Report: Mobile Ad Fraud Doubled In Q1 2018

BY

Though progress is being made in the fight against online ad fraud, less can be said for anti-fraud efforts on mobile platforms. According to mobile-measurement firm Adjust, rates of mobile fraud in Q1 2018 have almost doubled from a year ago.

According to the company’s research, which covered 3.4 billion app installs of a sample size of 20,000 different apps over the course of four months, at least 7 percent of paid app installs are fraudulent. The number could well be higher, given the possibility of fraudsters using schemes the company is unable to detect.

“Naturally, the fraud rates we see in active rejections only show the level of fraud prevented for advertisers who actually chose to protect themselves,” said Andreas Nauman, Adjust’s fraud specialist, in a statement to VentureBeat. “Yet the aggregate amount of preventable fraud is significantly higher. The number of unreported cases of advertisers being victims of mobile ad fraud is undoubtedly a much high number.”

Mobile developers may be losing out beyond just their advertising budgets, however. According to Adjust’s information, in-app purchases experience an even more significant amount of fraud than user acquisition, and with long-lasting consequences.

“Adjust figures suggest that 30 percent of attempted IAP spends on iOS are fake,” the report reads. “There’s a real chance that the marketing team could misidentify those users as valuable. This could mean that the company invests in a traffic source that provides a number of in-app cheaters or even creates a user persona that matches the personality of cheaters.”

Not only does app fraud harm advertisers’ bottom lines, it can also impact their user data. A fraudulent install or purchase doesn’t just mean wasted spend, but can result in strategic marketing decisions that can bring in even more fraud.

According to Adjust, it’s the responsibility of all players in the mobile advertising space to fight for better fraud-prevention tools.

“Although it’s advertisers who bear the brunt of fraud, poor quality attribution or technical difficulties, eradicating ad fraud is a challenge the whole industry should come together to solve,” the report reads.

IAB Advertising Revenue Report: Mobile Video Won Big In 2017

BY

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), in conjunction with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), have released their 22nd annual internet advertising revenue report, revealing the overall trends of the industry, demonstrating continual unchecked growth of the mobile space.

“Consumers are increasingly spending a tremendous amount of time with interactive screens and content–from mobile to desktop and audio to OTT–and brands are in lockstep with a growing commitment to digital ad buys,” said Randall Rothenberg, the IAB’s president and CEO. “Mobile captured more than half of the total digital ad spend last year and we can easily expect that share to continue to climb.”

Digital advertising revenues in the US totaled $88 billion for the full year of 2017, an increase by 21.4 percent over the full year of 2016. For the first time in the report’s 22-year history, digital ad revenue has surpassed the combined ad revenue for broadcast and cable television combined.

Mobile advertising revenue continued to grow, totaling $49.9 billion on 2017, an increase of 36.2 percent. The format now makes up 56.7 percent of all internet advertising revenue, though its growth rate is beginning to plateau.

The IAB attributes this growth in part to the lowering of risk to joining the advertising field, with self-service platforms allowing small- and medium-sized businesses to enter the space as well.

“Digital advertising’s evolution has greatly democratized the ability for all businesses, regardless of size and budget, to target audiences based upon geographies (location), demographics, psychographics, and behavior,” the report reads.

Digital video saw significant gains in revenue over 2017, especially on mobile, increasing by 54 percent from 2016. In 2017, mobile video spending passed desktop spending for the first time, hitting $6.2 billion, over desktop’s $5.7 billion.

“Smartphones and tablets have become indispensable tools in the hands of consumers, from the moment they wake up to right before they go to sleep,” said Anna Bager, executive vice president of industry initiatives for the IAB. “A double-digit uptick in spend on mobile video is a testament to both the pull of mobile and consumer’s never-ending demand for sight, sound, and motion—even while on the go.”

Mobile digital video seems to be shouldering mobile search out of its way, with the latter’s share of total ad spending dropping from 46 percent in 2016 to 44 percent in 2017.

