B2B Tech Marketing in 2019: Budget, Content, and Strategy Trends
B2B marketers at technology firms largely expect budget allocation to increase or remain the same during 2019, and 44 percent expect to increase paid media spending, two of numerous findings in a new report from Spiceworks. MarketingProfs

Do People Actually Want Personalized Ads?
A high demand for personalized ads is tempered by increased wariness about the type of data collection that typically makes them possible, according to new data from eMarketer that examines several recent reports. eMarketer

Forrester: Digital marketing spend to reach $146B by 2023, but search landscape is changing
By 2023 U.S. digital marketing is expected to grow at a 9 percent compound annual growth rate, reaching $146B, with more spend moving to the growing voice search segment, according to new Forrester report data. Marketing Dive

Google touts ROI of AMP display ads, adding they perform best on AMP web pages
Google released data showing that advertisers who use Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) display ads have higher return on investment (ROI) and click-through-rates (CTR) when used on dedicated AMP pages, including a 12 percent increase over 2018. Marketing Land

Do Marketers Think Their Strategies Are Successful? [Study]
Marketing strategy success rates for marketers in both B2B and B2C fields are the subject of new report data, showing that 62 percent view their strategies as only somewhat successful when it comes to achieving primary campaign objectives, one of several key revelations contained in the report. MarketingProfs

We Analyzed 912 Million Blog Posts. Here’s What We Learned About Content Marketing
The performance of key elements in blog posts was the subject of a recent study by Backlinko and BuzzSumo, pulling statistics from 912 million posts and sharing findings relevant to many digital marketers. Backlinko

Influencers and Instagram Stories: A Perfect Marriage?
Influencer marketers have increasingly turned to Instagram Stories, with 34 percent of content containing the #ad hashtag on the service being posted in the story format, one of several findings of interest to digital marketers in a new study. eMarketer

Aiming To Reward Your Best Customers? Amazon Wants To Get Involved. For B2B marketers
Amazon launched a B2B marketing service, Moments, a reward and loyalty-based program backed by the online marketplace giant looking to get an even larger share of the $27 billion annual fulfillment business. MediaPost

Do Agencies Practice the Content Marketing They Preach? [New Research]
Agency content marketing statistics and budgeting trends for 2019 are examined in a new report from the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, with the release of the new “Agency Content Marketing 2019: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends” survey. Content Marketing Institute

LinkedIn debuts LinkedIn Live, a new live video broadcast service
LinkedIn (client) has began launching a live video feature, LinkedIn Live, to build on the success of its standard video offerings which are already the fastest-growing format on the platform, the firm has announced. TechCrunch

In-app ad spend grows but KPIs slow to catch up, study finds
Advertisers are spending 45 percent of their budgets on mobile formats, and 92 percent of firms expect to see those budgets expand during the next year, two of the take-aways from a new joint survey from Forrester and PubMatic. The Drum

New Inc. 500 and Social Media Use Study from UMass Dartmouth
A new look into how Inc. 500 firms use both paid and organic social media advertising comes from the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and offers a slew of useful information for digital marketers. UMass Dartmouth

LinkedIn Reaches 610 Million Members, Publishes New eBook on Social Media Management Tips
LinkedIn (client) has topped the 610 million user mark, with 40 percent using the site daily — two of the statistics from a guide the firm recently published, also offering best practices and social media management tips. Social Media Today

YouTube expands test of its Instagram-like Explore tab to more devices
YouTube has recently expanded its Explore tab test to surface more video content that would not show up using traditional recommendation algorithms, now available on more devices. TechCrunch

40+ Video Marketing Statistics for 2019 [Infographic]
Video’s prominence in the social media marketing landscape has continued to expand, with some five billion videos viewed daily on YouTube alone, and a new report and infographic from Renderforest dig into some of the numbers behind the growth. Social Media Today

Exclusive: Snapchat weighs what was once unthinkable – permanent snaps
Snapchat has considered making public posts made by its users permanent, sources have told Reuters, in an effort to make it easier for news discovery platforms to share snaps. A possible new option to disclose user identities for public snaps was also reportedly in the works. Reuters

