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  • Facebook Lets Advertisers Target People Who Have Simply Been To Their Site Or App

    On Tuesday, Facebook announced the launch of website and mobile app custom audiences to marketers. What this means is that Facebook’s custom audiences targeting will not only utilize people within Facebook itself, but those who have visited your site or your app.

    The company explains in a blog post, “For instance, a bike retailer could reach people who started designing bikes on its website but didn’t make a purchase. Through custom audiences, the company can reach these people via desktop News Feed and encourage them to finish customizing online. Or, a mobile travel app can deliver ads to people who have downloaded their app but haven’t used it in a while and encourage them to book getaways within the app.”

    And the lines between on Facebook and off of Facebook just got blurrier. Facebook has addressed the inevitable privacy concerns as well, however. The offering does not utilize any personal information about users. It works essentially just like the existing Custom Audiences feature. The company makes a list of people who should see specific marketers’ ads, but doesn’t show the list to other companies, and doesn’t use the info it gets through the program to build profiles of users’ interests and activity. They’re also providing an opt-out option.

    Additionally, Facebook is testing changes to the “About this ad” feature that appears when a user closes out ads. It’s going to start giving users more info about why they are seeing specific ads and why they were targeted. More on the privacy efforts here.

    For advertisers, the new targeting comes with all ad formats and other targeting capabilities, but it was really designed with mobile app developers in mind.

    “Website custom audiences is similar to existing remarketing tools that allow marketers to reach people who previously interacted with their desktop websites. Many marketers already use third-party tools to remarket through Facebook Exchange (FBX),” Facebook says. “We anticipate that marketers will use FBX and website and mobile app custom audiences in different ways.”

    Facebook does note that advertisers that have a lot of products and advertise to multiple audiences will be better off using FBX.

    Initially, website and mobile app custom audiences will be available to a limited number of partners, then will roll out globally in the coming months. Facebook provides code that marketers can place on their sites or apps. Look for it when Facebook rolls this out more broadly.

    Image: Facebook

  • Do You Want Google Using Your Name And Face In Ads?

    Google announced a new update to its terms of service the other day that is unsurprisingly ruffling some feathers. The change enables Google to use users’ profile names and photos across Google products as it sees fit. You know, like in ads. Other changes include a reminder about mobile device safety and details on password confidentiality.

    Do you mind if Google uses your name and profile picture in ads across its products? Let us know in the comments.

    “We want to give you – and your friends and connections – the most useful information,” Google says of the changes. “Recommendations from people you know can really help. So your friends, family and others may see your Profile name and photo, and content like the reviews you share or the ads you +1’d. This only happens when you take an action (things like +1’ing, commenting or following) – and the only people who see it are the people you’ve chosen to share that content with. On Google, you’re in control of what you share. This update to our Terms of Service doesn’t change in any way who you’ve shared things with in the past or your ability to control who you want to share things with in the future.”

    Yeah, but when has that ever stopped people from freaking out? Google is still trying to convince some countries that its big privacy policy consolidation from last year is all fine and good.

    “Feedback from people you know can save you time and improve results for you and your friends across all Google services, including Search, Maps, Play and in advertising,” Google says. “For example, your friends might see that you rated an album 4 stars on the band’s Google Play page. And the +1 you gave your favorite local bakery could be included in an ad that the bakery runs through Google.”

    Google shared endorsements

    Google calls the recommendations “shared endorsements,” and has a place where you can go to adjust your settings, and control whether or not your image and name appear in ads. It does appear to be enabled by default, so you may want to check that out. Google does say that if you have told Google in the past that you don’t want your +1s to appear in ads, then they’ll continue to respect that.

    Note, however, that the setting only applies to use in ads. It has no effect on where your name and image might appear on other Google products. Keep last year’s changes in mind. Google can use data about you from one of its products to the next. If you’re a YouTube user, you’re a Google user. If you’re a Google search user, you’re also a YouTube user (because that’s part of Google). If you’re a Gmail user, you’re a Google user. You get the idea.

    Google also says that for user under 18, they won’t appear in shared endorsements in ads and “certain other contexts.”

    Google+ still doesn’t have ads on it the way Facebook does, but this highlights how Google is able to use the profile, which is the backbone of Google+ as a way to improve its ads elsewhere.

    The new terms will go into effect on November 11th. You can read the actual ToS here.

    Google has notified users of the changes via a Google+ notification:

    New Terms

    The changes have already drawn suspicion from at least one senator, who has called upon the FTC to look into Google’s practices.

    Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) wrote to FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez, asking her to look into whether or not Google’s new terms violate its previous agreement related to its settlement over the Google Buzz debacle. Here’s the letter:

    Dear Chairwoman Ramirez:
    Yesterday, Google proposed changes to its Terms of Service. The company’s proposed new policy will soon make it possible to display users’ names, photos, and endorsements of marketers’ products across the Web. This shift in Google’s policy raises a number of important questions about whether Google is altering its privacy policy in a manner inconsistent with its consent agreement with the Commission and, if the changes go into effect, the degree to which users’ identities, words, and opinions could be shared across the Web.

