By Mel Sala, Designer Have you ever purchased a product solely because of its packaging? I know I have. I love to be surprised by creative packaging design solutions when I’m shopping. Whether you’re trying a product for the first time, or you’re purchasing a product from a trusted brand — packaging matters. If you’ve…
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Google now showing product schema rich snippets in image search results
Google Image Search now supports product schema markup in the mobile image search results. Barry Schwartz on December 14, 2016 at 8:45 am Google is now displaying rich snippets via product schema markup in the Google Image Search results. If you do a Google image search on a smartphone and click on a result that…
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Retailers testing Google Maps mobile Promoted Places ads include MAC Cosmetics, Starbucks, Walgreens
The promoted pins in Google Maps are being tested on Android devices. Ginny Marvin on December 15, 2016 at 3:00 pm Google is continuing to test its new promoted pin ads — now formally dubbed Promoted Places — in Google Maps with a small group of retailers. The pilot is running in the Google Maps…
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Facebook’s latest measurement error undercounted Instant Articles traffic
For those keeping count, this is the fourth time Facebook has disclosed measurement errors in as many months. Tim Peterson on December 16, 2016 at 11:00 am It’s happened again. For the fourth time since September and the second time this month, Facebook has disclosed a measurement error. Facebook had been undercounting iPhone traffic for…
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Salesforce moves beyond first-party data with Krux integration
The CRM/marketing giant unveils several new features for its Marketing Cloud that incorporate its recently purchased data management platform. Barry Levine on December 16, 2016 at 10:46 am In October, Salesforce announced it was buying data management platform (DMP) Krux. This week, the CRM/marketing giant unveiled the addition of three new features to its Marketing…
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Reserve with Google: Deeper booking integration through search and Maps
Online booking is becoming mainstream, with the principal points of entry being Google, Facebook and Yelp. Greg Sterling on December 15, 2016 at 11:32 am Local search is becoming much more transactional. Google previously worked with a range of third-party providers to bring online reservations to the Knowledge Graph. Now the company has gone much…
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Advertisers are cooling on Snapchat Live Stories
With viewership for Snapchat’s Live Stories stagnating, the feature is not a priority for media buyers. In addition to Discover, Live Stories is one of two media-driven features inside the Snapchat app. Available alongside Discover on the Stories and Discover pages, Live Stories provides content curated around different events and topics — everything from a…
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Google brings campaign-level audience targeting to all AdWords advertisers
The new feature will be a big time-saver. Ginny Marvin on December 8, 2016 at 2:46 pm The wait is over. Advertisers can finally add audience lists at the campaign level in AdWords. No more having to waste oodles of time adding audiences to every ad group in a campaign and having to manage audience…
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Report: 91 percent would use abandoned apps again if disliked issues addressed
Survey also finds users have average of 35 apps, half used at least weekly. Greg Sterling on December 7, 2016 at 8:18 pm Mobile apps command about 60 percent of digital media time, according to comScore’s 2016 Mobile App Report. However, that time is concentrated in a relatively small number of top apps that people…
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New wave of referrer spam wrecking Google Analytics data
If you're seeing a lot of referral traffic in your Google Analytics data, you're not alone. Contributor Jonathan Hochman explains how referral spam happens, lays out methods to combat it and suggests potential solutions for Google's consideration. Jonathan Hochman on December 8, 2016 at 11:13 am A new surge of referrer spam is damaging Google…
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Instagram Story links get 15–25% swipe-through rates for brands, publishers
Vox Media’s Curbed, MeUndies, Outside and Whisper discuss their early strategies and success with linking to their sites from Instagram Stories. Tim Peterson on December 8, 2016 at 9:00 am Instagram may have arrived late as a traffic source for brands and publishers, but it’s already showing early signs of success, driving new visitors to…
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12 Ads of Christmas
In spirit of the holiday season, we compiled our favorite Christmas ads to create our "12 Ads of Christmas” series. Our list of ads include: 1. Apple’s 2013 iPhone commercial is our first choice. The ad shows a boy who seems a little too invested in his iPhone rather than engaging in the holiday activities…
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New Creative: Blossman Gas Fall/Winter 2016 Catalog
By Ryan Laffler, Account Manager/Digital Director
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New features may be coming to AdWords Responsive Ads
Some accounts are now requiring a square image. Ginny Marvin on December 1, 2016 at 2:27 pm It seems Google may be getting ready to test some new features for responsive ads in AdWords. Spotted by Jonah Pessin at HeBS Digital, Google is requiring two image sizes in some accounts. In addition to the landscape…
