This Week in Digital Advertising: Google Faces Senate Heat and the Political AdSpend Breakdown

This Week in Digital Advertising: Google Faces Senate Heat and the Political AdSpend Breakdown

by | Sep, 2020 | Content, Native Advertising

Hello, Bidtellectuals!

Congratulations to Bidtellectual of the Week Lindsey Morgenthaler, whose clients and colleagues alike sing her praises!

The Senate is Cracking Down on Google, Who Still Says It Doesn’t Monopolize the Digital Ad Market

“Do you know of any other company that exercises this kind of concentration and dominance across every layer of the ad stack?” asked Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo, at the Senate on Tuesday. According to NPR, Donald Harrison, Google’s president of global partnerships and corporate development, faced a bipartisan grilling in the Senate on Tuesday over the company’s dominance in digital advertising. Findings from the United Kingdom’s antitrust regulator show that Google has dominant positions in various parts of the ad technology market, ranging from 40% to more than 90%. the Justice Department is reportedly getting ready to le a lawsuit against the company in the coming weeks.

Politics and Digital Advertising Spend

Each election cycle in recent years has seen a greater shift towards digital ad spend. So here’s how the respective parties are planning to spend, so far:

Last month the Biden Campaign announced a $280 million ad buy covering 15states of which 20% would be devoted to digital spending, Business Insider reported. The Biden campaign has spent more than $9 million a week on Facebook and Google since the middle of August. Before that, the campaign had not spent more than $6 million in a week, according to The Hill. In addition, outside groups such as StopRepublicans and Priorities USA have spent tens of millions of dollars on Facebook and Google this cycle. Priorities USA tracked its digital ads in Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and claims that the ads decreased Trump’s net approval rating in those states by 2.5 points between April and July.

The Trump Campaign is focusing on mobilizing its current support network and is currently spending more on digital ads. Since the beginning of August, the Trump campaign has outspent the Biden campaign by $20 million on Facebook and Google, according to The Hill. Other data says they’ve poured more than $170 million into aggressive marketing on Facebook and Google ads, compared to just $90 million from the Biden campaign. Around 20 percent of the Trump campaign’s digital spending, depending on the time frame, has been concentrated in Texas, California and New York, where many donors live.

While we’re focusing on digital, there’s also television: the Biden campaign has outpaced the Trump campaign by $30 million on the television airwaves, according to The Hill. And Mike Bloomberg’s $100 million television ad campaign to help JoeBiden win Florida – a key swing state – will show up on TV screens throughout the state on Friday, according to Sun Sentinel.

5 Ways B2Bs Can Adjust Digital Strategy & Brand Messaging Based on Coronavirus Impact

Facebook Cracks Down on Hate Speech in Groups

Meanwhile, ahead of the election, Facebook is attempting to clean up its reputation. Facebook will shut down all political ads on the site one week before the election to calm fears of nefarious outside meddling and the spread of hate speech and misinformation. The company announced yesterday that they removed more than 1million groups and 13.5 million pieces of content in groups for hate speech in the past year. These figures were released alongside new policies meant to “keep groups safe,” including a new commitment to limit the spread of health advice on the platform, according to Adweek.

Download our One Sheet on Social Media and Native Ads.

B2B Sales Is Still Going Strong, With a Golden Opportunity in Digital Advertising

In the US, B2B digital ad spending is growing 22.6% year over year amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to new data by eMarketer. Adapting to work-from-home, digital events, and ecommerce is key.

Download our one sheet on B2B trends and how to adjust messaging.

Good News: Fall Foliage

Leaves are changing soon?! Check out this Fall Foliage Prediction Map to plan your leaf-peeping trip! It’s the perfect social-distance activity. Bidtellectuals are counting down to our annual All-Hands gathering next week. It will be virtual this year, of course, but we’re pretty excited for some awesome bonding activities and pajama day!

Stay safe, friends,

Charlotte

Want more need-to-know info? Subscribe to our monthly Bidtellectual newsletter!


Charlotte Otremba is Sr. Manager of Communications and Marketing at Bidtellect.

Why You Should Factor Diversity Into Your Strategy This Black History Month

by | February 8, 2023 | Content, Culture | 0 Comments

How and why you should make diversity your advertising priority.