    Under the new advertisement policy, called “shared endorsements”, users’ names and pictures, along with their ratings or comments, could appear in advertisements on any of the millions of Web sites that comprise Google’s display advertising network. For example, if a user follows a restaurant on Google Plus, that user’s name, photo, and positive endorsement may be displayed in advertisements for that restaurant that friends and others see.

    I understand that, according to Google’s Terms of Service Update: “When it comes to shared endorsements in ads, you can control the use of your Profile name and photo via the Shared Endorsements setting. If you turn the setting to “off,” your Profile name and photo will not show up on that ad for your favorite bakery or any other ads.” Nevertheless, Google’s Update continues: “This setting only applies to use in ads, and doesn’t change whether your Profile name or photo may be used in other places such as Google Play.”

    Moreover, in addition to being an opt-out mechanism, Google’s announced privacy changes come over two years after the company reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. In that matter, the Commission had alleged that Google used deceptive tactics and violated its own privacy promises to consumers when Google Buzz was launched in 2010. Google and the FTC agreed on a settlement that bars the company from future privacy misrepresentations; requires Google to implement a comprehensive privacy policy; and initiates regular, independent privacy audits of the company for the next two decades.

    I respectfully request the Commission’s views on whether Google’s planned changes violate the settlement agreement. I also request that the Commission provide me with information about any actions it has taken or plans to take to investigate whether Google’s proposed changes to its privacy policy violate its agreement with the Commission.

    Thank you for your attention to this important matter. If you have any questions, please have a member of your staff contact Joseph Wender at 202-224-2742.

    Sincerely,
    Edward J. Markey

    Are you okay with Google’s changes? After all, they do let you opt out of showing up in ads. Do the changes enable Google to improve its products? Share your thoughts in the comments.

    Note: This article has been expanded from its original form.

    Images: Google

  • Twitter Will Reportedly Launch Mobile Ad Network With MoPub Acquisition

    Last month, Twitter announced its intent to acquire mobile ad exchange MoPub. Twitter said that it plans to use the technology to build real-time bidding into the Twitter Ads platform.

    On Monday, a report from the Financial Times indicates that Twitter has even bigger plans.

    The acquisition has yet to close, but when it does, says the report, Twitter will use data about who its users follow and what they tweet about to target ads “beyond its own Promoted Tweets,” via other mobile apps and sites. The report cites “people familiar with the plans.”

    Twitter is not commenting on the story, as it is in its pre-IPO quiet period. With the IPO on the way, such a move, however, could provide a major source of revenue for the company.

    In addition to that, Twitter announced a new ad partnership with NBCUniversal last week, which opens up NBC’s clients to promoted tweets, which should help too.

    In other Twitter Ads news, the company announced that advertisers can now schedule tweets. That goes for both organic and promoted ones.

    Image: MoPub

  • Twitter Launches Scheduled Tweets (But Only For Advertisers)

    Twitter announced on Monday that it is now offering tweet scheduling for advertisers. You can now schedule organic or promoted tweets for specific dates and times up to a year in advance, but you can only do so if you’re using Twitter’s ads products.

    ‘These can be coordinated to go live with new or existing Promoted Tweet campaigns to enable you to plan your real-time campaigns at your convenience,” says Twitter Ads product manager Christine Lee. “With scheduled Tweets, you can publish content at any time without having staff on-call to Tweet on evenings, weekends, holidays, or other inconvenient times. Advertisers also gain the flexibility to plan content in advance for events like premieres and product releases.”

    If you go to the blue Tweet button in the corner on ads.twitter.com, you can create and schedule a tweet. There’s a new Creatives tab that you can use to create and manage scheduled tweets as well as Twitter Cards. This appears next to Campaigns and Analytics.

    Twitter scheduling

    On the Creatives page, there’s a new tweet box from which you can compose a tweet and add a photo, location or card.

    New Tweet Box

    “Tweets can be delivered organically to followers, or set up to publish as part of a Promoted Tweet campaign where you can select specific targeting criteria to make sure the right users see your message,” notes Lee.

    You’ll see your account’s timezone, which will be the basis for your tweet scheduling.

    All Twitter Ads users can take advantage of the scheduled tweets feature in any language that Twitter supports.

  • Eating Popcorn at the Movies Makes You Impervious to Advertising, Says Study

    You may spend more up front buying your butter-soaked, 6-dollar vat of popcorn next time you hit the theater. But new research suggests that it may make you spend less in the long run on any products marketers throw at you before the movie begins.

    The researchers, from Cologne University in Germany based their study on previous findings from other studies. First, the implication that repetition affects the ease in which our brain perceive information, and second, that repetition effect actually comes from the mouth.

    “Each time we encounter a person’s or product name, the lips and the tongue automatically simulate the pronunciation of that name. This happens covertly, that is, without our awareness and without actual mouth movements,” say the researchers.

    This is referred to as “inner speech.” And if this inner speech is disturbed in any way, you know, by a giant mouthful of popcorn or the futile gumming of a couple of milk duds – the product may not stick in our brains and we might not have a chance to make any sort of positive associations with it.

