidential […]
Like any good media planner, fraudsters are attuned to time of year, seasonality, demographics, ad formats and trends in consumer behavior. With football season and the MLB playoffs in full swing, they seem to have turned their attention to pro sports sites. “We see a lot of sophisticated invalid traffic targeting premium sites,” said Amit […]
Most brands don’t want to be the first thing someone thinks of when they get a stress headache or feel pain after exercise – but Tylenol does. As part of a recent campaign to promote the relaunch of its Rapid Release Gels sub-brand after a 2009 recall, Tylenol wanted to be top-of-mind with potential customers in […]
Although the industry is settling on a few practical uses for beacons, primarily as a helpmate for attribution, they’re just one marketing data point among many – a tactic. “Beacons are only one piece of the equation, a component of a larger effort,” said Chris Cunningham, CRO of proximity and location data aggregator Unacast. “There are […]
However you pronounce the “G” in “GIF,” the looping video file format is developing into a legitimate touchpoint along the customer journey. For NBC, which recently revived its popular comedy series “Will & Grace” in September after more than 10 years off the air, GIFs are “a way in,” said Jared Goldsmith, VP of marketing […]
TruSignal is striking out on its own with $5 million in Series A funding and a plan: to help demand-side platforms and data providers use offline data to build people-based lookalike audiences for online targeting. On Thursday, TruSignal completed its spin-off from sister company eBureau, an offline data and predictive analytics platform which itself was […]
Paid search influences offline conversions, but there’s been no good way to measure that impact. That’s because paid search, a market expected to top $36 billion this year, according to eMarketer, has been primarily used as a direct response channel, said David Shim, CEO and founder of Placed. The Snap-owned location data company released an […]
Google is the latest walled garden to be sucked down the Russian rabbit hole. The Washington Post reported Monday that Google has uncovered evidence of ads linked to Russia that were used to spread propaganda via YouTube, Gmail, Google Search and its DoubleClick ad network. Google’s revelations follow similar disclosures by Facebook and Twitter, which […]
The changes that Facebook is making in response to its ongoing Russia-linked ads predicament will impact every advertiser on the platform, not just political advertisers. For one, Facebook’s effort to introduce more transparency into political advertising could start bubbling up information that brands can use as competitive intel to track trends and make suppositions about […]
Marketers are open to spending on location data, but they lack the proof to show that their efforts are working. “It’s a dilemma,” said Kevin McGinnis, CEO of Pinsight Media, a Sprint-owned mobile analytics company with access to anonymized first-party mobile carrier data from Sprint subscribers. That’s why Pinsight, which helps its advertiser clients gather […]
Publishers are on the cusp of only needing one software development kit (SDK) to measure in-app viewability. On Wednesday, the IAB Tech Lab kicked off a limited beta to test an open-measurement SDK that would enable publishers to work with multiple viewability vendors without requiring multiple SDK integrations. The test will run for roughly two […]
Facebook said Monday it will add 1,000 employees to its global ads review teams over the next year to put the kibosh on foreign state-sponsored ads. The company will examine not just the content of the ad, but also the context in which it was bought and the targeting parameters used. Facebook’s ads review system […]
The redesigned App Store in iOS 11 creates a challenging environment for mid-tail and long-tail app developers. Apple’s primary goal with the redesign, which came along with the release of its new operating system in September, is to “make discovering apps and games easier than ever before,” the company said. The revamped App Store store […]
Poncho wants to “own the bed.” The weather app aims to start engaging with its core user base of millennials the moment they wake up. Around 90% of people 18-30 use smartphones as alarm clocks, according to Cisco, making the lock screen the first thing they see when they crack an eye. But there’s a […]
Retargeting is largely associated with product ads that stalk users across the internet. But Facebook sees retargeting as a tactic that can open the door to ongoing engagement within Messenger. Ted Helwick, the Facebook product manager leading monetization efforts on Messenger, told AdExchanger that “the KPI advertisers tell us they care about most right now […]
Most marketers don’t trust the data they’re using and they have no simple way to assess its quality. Of the 80% of advertisers that use audience insights, only 33% say they “completely trust them,” according to a study released Wednesday by research firm Advertiser Perceptions, which surveyed roughly 200 advertisers. Just one-third of advertisers fully […]
Tencent doesn’t like it when WeChat is called a walled garden, even though it has all the markings. “This is a form of walled garden in the same way you have Facebook or Google,” said Jon Mansell, VP of marketplace innovation at Magna Global, during a panel hosted by Tencent at Advertising Week on Monday. […]
Google is opening up more intent data for targeting on YouTube and expanding its Custom Affinity Audiences offering. Beyond reaching people based on their searches on YouTube, advertisers will now be able to create segments and target video ads using data derived from Google Maps and apps. “The ultimate goal is to reach any person […]
Data buyers and sellers have communication issues. “Transacting data across industries and use cases is actually a quite difficult process,” said Nick Jordan, CEO and founder of data startup Narrative I/O, which released a feature called Discover on its platform Monday that aims to help publishers get their data in front of interested buyers. Narrative […]
DoubleTree takes a cookie-first approach to marketing – the kind you can eat. But when it comes to data collection, the Hilton-owned hotel chain, known for handing out warm chocolate chip cookies to guests as they’re checking in, is interested in deeper data than just demographics and browsing history. “It doesn’t matter to me whether […]
