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Gearing up for 2020 Ad Spend, Internet Trends Report for Data Nerds & Don’t Silo Social Data

Gearing Up For 2020: Political Ad Spend

If you thought the 2016 election was ripe with ads, just wait until the next one. Political ad spending is expected to total $9.9 billion in 2020, according to the latest U.S. ad forecast. Online fundraising isn’t new, but it is bigger than ever. So, expect to see ads for your favorite candidates popping up soon (and often)… if their campaigns get the targeting right. The Dems are all starting from scratch when it comes to digital strategy, while Trump has managed to streamline voter data files to allow his campaign to target people online more effectively. To get an idea of what that means for 2020, I’ll leave you with this quote that stood out to me: “The modern presidential campaign is now largely won and lost online.”

Zuckerburg’s Plan for Privacy

Facebook is working to strike a balance between users’ demands for more privacy and advertisers who, well, pay the bills. Plans for a tool to let people see and manage off-Facebook activity is rolling out in a few months. Zuckerburg said this about it: “It’s designed to give people more transparency and control over the data other apps and websites share with us.” The most important note about this tool is that measurement will remain intact so organizations can understand the impact of their Facebook investment. Sounds like a good move, but I’m waiting to see.

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Google’s Data Studio Updates, Location Ranking & Tinder for Clothes

Google’s Data Studio Just Got a Bit Better

Google’s Data Studio is a pretty sharp (and free) way to create dashboards and visualizations from your Google Analytics data and other data sets. But it’s always been limited in what it can do. However, the program has received some fun product updates in the past few months. My favorite new features are custom data range comparisons and the Tableau-esque ability to drill down in charts. So far, I’ve used this new feature to create more useful maps. Now, dashboard viewers can drill into details about which states and cities their users are located.

Ads, They Know Us Better Than We Know Ourselves

There is a growing interest in the idea of personalization and privacy in the online age. This caught the eye of the New York Times, who decided to conduct its own digital advertising experiment to show how far advertisers go to collect and use our information. My main takeaway is that we have a choice to make: either we all agree to be targeted by hyper-personalized ads that are more relevant to us or we need to create and pass more stringent data privacy laws.

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Better Brand Awareness, Tracking Abandoned Forms & Unraveling the Marvel Universe

Cookies: Sinful or Secure?

This article is a TLDR version of Safari’s latest ITP (Intelligent Tracking Prevention) initiative. If your job involves digital communications, it deserves at least a quick glance. These changes are great for user security and privacy, but not great for people trying to understand their website users. Prior to this change, Google Analytics cookies expired after two years. That means — theoretically at least— you’d recognize a repeat visitors to your site even if their previous visit was 23 months prior. ITP means that cookies expire after a week. Now when someone doesn’t visit your site for two weeks, their next visit is counted as a new user all over again. Basically, if your organization has goals around growing an “audience of loyal users who visit the site once or twice a month,” Safari’s making it a lot harder to measure your progress.

Europeans, They Are Just Like Us

This newsletter is a sucker for survey results. This time, European charities tell Salesforceabout their marketing challenges. Here are my favorite stats:  For 75% of nonprofits in Europe, “raising awareness of their cause” was the top reason to use social media. But 96% (!) said they aren’t using digital marketing “to its fullest potential.” What’s holding them back? These organizations report struggling with selecting the right social platforms, using paid search (including their Google Ad Grant) and measuring outcomes.

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The 80/20 Rule, Facebook’s Big Promise & Snackable Content

Profit with the Pareto Principle

Data analytics is tough, even for large corporations. It’s no surprise that only 5% of nonprofits report using data in every decision they make. But enough bad news! What are some practical steps your organization can take to fix this? This piece talks to the YMCA of Austin about what they did to create a data-driven culture. My favorite takeaway: apply the Pareto Principle to data analytics. “Identify and focus on the 20% of performance indicators that will produce 80% of your success.” Another big takeaway: Analytics aren’t exclusive. Every employee within every department can use data to make more intelligent decisions.

The Dark Side of UX Design

Ever heard of “dark patterns?” Probably not, but you’ve definitely seen at least one or two examples. Basically, it’s what NOT to do with your website. Dark patterns are crappy designs that intentionally make it difficult to do something. Dark patterns are legal but incredibly annoying (and slightly unethical). Instead of tricking users, take the time to build trust and loyalty with your audience. It’s not hard.

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Stop Siloing Digital, Brewing The Nation’s Best IPA & A Much-Needed Perspective Change

Maximizing Your Resources

Strategy and marketing consultant Anne Boyle has a strong opinion about nonprofits that claim they “can’t afford” to create a marketing strategy. The idea is simple: organizations should be putting strategy and planning first in order to maximize their resources. One of her tips that’s actually really helpful, in my opinion, is to not try to be perfect but to just get it done.

Ditch The Digital Department

This article really threw me for a loop. “Digital” has been a buzzword for a while now, but do organizations even need someone solely dedicated to it? The short answer is no. The long answer is still no, but with more nuance. Basically, it’s advised that your organization “hire digitally skilled staff to populate every department” rather than invest in a digital department.

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