Digital Marketing News: Facebook Teases Ad-Free Subscriptions, Google Tests SERP Questions, & Online Ad Spend Jumps

Digital Ad Spending Graph eMarketer Facebook Weighs Ad-Free Subscription Option
Facebook is considering an ad-free paid subscription option for users, and has recently conducted market research on how such an plan would go over at the company, which brought in the vast majority of last year’s revenue of $41 billion from ad sales. Bloomberg Instagram quietly launches payments for commerce
Instagram has been testing its own direct payment system among certain app users and partners, in a move that could increase the firm’s native payment footprint. TechCrunch Google Tests Submitting Question Directly In Search Results
Google has recently tested question forms within search results that allow users to submit questions directly by text or voice to the Internet giant and its various publisher partners. SEO Roundtable eMarketer Releases New Global Media Ad Spending Estimates
Digital advertising totals could surpass spending on all other media types by 2020 or 2021, according to new report data from eMarketer, rising from this year’s predicted 43.5 percent to 49.9 percent in 2020 and 52.1 percent in 2021. eMarketer Microsoft and Amazon Show Alexa and Cortana Becoming Friends
Marketers in the Microsoft Cortana and Amazon Alexa voice-controlled personal assistant arena will soon find it easier to work with both platforms, as the firms recently demonstrated a mashup combining the two competing systems. Bloomberg Facebook is using Instagram photos and hashtags to improve its computer vision
Facebook has utilized Instagram photos and hashtags to make a better image recognition system, which could ultimately help marketers save time and reach wider audiences through so-called weakly supervised learning. VentureBeat eMarketer Global Ad Spend Stat May 2018 Google Webmaster Report
Google made a multitude of changes in recent weeks, from mobile search prominence and algorithm adjustments to local search and SEO changes, and many are compiled and covered here. SEO Roundtable For all the hype about VR, advertisers are more excited by AR (for now)
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) at companies including Facebook and Snapchat have competed for advertising spend, with brands favoring AR recently. DigiDay What Marketers Should Know About Personality-Based Marketing
Harvard Business Review has taken a close look at personality-based marketing and the research behind the evolving field. Harvard Business Review Podcasts: Who’s Listening, and What It Means for Marketers (Infographic)
The number of podcast listeners and related advertising spending were both up and trending towards sizable growth, according to a variety of new study data from IAB, Rakuten Marketing, and podcast ranking firm Podtrac. eMarketer ON THE LIGHTER SIDE: Influencer Fatigue Marketoonist Cartoon A lighthearted look at influencer fatigue, by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist Here Are The Most Amazing Flying Car Designs Featured At Uber’s Elevate Conference — Fast Company Commodore 64 owners rejoice: The 1541 is BACK — The Register TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

Lee Odden — Looking to Reach Prospects? Consider Going Micro — Chief Marketer
Lee Odden — Lee Odden to speak at Indian Digital Marketing Awards (video) — exchange4media

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