    They set out to test whether chewing during adverts in a movie theater would actually make people less susceptible to the advertising. And what they found was basically, yeah, it does.

    From the University of Cologne:

    In the first study, which involved 96 participants, the participants were invited to the lab one week after the cinema session. They were presented with images of products. Half of these products had been advertised in the cinema session, the other half were completely novel products. Participants were asked to indicate the products that thy likes, and their physiological responses were measured. Those participants who had only received a sugar cube and could thus internally train the brands’ articulation demonstrated that there was a clear advertising effect. They preferred advertised over novel products and also showed positive physiological responses of familiarity for advertised products. However, those participants who had eaten popcorn while watching the commercials one week before showed no such advertising effect.

    In a second study with another 188 participants, the popcorn procedure and commercial session was also carried out. But this time, participants were asked for real consumer choices one week later. They were given a small amount of money that they should spend on buying a skin lotion and donate to charity. Specifically, they were presented with six different lotions (with different brand names) and six charity foundations with fictitious names. Three of the lotions and three of the charity foundations had been advertised in the earlier cinema session. Participants who had eaten a sugar chose the advertised products more often: they were more likely to buy the advertised lotions and donated their money for the advertised charities. However, the participants who had eaten popcorn did not show this effect.

    “The present study used the cinema scenario as an illustrative example. However, such oral blockades caused by snacking take places in many more situations, such as while watching TV and surfing in the internet,” say the researchers.

    Really it’s simply the process of chewing anything, anywhere that makes you tune out all the ad clutter.

    And that’s the major implication from a study like this. Advertisers may have to adjust their strategies – maybe not showing ads during peak dinner times? It’s interesting the think that you’re kind of putting on ad-armor every time you snack in front of the TV.

    Image via Thinkstock

  • Any Small Business Can Now Advertise On Foursquare

    Foursquare announced on Monday that it is opening its ads to all small businesses.

    Last year, the company launched promoted updates, but they were only available to big chains. That changed this past summer when Foursquare started testing the offering with small businesses. It began with a pilot in New York with a handful of businesses in June, but then expanded in July to “a few thousand local businesses”. Now, they’re available to anyone who wants to use them.

    There are already a million and a half businesses on Foursquare, so this opens up a potentially large avenue for monetization for the company, which secured a $41 million round of funding earlier this year.

    “We’re moving past the days when business owners have to figure out if a ‘like’ or a ‘click’ has any meaning in the real world,” the company says in a blog post. “Now they can tell if someone who saw their ad actually walks into their store. We built this to be simple and flexible, learning from our four years of data and relationships with over 1.5 million claimed businesses.”

    Foursquare ads

    “Any merchant can monitor how many people have viewed their ad, how many have tapped on it, and how many actually came into their store,” Foursquare says. “Merchants know what they’re paying for – real actions and real customers. We’ve been testing it with a thousand businesses for the last few months, and the results have been great.”

    Foursquare ad performance

    To create an ad on Foursquare, go to foursquare.com/ads, choose an image and offer/tip, set your budget and push it out.

    Facebook has also been improving its search functionality. Last month, for example, they announced that you can now search by specific foods in your area, making it a much more powerful local search tool, at least for restaurants.

    Last week, Foursquare announced the launch of a new style of real-time recommendations in its iOS app, which it launched for Android last month.

    Foursquare has 40 million users, and according to the company, 40,000 of them are “superusers”. Let’s see how they respond to all the ads that are about to come their way.

    Images: Foursquare

  • Instagram Yanks Option to Turn Off Video Autoplay a Week After Announcing Ads

    Instagram Yanks Option to Turn Off Video Autoplay a Week After Announcing Ads

    In oh Instagram, I see what you’re up to news, you can no longer disable autoplay for Instagram videos.

    For the more visually inclined, you used to have this option…

    And now you don’t. Now, you only have an option to toggle the pre-loading of videos to “always” or “Wi-Fi only”

    It appears that Instagram snuck this into an update they released on Thursday without making any mention of it.

    The inability to turn off autoplay is probably a minor annoyance for most – but it’s a big, big deal for Instagram. You may remember that last week, the company announced that the first-ever ads would be hitting your feeds.

    “Our aim is to make any advertisements you see feel as natural to Instagram as the photos and videos many of you already enjoy from your favorite brands. After all, our team doesn’t just build Instagram, we use it each and every day. We want these ads to be enjoyable and creative in much the same way you see engaging, high-quality ads when you flip through your favorite magazine,” said the company in a blog post.

    But for advertisers to buy ads in your feed, Instagram has to be able to assure them that people will actually see them. By forcing autoplay, Instagram can do this.

    [h/t The Next Web]

    Image via Digital Trends

  • Here’s What AdWords Is Apparently About To Look Like

    Google appears to be in the process of rolling out a new look for AdWords, including a new logo and interface.

    Internet marketer Rick Galan is one of the users who have access to the new style, and he tweeted out what it looks like:

    It’s unclear how far into the roll-out process Google is with this, but according to Search Engine Land, not many users are getting it so far.

