B2B marketers are struggling to produce enough content amid the pandemic
35 percent of B2B marketers have trouble producing the content needed to reach and engage audiences, while 68 percent are confident with their approach to content marketing, and only some 8 percent said they were able to attribute return on investment (ROI) to their content plan, according to recently-released survey data. The Drum

Google Launches Updated Google Analytics, Including Improved Reporting and Data Tracking Options
Google has given a significant overhaul to its popular Google Analytics website traffic analysis platform, adding a smarter artificial intelligence (AI)-infused approach including new insights such as churn probability and a variety of additional new predictive metrics, the search giant recently announced. Social Media Today

WordPress can now turn blog posts into tweetstorms automatically
WordPress has rolled out a new feature that allows entire posts created in the content management system to be shared and discussed on Twitter, including accompanying images and video, with support for multiple Twitter accounts, the firm recently announced. TechCrunch

Facebook & Instagram Drop Support For WordPress Embeds
Facebook and its Instagram platform will both cease supporting the traditional and widespread form of WordPress embedding, as unauthenticated embeds won’t work after an October 24 API update — a change aimed at driving publishers to create Facebook Developer accounts and use the oEmbed embedding format, Facebook announced recently. Search Engine Journal

Marketers Got Hyper-Relevant Advertising Messages Wrong, Study Finds
Brands achieve a 26.7 percent higher chance of gaining new customers when they target using a goal-driven advertising message mindset compared to an item-driven one, according to recently-released survey data that points out possible consequences of overly-specific ad targeting. MediaPost

Google Podcasts Manager shows you search impressions and clicks from Google Search
Google has launched a podcast performance monitoring and reporting system — Google Podcasts Manager — that shows how people find podcasts and what their listening habits are, among other new podcast-related data, Google recently announced. Search Engine Land

2020 October 16 Statistics Image

Key Takeaways From Congress’ Digital Competition Report
Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google are being urged to implement changes that would promote increased interoperability when it comes to digital advertising, and Adweek takes a look at some of the findings from the nearly 450-page U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust Subcommittee report. Adweek

YouTube Tests Product Tags in Selected Creator Videos as Part of Larger Shift Towards eCommerce
YouTube has begun testing interactive product tags within certain videos, including new integration with Shopify that could lead to more streamlined clickable products within video content, the video giant recently announced. Social Media Today

Google Assistant Opens, Searches, Completes Functions In Mobile Apps Using Voice
Google has enhanced its Google Assistant service with new voice search features for users of Android apps, including functionality to post to social media platforms, the firm recently announced. MediaPost

Performance Marketing Budgets to Increase as Marketers Chase ROI
42 percent of B2B marketers plan to increase budgeting for performance marketing initiatives by up to 20 percent over the next year, and 18 percent say they will increase those budgets by over 20 percent — two of several items of interest to digital marketers in recently-released survey data. MarketingCharts

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:

2020 October 16 Marketoonist Comic

A lighthearted look at “product choice overload” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist

Coworker’s Sly Smile In Zoom Meeting Suggests Separate Chat Happening Right Now — The Onion

TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

  • Lee Odden — Roundup Debate on why people follow influencers — DearMishuDad
  • Lee Odden — The Employees as Influencers – Insights from Adobe — Jason Falls
  • Nick Nelson — 10 Important Building Blocks for Small Business Success — Small Business Trends
  • Lee Odden / TopRank Marketing — The State of B2B Influencer Marketing [Research] — V3Broadsuite

Have you found your own top marketing stories from the past week of industry news? Please let us know in the comments below.

Thank you for taking the time to join us for the weekly B2B marketing news, and we hope that you will come back again next Friday for another look at the most relevant B2B and digital marketing industry news. In the meantime, you can follow us at @toprank on Twitter for even more timely daily news.

The post B2B Marketing News: B2B Marketers Face Rising Content Demands, Google’s Mobile Voice Assistant, Performance Marketing Budgets Grow, & The Hyper-Relevant Ad Balancing Act appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog – TopRank®.