Twitter's Hand Holding Not Paying Off; Google Adding Shopping To YouTube Ads

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Social’s Sisyphus

Twitter “hand-holds” advertisers more than any other social media company, writes Bloomberg Business reporter Sarah Frier, but doesn’t have much to show for the strategy. Agencies invest far more in both Facebook and Google, while Twitter takes less than 1% of the $145 billion digital ad market in the US, according to eMarketer. The reasons are known: Twitter’s user base remains relatively small, and its data-tracking and measurement tools are not as advanced as on platforms. “They’re working very hard, but it’s difficult to justify continued spending and prove its impact, because it’s still kind of small,” said Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser. “The efforts of the sales team have gotten Twitter a seat at the table. But it might be the kids’ table.” More.

Google’s Shoppable Dreams

Though popular, YouTube still hasn’t made Google much money. To fix that, the firm is diving deeper into ecommerce by adding shoppable elements to its TrueView offering (YouTube’s skippable pre-roll spots). WSJ reporter Alistair Barr points out that the addition may be less about commerce than it is an attempt to demonstrate YouTube’s utility. Advertisers such as furniture retailer Wayfair and cosmetics vendor Sephora are already testing the offering, and Wayfair claims the ads generated three times as much revenue as unaltered TrueView ads. Separate but related: The WSJ reports on a Google claim that data from its new store can better connect real-world purchases to ads shoppers saw on smartphones, which the firm says should up mobile spend. More on that.

The State Of PII

Americans are increasingly mistrustful about their privacy online, according to data from Pew Research, and online advertisers are the biggest perceived offenders. Seventy-six percent of US adults are “not too confident” or “not at all confident” that information collected by online advertisers will remain private and secure, according to the data. And 69% are similarly concerned about how their data is collected and used by social media sites. The research details that though many Americans have taken more steps to protect their online identities, much of the backlash is in response to government surveillance, not advertising. Read on.

What The Algorithm Wants, The Algorithm Gets

Google recently made news when it adjusted its algorithm to reward publications with higher mobile site quality, but what “quality” specifically means remains vague. Writing for The Drum, Stuart Long, SEO lead at Stickyeyes, says the company has observed “a distinct correlation between a number of different website quality signals and how well a website performs in Google’s SERPs.” Mobile site speed appears to be a rising factor in negative search display, as is a site’s ability to retain viewers for a longer time.

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