    Google recently rolled out a new logo and navigation style across its various properties (to mixed reviews), so AdWords was due for a similar update, though the color scheme of the new AdWords separates it a bit from most of Google’s products.

    Image: Rick Galan

  • Twitter Partners With NBCUniversal & Comcast On ‘See It’ Feature And Ads

    Comcast, NBC Universal and Twitter announced a strategic partnership on Wednesday for the creation of a feature called “See It,” which lets Xfinity TV customers access TV shows, movies and sports directly from tweets. It will debut in November on NBCUniversal networks.

    Comcast and Twitter are also in discussions for further integrations into Comcast’s X1 platform.

    With See It, Twitter users will see a button in their feeds when looking at social content about certain shows. From there, they will be able to access a menu, which will allow them to tune to live TV or start a show on demand on their set-top box, tune into a show online or on their mobile device, set DVRs, set reminders, and/or buy theater tickets through Fandango.

    See It

    To kick the whole thing off, NBC, NBC Sports Network, CNBC, MSNBC, USA, SyFy, Bravo, Oxygen, E!, Esquire Network and The Golf Channel will utilize the feature for the following programs: The Voice (NBC), The Blacklist (NBC), Chicago Fire (NBC), The Michael J. Fox Show (NBC), Sunday Night Football (NBC), Access Hollywood, NHL, Premier League Soccer, Sochi Olympics (NBC and NBCSN), Today Show (NBC), Psych (USA) and Suits (USA), etc.

    “Twitter is where television viewers come to talk about what they’re watching on TV when they’re watching it,” said Twitter CEO Dick Costolo. “Millions of users are exposed to the live conversation that unfolds on Twitter while a show is on the air and now, with See It, they’ll be able to tune in directly from a Tweet. It’s a great example of Comcast’s leadership in bringing TV to new platforms.”

    “See It is a simple yet powerful feature that creates an instant online remote control,” said Comcast CEO Brian Roberts. “Comcast is taking a leap forward in social TV by enabling Twitter users to more easily find and view the shows they want to watch and discover new shows. Twitter complements the live viewing experience and is an ideal partner for Comcast and NBCUniversal.”

    More networks will follow, as Twitter and Comcast are working on expanding to more distribution partners, TV networks and websites. Expect more in the coming months.

    Obviously there are tremendous advertising opportunities here, and with Twitter’s IPO on the way, investors will be keeping a close eye on how this goes.

    Twitter has a new advertising partnership with NBCUniversal, which will see the latter’s clients expand onto Twitter via its Amplify program. This means that NBCUniversal’s entire portfolio can be expanded to Twitter. Its clients get access to Twitter’s promoted platform.

    “NBCUniversal’s content is driving the most popular conversations in social media,” said NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke. “Now with this partnership, our advertisers will be able to reach even more of the specific audiences that they desire.”

    NBCUniversal President, Advertising Sales, Linda Yaccarino discusses the ad partnership further here.

    Some people believe Twitter can help save networks from the cord cutting trend. It will be interesting to see if the See It integration can keep users engaged enough.

    Image: Comcast

  • Another Record For Internet Ad Revenues

    Online advertising revenues continue to hit record highs. The Interactive Advertising Bureau released a new report today finding that revenues for the first half of 2013 hit a record high of $20.1 billion. That’s an increase of 18% over the same period last year ($17 billion).

    The second quarter also saw an 18% year-over-year increase at $10.3 billion, up from $8.7 billion. Here’s a look back:

    Ad Revenue

    “Digital has steadily increased its ability to captivate consumers and then capture the marketing dollars that follow,” said IAB President and CEO Randall Rothenberg. “Mobile advertising’s breakneck growth is evidence that marketers are recognizing the tremendous power of smaller screens. Digital video is also on a positive trajectory, delivering avid viewership and strong brand-building opportunities.”

    Last year, mobile ad revenue jumped a whopping 83% hitting a record $8.9 billion. It will be interesting to see what this year’s numbers look like when they eventually come out.

    “This report not only confirms that brands are making a greater commitment to interactive, but also points to the fact that mobile and digital video are being identified as integral elements of the marketing mix,” said David Silverman, a partner at PwC US, which prepared the IAB’s report. “Internet advertising’s ability to impact and engage is evident across digital screens, whether big or small.”

    “Consumers are embracing new screens, new content and transforming how they shop, communicate and consume content at an accelerated clip,” said Sherrill Mane, Senior Vice President, Research, Analytics and Measurement at the IAB. “And, in response, marketers are turning to those same interactive arenas just as quickly.”

    You can see the full report here.

    Image: IAB

  • Pinterest’s ‘Promoted Pin’ Ads Make Their Debut

    Pinterest’s ‘Promoted Pin’ Ads Make Their Debut

    Today is the first day that you might see some advertisements on Pinterest.

    The company has just announced that their “promoted pin” test, which they announced a couple of weeks ago, has officially begun.

