U.S. Advertising and Marketing Spend to Grow to Nearly $390 Billion in 2020
Marketing and advertising spending in the U.S. is set for strong growth during 2020, according to newly-released forecast data showing a high-point of nearly $390 billion, representing a 7.2 percent increase from 2019, while online ad spend is expected to grow even more, hitting 14.5 percent, the report from Winterberry Group notes. Adweek

Google: Webpages with Featured Snippets Won’t Appear Twice on Page 1
Brands worldwide with Google featured snippets in search results pages will no longer have a second similar entry in the SERPs, Google recently announced, with featured snippets henceforth counting as one of the 10 first-page results. Search Engine Journal

LinkedIn to Grow Faster than Expected
LinkedIn (client) is on pace to grow more rapidly than expected, with new forecast data predicting the professional social media platform will hit some 66.8 million active monthly users by 2022, and in 2020 it will see nearly $1.6 billion in advertising revenue, according to the forecast data. eMarketer

Ad-Supported Music Streaming is a Growing Opportunity for Advertisers
With some 77 percent of streaming music accounts being of the ad-supported free variety, and more than 500 billion on-demand music streams in the first half of 2019 alone, digital marketers are seeing the large audiences as a growing opportunity. MarketingCharts

Twitter Is Removing the Audience Insights Element from Twitter Analytics
Twitter has announced that it will do away with the current version of its Audience Insights portion of Twitter Analytics. On January 30 the platform will mark the end of the five year old follower data tool used by many digital marketers. Social Media Today

CCPA Is Here, But Many Companies Are Still Not Compliant
On January first the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) went into effect, however newly-released data shows that only 30 percent of firms were compliant as of November 2019, with some 18 percent expecting to be compliant by the beginning of 2020. eMarketer

B2B Sellers: Marketplaces Are Here — Are You Ready?
B2B buying and selling has changed alongside similar shifts that are being seen in consumer areas, and research firm Forrester takes a look at the new center of commerce that B2B marketplaces represent. Forrester

Facebook quietly acquired a startup to build a live-shopping feature
Facebook recently confirmed that it has acquired live-shopping startup Packagd, which will augment the social media giant’s Marketplace selling feature, and eventually offer new options for digital marketers. AdAge

Pinterest CMO on Marrying Aggressive Growth with the Company’s Brand Image
eMarketer takes a look at how Pinterest’s first chief marketing officer is tackling the unique challenges faced by the image-centric social platform, as it attempts to woo greater numbers of digital marketers as well as users. eMarketer

Marketers Tout SEO’s Effectiveness As They Look to Drive Leads, Customer Acquisition
SEO has continued to be an effective tactic when it comes to driving leads and customer acquisitions, with the majority of digital marketers finding the practice more effective than traditional media, one of several statistics from newly-released survey data. MarketingCharts

New Report Looks at Which Tools and Creation Apps are Most Popular Among Instagram Influencers
The software, tools, and online image creation apps most-used by Instagram influencers have been outlined in a new survey of more than 1,200 influencers on the platform, with results showing that just 10 percent use Photoshop, nearly 30 percent use Lightroom, and some 4.8 percent work with Canva, according to the study. Social Media Today

B2B CX Trailblazers Listen to and Act on Customer Feedback
91 percent of B2B customer experience (CX) leaders utilize the input of employees to improve CX efforts, and 89 percent gather partner and distributor feedback for boosting CX, two of the traits highlighted in newly-released survey data of interest to digital marketers . MarketingCharts

Instagram influencer marketing activity jumps 48%, study finds
Instagram has seen rising influencer marketing efforts on the platform in 2019, climbing by 48 percent, and by 2022 influencer marketing spending is expected to grow to as much as $15 billion, according to recently released report data. Mobile Marketer