Google AMP Drives More Publisher Traffic; New NYT Team Will Activate Data For Brands

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AMPed Up

Google is referring a greater share of publishers’ mobile traffic than it once did. Consumers get 18% of their mobile traffic from AMP, up from 16% last year, according to a report from Chartbeat. Meanwhile, traffic from Facebook Instant Articles was down to 11% from 15% last year. Google’s dominant position in search makes it especially difficult for publishers to turn down AMP; since last year, AMP publishers that work with Chartbeat saw mobile search traffic from Google increase 100%. Still, publishers aren’t thrilled about ceding even more power to Google. “You don’t know where your AMP page will be shown on the Google results page,” said John Potter, CTO of Purch. He also dislikes “that the branding has been missing due to it being a Google URL and that the sessions that start on an AMP page versus a mobile page are shorter.” Digiday has more.

Sign Of The Times

The New York Times launched a brand data and analytics team, nytDEMO, that will adapt the audience tools it uses internally for advertisers. Read the release. The team has already repurposed a Times consumer sentiment tool for audience prospecting, as well as a tool that measures the popularity of stories in different markets, which brands can use for targeting. NytDEMO will work with T Brand Studios, the Times’ branded content unit, to bring in more clients and use the tools for branded content. “Marketers feel inundated with data but have not yet figured out the best way to deal with it,” Allison Murphy, VP of ad innovation at the Times, who will head up nytDEMO, tells The Wall Street Journal. More.

Married To The Mob

Google’s AdSense was always a star performer. “But as consumers migrate from desktop computing to mobile, momentum has shifted to AdMob, Google’s mass-market tool for third-party apps, and DoubleClick for Publishers, its higher-end mobile software,” Reuters reports. Google has made gains among app developers because it gives them more favorable terms than website operators. It’s a canny move by Google, though the profit losses do sting. Alphabet stock dropped 5% last month after reporting Google’s portion of ad network revenue fell by $33 million last quarter even though network revenue was up by $559 million. Still, this is the time for mobile land grabs. And Google’s scale now makes it a near-default for most app developers. More.

Setting Up Shop

Shopify revenue was up 71% last year, the company disclosed during its earnings report Thursday. Its $322.8 million in revenue over the final quarter of the year beat analyst expectations of $309.5 million. Despite the strong growth, shares were flat for the day. Investors see a potential long-tail problem. Shopify has proven an effective toolkit for startups or individuals who want to start selling things, but does it have the deep consumer roots to survive when merchant growth slows and those ventures flame out? More at Bloomberg.

But Wait, There’s More!