B2B Marketing News: B2B Digital Ad Spend Soars, Digital Engagement Changes, LinkedIn Scraps Stories, Google Pays Apple $15Bn

Marketers’ Use of Digital Engagement Tactics
A new report from Salesforce shows that 9 in 10 marketing leaders believe that their digital engagement strategy has completely (48%) or somewhat (42%) changed since before the pandemic. Which tactics are they using? Social media (91%), digital ads (91%), digital content (88%), website and apps (86%), email (76%) and mobile (69%). MarketingCharts The Hybrid Future: How B2B Events Are Evolving
Most marketers say hybrid B2B events, which incorporate both online and in-person elements, will become more common in the coming years, according to recent research from ON24. 79% of B2B marketers say hybrid events provide more data than purely in-person events. MarketingProfs Publishers are much less worried about the coming cookie changes than brands and agencies
Several months of preparation for the coming cookie-pocalypse appear to have brought publishers some peace of mind. They have not had quite the same effect on brands and agencies, according to Digiday+ research. 85% of brands are worried about measurement, a view shared by just 49% of agencies and 40% of publishers, survey shows. Digiday Instagram is Removing Swipe-Up Links for Stories, Replacing the Function with Link Stickers
As part of its ongoing effort to improve Stories interaction, Instagram is making a change to the way that external links are shared within Stories frames, with the current ‘Swipe up’ links to be removed from the process entirely, and replaced by its new ‘Link’ sticker option instead. Social Media Today New Consumer Protection Legislation Is Making Zero-Party Data an Imperative for Brands
Brands that embrace ethical and transparent practices with respect to consumer privacy and consumer data will be in a much more advantageous position going forward. And that’s where zero-party data (ZPD) becomes an important tool for brands moving forward: it provides essential personalization while still respecting consumer privacy. CPO Magazine Marketing Transformation Statistic LinkedIn is scrapping its Stories feature to work on short-form video
LinkedIn announced it will suspend its Stories feature and begin working on a different way to add short-form videos to the platform. “Turns out, you want to create lasting videos that tell your professional story in a more personal way and that showcase both your personality and expertise.” Liz Li, Senior Director of Product at LinkedIn. TechCrunch Google to Pay Apple $15 Billion to Remain Default Safari Search Engine in 2021
t’s long been known that Google pays Apple a hefty sum every year to ensure that it remains the default search engine on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Now, a new report from analysts at Bernstein suggests that the payment from Google to Apple may reach $15 billion in 2021, up from $10 billion in 2020. 9toMac US B2B Digital Advertising Market Seeing Rapid Growth
Last year, eMarketer estimated that growth in US B2B digital advertising would be close to 23% over 2019. It turns out that it actually grew by a whopping 32.5% year-over-year (y-o-y) to reach $8.68 billion. This year, estimates put growth at 24.9%, with B2B advertisers spending $10.84 billion on digital ads. MarketingCharts TikTok is Reportedly Testing 5-minute Videos
If you’re still getting used to TikTok’s longer, three-minute videos that rolled out to the masses last month, buckle up for this possible update. The company is reportedly testing videos that are up to five minutes long, according to social media commentator Matt Navarra. CNet Twitter Publishes New Twitter Ads Checklist to Help Guide Your Approach
Twitter has published a new one-page checklist of all the key considerations for effective tweet ad campaigns, including hashtag notes, media attachment tips and targeting pointers. The checklist is an extension of Twitter’s recently published Agency Playbook, a 41-page guide that covers all aspects of Twitter marketing. Social Media Today Google Page Experience Update is Now Rolled Out
Google confirmed that it completed the page experience update rollout today. This includes the updates to the Top Stories carousel on mobile search but the Google News app changes won’t be done for a week, say Google reps. Search Engine Land ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:
Tom Fishburne Every Brand Onion “The Brand Onion often says more about the marketing team than it does about the brand. They can be self-indulgent, inflexible, full of jargon, indistinguishable from others, and they often over-inflate the role of the brand in actual people’s lives.” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist Have you found your own B2B marketing news item from the past week of industry news? Please drop us a line in the comments below. Thanks for taking the time to join us for this week’s TopRank Marketing B2B marketing news, and we hope that you will return next Friday for more of the week’s most relevant B2B and digital marketing industry news. In the meantime, you can follow us at @toprank on Twitter or on LinkedIn or even more timely updates about what’s happening in the B2B marketing world.