Ticketmaster Considers Replacing Tickets With Facial Recognition

BY

For as significant as live experiences have been for both consumer and entertainment brands, data on in-person attendees has been paradoxically scarce. With an investment in and a partnership with event facial-recognition startup Blink Identity, LiveNation, Ticketmaster’s parent company, is trying to break into the black box of live event data.

“In the live music industry, the average fan buys between two to three tickets per transaction for a show,” writes Cherie Hu for Billboard. “But there is currently no widely-adopted method of determining who actually walks into the venue, or where those tickets go after that initial transaction—meaning that venues and ticketing companies have historically gathered accurate data only for around 1/3 to 1/2 of concertgoers.”

LiveNation, as revealed in its earnings report for Q1 2018, is hoping to address this data gap.

“It is very notable that today we announce our partnership with, and investment in, Blink Identity which has cutting-edge facial recognition technology, enabling you to associate your digital ticket with your image, then just walk into the show,” the company wrote in a statement.

While paper-free ticketing is a direct application of Blink Identity’s technology, LiveNation and Ticketmaster see other possible uses for such granular attendance data. In a statement to AListDaily, a Ticketmaster representative claims the facial recognition data will permit the company to gather information on individual attendees, opening all attendees up to personalized messaging, even in-venue.

“It’s part of what we’ve tried to redefine Ticketmaster as over the past several years. And one of the reasons why we do think it’s more successful now is, we’re willing to look at outside technologies, outside partners, how it is we can bring them in and enhance the overall fan experience, make things more effective for the venues,” said Michael Rapino, LiveNation’s CEO, on its earnings call. “Whether this becomes the solution for everything or whether this becomes interesting product for a number of clients is to be determined.”

Though some biometrics privacy laws bar companies from profiting from the information they collect (such as facial scans), Ticketmaster believes it can use the technology to build attendee profiles and provide them with relevant offers and product tie-ins.

Blink Identity’s facial recognition will be installed in Ticketmaster Presence systems at the company’s corporate buildings and several LiveNation venues to test its capabilities “soon.”

Google I/O 2018: Shoppable Photos, Playable Ads, Ignorable Notifications

BY

I/O 2018 the annual conference about all things Google, is in full swing for the next three days, and a number of announcements likely to shake up the marketer’s job description have come out of it already. Here’s what you need to know.

Google Lens Goes Shoppable

Though Google Lens, the company’s augmented reality camera app, has been publicly available for a year, Google is fully integrating the app into Android phone cameras, and adding a slew of new features as well.

Most prominent of Google’s additions to the Lens app is its real-time recommendation and shopping features. In the next few weeks, Android users will be able to scan objects like books, clothing and furniture to see reviews of the objects posted online, as well as a fully shoppable list of similar products.

“Much like voice, we see vision as a fundamental shift in computing and a multi-year journey,” said Rajan Patel, director of Google Lens. “We’re excited about the progress we’re making with Google Lens features that will start rolling out over the next few weeks.”

Though Google has not yet announced any plans to monetize the feature, it seems likely that marketers will be able to promote their own products through Lens in much the same way they can with Google search and Shopping.

App Ads Get Easier, Smarter

For app marketers, Google announced a trio of features designed explicitly to make ads for apps more effective.

The first allows app advertisers to retarget consumers with personalized content from the app itself, tying AdWords and app content together.

“70 percent of users decide whether to install an app based on how much they’ll use it,” said Sissie Hsiao, Google’s vice president of product and mobile app advertising. “To provide users more helpful information, we’ll launch a beta that allows developers to surface relevant app content within ads.”

For mobile games marketers, Google Play Instant is being expanded to allow users to play games directly through the ads themselves without needing to download anything or navigate through the Play store, easing the passage through the decision funnel.

Lastly, Google is standardizing its in-app ad viewability standards in conjunction with the IAB Tech Lab, cracking down on fraud and providing more reliable and scaleable measurement tools. Additionally, Google is providing native support for several rewarded-app metrics, including opt-in rate, consumption rate and rate of reward use.

