Instagram turns influencer branded content on its head, giving advertisers greater control
Instagram has rolled out features that will give digital marketers new branded content options for its Instagram Reels and Live products, the Facebook-owned social media platform recently announced. AdAge

Write to Reward Your Reader
The Harvard Business Review takes a look at the role and power of rewarding your reader in writing, an element that applies especially well for the material content marketers write. Harvard Business Review

Google Ads’ Smart Bidding Enhances Predictions & Insights
Google has launched updated features to its Google Ads offering, with new smart bidding to offer more relevant predictions and new insights, the search giant recently announced. Search Engine Journal

How Can You Improve Your B2B Virtual Event’s ROI?
47.6 percent of B2B professionals see post-virtual-event audience engagement as having the top return-on-investment (ROI) potential, followed by some 36 percent who said that making the virtual format more dynamic and interactive was a priority, according to recently-released survey data. MarketingCharts

Adweek Survey Finds 40% of Brands Might Seek New Agencies in 2021
75 percent of marketers have been satisfied with how agencies have handled the global health crisis, while a third performed better than expected during the pandemic — two of several statistics of interest to digital marketers contained in newly-released Adweek Intelligence survey data. Adweek

Both B2B Marketers and Buyers Increasingly Sold on Conversational Marketing
B2B marketing professionals have found email, online live chat, social media, and chatbots have all seen increased usage in 2020, while phone and video call use has fallen by more than 10 percent, according to recently-released B2B buyer communication survey data of interest to digital marketers. MarketingCharts

B2B Tech Firms Cut Marketing Budgets Due To Pandemic: Study
Despite an overall drop in marketing spending due to the global health crisis, budgeting for digital and content marketing are the most likely to see increased spending, while some 60 percent of B2B technology firm executives say that their key performance indicators (KPIs) haven’t undergone change. MediaPost

Do Most B2B Marketers Gate Content? [Study]
64 percent of B2B marketers utilize gated content to obtain prospect and customer information, with some 5 percent always gating their content and 34 percent sometimes using gating, according to recently-released survey data of interest to digital marketers. MarketingProfs

Global social media ad spend jumps 56.4% in Q3
Social media advertising spending climbed 56.4 percent globally during the third quarter, while in North America the increase was even greater at 61.7 percent, and video content longer than five minutes saw 70.4 percent greater reach than that having shorter durations, according to recently-release report data. The Drum

Most B2B Demand Gen Pros Use Sophisticated Attribution Models
Some 43 percent of B2B demand generation buyers say that they use advanced attribution models with multiple touchpoints, while 21 percent don’t have a campaign attribution model at all, according to recently-released data surveying B2B technology marketing and demand generation decision-makers. Marketing Charts

LinkedIn Adds New Event Features, Rolls Out Video Meeting Options via LinkedIn Messages
LinkedIn has launched an array of new event-related features, along with rolling out private messaging access to video from Zoom and other virtual meeting providers, Microsoft-owned LinkedIn (client) recently announced. Social Media Today

Tubular Labs Launches Deduped Audience Ratings For Video On Facebook And YouTube
A new effort from video intelligence firm Tubular Labs aims to deliver a more standardized video viewing metric across the Facebook and YouTube platforms, with support for Instagram forthcoming, the firm recently announced in a move of interest to digital marketers. AdExchanger

B2B marketers are struggling to produce enough content amid the pandemic
35 percent of B2B marketers have trouble producing the content needed to reach and engage audiences, while 68 percent are confident with their approach to content marketing, and only some 8 percent said they were able to attribute return on investment (ROI) to their content plan, according to recently-released survey data. The Drum

Google Launches Updated Google Analytics, Including Improved Reporting and Data Tracking Options
Google has given a significant overhaul to its popular Google Analytics website traffic analysis platform, adding a smarter artificial intelligence (AI)-infused approach including new insights such as churn probability and a variety of additional new predictive metrics, the search giant recently announced. Social Media Today

Facebook Is Removing Its Restrictions on Text Content in Facebook Ad Images
Facebook will be relaxing strict text-in-ad-image ratio enforcement, while still encouraging the use of images that contain text in less than 20 percent of the image’s visible area, a move that could pave the way for new more text-heavy image options for marketers. Social Media Today

Google launches a work-tracking tool and Airtable rival, Tables
Google has rolled out Tables, a utility that provides new work-tracking options for uses including customer relationship management (CRM), project management, lightweight database without coding, automation and more, the search giant’s Area 120 incubator recently announced. TechCrunch

US B2B Digital Advertising 2020
B2B advertisers are relying more than ever before on paid ads, with a 22.6 percent increase for 2020 in B2B digital ad spending, contributing to a total spend that is expected to top $8 billion in the U.S. alone by the end of the year, according to newly-released forecast data of interest to digital marketers. eMarketer

The ‘Purpose Gap’ Facing Many B2B Brands
86 percent of senior-level B2B professionals see clear brand purpose articulation as important, however just 24 percent see activated purpose within their organization — two of several insights of interest to online marketers in new survey data from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and others. MarketingProfs

Now Is the Time for B2B Content
During the pandemic, video and webinar content has seen the largest increase in views according to recently-released survey data, while views of unique content assets during March through May climbed by 40 percent compared to earlier in 2020, with the average number of sessions per visitor up some 43 percent. ANA

Google Shares Exclusive Data On How B2B Buyers Changed, Adapted During COVID-19
64 percent of B2B buyers have increased their use of online video during the pandemic, with overall online marketing use rising by 88 percent including 45 percent who started using digital for the first time during the global health crisis, according to newly-released report data. MediaPost

75% of people unlikely to use branded hashtags, survey finds
A quarter of consumers have engaged with customer reviews over the past 30 days, while 26 percent said they are likely to review a business on a third-party website — two of several finding of interest to digital marketers in recent survey data examining the performance of user-generated content (UGC) for brands. Mobile Marketer

Merkle: How Much Loyalty Customers Have Depends On Several Factors
When it comes to driving brand loyalty, 35 percent of millennials and Gen Z desire badges and 27 percent want leaderboards — as the demographic values competition and achievement, while older consumers prefer writing online reviews, taking surveys, or attending events — two of the findings of interest to digital marketers in newly-released report data. MediaPost