Pubs Turn To YouTube; Google Gains From GDPR

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Find Your Audience

Some publishers, still reeling from Facebook’s news feed algorithm change, are migrating to YouTube. Hearst, for example, is focusing more efforts on long-form episodic content from flagship magazines like Seventeen, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle and Cosmopolitan, Business Insider’s Tanya Dua reports. Hearst is creating the content specifically for YouTube first and then distributing it to other platforms. It’s also measuring new KPIs like watch time and repeat views rather than short-term metrics associated with Facebook, such as likes and shares. The strategy has boosted Hearst’s YouTube subscriber base exponentially. Seventeen, for example, grew its subscribers by 3,000%. But on YouTube, Hearst still runs the risk of a major ad platform messing with its distribution strategy. More.

Google 1, GDPR 0

Google is already benefiting from the GDPR scramble in Europe. The platform giant captured a larger share of programmatic spend in the region on the day GDPR went into effect than it did in the lead-up to the law. According to AppNexus, EU advertisers sent more than half of their DBM budgets to Google, but that number shot up to 95% on May 25, Bloomberg reports. Earlier last week, Google warned advertisers to expect a drop in demand as it ensures compliance for all of its third-party providers. “Google has a ton of leverage,” said AppNexus CEO Brian O’Kelley. “They’ve been kind of ridiculous about how they approached it.” More.

Playing In Traffic

“Traditionally … people accessing sites via mobile has mostly meant people arriving from social media,” writes Christine Schmidt at Nieman Lab. But Facebook’s algorithm change limiting news stories late last year threw a wrench in that trend. As a result, search is once again the leader in referrals. A year ago Google Search ranked below Facebook for direct publisher site visits, according to Chartbeat data. Now it’s the No. 1 traffic driver. Additionally, site traffic from Google Chrome’s recommendation links and direct site visits are both up, an important silver lining for publishers concerned Facebook users had no loyalty. More.

On A Cloud

Salesforce beat its revenue estimates for Q1, hitting $3 billion for the quarter and surpassing a $12 billion annual revenue run rate. The company had other good news for investors on its Tuesday earnings call: It’s raising its 2019 guidance from $13.075 billion to $13.125 billion based on demand for its cloud-based sales and marketing software. Salesforce’s investment in artificial intelligence is also picking up steam. “Our relentless focus on customer success is yielding incredible results,” boasted CEO Marc Benioff, “including delivering nearly 2 billion AI predictions per day with Einstein.” And Salesforce’s $6.5 billion acquisition of MuleSoft in March, a company that helps enterprise players integrate their apps, appears to be panning out, too. Salesforce predicts MuleSoft will deliver $315 million in additional revenue for the year. But there is one cloud on the horizon: the competition. Microsoft’s Dynamics enterprise software is growing like a weed. “What we need to do is stay confident in our ability to deliver success for our customers,” said Salesforce COO Keith Block in answer to a question about Microsoft’s growing market share. Reuters has more.

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