AI assistants are quite literally everywhere, and with the recent launch of new devices like the Echo Auto, they continue to become more and more prevalent in our daily lives. As I sit down to write, I ask Alexa to play some music and, she knows the perfect music to put me in a writing mood. First launched in 2015, analysts estimate based on earnings releases that Amazon has already sold more than 20 million Echo devices, through which people can access their virtual assistant, Alexa. Google Assistant, launched in 2016, is already accessible on 400 million devices and will reportedly be embedded within TVs in 2019. Companies like Apple, Samsung and Microsoft have jumped in with both feet as well. Like search engines before them, assistants are changing the way consumers find the products and services they need. A virtual assistant can efficiently navigate an ever increasing and overwhelming number of choices, sorting dozens or hundreds of options to find what best matches a consumer’s ..

Consumers are demanding more from brands than ever before – more relevant, consistent and personalized experiences across devices and channels. And as a result, brand marketers are facing increased pressure to understand, anticipate and deliver on these shifting expectations. Just because marketers know where their audience has been online, doesn’t mean they understand what consumers want. Planning a trip to Austin? You Google it once and get retargeted with flight deals for weeks after already purchasing a ticket. Brands can inadvertently alienate customers by relying on old, one-dimensional audience segments and fatiguing them with content they’ve already seen or no longer want. A successful audience management strategy requires fresh, emotionally engaging content. Brands can do this by moving away from traditional segments and toward real-time, individualized data to elevate the digital experience. Here are three audience management strategies marketers can use to supply new and cap..

Whether the discussion centers around lead quality, buyer personas or content, there seems to be a never-ending battle between sales and marketing departments to stay aligned. When it comes to content, the sales team is rarely using the content that the marketing team is creating – in fact, 90 percent of content developed for sales is never used in selling (eMarketer). Why? In most cases, sales teams don’t think the content developed by marketers speaks to their prospects in the right way, or it fails to address the common objections uncovered in the sales process. Unifying these teams could save both parties’ time and also increase the chances that sales goals are met. Never fear. You don’t have to spend time and resources creating long-form content for your sales team – there are great marketing assets and tools located within most organizations that can be leveraged, helping to bridge the gap between sales and marketing and moving prospects further down the funnel: Webinars: Invite ..

It’s easy to over hype things, but 2018 will be remembered as a momentous year for Amazon’s advertising business. It is estimated to now be the third-largest ad seller in the U.S. behind Google and Facebook with 4% market share (keep the over-hype in check). What will fuel further advertiser investment are the kinds of product changes and developments we saw this year. Amazon still categorizes its ad business under an “other” line item in its earnings reports, but that segment topped $2 billion for the first time in Q1 and continued to see triple-digit growth year over year in the following quarters, reaching $2.945 billion in Q3. From our own Amazon Advertising Forecast 2019, based on a survey of more than 600 marketers, what stood out is the amount of runway ahead for Amazon advertising in terms of growing advertiser adoption, investment and development. Of the 80% of respondents who said they plan to increase Amazon advertising budgets next year, 60 percent expect to spend as much a..

All year long, digital marketing experts share their in-depth knowledge and timely advice to help others. Here’s a look at the ten most read columns that struck a chord with readers this year. Social media in 2018: Time to grow up or get out by Mark Traphagen published on March 20Building a brand strategy: Essentials for long-term success by Allen Martinez published on June 7The science of storytelling by Peter Minnium published on Aug. 102018: The year of influencer marketing for B2B brands by Michael Brito published on May 213 brands still killing it on Facebook by Mark Traphagen published on April 17Is this the year of the influencer or the implosion of influencer marketing? by Kevin Lee published on Jan. 8Programmatic is an amazing tool for branding. Here’s how to use it. by Grace Kaye published on April 9Content manager checklist: 10 things to do before you hit publish by Megan Krause published on July 23Here’s how to use custom intent audiences in your GDN campaigns by Grace Kaye..

Advertisers are keenly aware of the power of personalization. Personalized digital ads deliver up to 3x the consumer engagement of non-personalized ads. Some 69 percent of marketers say personalization is their top priority. But just as marketers can craft messaging for one-to-one communications, publishers can customize their content to win over new readers and keep them there. Doing so requires access to real-time data. A Forrester Research report found that 67 percent of publishers believed real-time data was important to their efforts, but only 27 percent of publishers said they received such data. To illustrate how it works, look at how publishers acquire new readers. A reader might stumble on an interesting headline on Twitter and then realize that they like The Economist. After some consideration, they might even want to become a subscriber. When the reader first visits the site, the publisher may have just one opportunity to win over a reader by making the experience personaliz..

Instagram advertisers experienced a drop in cost-per-clicks (CPC) and cost-per-impressions (CPM) in the third quarter compared to the second quarter of 2018, with CPCs down 21 percent quarter-over-quarter and CPMs down 19 percent, according to AdStage’s Paid Media Benchmark report for the third quarter of 2018. While CPCs and CPMs dropped, Instagram’s click-through rate (CTR) was up 8.9 percent. At $1.09, AdStage reports Instagram’s CPC rate during the third quarter was the lowest it has been all year. Good news for Instagram advertisers. Instagram’s lower CPCs matched with higher CTRs translated to strong results for advertisers on the platform during the third quarter. Instagram CPCs dropped 20.7 percent in the third quarter over the second and CPMs were down 19 percent at $6.90. As CPCs and CPMs fell, CTRs on the platform were up nearly 10 percent quarter-over-quarter — even more impressive, Instagram CTRs saw a 150.1 percent year-over-year increase during the third quarter of 2018...