    “We wanted to let you know that we are starting our first test with promoting pins today, so you may spot a few in your search results or category feeds on the web or in mobile apps. They work just like regular pins, only they have a special “promoted” label, along with a link to learn more about what that means. Remember we’re still just testing things out right now, so we’d really like to hear what you think. We’ll be listening closely to what you have to say, and will continue to keep you posted about how things go,” says Pinterest.

    As you can see above, the pins are clearly marked as promoted – but other than that they seem to fit right in with the rest of your organic pins.

    This is all still in its testing phase, so it’s not going to overwhelm your feeds or anything.

    “Pinterest is where you keep your wishlists, vacation plans, dream home ideas, and other things you want to do soon and in the future. That’s why for us, it’s so important that Pinterest is a service that will be here to stay. To help make sure it does, we’re going to start experimenting with promoting certain pins from a select group of businesses,” said CEO Ben Silbermann a couple of weeks ago.

    In other words, we need to make some money. Ads are always going to pop up on your favorite services, eventually. It’s inevitable. Just ask Instagram.

    Image via Pinterest Blog

  • Facebook Reworks Ad Buying/Reporting To Focus On Specific Objectives

    Facebook announced on Tuesday that it has redesigned its ad buying and reporting tools to reflect a more objective-based buying and reporting approach. Essentially, the goal is to let advertisers state their objectives, and deliver on that accordingly, rather than advertisers having to determine which units to spend their dollars on, and hope for the best.

    This comes after Facebook’s efforts to simplify its ad products this year, which involved the elimination of certain units, such as online offers, sponsored results and question ads.

    Also in line with this strategy, the company recently enabled advertisers to choose a single image size for their ads to be used for all types of ads across the social network.

    “Businesses told us that when creating an ad, they didn’t want to choose an ad unit — they wanted to meet an objective. We spoke with marketers of all types and sizes to uncover the objectives that matter most to them,” the company says in a post on its Facebook for Business site.

    These objectives include: clicks, conversions, page post engagement, page likes, app installs, app engagement, in-store offer claims and event responses.

    So now, Facebook asks the advertiser right up front what the objective is, and then suggests an appropriate ad type.

    Facebook Ad Buying

    “As before, Facebook will place your ad where we see it performing best — whether it’s in mobile News Feed, desktop News Feed and/or on the right-hand column,” Facebook says. “However, knowing some advertisers want to tailor ads based on placement, we’re now giving marketers the option to choose where their ad appears. For example, a marketer looking to drive traffic to their website can now place a desktop ad with a link to their full desktop site, and a separate mobile ad that links to their mobile site. This means businesses can better tailor ad experiences based on where people will see their message.”

    The Ads Manager tool has been updated to map ad results directly to the stated objective, so you can easily see if it’s meeting that particular goal.

    Facebook ad reporting

    Facebook has already started rolling out the changes, and the roll-out will continue over the coming weeks.

  • Kate Upton & Snoop Dogg Are Now Selling Hot Pockets

    Good job, Hot Pockets. You’ve hit on everything the internet loves – Kate Upton, microwavable meat pouches, that Biz Markie song, and fantastic “herbs,” which Snoop Dogg knows a thing or two about:

    Tastes so good
    Gotta lick your lips
    Smell my savory garlic
    but don’t disturb
    The garden where I grow
    flavor-fantastic-al herbs
    …his flavor-fantastical herbs.

    We’re still talking about Hot Pockets, right?

    Also, is the Snoop Lion thing already over?

    Image via YouTube

  • Microsoft Launches ‘Bing Offers Card-Linked’ Deals

    Earlier this year, Bing announced Bing Offers, its latest foray into the local deals space. The product launched across the United States. Today, the company has announced an expansion of that with “Bing Offers Card-Linked”.

    This is a program they’re launching in Seattle only for the time being, but more cities will follow soon.

    “We found that there is some frustration with having to make major commitments to create coupon deals along with additional investment in infrastructure and training to manage redemptions. Merchants also wished they had more direct control on managing promotions with better insights into consumer engagement,” says Microsoft’s Erik Jorgensen.

    They created Bing Offers Card-Linked to help “minimize this frustration,” partnering with First Data, Visa and MasterCard.

    Basically what it does is gives merchants the ability to provide offers to consumers via their credit cards or other payment cards, so the customer doesn’t have to use a coupon, promotion code or voucher.

    Bing Offers Card-Linked

    Benefits for advertisers, as described by Microsoft, include broad reach (ads across Outlook.com, windows Phone 8, Skype and Bing Apps), a CPA model, better engagement, controlled discounts and “frictionless” redemption.

    So far businesses taking advantage of Bing Offers Card-Linked include: Pizza Hut, Mooyah Burgers, Buca Di Beppo, as well as some other SMBs in the spas, automotive, espresso shop, restaurant and retail store verticals.

    Microsoft expects to update the list of available cities later this year.

  • Instagram Ads Are Here, the Salad Days Are Over

    Last month, as Instagram crossed the 150 million user mark, business operations head Emily White told us that we could expect the company to start experimenting with ads some time within the next year. We didn’t really have any specifics at that point, but we assumed that when they arrived, they’d come in the form of some sort of sponsored photos from brands appearing in users’ feeds, or when they search certain terms. Either way, we knew they were coming. It was inevitable anyway.

