US B2B ad spend set to pass $30b in 2023, nearly half the dollars will go to digital
In the U.S. alone B2B advertising spending is expected to top $30 billion by 2023, with almost half going to digital, while display advertising spending is expected to surpass that of search advertising by 2023 — two of several insights of interest to digital marketers in newly-released forecast data. The Drum

Salesforce completes $27.7B Slack acquisition
Salesforce has put finishing touches on its $27.7 billion acquisition of business communication platform Slack, with the now-official purchase set to combine Salesforce’s data platform Customer 360 with Slack, Salesforce recently announced. Venture Beat

US influencer spending to surpass $3 billion in 2021
An increase of over 33 percent in influencer marketing spending is expected for 2021 — reaching $3.69 billion — recently-released forecast data shows, with a 12.2 percent rise predicted for 2022 and 11.5% in 2023, climbing to $4.62 billion, according to the forecast. eMarketer

Ehrenberg-Bass: 95% of B2B buyers are not in the market for your products
As many as 95 percent of businesses aren’t presently in the market for most services and goods, however not in all sectors, according to newly-released data from client LinkedIn and its LinkedIn B2B Institute. Marketing Week examines the data, and interviews Jann Martin Schwarz, global head of the LinkedIn B2B Institute, on targeting long-term B2B marketing goals and more. Marketing Week

Twitter’s Fleets Format To Disappear, Just Weeks After Ads Test Commenced
Twitter has abandoned its Fleets feature that automatically deleted messages in the format after 24 hours, noting that the format and its accompanying full-screen vertical ads, hadn’t performed as well as initially envisioned, the firm recently announced. MediaPost

Digital to power a 10.4% recovery in global ad spend
Global digital advertising spend will ascend to $311 billion to hit 15.6 percent growth in 2021, according to newly-release forecast data from Dentsu, the firm recently announced. Social ad spending is expected to rise even more swiftly at 23 percent, with video ads predicted to rise by 17 percent, according to the forecast data. The Drum

Buoyant B2B: Firms Stress Marketing As They Enhance Their Brands
59 percent of B2B marketing and sales executives say their businesses are active in social media, while 39 percent of employees say that they don’t understand their companies’ brands, according to newly-released survey data of interest to digital marketers. MediaPost

What Makes A Brand Best-in-Class on Social?
47 percent of U.S. consumers said that strong customer service made for best-in-class brand social media communication, followed audience engagement with 46 percent, transparency at 44 percent, and creating memorable content at 39 percent, according to recently-released social media survey data. MarketingCharts

Facebook is testing drastic changes to Instagram to make it more like TikTok
Facebook has begun testing changes including full-screen video and more immersive experiences for its Instagram platform, in a move aimed at bringing more entertaining and mobile-first video experiences that better compete with TikTok, the social media giant recently announced. CNBC

Edelman Trust Barometer special report: Brands must be agents of societal change, say consumers
63 percent of consumers say they are more attracted to brands that focus on making the world a better place, while 78 percent said they believe their influence goes beyond the consumer experience to business operations — two of several statistics of interest to digital marketers in newly-released survey data from Edelman’s Trust Barometer report. PRWeek

Most Demand Gen Marketers Hit Their KPIs in 2020
43 percent of B2B demand generation marketers say they met their original key performance indicators (KPIs) in 2020, with 35 percent topping their original targets, according to recently-released survey data. The survey also showed that 18 percent expect their demand gen budgets to significantly expand in the coming 12 months, with 49 percent expected some budget growth. MarketingCharts

Google delays blocking third-party cookies in Chrome until 2023
Google has announced that it will postpone its previously-announced abandonment of third-party tracking cookies in its Chrome web browser, a change that will now not take place until 2023, the search giant has revealed. The postponement has given marketers additional time to work on and implement alternative tracking methods. The Verge

US ranks last among 46 countries in trust in media, Reuters Institute report finds
29 percent of U.S. consumers say they trust the news media, a figure that is the lowest of any nation in the newly-released annual report from Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford. The report also showed that the pandemic has brought about rapid adoption of new digital consumption behaviors, among other insights of interest to digital marketers. The Poynter Institute

Almost 90% of B2B Content Consumption Said to Take Place Outside the C-Suite
Nearly 90 percent of B2B content consumption involves those outside corporate executive-level management, with some 21 percent being consumer by individual contributors, according to recently-released B2B buyer breakdown by job titles survey data. MarketingCharts

Podcasts start coming to Facebook next week
Facebook will begin rolling out a new podcast feature on June 22, offering podcast creators a new distribution channel, with features such as one minute promotional clips — to appear in a forthcoming podcasts tab — the social media giant recently announced. The Verge

TikTok Owner ByteDance’s Annual Revenue Jumps to $34.3 Billion
TikTok parent ByteDance saw a 93 percent jump in gross profit during 2020, with revenue more than doubling to $30 billion, the popular short-form social video platform that has seen increasing business interest recently announced in annual employee financial performance data. Wall Street Journal

B2B Better: Customers Vote For The Most Trusted Brands
Apple, Amazon, Adobe, LinkedIn and Google garnered the top five spots among B2B professionals as the most trusted B2B brands, followed by Microsoft, FedEx, HubSpot, UPS, and American Express, according to recently-release survey data of interest to digital marketers. MediaPost

How to Influence B2B Buyers’ Purchasing Decisions [Survey]
71 percent of B2B buyers said that the top influence on their decision to purchase was when a salesperson leads a thorough discovery of their concerns, wants, and needs, followed by 68 percent who said showing what’s possible or how to solve a problem had an significant influence on buying decisions, with the same percentage noting that a salesperson who listens to them affects their purchasing decision, according to newly-released survey data. MarketingProfs

Twitter Re-Opens Public Applications for Profile Verification
For the first time since November, 2017 Twitter has begun allowing users to apply for verified profile status. As the new option is rolled out, a verification application option will appear within a Twitter user’s account settings, allowing brands to seek a blue check-mark, the firm recently announced. Social Media Today

Google Ads Has New Smart Bidding Features
Google has launched new eligible search campaign recommendations, along with target impression share simulators — two of several new updates of interest to digital marketers that have been rolled out to the firm’s popular Google Ads offering, the search giant recently announced. SEO Roundtable

B2B Marketer Pain Points, Performance, and Priorities for the Year Ahead: B2B Marketing Monitor
54 percent of B2B brands face difficulty connecting with customers on the emotional level needed to increase brand engagement, while only 22 percent of B2B enterprises say they excel when it comes to customer experience (CX) — two of several findings of interest to digital marketers in recently-released survey data. MarketingProfs

Micro Influencers Still À La Mode in 2021
From micro and macro to mega, non-paid, affiliate and celebrity, the influencer types that enterprise marketers prefer working with runs the gamut, however the overwhelming majority — some 90 percent — want to work with micro-influencers who have between five and 100,000 followers, up from 77 percent in 2020, according to newly-released study data. [Survey]MarketingCharts