Read More

Behind the Platform: Using Peer39 For Brand Safety & Keyword Targeting

by | January 31, 2023 | Product and Technology | 0 Comments

Bidtellect VP of Product Arthur Hainline demonstrates the three key uses for the Peer39 integration in Bidtellect’s DSP, while offering helpful tips for traders and advertisers to get the most out of Bidtellect’s product.

Read More

Behind the Platform: Tracking Emissions With Bidtellect Scope3 Integration, Plus What to Know About Supply Path Emissions

by | January 12, 2023 | Product and Technology | 0 Comments

Bidtellect VP of Product Arthur Hainline demonstrates the new Scope3 integration in Bidtellect’s platform, how you can take actionable steps to reduce carbon waste, and the current state of the industry’s wasteful supply path emissions.

Read More

This Week in Digital Advertising: September 11th, 2020

This Week in Digital Advertising: September 11th, 2020

by | Sep, 2020 | Content, Native Advertising

Hello, Bidtellectuals!

Today is September 11th. We remember the men, women, firefighters, and rescue workers who lost their lives on this day in 2001. Tell someone how much you love them today.

Congratulations to Bidtellectual TEAM of the Week Kendra, Ashley, Kevin and Shannon! The client wrote an unprompted note praising the team for their personal attention to the campaigns along with withBidtellect’s platform technology. If this doesn’t make your heart glow…

​Pharma’s COVID Recovery (And Then Some)

Health, healthcare, medicine: nothing like a global pandemic to revamp a vertical’s popularity. SO we dove into COVID-19’s impact on the health and pharma industry. While there was a brief dip in ad spend in March, by May medical and pharma ad spending was up 56% year over year. Trends to note: higher adoptions of telehealth, filling prescriptions from home, and a shift in spend to programmatic –especially video.

For this week’s Bidtellect Beat: Digital Edition, I spoke with Bidtellect Director of Sales Phil Marth on the unique challenges pharma marketers face, trends in the industry, and how native programmatic can deliver on the shift to more conscious, hopeful and helpful messaging. Give it a watch here.

PHARMA Marketing Challenges & Industry Changes Since COVID

 

 

 

Google States Obvious: Keyword Blocking of ‘Coronavirus’ Was Too Broad

Nice, Google. If you’ll recall, the industry made a major effort (see IAB) to call out the harm of such broad block brush strokes to news and publishers. Google’s marketing team conceded that it had been “too conservative” in including “coronavirus” on its list of blocked terms earlier this year, and pledged to spend $100 million in advertising to support news organizations this year. Feels a little late to me? Adweek interviewed VP of Marketing Joshua Spanier. Read it here.

eMarketer: CPG Crushing It

eMarketer’s latest report: Thanks to a boost in digital sales of essential goods and personal care products (purchased more frequently online during the pandemic) digital ad spending in the US consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry will increase 5.2% to $19.40 billion this year, making it the third-largest spender behind retail and financial services. Mobile spending will grow 11.4% and account for 73.2% of all CPGdigital ad spend – WOW. Competition with direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands, along with an uptick in ecommerce sales, has led to a higher focus on performance marketing. Hit us up.

Good News, Maybe: Pro Sports Are Coming Back

Tennis is underway at the U.S. Open sans fans. Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka and Tsvetana Pironkova made history on Labor Day at the USTA Billie Jean KingNational Tennis Center by becoming the first trio of mothers to reach the quarter finals of the same Grand Slam. Go Moms! One of them will face 2018 U.S.Open winner Naomi Osaka who reached the nal with her win over Jennifer Brady yesterday. The N.F.L. opened its season Thursday night with a game between the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans.

Stay safe, friends,

Charlotte

Want more need-to-know info? Subscribe to our monthly Bidtellectual newsletter!


Charlotte Otremba is Sr. Manager of Communications and Marketing at Bidtellect.

Why You Should Factor Diversity Into Your Strategy This Black History Month

by | February 8, 2023 | Content, Culture | 0 Comments

How and why you should make diversity your advertising priority.

Read More

Behind the Platform: Using Peer39 For Brand Safety & Keyword Targeting

by | January 31, 2023 | Product and Technology | 0 Comments

Bidtellect VP of Product Arthur Hainline demonstrates the three key uses for the Peer39 integration in Bidtellect’s DSP, while offering helpful tips for traders and advertisers to get the most out of Bidtellect’s product.

