CDP Institute

Few studies get into the statistically-valid details of first- vs third-party ad audience performance.  This joint Magna and Acxiom effort is an exception, randomly assigning members of each audience type to test and control groups and measuring the impact of pre-roll video ads on brand metrics.  The results were perhaps less impressive than the methodology: you probably could have guessed that first-party audiences contain more existing customers and third-party audiences, and both together yield higher results than either alone.

Like Tolstoy’s unhappy families, each study of AI adoption is a bit different.  Cisco offers many familiar findings, including the limits imposed by poor data and a gap between marketers’ interest in AI and actual deployment.  More helpful may be a readiness from framework that calls out strategy, infrastructure, data, governance, talent, and culture as dimensions.

For a change of pace, let’s check in on the tech regulation wars.  While the courts generally side with social media companies due to protections of the CDA Section 320, a U.S. District Court judge ruled this week that a coalition of families, teens, school districts and state attorneys general could continue a lawsuit alleging harm to teens by major social media platforms.  It’s an interesting crack in the Section 320 armor.

Acquia has expanded its digital experience platform to support optimization of websites, content, and digital engagement.  The new features are based on acquisition of Monsido, a website accessibility and optimization solution.  Acquia also expanded its footprint through new strategic partnerships with organic marketing platform Conductor and conversion optimization tool VWO.

Hello personalization lovers, wherever you are: time for your periodic reminder that affordability and quality are the most important loyalty drivers (each cited by 33% of consumers) while relevant or personalized offers rank dead last (1%).  Still, 40% in this Braze survey say a personalized experience is important.  Other mixed messages: just 16% are confident that brands use their personal data responsibly but 55% usually accept cookies while 71% deny tracking permission to apps.  ‘Tis a puzzlement.

Is YouTube accepting deep-fake content or restricting it? Both: YouTube announced it will require creators to label AI-generated content that realistically portrays events that never happened and people saying things they never said. YouTube is mostly relying on creators to be honest about labeling such content when they upload it, which seems unlikely to be effective. But it will also let people whose likenesses are copied to request the materials be removed.

Dynamic creative optimization (DCO) – that is, ads that change for each viewer – comes in many flavors, and this Digiday study for Clinch finds few marketers are using the most advanced options.  Only 20% create variations with AI vs 82% creating each version manually; only 32% use purchase history data vs 81% using individual demographics.   Lots more here on third-party cookie replacements, creative/data/media team alignment, and where DCO delivers value.

SaaS purchase cycles have grown from 32 days in 2020 to 44 days in 2023, according to data from Vendr.  Other measures are similarly grim: acquisition costs have more doubled, multi-year agreements are down, and stack consolidation means net new purchases have dropped from 30% of deals to 19%.  One bright spot if you’re a seller: prices are higher because they’re easier to raise when you’re selling a renewal.

Hero Digital offers the buyer’s perspective on B2B tech.  Getting good product information is the biggest headache in the research stage, while integrating with existing systems and processes is the biggest after-purchase pain point.  Sixty percent use a combination of platforms they’ve purchased and built in-house.  Top reasons for building include greater control over company processes (59%), greater process efficiency (47%), and wanting to offer a unique customer experience (39%).

This report on SaaS company benchmarks from OpenView Partners offers an intriguing snapshot into how businesses are adapting to hard times.  One impressive change is revenue per employee, which has zoomed up to 110% at median companies in different revenue classes and even more at top-performing firms.  Lots more here in product-led growth, acquisition costs, retention and expansion rates, spending and staff categories.

Speaking of product-led growth, Modus Create finds just 23% of companies always involve marketing in customer-facing digital product development, well behind executives (58%) and operations (54%), and even trailing finance (30%) and IT (29%).  You’ll be happier to hear that improved customer experience is the most common benefit expected from digital product projects (47%), trailed by data security (42%), return on tech investments (41%), and highest profitability (38%).

This GP Bullhound report offers ten tech predictions for 2024, officially kicking off the 2024 prediction season.  At least six relate to AI, but they also look at the growth of the private space industry (space as in astronauts, not WeWork), anti-money laundering, and carbon accounting.  Perhaps the riskiest prediction is that Apply will launch an ad-free search engine of its own.   Thought-provoking if not light reading.