B2B Marketing News: Digital Ad Budgets To Grow In 2021, Google’s Rich Results Tool Goes Mainstream, & More Listeners Are Paying For Podcasts

Gartner CMO Spend Survey Shows How Digital Budgets Will Increase In 2021
Within the next 18 to 24 months digital marketing budgets will return to business-as-usual levels, according to 57 percent of CMOs in recently-released survey data from Gartner, also showing 78 percent aggregate growth for digital ad budgets in the forecast for 2021. 44 percent also said that they face mid-year budget cuts this year due to the global health crisis. MediaPost

HubSpot: A Look Back at How COVID-19 Impacted Businesses in Q2
Up to 60 more sales team email has been sent during the pandemic, seeing open rates 18 percent above pre-COVID levels, with companies sending less email achieving the highest open rates — several of many finding of interest to digital marketers contained in newly-released report data from HubSpot’s weekly performance metrics. HubSpot

Email Draws Lead Generation Budget Dollars: Study
58 percent of marketing professionals and research subscribers in both B2B and B2C say that social media is an effective channel for lead conversion and relationship-building — topping the chart of effective methods according to new survey data, followed by email at 49 percent, and websites and search engine optimization (SEO) with 44 percent. MediaPost

Google: The Rich Results Test is out of beta
Google has taken its Rich Results Test tool out of beta testing, and those marketers still using the search giant’s existing Structured Data Testing Tool should plan to move entirely to the new replacement, as Google will begin to deprecate the existing tool, the firm recently announced. Google Webmaster Central Blog

YouTube Explains Some Common Algorithm and Video Distribution Queries
YouTube has shared new information on how click-through rate (CTR) and average viewer duration (AVD) are used in determining the Google-owned firm’s video distribution, along with the performance that marketers achieve on the platform, and offered advice on factoring in competition, topical interest, and seasonality. Social Media Today

Twitter’s Working on a New Collaborative Option for Fleets
Twitter’s previously-announced ephemeral story-tweets — called fleets — are undergoing testing which includes multi-user collaborative elements and discussion features, some similar to Instagram’s co-streaming options, it was recently reported. Social Media Today

Google Image Search Knowledge Panels Now Live
Google’s previously-announced knowledge panel test — with expandable elements for image searching — has launched according to the firm. The scope is currently limited to images of people, places, and things, however future expansion is planned, Google noted. SEO Roundtable

Most Ad Pros Experiencing Work-From-Home ‘Burnout,’ Rank Highest Among Those Seeking A New Job
Advertising industry and technology professionals top a recent list of those undergoing burnout caused by working from home during the global health crisis, with advertising professionals most likely to look for new work due to the workplace burnout, according to recently-released survey data. MediaPost

Gen Z wants brands to be ‘fun,’ ‘authentic’ and ‘good,’ study says
Some 58 percent of Gen Z survey respondents said that they can’t be offline more than 4 hours without becoming uncomfortable, with 66 percent also noting that they believe the internet brings people closer together, according to recently-released survey data of interest to digital marketers. Marketing Dive

Around 1 in 6 US Adult Podcast Users Have Paid to Listen to a Podcast
17 percent of U.S. adult podcast listeners have paid to listen to at least one broadcast, however around 80 percent of those who haven’t paid to listen to a podcast say they are either not very likely or not at all likely to do so, according to recently-released survey data of interest to digital marketers. MarketingCharts

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:

A lighthearted look at “facebook ad boycott and 10+ years of facebook cartoons” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist

Fourth Job Listed on Man’s Facebook Profile Also Only Real One — The Hard Times

TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

• Lee Odden — The Future of Marketing: 50 CMO Quotes On How Marketing Has Changed — Marketing Insider Group
• Ashley Zeckman — Masters of Marketing #56 – The New Era of Influencer Marketing w/ Ashley Zeckman [Video] — Masters of Marketing / YouTube
• Lee Odden — 8 Creative and Affordable Marketing Ideas for Small Businesses — Digitalogy

Have you found your own top B2B content marketing or digital advertising stories from the past week of news? Please let us know in the comments below.

Thank you for taking the time to join us, and we hope you’ll come back next Friday for another collection of 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. Also, don’t miss the full video summary on our TopRank Marketing TV YouTube Channel.

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