Social Media

A survey in May 2024 suggested that 5.04 billion people use social media around the world, which is about 62.3% of the population. That proportion increases to 70.1% when looking at just the United States; your target audience most likely spends some time on social media, so you need to be there as well. The Genius Monkey platform is designed to follow your ideal audience wherever online they go, including social media.

Google Found Guilty of Antitrust Behavior… Again! In September 2024, the Department of Justice won their lawsuit against Google, alleging that the tech giant was exhibiting antitrust behaviors in their search advertising business. Google was declared a monopoly, but the punches didn’t stop there. The DOJ later took Google to court again over monopolistic actions in their adtech enterprises, and we now have a ruling on the side of the DOJ for this case.

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.

Gen Z is growing up; they’ve been the transition generation for some time, and now more than half of them have reached adulthood. As their purchasing potential grows, it’s time to take notice of how, on what, and where the iGen spends their money so you can know how to better speak to their wants and needs. Let’s take a look at the data so you understand the youngest generation of adults and how their buying brains think.

It isn’t every day that we get brand-new social media that’s immediately worth paying attention to. Yet here we are; Instagram (and therefore Meta) have released the new app Threads, a text-based feed that’s been drumming up a lot of buzz. But lots of social apps appear, stir up interest, and die; does Threads have the staying power to become a major player? Let’s go over the important details:

Let’s talk about TikTok. You may love it, you may hate it, or you may just be confused. This video app grew to popularity in early 2020 and had its fair share of controversy. But there’s no doubt about it—TikTok is one of the most-used mobile apps ever. It’s addictively fun, with an algorithm that can predict exactly what kind of video you’ll most enjoy. But does that mean you need a TikTok account, and most importantly, do you need to advertise there?

Consumers have grown increasingly accustomed to using their mobile devices to research products and make purchases, spending a large portion of their day using their phones. On average, smartphone users in 2019 spent three and a half hours per day on their mobile devices, with nearly a third of users reporting near continual time spent online. At the same time, the number of U.S. adults owning a smartphone has rapidly grown, from 35% in 2011 to 85% in 2021.

With the release of iOS 14, Apple is making yet another big privacy-focused upgrade to iOS. One where users can choose to hide their device’s ID from apps so it can’t be tracked. Something many advertisers, particularly Facebook, aren’t happy about. But despite the uproar of Facebook and a handful of other social giants, there are certain programmatic advertising platforms who aren’t bothered by the privacy news at all. Why?

When the pandemic forced billions of people to stay home earlier this year, over-the-top (OTT) media skyrocketed as consumers began streaming more video content than ever before. This wasn’t entirely surprising, though. With video streaming revenue expected to grow to $30.4 billion by 2024, OTT has been a marketing go-to for several years. But there’s an often-overlooked OTT video platform that’s held strong and steady despite the turbulence of 2020, and continues to climb even still: mobile video ads.

During this time of COVID-19, our portable devices have been somewhat of a lifeline to the outside world, as so many people have been ordered to stay in place during the global pandemic. Needless to say, this has brought about increased mobile use. In other words, the time spent on our smartphones and tablets has risen drastically. Changes in mobile use Over the past year, some of these trends were expected, and were already manifesting themselves before the global pandemic hit the U.