鑽石舞台

Digital advertising

Flying blind

Apple's privacy rules force marketers to find new ways to target ads

Online shoppers often feel they are being watched. Put an item in your basket but fail to buy it, and it may follow youplaintivelyaround the internet for days. Announce your engagement on social media and you will be hit with adverts for the honeymoon. As you turn 40, expect the attention of elasticated-trouser merchants.

On April 26th Apple, which supplies one-fifth of the world's smartphones and around half of America's, introduced a software update that will end much of thissnooping.Its latest mobile operating system forces apps to ask users if they want to be tracked. Many will decline. It is the latest privacy move forcing marketers to rethink how they target online ads.

By micro-profiling audiences and monitoring their behaviour, digital-ad platforms claim to solve advertisers' age-oldquandaryof not knowing which half of their budget is being wasted. In the past decade digital ads have gone from less than 20% of the global ad market to more than 60%, according to GroupM, the world's largest media buyer.

Even last year, amid the pandemic, the business grew by 9%. As lockdowns ease it is goinggangbusters. On April 27th Alphabet, Google's parent company and the world's biggest digital-ad platform, reported first-quarter advertising revenues up by 34%,year on year. The next day Facebook, the second-largest, said its own ad sales had grown by 46%.

數字廣告

兩眼一摸黑

蘋果的隱私規則迫使營銷商在精準投放廣告上另謀出路

網購者常常覺得自己被監視了。當你把一件商品放進購物車卻沒買，那接下來的幾天裡，上網衝浪的你就會一直受到這個商品的苦苦糾纏。在社交媒體上宣布訂婚消息的你將受到蜜月廣告轟炸。40歲的你估計會引起彈力褲賣家的注意。

供應全球五分之一和美國約一半智能手機的蘋果公司在4月26日推出了一次軟件更新，將在很大程度上結束這種窺探行為。其最新的移動操作系統迫使應用程序詢問用戶是否想要被追蹤。許多用戶都會拒絕。蘋果公司最新的隱私舉措將迫使營銷商重新考慮如何精準投放在線廣告。

數字廣告平台聲稱，通過對用戶進行微觀分析和行為監測，可以解決廣告商長期以來的窘境，即不知道自己一半的預算被浪費在了哪裡。全球最大的媒體採購機構GroupM的數據顯示，過去十年，數字廣告在全球廣告市場的份額從不足20%上升到了60%以上。

即使在去年疫情期間，數字廣告業務也增長了9%。隨着封鎖放鬆，數字廣告還將風頭無兩。4月27日，谷歌母公司兼全球最大的數字廣告平台Alphabet公布，其第一季度廣告收入同比增長了34%。第二大數字廣告公司Facebook也在第二天表示，其廣告銷售額同比增長了46%。

1. plaintive[ˈpleɪntɪv]

adj. (聲音)悲傷的，哀怨的

e.g.

They lay on the firm sands, listening to the plaintive cry of the seagulls.

他們躺在堅實的沙灘上，聽着海鷗的哀鳴。

2. quandary[ˈkwɑːndərɪ]

n. 困惑; 進退兩難; 困窘

e.g.

Georgewasinaquandary— shouldhegoorshouldn'the?

喬治猶豫不定—他是該去呢，還是不該去？

3. year on year

adv. 同比，上年同期相比較; 比去年同期相比

e.g.

Spending hasincreasedyearonyear.

與去年同期比較，開銷增加了。

4. snoop[snuːp]

v. 窺探; 打探; 探聽 n. 窺探者; 打探他人私事的人

e.g.

Hehad asnooparoundheroffice.

他在她的辦公室窺探一番。

5. going gangbusters[ˈɡæŋbʌstərz]

屢戰屢捷

e.g.

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