    Today’s the day, folks. The salad days are over. Instagram is launching ads in your feed.

    From Instagram, in a post called “Instagram as a Growing Business”:

    We have big ideas for the future, and part of making them happen is building Instagram into a sustainable business. In the next couple months, you may begin seeing an occasional ad in your Instagram feed if you’re in the United States. Seeing photos and videos from brands you don’t follow will be new, so we’ll start slow. We’ll focus on delivering a small number of beautiful, high-quality photos and videos from a handful of brands that are already great members of the Instagram community.

    Our aim is to make any advertisements you see feel as natural to Instagram as the photos and videos many of you already enjoy from your favorite brands. After all, our team doesn’t just build Instagram, we use it each and every day. We want these ads to be enjoyable and creative in much the same way you see engaging, high-quality ads when you flip through your favorite magazine.

    Instagram’s insistence on natural ads that you might tolerate enjoy seems to echo an announcement from Facebook last week. Instagram’s parent company said that they would be tweaking their news feed algorithms to show users more relevant, useful ads.

    “As always, you own your own photos and videos. The introduction of advertising won’t change this,” says Instagram, as the company wisely reminds users not to freak out about the company possibly selling their photos, like they did last year.

    So, there you have it. Ads on Instagram. We knew they were coming. You knew they were coming. Baby’s gotta monetize, you know what I’m sayin? You didn’t think Facebook bought Instagram for nearly a billion dollars so it could sit there looking pretty and not earn, did you?

    Image via CrissyNanette444, Instagram

  • Bing Ads Finally Get Those Skype-Integrated Call Extensions

    Earlier this year, we reported that Bing was readying Skype-integrated click-to-call mobile ads, and now it has finally announced them.

    On the Bing Ads blog, Microsoft’s Ambrish Verma introduced Bing’s new Call Extensions, which work across all devices, and utilize Skype. This is something that “no one else can provide,” as Verma notes.

    This is one way where Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype can have a direct impact on revenue.

    “Advertisers can connect with customers through phone calls directly from their ads, regardless of device,” explains Verma. “With Call Extensions for Bing Ads, businesses can now provide a phone number alongside search ads on PCs, tablets and smartphones. Your potential customers can then can call your business by clicking on the phone number that appears on the ads. These are opportunities exclusive to Bing Ads. In each of these scenarios, advertisers will be charged on a cost-per-click basis.”

    Naturally, thanks to the Microsoft Yahoo search advertising deal, the extensions will be seen on Yahoo in addition to Bing.

    Microsoft is also providing advertisers with a set of analytics reports to help monitor the effectiveness of the ads. They will include impressions, calls and spend data, and advertisers will get detailed reports for individual calls received from the extensions.

    They’ve also improved the reporting for the recently launched location extensions.

    Image: Bing

  • Facebook Launches New Call To Action Options For Mobile App Ads

    Facebook has announced some new mobile app ad options to developers to help drive up engagement. The ads let developers make use of seven specific call to action choices to include in their apps.

    These include: Open Link, Use App, Shop Now, Watch Video, Listen Now, Book Now, and Play Game.

    Facebook Call To Action

    Facebook Call to Action

    The idea is that a retailer, for example, could use the “Shop Now” call to action when advertising a 24-hour sale for purchases made within its app or a game could use “Play Game” to get existing players to come back to play new levels. You get the idea.

    “Now mobile app ads can keep existing users active within your app, even after they install,” says Facebook’s John Ketchpaw. “You can now use deep-links for your mobile app ads, letting you direct users to a customized, specific location inside your app, such as a sale, promotion or specific content such as a new album or hotel listing.”

    Ketchpaw says, “Our aim is to provide an end-to-end mobile solution that helps app developers reach the right people, acquire new users, keep those users engaged, and measure the performance of their campaigns. As always, we will continue to improve upon the user experience and performance of our mobile app ads.”

    Facebook says that mobile app ads have driven over 145 million installs since launched last year.

  • Google Web Designer Launched In Public Beta

    Google announced on Monday that it has launched Google Web Designer, a new HTML5 design tool, in public beta.

    The tool is geared toward ad creation, but can be used for webpages. It lets you create animated HTML5 creative, view and edit code with a WYSIWYG editor, build creatives for DoubleClick and AdMob (or publish them elsewhere).

    It’s free, and must be downloaded. It’s available for Mac or PC. It also receives automatic updates.

    This follows another ad creation tool Google launched last week with Ready Creatives, which lets advertisers add their URLs, and generate display ads based on images from their websites. Elements like text, font, color, images, headlines, etc. can then be adjusted and customized.

    Google also commissioned a study looking at HTML5 and “the holdup” for adoption. You can take a look at that here.