“With these insights, developers can finetune their rewarded ads, addressing questions such as: ‘Do more users opt-in when the ad is shown after Level 1 or Level 4?’ ‘Which type of rewards do users prefer — coins or lives?’ ‘How often do people use their rewarded items?'” Hsiao writes.

Digital Wellbeing: Good For People, Bad For Marketers?

With concerns over the harmful effects of social platforms specifically and technology in general ever increasing, Google announced a substantive effort to ensure its tools promote “Digital Wellbeing,” which may well negatively affect the efforts of marketers.

“We’re dedicated to building technology that is truly helpful for everyone,” the company writes. “We’re creating tools and features that help people better understand their tech usage, focus on what matters most, disconnect when needed, and create healthy habits for the whole family.”

Google’s YouTube app already allows users to set custom “take a break” reminders, which will urge users to do something else after a set duration of video watching. Soon, however, this functionality will expand to all Android apps, which may well directly reduce the amount of ad impressions marketers can expect on Google phones.

Additionally, the Gmail Priority Inbox update will hide “nonessential communications,” such as marketing emails, to keep focus on personal communication. Furthermore, for both email and other apps that send notifications, Google will allow users to further customize when apps notify them, which, again, may lead to fewer ad impressions as users open apps less frequently.

Google Assistant Will Streamline Food Ordering In Latest Update

BY

Google Assistant will soon be able to place food and drink orders with brand partners like Starbucks, Domino’s Pizza, Dunkin’ Donuts and Panera.

During its annual I/O conference on Tuesday, Google announced several new updates to Google Assistant, including the ability to order food for pickup and delivery. These partnerships continue a growing trend of AI and Zero UI integration into the consumer experience.

Some partner restaurants including Starbucks and Panera have granted Google Assistant access to their third-party apps so that users place orders with a voice command. If you’re a creature of habit, Assistant will remember previous orders.

Google Assistant, including the AI found on Google Home devices, already communicates with multiple third-party apps like Domino’s Pizza and Dunkin’ Donuts with the command, “Hey Google, talk to [brand].” This new update will save time by recognizing a brand’s name in the command and speaking to the app directly such as “Hey Google, order my usual from Starbucks.”

Domino’s Pizza introduced ordering through Google Home back in 2016. In April, the company introduced “Dom,” an AI assistant that takes pizza orders over the phone.

Dunkin’ Donuts integrated Google Assistant into its mobile app beginning in March. Google did not specify how voice ordering updates might differ from its previous interactions, although the most likely answer is that consumers will be able to bypass the phrase “Hey Google, talk to Dunkin’.”

Google is also experimenting with Duplex—an Assistant skill that can place phone orders and make appointments with surprisingly human-like inflections.

Consumers will soon be able to use Google Assistant with more than just restaurants. Google’s AI can also speak with appliances connected to the Internet of Things.

Later this year, Google Assistant users will be able to control their Whirlpool smart appliances directly instead of asking Google to speak on their behalf. KitchenAid and Maytag brands—also owned by Whirlpool—will be enabled as well.

Additionally, Google Assistant is now live on LG’s AI TV lineup. Users can check the weather, ask questions and control home devices. Those with other Google Assistant devices can also send commands to the TV such as changing the channel or adjusting the volume.

Google I/O 2018 will continue through May 10.

Deadpool 2 Comes To 7-Eleven In Augmented Reality

BY

Combining standard movie-merchandise snack food branding with high-tech content marketing, 7-Eleven and Deadpool 2 are joining forces to bring “the merc with a mouth” to convenience stores nationwide.

“Our collaboration includes exclusive products and an amazing in-store augmented reality experience that is among the first of its kind at any retailer,” said Sean Thompson, 7‑Eleven’s senior vice president and chief customer officer, in a statement.

In addition to standard cobranding fare such as collectible Slurpee cups, a limited-time Slurpee flavor (Monster Mutant Red Dawn) and Deadpool-embossed chimichangas and sour candy, 7-Eleven is adding augmented reality features to its 7Rewards loyalty app.

