Digital Marketing News: Influencer Marketing Grows, Personalization In B2B, Facebook’s Shrinking Ad Size, LinkedIn’s Record Engagement & More

B2B Buyers Demand Personalization Above All Else, Study Finds
B2B buyers place the highest value on personalization, according to a newly-released report based on a survey of some 1,000 B2B leaders, which also showed that 30 percent make more than half of their purchases using digital platforms, up significantly from 15 percent in 2017. MediaPost

Influencer marketing spend grows 83%
Influencer marketing spending in the U.S. and Canada has seen 83 percent year-over-year growth, accompanied by second-quarter spending of $442 million, according to newly-released research data of interest to marketers. The Drum

How Will Twitter’s Redesign Impact Social Media Managers?
Twitter recently updated its desktop design to more closely resemble its mobile experience, a change that has affected how and what digital marketers can do on the desktop experience, and presenting both new opportunities and several challenges. Social Media Today

Microsoft reports $33.7 billion in Q4 2019 revenue: Azure up 64%, Surface up 14%, and LinkedIn up 25%
Microsoft reported revenue of $33.7 billion in its 2019 fiscal fourth quarter, including a 25 percent year-over-year increase for LinkedIn (client), which also saw record engagement and sessions growth of 22 percent, the technology giant recently announced. VentureBeat

Facebook’s News Feed ads are changing
Facebook mobile News Feed advertisements will drop from 7 to 3 lines of text with a click-to-expand option, along with new video aspect ratios, in changes rolling out during August, the most notable changes among several ad shifts the social platform has planned. DigiDay

Digital ad spend: Paid search continues to dominate in 2019
A new Marin Software survey shows that paid search accounts for 40 percent of digital ad spending, with paid social just under 20 percent, two of several findings in the survey of interest to digital marketers. ClickZ

Getting The Brand Back Together. More than half of CMOs plan to make brand building their top priority this year
Companies are looking to refocus on branding initiatives, with more than half of CMOs planning to make it the top priority in 2019, one of several findings of interest to digital marketers in Forrester’s recently-released 2019 CMO Predictions report. CMO.com

How Much Are Brands Paying Influencers?
New data from several recent surveys show that micro and niche-influencers are forging stronger target audience connections and boosting long-term loyalty, while the use of traditional paid influencers among marketers has seen rising associated costs. eMarketer

Dogs on treadmills: Publishers are finding LinkedIn isn’t just for business and careers news
Publishing on LinkedIn after the traditional workday ends opens up messages to a broader range of audience exposure, and frequent posting on the platform can also perform surprisingly well, according to newly-released Digiday publisher survey data. DigiDay

B2B Tech Marketers Get Results With In-Person Events
B2B marketers see in-person events, content marketing, traditional e-mail, and paid social as the most effective B2B marketing channels, according to newly-released survey data. MarketingCharts

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:

A lighthearted look at the marketing funnel by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist

Watch this space: we meet Nasa’s stars of social — The Drum

TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

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