As a marketer in this day and age (as well as marketers from yesteryear), you will most likely agree that one of the most important elements of spreading the good word is to know your target audience well enough to determine what it is that they want and need. Once this is accomplished – deliver it! If this is done, your targeted audience members will be willing to give you what YOU need … their business.

The researchers at Google are as dedicated at watching shoppers as avid bird watchers are at tracking down the ever-so-rare Helmeted Hornbill. This year, Google is scouting out the holiday Bargain Hunters – who they are, where they shop, and how to reach out to them during this festive (and active) season. More than half of all Bargain Hunters shop using a smartphone – even when they are in the store 60% of these Bargain Hunters’ online purchases are made with a mobile device A large percentage of Bargain Hunters are millennial dads between their late 20s and 30s 96% of these millennial dads said that they had searched online for the items they were looking for 1 in 3 of these millennial dads indicates that he would prefer to do all his shopping during the four days of mad shopping … Black Friday through Cyber Monday Of these four-day Bargain Hunters, 70% said they bought because the item was on sale Who are the Bargain Hunters?

A significant landmark was formed when, just in the first half of 2018, US advertisers spent just under $50 billion, which is an all-time high for the ad industry. To put this in perspective, that figure indicates a YOY increase of 23%, and shows no signs of slowing down! This, according to the Internet Advertising Revenue Report by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). Last year at the same time, the figures were at $40.

Anyone who has ever done any road-traveling here in the U.S. has surely seen multiple signs for businesses that claim to have the “world’s best” coffee, or the “nation’s best” doughnuts, or the “best burgers” in the state … you get the picture. So how can one be confident that what they would get by ordering from one of these establishments that boasts of having the “best” of anything is really, truly the absolute “best?

Retargeting is like a bullet that ricochets off of a boulder and comes back at you, only it’s not really a bullet … it’s more of a reminder. You know, just in case you forgot or failed to purchase an item that should have been purchased. It’s like getting a second, third or fourth chance for redemption. Here are a few reasons why: 3 out of 5 US buyers notice ads for products they’ve viewed on different sites 30% of consumers have a positive reaction to retargeted ads, 11% do not like them, while 59% are apathetic towards them Email retargeting CTRs are 3-5% higher with upsells Retargeted ads can increase branded search exposure by 1,000% or more The average CTR for retargeted ads is 10x that of display ads In part one of this article, we pointed out the fact that retargeting has proven to be a very effective method of increasing sales, and that it’s imperative that you know your audience, and their needs.

Retargeting is a way to connect with people who, based on their digital actions, previously interacted with your website or mobile app. It allows you to strategically position your ads in front of these audiences as they browse online, thus helping you increase your brand awareness, or to remind those audiences to make a purchase. With retargeting, marketers are able to display their ads to consumers who abandoned a cart, made a purchase or bounced from a website.

Collaborative Marketing is the process of sharing or combining resources in order to increase leads, brand, and influence. Consumers who saw brand and product-focused ad creatives were 102% more likely to purchase a particular product than those who only saw a product ad. People who saw “Explore Now” brand ads and “Shop Now” ads that were focused on e-commerce were 75X more likely to convert than those who only saw the brand message.

As all marketers know, there are two key metrics that are near and dear to their bottom lines — reach and frequency. Reach is a result of the proliferation of smart speakers (otherwise known as voice assistants), and the frequency of use translates into regular consumer engagement. The vast world of marketing is still trying to determine how to optimize for this new technology. In the interim, here are some statistics about what we’re already experiencing with voice search and how it’s affecting the market.

In the 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, the computer named Heuristic ALgorithmic (HAL) was endowed with a great deal of artificial intelligence (AI). Not to spoil the ending, but things didn’t turn out so well with ol’ HAL. He went rogue and became the bad guy. This is not an uncommon fear when it comes to the subject of artificial intelligence. In a speech at the South by Southwest tech conference, Elon Musk issued warnings about AI.

Since the beginning of advertising, marketers have been on the hunt for data. It’s no longer an effort to find it … in fact, there’s so much of it out there, many brands don’t know how to handle it in mass quantities. 33% of elite marketers say that having the right technology for data collection and analysis is the most useful in understanding the needs of customers The frontrunners of the advertising industry are 56% more apt to tell you that decisions backed by data are superior to those based on a gut feeling or prior experience Leading advertisers are 33% more likely to say that strategy is what defines how they integrate data (and other related technology) into their marketing 88% of marketers surveyed use data obtained by 3rd parties in order to enhance their understanding of each customer According to Forbes, 66% of marketing data is used to better focus on targeting offers, messages and content Companies that adopt data-driven marketing are 600% more likely to be profitable year over year In order to take full advantage of the onslaught of information, marketers today must take on new data strategies for improved marketing.