“Fans can interact with Deadpool and have fun experiences in the 7‑Eleven app, unlocking different experiences each week exclusively in the stores nationwide and in Canada,” said Gurmeet Singh, 7-Eleven’s chief digital and information officer. “The fans will also be able to share their interactions with Deadpool inside a 7‑Eleven store with family and friends.”

The convenience store chain will place scannable codes, which it refers to as “zapcodes,” in its locations throughout North America, which users can scan to unlock as-yet unannounced interactive activities featuring the costumed anti-hero, with new ones promised as the film’s May 18 release date approaches.

Additionally, 7-Eleven is releasing a selfie filter on its loyalty app, promising users the ability to “watch the mad scribbler take over with his red marker.”

None of these AR activations require any sort of product purchases, or even relate to any products that 7-Eleven sells—the campaign hopes simply to drive up store visits.

To promote the partnership, the convenience store chain is making another first, playing video advertisements in movie theaters in 13 markets around the US.

Beyond the augmented reality features and movie merchandise, 7-Eleven promises additional content as Deadpool 2’s release date approaches.

“With Deadpool, you learn to expect the unexpected,” Thompson added. “7‑Eleven has a few more surprises planned as well, both inside and outside the store and when you least expect it. Stay tuned.”

Report: Adidas, Sports Apparel Dominate Social Media Brand Visibility

BY

After releasing its logo recognition platform in 2017, martech firm Brandwatch is showing off its capabilities, releasing a comprehensive report of brand visibility in social media in 2018. The biggest winner? Adidas.

According to Brandwatch’s “2018 Brand Visibility Report,” Adidas’ logo has appeared in 6.6 million Instagram and Twitter posts per between December 2017 and April 2018.

“To put that into context, that’s 154 new images every minute, or three new images every second,” the report reads.

The sportswear brand far and away leads its competition, with Nike, in second place, appearing in “just” 5.1 million posts per month, and bronze-medalist Google in a paltry 3.9 million posts.

Brandwatch’s findings found that tracking social media visibility can often be difficult for brands, especially when considering image spread.

“Every image included in this report contained a brand’s logo, but hardly any included a mention of the brand in the Tweet or post,” the report reads. “On average, only 20 percent of images contain written references.”

By breaking down its results by company revenue, Brandwatch reveals a handful of brands punching above their weight, earning broad social reach without the monolithic advertising budgets of Coca-Cola or McDonalds.

“Puma, Under Armor, BBC, Vans and Louis Vuitton, come out favorably, generating high volumes of images online despite relatively small revenues,” the report reads.

Brandwatch credits a variety of reasons for these underdog successes, such as BBC’s tendency to watermark all its content, Vans’ targeting of image-interested growing markets and Louis Vuitton’s focus on high-profile influencer strategy. For sports-sponsoring brands like Puma, small choices like placing its logo on jersey sleeves can lead to greatly improved brand visibility.

Athletic apparel brands like Puma and Adidas naturally have a leg up on social visibility. According to Brandwatch’s research, sports apparel logos appeared, on average, in three times as many images as the next-most-popular category, technology.

“Imagery changes dramatically based on the industry a brand is in,” the report reads.

Social visibility drops off precipitously from there, with sports apparel’s 3 million images per month average dropping to 1 million for technology, 800 thousand for entertainment and just 410 thousand for retail.

To compile its report, Brandwatch tracked 300 separate logos curated from the Fortune 500 and Interbrand’s Best Global brands, and over 100 million images posted on Instagram and Twitter between December 1, 2017, and April 1, 2018.

Snap Q1 2018 Earnings Call Promises Quality Over Quantity For Its Ad Products

BY

User stagnation and less-than-expected revenue growth marred otherwise good news during Snap’s Q1 2018 earnings call, as Snapchat’s developer exacerbated investor concerns over the poorly received app redesign with hints at further user-interface changes.

Snapchat’s average daily active users (DAUs) increased by only 2 percent over last quarter, hitting 191 million, while Snap CEO Evan Spiegel admitted that the company’s DAUs were even lower during the month of March, a problem the company fully owned was due to the app redesign.

