CDP Institute

Informatica has launched a pair of free and pay-as-you-go data integration services aimed at companies that want to bring “power of data to the masses.” This makes them an interesting new passenger on the product-led-growth bandwagon, as well as positioning them to take advantage of self-service access to cloud data stores. So many buzzwords, so little time!

“Artificial intelligence” – perhaps you’ve heard of it? It’s no longer news when a company offers an AI-based product, but automatically creating advertising assets still is worth a whisper. Google has opened a public beta test for its tool to do that for search ads, based on materials the AI finds on the client’s landing page, website, existing advertisements and ad group keywords. Remember: good artists borrow, great artists steal.

How can we talk about buzzwords and not mention data clean rooms? LiveRamp doesn’t use the term in its announcement of “secure and flexible data collaboration capabilities for cross-screen measurement across multiple partners”, but it sounds like one to me. Companies can securely share their data with each other and can enhance it with LiveRamp partner data sets for things like ad exposures and purchases.

Consumers continue to love TikTok but governments increasingly worry it is sharing their data with Chinese agencies. On another front entirely, it seems that TikTok advertisers are worrying brand safety. The company just announced integrations with DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science (IAS), and Zefr to help ease those pains.

Advertisers may worry about what’s surrounding their ads, but consumers are more annoyed by the ads themselves. Optimove found that 66% of consumers want fewer marketing messages. You won’t be surprised that relevant messages are more welcome than irrelevant ones.

If you’re surprised that consumers prefer relevant messages, Jamie from our Department of the Obvious offers this IAS report. It finds that 64% of consumers define relevant ads as featuring products they want or need, 35% are annoyed by ads that don’t relate to the surrounding content, and they’re 16% more responsive when ads do relate to that content.

For no obvious reason, it’s all financial news from Europe today, Dear Reader. We’ll start with Helsinki-based Nosto, which calls itself the “world’s leading Commerce Experience Platform”, although they don’t say by what measure. They just announced a $16 million funding round, which brings total funding to $48.8 million.

Next we have Factor Eleven, based in presumably-lovely Giessen, Germany. Their bold claim is to offer ad buyers a “true alternative to Google and Facebook on the Open Internet”. I found no mention on their website of being purchased by the Amira Investment Holding compan, but advisor GP Bullhound broke the news while tooting its own horn.

Do all European firms make excessive claims? Paris-based Equativ (formerly Smart AdServer) positions itself as “the only independent advertising alternative to GAFAM, supporting the Open Web”. They really should get out more. Maybe they’ll have time now that they’ve finished selling a majority stake to private equity firm Bridgepoint.

Not all AI news relates to ChatGPT and its generative AI cousins. Google Performance Max has been using AI for years to optimize search ad placement, claiming an 18% higher conversion rate than manual placements. They recently added campaign-level brand exclusions, expanded comparative performance testing, new video editing tools, and enhanced reporting.

Other Google news is less positive. The company has not-very-subtly registered its opposition to a Canadian law requiring that it pay news outlets for using their materials by running a “test” that blocks some users’ access to Canadian news sites. Meta tried something similar in Australia last year with predictably poor results.

While we’re beating up on Google, let’s mention this Mozilla study that found almost 80% of 40 popular Google Play Store apps showed a discrepancy between their Google Data Safety Form and actual privacy policy. The differences were serious in 40% of the apps tested. The study also criticizes Google policies including reliance on self-reporting by app developers and loopholes such as failing to require reports of sharing data with “service providers”.