B2B Marketing News: Podcast Downloads Climb, Social & Display Ad Spend Rising, Snapchat’s Brand Profiles, & Google’s Latest Ad Tools

‘The downloads are back’: Podcasting finishes the first half of 2020 strong Podcast downloads have come back to pre-pandemic numbers, increasing from 625 million in March to 825 million over the past two months, while podcast advertising is still expected to increase by 15 percent for the year, according to recently-released report data. DigiDay LinkedIn Revenue Up 10%, Sessions Up 27%, in Latest Performance Update Double-digit quarterly revenue growth of 10 percent over the previous quarter has been reported from LinkedIn (client), accompanied by user platform session growth of 27 percent, the Microsoft-owned firm recently announced. Social Media Today Programmatic Advertising Trends: Top Tactics, Challenges, and Metrics 61 percent of marketers view return on investment (ROI) as their top programmatic advertising metric, while 46 percent said that their top challenge in executing programmatic strategy is audience targeting, according to newly-released survey data. MarketingProfs Facebook, Google and Apple Announce New Emoji Updates for World Emoji Day Marketers now have access to new emoji to tell brand stories, as Apple, Facebook and Google each announced a selection of new emoji options including a magic wand, teapot, drum, and piñata, the firms recently announced in conjunction with World Emoji Day. Social Media Today ANA Finds Content Marketing Budgets Rose Sharply Prior To COVID-19 Content marketing advertising budgets were up some 73 percent on average over the past two years before the pandemic, with 63 percent of content marketing services being conducted internally — two of several findings of interest to digital marketers contained in a recently-released Association of National Advertisers (ANA) report. MediaPost Google Adds New Ad Tools, Including Updated Visual Options and Prompts for Search Ads New responsive search advertising personalization and curation features have been rolling out in Google’s latest update, along with enhanced branding tools including new layouts and updated dynamic ads, the search giant recently announced. Social Media Today 2020 July 24 Statistics Image

65% of Americans think brands should take a stand against racism, study says Some 65 percent of U.S. adults believe that brands ought to take a stand against racism, while 56 percent of consumers said that they are the most willing to purchase from those brands that speak out in opposition to racism — two findings of interest to digital marketers in recently-released survey data. Marketing Dive Marketers to focus ad spend on regional, digital media in 2020's 2nd half During the second half of 2020 some 75 percent of marketers plan to use paid social and display ads, while budgets are expected to drop by 12 percent during the third quarter and 7.5 percent in the fourth, according to recently-released study data. Marketing Dive Snapchat Adds Brand Profiles as it Looks to Expand its Business Appeal Snapchat has launched new features targeted at brands utilizing the platform, with a pilot program that gives brands a selection of new showcase options including story posts and highlighted Snaps collections, the firm recently announced. Social Media Today Why Video is the King of Content for Marketers – 2020 Survey 76 percent of marketers have attributed positive return on investment (ROI) from using video, and some 86 percent expect to use more video content in future marketing campaigns — two of several findings of interest to digital marketers in newly-released survey data. Business 2 Community ON THE LIGHTER SIDE: 2020 July 24 Marketoonist Comic Image

A lighthearted look at “customer experience management” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist Former StarCraft 2 Pro Has Highest Microsoft Excel APM in Office — The Hard Times TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

Dell Technologies — B2B Marketers Get Down To Business With Digital During COVID-19 — AdExchanger
Joshua Nite — What’s Trending: Get Proactive With Planning — LinkedIn (client)
SAP — Marketers on Fire: SAP Global CMO Alicia Tillman — Chief Marketer
TopRank Marketing — 23 Best Influencer Marketing Agencies That Can Help You Grow — Martech Cube
Lee Odden — IABC Monthly Meeting July 16, 2020 [VIDEO] — IABC Minnesota
Lee Odden — 125+ Powerful Marketing Quotes To Inspire Your Strategy — Apolline Adiju
Lee Odden — 28 Social Media Experts to Learn From (Listed by Platform and Skill) — Social Agency Scout
Dell Boomi — How employee buy-in drove results for a B2B marketing campaign — AdAge

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