All that investment must mean that somebody is buying martech, right? Sure enough, Merkle found that more marketers (32%) would invest extra budget in data, analytics and tech than in media, content, or staff. Not coincidentally, about one-third report major improvements in conversion rates after implementing personalization.
It’s Friday, so let’s just sneak in some bad news while you’re not paying much attention. We’ll start with a study from location intelligence company Location Sciences, which found that up to 65% of location-based ad spend is mistargeted. More precisely, 29% of the ads are delivered outside the target area while 36% rely on IP address, which is not accurate. Oh, and 36% of top GPS-enabled apps display location fraud.
Retailers may be realizing that personalization isn’t as powerful as conventional wisdom suggests. OneMarket found the most common use for customer identity systems is to verify eligibility for targeted discounts, while personalized product recommendations ranked last. A surprisingly high 29% said they could tie ad impressions to subsequent behavior in physical, Web, and mobile apps. Much more here on the topic.
The U.S. Senate has passed a bill that could potentially ban TikTok in the U.S. if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, does not sell its holdings within a year. The bill now goes to the President Biden, who has said he will sign it. Court challenges are likely to follow.