Category Archives: Data

The Finish Line in the Race to the Bottom

Posted on Thursday, 11 January 2018 8:48 am by markpilip

Last night, I was doing some analysis of a premium publisher’s site. I encountered RPM optimization in all its glory. And it made me sad and sick. The malvertising at left attempts to: Hijack browser settings Encourage installation of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, digital marketing, Media, Privacy, Rants, Security, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Ad Blockers: Common Sense

Posted on Monday, 8 January 2018 9:18 am by markpilip

With the recent news of the Spectre and Meltdown CPU flaws, it’s more important than ever that you do a few things: Install ad blockers (do your homework first* [update: see how-to below]!) Turn on DNT (for whatever that’s worth) … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, digital marketing, fraud, Media, Privacy, Security | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Happy 2018! AdTech Surveillance Edition

Posted on Thursday, 4 January 2018 8:53 am by markpilip

How would you like it if somebody was standing over your shoulder jotting down your user ID (and who knows what else) as you were logging into sites, and then sharing the information with–well, it could be anybody? Thought so. … Continue reading →

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Let’s Market to Humans in 2018

Posted on Friday, 29 December 2017 9:36 am by markpilip

Market only to humans. If you only change one thing about how you undertake your marketing in 2018, let it be this one. According to the U.S. Census bureau, there were about 252.8 million adult (18+) humans in the U.S. … Continue reading →

Posted in Behavioral economics, Data, digital marketing, Direct Response, fraud, Leadership, Media, Philosophy, Predictions, Privacy, Strategy | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Let’s Market to Humans in 2018

Justifying the Weird

Posted on Thursday, 7 December 2017 8:30 am by markpilip

What’s the success rate for people trying to evade marketing surveillance on the web? I think it’s zero. Check out the story of Ross William Ulbricht AKA “Dread Pirate Roberts” of Silk Road infamy. He was alleged to be responsible … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, digital marketing, fraud, Marketing, Media, Security | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Justifying the Weird

When somebody claims they’re a data-driven marketer, generally that means their actions are driven by cursory analysis of biased data sets, and that they lack a coherent strategy.

Posted on Tuesday, 28 November 2017 7:54 am by markpilip | Comments Off on Data-driven?

Black Friday Narrative: The Retail Apocalypse (The Data Says…)

Posted on Tuesday, 21 November 2017 9:41 am by markpilip

I was searching Linkedin last evening and read a comment from somebody about how “Black Friday sales have been down the last few years.” The comment came with no facts to back the assertion, and it fit neatly into the … Continue reading →

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Next week, as you’re doing your annual IT work for parents, in-laws, aunts and uncles, take a few minutes and talk about protecting privacy and improving their cybersecurity. This Motherboard article, recommended by Bruce Schneier, is a great place to … Continue reading →

Posted on Thursday, 16 November 2017 8:38 am by markpilip | Comments Off on Thanksgiving Project: Security and Privacy

Looks like some of the shady players in adtech (a large group from which to choose) are resorting to social engineering to get around ads.txt. What should you add to ads.txt? Nothing. By the way, I think an ads.txt file … Continue reading →

Posted on Thursday, 2 November 2017 9:12 am by markpilip | Comments Off on Adtech Social Engineering

ABD (Always Be De-Averaging), ads.txt Edition

Posted on Wednesday, 1 November 2017 9:04 am by markpilip

Now that ads.txt is getting traction, with about 44% (and growing) of the top 10,000 domains using it, you’ve got some homework in your future. Here’s the assignment: Pull together your campaign data at the source (e.g. somedomain.com) and “source/source” … Continue reading →

Posted in Analysis, Data, digital marketing, Marketing, Media, Tactics | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment