Reality check: social commerce is more appealing to companies than users.  SimplicityDX reports that 48% of consumers consider social media a great place to learn about products, but 71% prefer to make their purchases directly on a brand site.  One big reason is 53% don’t trust social networks with their personal data.  Buying on social also raises concerns about accurate in-stock information, customer service, and returns.

For the first time ever, more than half (53%) of the marketers answering MMA Global’s State of Attribution survey said they’re using multi-touch attribution (MTA).  Users report an 8% return on investment increase from MTA and 71% say it’s a critical part of their measurement toolkit, along with media mix models and experiments.  But many are concerned that tracking restrictions with make the necessary data less available.

With CDP vendors increasing their workforces by 3.4% in six months, compared with an average of 0.2% each six months over the prior two years, the sector seems to be growing again, according to our own semi-annual industry update. There is much talk of composable CDPs but they still employ no more than 5% of the sector workforce. What is a clear trend is the acquisition of independent CDPs by vendors interested in adding a CDP to a larger system (usually an activation system).