Buffer’s 2019 State of Social Report
Buffer recently released its 2019 State of Social report, offering an in-depth look at what digital marketers are focusing on and an examination of trends and how the industry is changing. Buffer

Twitter Releases its Official Marketing Calendar for 2019
Twitter has put out its 2019 version of so-called hashtag holidays, a handy calendar for digital marketers including traditional mainstream holidays as well as “Talk Like A Pirate Day” and others. Search Engine Journal

Legal tips for managing your influencer relationships
Protecting brand and influencer relationships has become a greater concern among marketers as the use of social influencers has risen, and AdAge takes a look at some legal safeguards and practices that can pay off in the long run. AdAge

Best B2B Content: Analysis and Insights from Over 50,000 Articles
B2B content marketing produced some shining examples and strong results during 2018, and BuzzSumo has parsed through more than 50,000 posts to find examples of the best, along with an examination of some of the factors that helped the strongest B2B content rise. BuzzSumo

YouTube is testing new, blue recommendation bubbles that appear under videos
YouTube has begun testing a new type of video recommendation and filtering system, with under-video suggestion bubbles for both mobile and desktop users, a move aimed at improving the video giant’s often-maligned automated recommendations. The Verge

Study: Two-Thirds Of B2B Brands Are Pushing Digital Transformation
Nearly two-thirds of B2B brands are making efforts to implement the type of digital transformation that improves the customer experience, according to recent survey data, one of several insights of interest to digital marketers. MediaPost

Inside Google Marketing: 4 ways we’re planning for an automated future
Google plans to seek out better data for a more automated future, the search giant recently announced, along with other insight for users of its Google Marketing Platform, including optimized data points and scalable creative templates. Think With Google

Comscore and Nielsen are racing to become the one true cross-platform measurement provider
2019 will see both Google and Nielsen increase efforts to lead the way in online traffic and usage measurement, using expanded measurement tools each plan to begin rolling out in the coming months. Digiday

AI Is Eating Advertising – And 2019 Will Be Critical For Getting It Right
Artificial intelligence is playing a greater role in digital marketing, utilizing vast amounts of existing demographic data, and AdExchanger takes a look at how this shift has affected the way marketers work. AdExchanger

What B2B Tech Marketers Are Planning for 2019
Video marketing, Account-Based Marketing (ABM), and on-demand and influencer marketing strategies lead the list of practices digital technology marketers plan to adopt during 2019, one of several findings in recent survey data. By the end of 2019 influencer marketing strategy adoption is expected to expand to 48 percent, a significant increase over 2018’s 31 percent. MarketingCharts

Instagram CPCs, CPMs drop as click-throughs continue to climb
Instagram advertisers have seen good news lately, as cost-per-click (CPC) and cost-per-impression (CPM) rates have fallen at the same time that click-through-rates (CTR) have jumped, according the recent report data focusing on the third quarter of 2018. Marketing Land

Over 70 Percent of Millennials on Twitter Have Commented on Companies’ Customer Service
More than 70 percent of millennial Twitter users have left comments for the customer service accounts of at least one company, according to new survey data. 62.48 percent of surveyed Twitter users also say that personalized responses to their comments represent the top way brands can improve their social media customer care. AdWeek

AppsFlyer: App ad market to grow 136% to $64.1 billion from 2017 to 2020
By 2020 app advertising will grow to become a $64.1B market segment, a 136 percent jump from 2017, according to new market research study data, representing a year-over-year rate of 34 percent growth. VentureBeat

Google Introduces WordPress Plugin With Integrated Analytics, Search Console, More
Google has launched a WordPress plug-in called Site Kit that offers convenient access to various Google tools including AdSense, Search Console, Analytics, and PageSpeed Insights, among others. Search Engine Journal

Marketers’ use of Snapchat is on the rise — but is still a fraction of Facebook and Instagram
Snapchat has seen an increase in use as a marketing platform, despite lacking some of the flexibility powerhouses like Facebook and Instagram allow, according to recent forecast data from eMarketer and others. L.A. Biz

Search Engine Marketing: Why People Click on Paid Search Ads
Seventy-seven percent of people are confident that they can recognize paid search advertisements, and 75 percent find paid search eases the buying process, according to new survey data. Clutch