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What Businesses Should Know About Local SEO
By Gabrielle Diepenbrock, Account Coordinator/Social Media Coordinator Of course businesses want to draw visitors from across the state, country, and even the other side of the world. But what about the local visitor? Businesses should optimize their local search ranking and provide content to encourage traffic from their local geographic region as well. According to…
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5 Marketing Predictions for 2017
By Gabrielle Diepenbrock, Account Coordinator Ready or not, 2017 will be here before we know it! Here is a compiled list of predicted trends that will help you adjust, prep and optimize your advertising and marketing plan for the new year: [row] [span1] [/span1] [span7] An increased focus on analytics — including the use of…
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ADmirable Series: H&M “Come Together”
By Luke Suggs, Account Intern Nobody likes delays, especially on Christmas! In H&M’s new holiday ad, “Come Together,” passengers on a train are informed there is a delay and will be missing Christmas with their families. The train operator sets his efforts to ensure that a young boy gets a Christmas even if it’s with…
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Award Series: Sky Dive North Georgia
By Jeff Goss, President/Creative Director Small client, small budget: How do you get the word out? It was the perfect fit: Creation of powerful headlines to go in, well, “Headlines,” Atlanta’s premier facilitator of restroom advertising. You might say our ads were in the toilet — strategically placed above the urinals. The look was simple:…
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3 next-level Yelp tricks for business owners
Struggling with Yelp reviews? Columnist Brian Patterson shares his tactics for understanding and improving your review score. Brian Patterson on November 21, 2016 at 9:24 am I’m always on the lookout for interesting tips, tricks and strategies that marketing managers and business owners can use to improve their Yelp pages. From dissecting Yelp’s own videos…
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Google is testing images in Sitelink extensions
Spotted on mobile, the extensions display in a swipeable carousel. Ginny Marvin on November 22, 2016 at 11:31 am Image extensions have come and gone and come again. Google tested them in 2013, but they never got off the ground. Bing Ads brought its own version of image extensions out of beta just over…
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Snapchat Video Ads Average Less Than 3 Seconds a View
Automated video ads, new Play inventory and in-app purchase audience modeling are now available. By Garett Sloane. Published on November 28, 2016. [row] [caption id="attachment_10733" align="aligncenter" width="642"] Snapchat ads don't get to play for long on average, but two-thirds play with sound on. Credit: Snapchat via YouTube[/caption] [/row] Snapchat ads are averaging less than 3…
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Google gives app marketers more ways to promote their apps with ads
Automated video ads, new Play inventory and in-app purchase audience modeling are now available. Ginny Marvin on November 22, 2016 at 1:40 pm On Tuesday, Google announced three new features for app marketers to use when promoting their apps via Universal App Campaigns, the campaign type that automatically syndicates app promotion ads across Google search,…
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US Presidential election data: searcher intent vs. demographic polling
Politics aside, data from the 2016 US Presidential election illustrates that intent-driven search data “trumps” demographics-based polling data. Brian Ussery on November 23, 2016 at 2:00 pm During the hotly contested and seemingly never-ending campaign season running up to the 2016 US Presidential elections, Americans were exposed to more demographics-based “polling data” than at any…
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SEO without SERPs is here with Google Assistant, Home and Amazon Echo. Here’s how to survive.
Columnist Bryson Meunier discusses how the rise of digital assistants will impact how search engine optimization is performed. Bryson Meunier on November 28, 2016 at 12:24 pm On the first full day that we had a Google Home in our house, we interacted with it 473 times over the course of the day. Four hundred…
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Snapchat shuts down Story Explorer feature in Live Stories
Snapchat has removed its Story Explorer feature that allowed people to view specific moments of a Live Story from different perspectives. Tim Peterson on November 30, 2016 at 11:00 am A year after introducing Story Explorer as a way for people to view the events documented in Live Stories from many different angles, Snapchat is…
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Pinterest launches Showcase to give brands a way to shape their stories
Pinterest has launched a showcase feature to give brands the ability to present their best selves. Tamar Weinberg on December 1, 2016 at 3:35 pm Pinterest has given brands an edge with a new update on its user interface. Announced today, the platform has launched a new feature it calls Showcase, allowing visitors who interact…
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IAB Proposes First Major Update to In-App Advertising Since 2013
George Slefo on on November 30, 2016 Consumers and advertisers have been rushing to mobile apps from desktop computing at a breakneck pace, but standards for the ads haven't been keeping up. Now the Interactive Advertising Bureau has proposed its first major update to in-app ad guidelines since 2013, touching on areas including viewability, location…
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