“We have known for a long time that creating public-facing content is a very different behavior from interacting with close friends, which makes it challenging for both to exist successfully in the same ecosystem,” Spiegel declared.

Despite the redesign’s unpopularity, Snap is not done tinkering with its app’s user experience.

“We are now focused on optimizing the redesign based on our ongoing experimentation and learning,” Spiegel stated. “We are already starting to see early signs of stabilization among our iOS users as people get used to the changes, but still have a lot of work to do to optimize the new design, especially for our Android users.”

Snapchat’s executives were remarkably candid during the earnings call, owning up to the revenue consequences of the company’s controversial steps in the past quarter.

“We should have put Android first,” Spiegel admitted during the earnings call’s question-and-answer session. “We started rebuilding it [Snapchat] from scratch.”

Not all of Snapchat’s commentary on its Q1 earnings was negative, however. Total ad revenue increased by 62 percent year-over-year, reaching $229 million, according to Imran Khan, Snap’s chief strategy officer. This growth was driven predominantly by Snap Ad revenue, as Snapchat’s stagnant user growth has caused many brands to hold off on buying its Lens and Filter products.

“The rapid pace at which we changed the core product introduced increased volatility into our ads marketplace,” Khan said. “While we did not grow as quickly as we wanted, our Snap Ad revenue grew 102 percent year-over-year.”

Much of this increased ad revenue was a result of a large growth in advertiser volume, as Snapchat attempts to expand its programmatic self-service advertising tool to entice small businesses.

“Our self-serve products helped us increase the number of advertisers actively spending on our platform by twenty times over the past year, and we still have a lot of opportunity to expand from here,” Khan declared. “In Q1, both the average cost per app install and the average cost per swipe in the United States were well under half of what they were the year before, and we are continuing to make improvements.”

Due to Snap’s shift to programmatic platforms, advertisers are paying nearly 65 percent less for Snap Ads from Q1 last year, and achieving greater return on investment, with Snap Ad impressions increasing by 450 percent year-over-year.

“Quarter-over-quarter, for campaigns optimized for swipes, we increased our swipe rates by 8 percentage points, while also increasing total swipes by nearly 14 percentage points,” Khan continued. “We believe we can drive broader advertiser adoption and ultimately, a long-term, sustainable business.”

While these numbers look promising, Snap’s executives cautioned that they do not expect a major turnaround in the coming quarter.

“We are planning for our Q2 growth rate to decelerate substantially from Q1 levels, with growth in auction impressions,” said Drew Vollero, Snap’s chief financial officer.

The company reiterated its plans to release several other ad products, such as its Reach and Frequency tool, which will allow larger advertisers to plan and purchase ad space in advance, and Snap Pro, a premium service for advertisers and creators. However, “there’s still a lot of work to do to fully bring this tool to market” was a common refrain, and the company did not provide release windows for any of their planned updates.

Even with Snap’s growing ad revenue, significant layoffs and cost-cutting measures this quarter, the company still posted an almost $400 million loss over the quarter.

Apple Q2 Earnings Reflect Growth Outside US Markets

BY

Apple reported revenue of $61.1 billion for its second fiscal quarter in 2018, attributing growth to iPhone popularity and expansion in both China and Japan.

This was the best March quarter ever for Apple in terms of revenue, the company reported on Tuesday. Revenue increased 16 percent over the same quarter last year and quarterly earnings per diluted share were up 30 percent.

Solve For IPhone X

IPhone sales attributed to most of Apple’s income last quarter, at $38.03 billion. Apple CEO Tim Cook attributed the company’s success to its $1,000 iPhone X, which proved to be the most popular model in the month of March. Overall, the company sold 52.2 million iPhones, 9.11 million iPads and 4.08 million Mac computers.

Cook told investors that Apple grew revenue in all of its geographic segments, with over 20 percent growth in Greater China and Japan. This growth is reflected in Apple’s quarter revenue—22 percent originated from Japan and 21 percent from Greater China, compared to 17 percent in the Americas.

