Google Adds EU Cookie Consent; InMobi Partners With Device Makers

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.

Google Publishers Must Add Cookie Consent For EU Visitors

To comply with EU data protection laws, Google is requiring publishers to add cookie consent for users coming in from EU countries. Google’s new user consent policy would affect publishers using AdSense, DoubleClick Ad Exchange and DoubleClick for Publishers. To comply, publishers have to implement code adding cookie consent on their desktop and mobile sites and apps. The requirement places an unwelcome burden on publishers and Google, which needs implicit consent to target advertising to users. Read Google’s blog post.

Home Screen Conquest

Mobile ad startup InMobi has teamed with Samsung and several other device makers in a play to extend its reach to more than 650 million smartphones. InMobi, which is backed by SoftBank, will embed its tech on Samsung phones in order to display ads on a device’s home or locked screen. But InMobi’s tech is more advanced than that. “If the sensors show you’re looking at your phone from a reclined angle, I know you are relaxing and I will show you an ad for some soothing music from a singer that I know you like,” explained InMobi Chief Financial Officer Manish Dugar. Bloomberg has more.

Insta Tarot

By 2017 Instagram’s global mobile ad revenue will hit $2.8 billion and account for more than 10% of Facebook’s global ad revenue. If true it would be more than quadruple the $594 million Facebook’s photo-sharing service is estimated to rake in this year. By the end of 2015, “Instagram will have a host of new ad products for advertisers large and small,” explained Debra Aho Williamson, an eMarketer principal analyst. “In particular, Instagram advertisers will be able to use a full slate of Facebook targeting tools, including the popular Custom Audiences feature.” Read more.

The Hand That Feeds

It’s been a tumultuous few days for the Google app store, with ad fraudsters taking advantage of malicious apps. Google has suspended some apps, but didn’t go so far as to specify what policy violations were being cited. Google also set new guidelines for app install ads, saying an interstitial format is prohibitively annoying to users. Whether it’s indexing in-app data for its own purposes or making decrees that bind advertising on external platforms like Yelp, whose CEO was furious about Google’s announcement, the digital behemoth is gearing up for a showdown with the apps that live off it.

Fretting About Podcasts

The New York Times takes a deep dive into the world of podcast advertising, a medium less regulated by the FCC than commercial radio. But less regulation can lead to a blurring of lines between editorial and sponsored content, the story claims. “You won’t hear overt promotion, such as endorsements, testimonials, specific product prices or calls to purchase,” said NPR spokeswoman Isabel Lara of NPR podcasts. “But you may hear how you can engage the sponsor or its products or services a little more directly than what the FCC would allow.” More.

Mapping Search To Display

Facebook’s Atlas and Guthy-Renker, a direct-response marketing firm, conducted a study on the tie between paid search and display ad spending. The research, which tracked 12,000 online buyers through a digital path to purchase, showed that one in six customers first saw a display ad before clicking on a search placement. It isn’t groundbreaking research, but another example of the importance of measuring campaigns across channels if you want an accurate view of a conversion funnel. Read the Atlas blog post..

You’re Hired!