Google announced a range of advertising improvements at its Google Live conference.  Changes include Zapier integration for CRM connections, expanded cross-channel attribution analytics and testing, auto-created responsive search ads, and connected TV campaigns targeted against affinition, in-market, and demographic audiences.  Several other goodies too, if you’re interested.

Just over half of consumers (54%) like to receive personalized messages because they show the consumers are known to the brand, plus they can be time savers. The rest (46%) find it at best unimportant, at worst creepy. Relevance far outstrips personalization when it comes to driving email opens (54% vs. 19%). Takeaway: treat each customer the way they prefer.