Read More

Behind the Platform: Tracking Emissions With Bidtellect Scope3 Integration, Plus What to Know About Supply Path Emissions

by | January 12, 2023 | Product and Technology | 0 Comments

Bidtellect VP of Product Arthur Hainline demonstrates the new Scope3 integration in Bidtellect’s platform, how you can take actionable steps to reduce carbon waste, and the current state of the industry’s wasteful supply path emissions.

Read More

This Week in Digital Advertising: August 21st, 2020

This Week in Digital Advertising: August 21st, 2020

by | Aug, 2020 | Content, Native Advertising

Hello Bidtellectuals! Congratulations to Bidtellectuals of the Week Yeni Gordillo and Shannon Malley – our [b]+studio superstars! Behind every great creative is likely one of these two.

Data from the First Half of 2020

Our 1H 2020 Native Report is here (!!). 2020 has been stressful enough, don’t let lack of insights be another roadblock! Download our report for free here. Bidtellect’s platform processes over 55 billion Native auctions daily across 58 million distinctly targetable placements and processes 50 million decisions per second. We analyze data from the start of an auction through post-click consumer activity to gain valuable insights about trends, performance, and opportunities in native advertising. Here’s a sneak peek stat: Mobile had a 106% higher CTR than Desktop in 1H 2020, so if you’re not adjusting your strategy to mobile, you’re missing out! (Reminder: check out bidtellect.com/resources/ for more research and case studies!)

Download: "Bidtellect's 1H Native Report 2020"

What’s Next For Brand Safety, Social Budgets, and WFH?

For this week’s Bidtellect Beat: Digital Edition, I sat down with Bidtellect’s SVP of SalesTerah Bocchi to talk about changes in the digital advertising industry post-pandemic, how brand safety needs have amplified, shortfalls of social media, and the importance of adjusting creative in a fast-paced world. Plus, how virtual selling and work from home can be a challenge, but also has some positives to it. Give this a watch!

A Conversation With Bidtellect SVP of Sales on Brand Safety, Virtual Sales, and Creative Pivots

 

Surprise: Pandemic Causing Changes to Current Advertiser-Agency Relationship

Namely, according to this Digiday article, increased budget cuts and performance pressures are causing brands and agencies to reevaluate. One downside is corner-cutting: “…Agencies are having to do so much work with fewer people that there’s a tendency to default to the simplest plans, which usually means buying [the] most ads from either Google or Facebook.” (We didn’t say it!) Some have considered in-housing, but the costs of that are too high. For most, flexibility and the ability to test different models according to a number of possible scenarios is key. “Marketers don’t expect things to stop changing but they are looking to feel con􀃕dent — and find stability.”

 

Good News: The Crown Returns, Giving Goes Up, A Pup Salesman

The Crown released their first Season 4 teaser trailer and the show officially returns November 15! Any other fans? The upcoming season will feature storylines about Princess Diana and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. I’m obsessed and cannot wait. Some more good news: reports show that people are giving to charities more during the pandemic. And this adorable street dog in Brazil kept showing up to a car dealership, and he’s now officially a car salesman. My heart!

 

Want more need-to-know info? Subscribe to our monthly Bidtellectual newsletter!


Charlotte Otremba is Sr. Manager of Communications and Marketing at Bidtellect.

Why You Should Factor Diversity Into Your Strategy This Black History Month

by | February 8, 2023 | Content, Culture | 0 Comments

How and why you should make diversity your advertising priority.

Read More

Behind the Platform: Using Peer39 For Brand Safety & Keyword Targeting

by | January 31, 2023 | Product and Technology | 0 Comments

Bidtellect VP of Product Arthur Hainline demonstrates the three key uses for the Peer39 integration in Bidtellect’s DSP, while offering helpful tips for traders and advertisers to get the most out of Bidtellect’s product.

Read More

Behind the Platform: Tracking Emissions With Bidtellect Scope3 Integration, Plus What to Know About Supply Path Emissions

by | January 12, 2023 | Product and Technology | 0 Comments

Bidtellect VP of Product Arthur Hainline demonstrates the new Scope3 integration in Bidtellect’s platform, how you can take actionable steps to reduce carbon waste, and the current state of the industry’s wasteful supply path emissions.

Read More