    “By now, it’s evident that multi-screen consumption is the way of the future; mobile and tablet devices are becoming consumers’ first screens, so the content that is developed needs to work seamlessly across these screens,” says Google Web Designer lead engineer Sean Kranzberg. “There are already more end-users in HTML5-compatible environments than there are in Flash-compatible environments, and HTML5 ad spend is expected to overtake Flash spend within the next two years. But until recently, advertisers didn’t have the tools they needed to easily develop content fit for today’s cross-screen experiences.”

    “HTML5 is a universal language for building beautiful, engaging content that can run across desktops, smartphones, and tablets,” says Kranzberg. “We think that Google Web Designer will be the key to making HTML5 accessible to people throughout the industry, getting us closer to the goal of ‘build once, run anywhere.’”

    There’s a guide for using Google Web Designer available here.

    Image: Google

  • Yelp On Fake Reviews: Don’t Worry, We’ve Got This

    Last week, a study from Harvard Business School came out looking at Yelp review fraud, suggesting that about a fifth of Yelp restaurant reviews are fake.

    Do you trust reviews you read on Yelp? Let us know in the comments.

    It received quite a bit of attention, even making it pretty high on the front page of reddit, where thousands have commented. Among those commenting are some people who claim to have worked at Yelp in the past.

    Following is what reddit user ehenningl had to say about the controversial review filter:

    As a former employee of Yelp, I was very intrigued by this posting and read through the entire study and while there was some truth to the research they missed some major factors that go into the review filter. First off, Yelp’s review filter is smarter than they think, I don’t know how it exactly works, but it just fucking works. While working at Yelp, I was unable to write reviews for obvious conflict of interest reasons, but wrote many before and after my employment with them.

    Most of my reviews would stick because my USER ACTIVITY was frequent on their site and consistently used the site and mobile app to find businesses. The research paper points out; “For example, longer reviews, or reviews by users with a larger review count are less likely to be filtered.” Which is partly correct, but from what I know (they never let us know much about the filter when I worked there) USER ACTIVITY is the #1 factor that goes into the review filter, not the frequency of reviews. Which makes perfect sense because someone who frequents the site would understand the value of the reviews.

    The second flaw in their study is “A limitation of our work is that we cannot control for filtering biases in attributes that we do not observe, such as the IP address of a reviewer”, which is probably has the 2nd most weight in the review filter. IP address is everything, especially when you claim that most of these reviews are coming from overseas. For example Yelp knows where my user activity is coming from. If I where to write a review for a random business in Seattle, but I’ve never searched for a business while actually being in the state of Washington, it would most likely be filtered because there hasn’t been any USER ACTIVITY from an IP ADDRESS with in the Seattle area.

    The third area that the research didn’t address is the relationship of the reviewer to the business owner. All of my reviews have stuck on Yelp, except one. The one I wrote for a family friends business that I frequent. So how the did Yelp know that I know them personally and filter the review, Facebook. Both my account and the business owners account where linked through Facebook, which we are friends on….boom…filtered.

    Now I’m not claiming that 100% of reviews on Yelp are legitimate, but I’m sure as shit 20% are not fake. This study is flawed in so many ways because they didn’t have the proper data set to really understand what goes into the review filter which happens to be Yelp’s greatest proprietary asset.

    Yelp has since taken to its blog to address the study, saying that its findings “shouldn’t come as a complete surprise.”

    “As consumers increasingly turn to online reviews to find a local business, the incentive to artificially improve one’s reputation also increases,” the company said. “But neither should the fact that Yelp has been on guard against these very same reviews from our earliest days.”

    Once again, Yelp pointed to its review filter, sharing the following video from March of 2010:

    As you may know, Yelp has often been accused of extortion by small businesses who claim that Yelp buries their positive reviews with the filter if they don’t agree to buy ads from Yelp’s sales force.

    Reddit user drkstr17 claims to be a former Yelp employee who used to sell ads for Yelp, calling about 80 local businesses each day. drkstr17 writes:

    I’ll be the first to say that it was about the worst job I’ve ever had. It was high pressure sales for very little reward. It was a shit job, but I will say that never once was I given the power to “blackmail” any of my sales prospects. Yes, we were accused of removing good reviews and posting bad ones, but if any other account executives did this, they were merely bluffing. The reviews that get “filtered out” have nothing to do with Yelp sales people. It’s an automated feature that is supposed to detect “shady” accounts in an effort to prevent what this news article posting is all about. It doesn’t do the best job at it; I always thought they could’ve done a much better job with their review filter, but its intentions are in the right place.

    Another reddit user suggests that some sales reps could be “very pushy” with prospective clients due to the high pressure sales environment, and make suggestions that were not necessarily in line with company policy. drkstr17 replies:

    “Exactly. I’ve actually heard the line, “if you buys ads your reviews would be better” mouthed by several employees. It’s vague enough to be interpreted in different ways. If you do advertise with Yelp, technically speaking, your reach is expanded and your exposure goes up. This would then bring people to your business, and hopefully their experience ends with a positive review. That’s what we were taught to explain to our prospects, but it sounds more enticing to leave it as simple as, “buying ads = more positive reviews.”

    Yelp has defended itself against extortion and blackmail accusations, denying all of it, but the accusations have not gone away. The subject even came up on a recent episode of The People’s Court.

