#Data Reporting

2024 has been a year of seismic shifts in social media– none more dramatic than the potential ban of TikTok in the United States. While the app was temporarily reinstated, users and brands are scrambling to explore alternatives. Which platforms will rise to take TikTok’s place? Let’s dive into some of the frontrunners and explore how they might impact your marketing strategy. The Background Behind the Ban In July 2024, the Biden administration signed a divest-or-get-banned law targeting TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, which was deemed a national security issue for its popularity, the data it collects, and its association with the Chinese government.

This week, Genius Monkey is taking a look at the trends that we expect to continue into this year so you can be prepared for what the industry is likely to become. From an emphasis on first-party data to a TikTok-shaped void in social media advertising, there’s a lot to dive into: The Increasing Importance of First-Party Data In 2024, Google announced that it would, in fact, NOT depreciate third-party cookies in Chrome.

Connected television (CTV) has stood out as the black sheep of the programmatic family for a while, featuring the lowest total ad spend and the trickiest audience tracking of all mediums. Early rumblings in the industry and consumer habits have convinced Genius Monkey for some time that CTV is a slumbering giant, waiting for the right moment to awaken and take the digital ad industry by storm. That day is quickly approaching, and it’s time for advertisers to take note.

The holiday season is undoubtedly the biggest time of consumer spending in the entire year. If you play your marketing cards right, you’re likely to experience an influx of new customers buying from you for the first time. For all the revenue the holiday season creates, those new customers are the true prize that can help your business grow – if you can convince them to stick around. Plenty of articles will tell you how to optimize your marketing to get as many customers as possible during the holidays; today we’re looking at what you can do AFTER the season to retain their business and further build your customer base.

Google has found itself in hot water this year, and the punches keep coming. Hundreds of entities have lined up to sue the tech giant over the years, but a hit finally landed when a federal judge ruled Google a monopoly in September of this year. Further lawsuits have followed, and advertisers await with baited breath to see what comes of all this. Let’s do a quick check-in on the two major cases the Department of Justice has filed against Google and Alphabet.

Industry staples like display, video, and OTT have been in place for some years, but there’s a looming shadow on the horizon; a massive media powerhouse that has only begun to dip its toes into everything digital advertising has to offer: gaming. No longer a niche medium, video games have gone mainstream and reach a worldwide audience of 3.32 billion players. A recent report from Comscore highlights just how large and diverse the gaming audience has become; it’s not just kids playing games these days.

In a stunning turn of events, Google has reversed the decision to remove third-party cookies from the Chrome internet browser. The “death of the cookie” has been top-of-mind for many years for its potential impact on digital advertising; what does this mean for the future of digital advertising? Are cookies going to stay for good? Let’s take a look at the entire picture to understand what this breaking announcement means for your advertising.

GA4’s Report Card; Consumers are Missing Universal Already Digital marketing turned a corner in July 2023 when Universal Analytics rode into the sunset and GA4 stood up to take its place. Genius Monkey covered the major difference between UA and GA4 in in a July 2023 article. Now – after one whole year of nothing but GA4 – how does the new system hold up compared to Universal Analytics? Short answer: not great.

In early 2023, a startup called Telly boldly declared its intention to revolutionize the television industry. Many took notice because the founder and CEO is Ilya Pozin, the former CEO of the wildly successful Pluto TV streaming platform. Even more stand-out was the novel approach to selling televisions: giving them away at no charge. The basic premise is to sell ad space on the TV that subsidizes the cost of the panel itself.

Wherever services can be exchanged for money, you’ll find not-so-great artists trying to make as much money with as little effort as possible. Made-for-advertising sites are a barely-legal scam that everyone recognizes when they see it, but it’s still going to eat up around $20 billion dollars in ad spend this year. How does this happen, and – more importantly – how can you minimize its impact on your business?