Prerequisite connections be damned: Facebook is testing ads that push posts from companies’ pages to users who aren’t fans of their page. “These ads will look like other Page post ads in news feed and be labeled as sponsored,” a Facebook spokesperson said. “We think this will make it easier for businesses to reach more […]

Twitter is answering the calls from marketers who want to target Promoted Products campaigns by gender. The company says this feature is difficult to pull off for three reasons: 1) its users aren’t asked to share their gender, 2) some people don’t identify themselves by gender, and 3) businesses or organizations don’t identify themselves as […]

Groupon’s IPO boasted a price of $20 a share. Today, Groupon’s shares are trading at about a fifth of that, closing at $4.46 Thursday. With Groupon’s IPO anniversary coming up on Nov. 4, what lessons can we glean? IPO investors should learn that they should be careful what they wish for and conduct some due […]

Amazon reported its third-quarter results, and they weren’t pretty. The company reported revenue that fell short of estimates and posted its first quarterly net loss since 2003. Amazon’s executives pointed to LivingSocial as a drag during the quarter: “The third quarter 2012 includes a loss of $169 million, or $0.37 per diluted share, related to […]

Marissa Mayer has made her first acquisition as Yahoo’s CEO. Yahoo acquired mobile personal recommendations service Stamped. Stamped’s co-founder and CEO worked with Mayer when they were both at Google. Yahoo’s new addition is a year-and-a-half old and has an iOS app enabling users to recommend their favorite restaurants, books, movies, apps and more to […]

Running an online deal or promotion is simple enough for businesses. There are plenty of channels to host, distribute and spread the word about offers. But how can businesses and marketers really shore up their tactics and ensure better results, beyond casting out a big discount into the great unknown and hoping for the best? […]

Adobe Systems Inc. released a study Wednesday titled, “Click Here: The State of Online Advertising.” The study “exposes new insights into the beliefs of both consumers and professional marketers that traditional marketing is still more effective than online marketing,” according to Adobe. Here are some of the interesting findings from the report: 68 percent of […]

According to Opera’s latest “State of Mobile Advertising” report, Apple’s iOS accounts for 46.4 percent of mobile ad traffic on Opera’s mobile advertising network, while Google’s Android accounts for 25.7 percent of traffic. RIM drives 4.4 percent of traffic, Symbian drives 3.4 percent of traffic and other mobile operating systems drive 20.0 percent of traffic […]

A startup in Portland, Maine, called Birthday Coups is entering the online coupon arena with its platform enabling businesses to send coupons to customers on their birthdays. “Where we’re really looking to help is with current customers and making them happier, rather than getting a bunch of bargain hunters through the door who may or […]

E-commerce companies should have an interest in making it as easy as possible for subscribers to unsubscribe from their emails. After all, their sender reputations and deliverability could be on the line if their emails are reported as spam. Take Fab, for instance: While they might send too many emails for some people, they prominently […]