Q2 2018 marks the third quarter of growth in China after six quarters of double-digit declines. The iPhone X was the most popular iPhone model in China in the last three months.

Steady On The Services

Apple’s services revenue grew 31 percent in the March quarter to $9.2 billion. This category includes the App Store, Apple Care, Apple Pay, iTunes and cloud services.

Last year, Cook said that he wanted to double service revenue—$7.17 billion at the time—by 2020.

Privacy On Point

With Facebook under fire and GDPR around the corner, it’s no surprise that Cook was asked about Apple’s data collection practices.

“Privacy is a fundamental human right,” Cook replied, adding that Apple collects less data than others and keeps most of it, encrypted, on the phone itself.

From Data To Dating: Key Takeaways From Facebook’s F8 Conference

BY

F8, Facebook’s annual developers conference is addressing privacy concerns while touting new features, VR offerings and an internet famous dog—here’s what you need to know.

Customer Control Will Trump Ad Targeting

Facebook users will soon be able to clear their history of activity tracked by the company just like clearing browser history. The “Clear History” tool will display information about apps and websites users have interacted with and allow users to clear and effectively reset that information or opt out of tracking altogether.

Zuckerberg warned in a Tuesday Facebook post that clearing history will deliver less relevant information to users.

“To be clear, when you clear your cookies in your browser, it can make parts of your experience worse, he said. “You may have to sign back into every website, and you may have to reconfigure things. The same will be true here. Your Facebook won’t be as good while it relearns your preferences.”

The tool is limited to Facebook users and Zuckerberg’s announcement did not address how the site tracks those who do not use the site at all, much less what non-users can do to control their data.

Dating And Conversation

Zuckerberg said that despite the challenges ahead, Facebook will “keep building and bringing the world closer together.”

Facebook announced a new opt-in dating feature that only suggests other Facebook users who are not already friends. The tool will allow users to build separate dating profiles that use first names only, which will be hidden from regular friends and news feeds.

A dedicated inbox for dating messages won’t allow photos, Facebook chief product officer Chris Cox explained—a relief for anyone who has ever received unsolicited photos of the NSFW variety. Facebook hopes its dating app will foster relationships over casual hook-ups, which may also explain the no photo policy.

In a move that mimics Twitch, a feature called “live commenting” will allow users to comment in real-time alongside Facebook videos.

One of the problems of online interaction is the prevalence of hate speech and bullying. Facebook is privately testing a new feature that automatically blocks certain comments and allows users to report abusive behavior. A bug pushed the feature live for a limited time on Tuesday, momentarily bringing awareness to its existence.

All In For AR And VR

Standalone headset Oculus Go launched on Tuesday, retailing for $199 compared to the existing $399 Oculus which requires a high-end PC. Oculus Go launches with over 1,000 games and experiences, including Oculus TV and Venues, which allows users to hang out with friends at live events.

WhatsApp will soon offer video calls and tools for businesses to use the platform as a service. AR camera tools will potentially enhance these calls and continue to rival Snapchat.

New AR features for Instagram were demonstrated by petfluencer JiffPom. The famous little dog has over eight million followers on Instagram alone.

A New Age Of Accountability

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stage on Tuesday and wasted no time in addressing concerns that have dominated recent headlines, from data privacy to election interference. Zuckerberg adopted a positive approach to the problems his company has faced, even using his recent US Congress testimony as a joking way to introduce group video interaction.

“We are all here because we are optimistic about the future,” said Zuckerberg in his keynote speech. “We have real challenges to address but we have to keep that sense of optimism too. What I learned this year is we have to take a broader view of our responsibility.”

Facebook recently purchased a full-page print ad in the US and UK in March that apologizes for data leaks amid the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The headline reads, “We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we can’t, we don’t deserve it.”

A video “apology” was also issued last week that gets specific about how users enjoyed Facebook in the beginning, but paints user concerns with a broad brush, referring to ads, fake news and other issues as “something” that “happened” rather than taking direct responsibility. Zuckerberg’s statements during F8 indicate that he—and by extension, Facebook—is starting to realize the global impact it has on its users.