‘The downloads are back’: Podcasting finishes the first half of 2020 strong
Podcast downloads have come back to pre-pandemic numbers, increasing from 625 million in March to 825 million over the past two months, while podcast advertising is still expected to increase by 15 percent for the year, according to recently-released report data. DigiDay

LinkedIn Revenue Up 10%, Sessions Up 27%, in Latest Performance Update
Double-digit quarterly revenue growth of 10 percent over the previous quarter has been reported from LinkedIn (client), accompanied by user platform session growth of 27 percent, the Microsoft-owned firm recently announced. Social Media Today

Programmatic Advertising Trends: Top Tactics, Challenges, and Metrics
61 percent of marketers view return on investment (ROI) as their top programmatic advertising metric, while 46 percent said that their top challenge in executing programmatic strategy is audience targeting, according to newly-released survey data. MarketingProfs

More than 1 in 3 B2B Marketers Held Back from Measuring Campaigns by Messy Data
36 percent of B2B marketers say that having messy data is a top marketing performance measurement challenge, according to recently-release report data. Topping the list at 47 percent was the inability to perform cross-platform data analysis, however, followed by a lack of resources at 42 percent. MarketingCharts

‘Surprised’ emotions in video ads drive conversions during pandemic, study says
Video ad performance jumped 360 percent when showing surprised people, while there was a 64 percent drop in conversions for video ads showing happy emotions during the first three seconds — two of several findings of interest to digital marketers in newly-released pandemic marketing study data. Marketing Dive

Gartner CMO Spend Survey Shows How Digital Budgets Will Increase In 2021
Within the next 18 to 24 months digital marketing budgets will return to business-as-usual levels, according to 57 percent of CMOs in recently-released survey data from Gartner, also showing 78 percent aggregate growth for digital ad budgets in the forecast for 2021. 44 percent also said that they face mid-year budget cuts this year due to the global health crisis. MediaPost

HubSpot: A Look Back at How COVID-19 Impacted Businesses in Q2
Up to 60 more sales team email has been sent during the pandemic, seeing open rates 18 percent above pre-COVID levels, with companies sending less email achieving the highest open rates — several of many finding of interest to digital marketers contained in newly-released report data from HubSpot’s weekly performance metrics. HubSpot

The 10 Traits B2B Buyers and Managers Value Most in Salespeople
42 percent of B2B buyers value active listening when it comes to interacting with salespeople, according to recently-released survey data from LinkedIn (client), while 38 percent value problem solving, 38 percent confidence, and 34 percent who said that they value relationship building skills. MarketingProfs

Addressing the B2B void between product data and online sales [Survey]
52.8 percent of B2B professionals expect to add voice-controlled search technology to their customer experience (CX) program within the next 12 months, according to newly-released report data, while 44.8 percent plan to add live chat, and 39 percent expect to install new augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technology. Digital Commerce 360

B2B Wannabes: Most Brands Have A Customer-Centricity Gap, Study Finds
71 percent of B2B brands have digital experiences that don’t meet customer expectations and needs, while 82 percent have implemented a digital transformation project — two of several statistics of interest to digital marketers contained in recently-released study data. MediaPost

Global Advertising Market Expected to Recover in 2021
2021 will see global advertising recovering from losses brought about due to the ongoing pandemic, with 2 percent overall digital advertising growth forecast, and video growth predicted at 10 percent and social at 7 percent, according to newly-released report data from Magna Global. Adweek

AppsFlyer: App Retargeting Conversions Jumped During Coronavirus Lockdowns
Owned and paid re-targeting conversions rose by 31 percent and 35 percent respectively between February and April, illustrating how app installations climbed during the initial periods of the global health crisis, according to recently-released app re-targeting report data. Adweek

Key Insights: B2B content marketing decoded, top marketing technologies, and AI spotlight
Demand for webinars has increased among B2B marketers during the global health crisis, with 76 percent of marketers seeing webinars as an increasingly successful method of driving leads, while the top B2B content types are eBooks, white papers and guides — two of numerous statistics of interest to digital marketers in recently-released B2B marketing survey data. ClickZ

LinkedIn introduces new retargeting tools
LinkedIn has expanded its retargeting feature set, with new tools for video advertising and lead generation among the latest virtual engagement additions at LinkedIn (client), the Microsoft-owned firm recently announced. TechCrunch

Twitter now lets you schedule tweets from its web app
Marketers looking for alternatives to how they schedule tweets now have the option to do so directly within Twitter itself. Twitter’s rollout of what had been solely a test feature that began in November also includes the ability to save draft tweets, the firm has announced. The Verge

Would People Rather Watch an Ad or Share Their Email Address?
U.S. consumers prefer watching an ad over offering up their email address, with nearly 75 percent saying that they would choose a 30 second ad in exchange for free content, while only 25.4 percent said that they would rather disclose their email information, according to newly-released report data. MarketingProfs

What B2B Buyers Want From Tech Vendors Right Now
55 percent of B2B buyers say it’s appropriate for marketing efforts to continue during these challenging times, and 53 percent are presently in the market for B2B products and services, with most of those having recent new purchasing interests, according to newly-released survey data. MarketingProfs

Programmatic Ad Spend Down 9% Since Beginning of 2020, Driven by Travel and Auto
Amidst an overall fall of 9 percent in April, ad spending for the technology vertical and the education and training segment were up 70 percent and 63 percent for the year, with streaming ad spend also up by some 18 percent, according to recently-released report data. Adweek

B2B Decision-Maker Survey: COVID-19’s Impact on Marketing, Buying, and Sales
65 percent of enterprise B2B buyers now view online interactions as being more important than traditional vendor conversations, one of several findings of interest to digital marketers contained in newly-released U.S. B2B pandemic response survey data. MarketingProfs

Facebook just bought Giphy
Facebook has acquired popular animated GIF image platform Giphy in a $400 million move that will likely bring deeper integration with both Facebook-owned Instagram and its messaging features, the social media giant announced.Engadget

LinkedIn Stories Is Almost Here: Will It Reinvent the B2B Social Media Landscape?
LinkedIn (client) has tested its variation of the popular ephemeral stories format. When rolled out to the Microsoft-owned platform’s 690 million users, LinkedIn Stories would bring B2B marketers on the platform a new digital storytelling tool option. MarketingProfs

COVID-19’s Impact on B2B Software Budgets
31 percent of B2B software buyers say they’ll spend less due to the pandemic, while 30 percent said that spending won’t be affected, according to recently-released survey data. Web conferencing, collaboration, and remote desktop software were the three top segments for expanded spending, the survey also noted. MarketingProfs

90% of people buy from brands they follow on social media, study says
Nine out of 10 people purchase from the brands they follow on social platforms, and the amount they spend climbed 12 percent from 2019 figures — two of numerous findings of interest to digital marketers contained in new report data. Just 23 percent of marketers use social media data for measuring return-on-investment (ROI), the report also noted. Mobile Marketer

How COVID-19 Is Impacting Business Event Planning
70 percent of business event planners have changed previously-planned in-person events to virtual platforms due to the pandemic, and 47 percent expect that once it ends people will still be hesitant to travel, with 27 percent expecting a swift uptick in real-world events due to pent-up demand, according to newly-released survey data from the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA). MarketingProfs

Google ad sales steady after coronavirus drop; Alphabet leads tech share rally
2020 first-quarter advertising sales at Google tallied $33.8 billion, with 73 percent coming from search and 12 percent from its YouTube property, and Google’s ad business accounting for some 83 percent of revenue for parent firm Alphabet, according to newly-released financial results. Reuters