    It has also come up in Yelp-hosted events, which the company holds around the country to aid local businesses with their Yelp presences.

    Yelp Event

    As far as fake reviews go, Yelp is not taking them lightly. The company has been actively engaged in lawsuits against those creating them. Last week, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced that nineteen companies agreed to stop writing fake Yelp reviews and pay over $350,000 of fines.

    “Consumers rely on reviews from their peers to make daily purchasing decisions on anything from food and clothing to recreation and sightseeing,” Schneiderman said. “This investigation into large-scale, intentional deceit across the Internet tells us that we should approach online reviews with caution. And companies that continue to engage in these practices should take note: ‘Astroturfing’ is the 21st century’s version of false advertising, and prosecutors have many tools at their disposal to put an end to it.”

    Yelp, in a separate blog post, discussed the AG’s dealings as well.

    “We think it’s great the New York Attorney General took action against these businesses that try to mislead consumers. In fact, we helped him,” wrote Yelp Senior Litigation Counsel Aaron Schur. “Because Yelp uses sophisticated software to filter reviews and weed out less reliable ones, we identify — and take action against — concerted campaigns to game the system quite frequently. As a result, we were able to give the NY AG’s office some solid leads on which businesses to go after.”

    “And we have more,” he added. “We would love to work with law enforcement officials in other states to crack down on this unethical practice.”

    Of course, the site has allowed reviews from Breaking Bad characters to remain on pages for fictional restaurants, but I guess that’s not hurting anybody (except those looking for fictional restaurants to eat at as though they’re real).

    As mentioned, there is a massive conversation about Yelp on reddit. To read through the comments, one doesn’t get the sense that Yelp has a very great reputation these days. That hasn’t stopped the company from growing significantly.

    As with what you read on Yelp, things we read on reddit often need to be taken with a grain of salt. We don’t have any proof that the comments above are actually from people that worked at Yelp, so take them as you will.

    Do you believe Yelp to be a credible source for online reviews? Share your thoughts in the comments.

    This article has been updated from its original version.

    Images: Yelp

  • Barilla Pasta: Traditional Families Only in Ads

    After all of the backlash Chick-Fil-A CEO Dan Cathy faced last summer for his comments on traditional marriage, it’s a little surprising to see another major company make headlines for a similar issue. During a radio interview on Wednesday, Barilla pasta chairman Guido Barilla said that he would never use a gay couple in an advertisement. Barilla has since apologized.

    “I would never do an advert with a homosexual family,” Barilla said during the interview. “If the gays don’t like it they can go an eat another brand. For us the concept of the sacred family remains one of the fundamental values of the company.” The Barilla pasta exec went on to say, “Everyone has the right to do what they want without disturbing those around them. I have no respect for adoption by gay families because this concerns a person who is not able to choose.”

    Barilla later issued an apology, saying “I’m sorry if my comments on La Zanzara have created misunderstanding…or if I’ve offended anyone…I only wanted to underline the central role of the woman in the family.” The company also posted an apology on Twitter.

    The privately held pasta company is one of the best-selling pasta brands in the world, but they could see their numbers drop, as some gay rights groups and individuals are calling for a boycott. GLAAD pleaded with people on Twitter to boycott Barilla pasta and keep “homophobia off the table.” Someone also started a petition to boycott Barilla pasta on MoveOn.org, which currently has more than 70,000 signatures.

    Just like the situation with Chick-Fil-A, many people are defending Barilla’s right to voice his stance on marriage.

    Image via YouTube

  • Facebook Promises More Relevant Ads with Algorithm Tweak

    Ads are just a part of your Facebook news feed now. Whether they’re sponsored stories, page post ads, suggested posts, or whatever – the point is that they are there and they’re not going anywhere.

    With that in mind, Facebook says that they want to make the ads you see more relevant to your interests. To do that, the company is announcing an update to their algorithms that they say will enhance both the relevance and quality of every sponsored post you see on the site.

    “We are currently working on some updates to the ads algorithm to improve the relevance and quality of the ads people see. When deciding which ad to show to which groups of people, we are placing more emphasis on feedback we receive from people about ads, including how often people report or hide an ad,” says Facebook engineering manager Hong Ge.

    Facebook learns about which ads are more relevant to you based on your interactions with them – clicks, likes and shares. But they also make this determination based on more direct feedback – like when you hide an ad from your news feed.

    What Facebook says they’re doing with this algorithm tweak is to put more focus on that part of it, when you tell them that you don’t want to see this kind of ad anymore.

    If you’re marketing on Facebook and actively running campaigns, Facebook warns that you may see a difference in your numbers in the coming weeks.

    “This means that some marketers may see some variation in the distribution of their ads in the coming weeks. Our goal is to make sure we deliver the most relevant ads, which should mean the right people are seeing a specific ad campaign. This is ultimately better for marketers, because it means their messages are reaching the people most interested in what they have to offer.”

    They also say that these changes won’t just be better for users, but it’ll help them direct marketers’ ads to people that are actually receptive to them.