Mobile and Web advertising is where real growth is happening. It’s essential for advertisers to start exploring new ways to serve ads in mobile search, within apps, and on various social media networks to truly understand what budgets are required to achieve specific campaign goals.

The only way that advertising will be acceptable and work, according to a recent consumer survey, is to know their personal interests, make it relevant to what they're doing, and be specific to their location. Sorry, kids but that can't happen if you click that "do not track" button.

Whether you need to justify your digital marketing investments for executives in your organization, or you are just interested in some good data, these eye-catching digital marketing statistics from 2011 and predictions for 2012 should spark your interest.

But social networking does -- there’s a big difference. New Gallup research shows that we should instead focus on engaging our current and engaged customers instead. Duh. Why do we find it so hard to believe that being human works?

What data do we have that supports the premise that mobile marketing is the next big thing? Glad you asked. Here are 9 amazing facts and figures about mobile marketing that’ll help you wrap your head around why mobile is going to be bigger than radio, TV, and the personal computer -- combined.

Our research suggests that interactive media and technology marketing investments in 2016 will account for as much money as their TV advertising budgets do today, because interactive efforts now play a legitimate -- not experimental -- role in how businesses attract and retain customers. But marketing and advertising remain different things.

While reading Google's study about smartphone users, this author replaced the term "smartphone" with "dumbphone" and found the results still made little sense.

According to a study from appssavvy, social activity advertising -- that is, ads related to what someone is actually doing as opposed to what is around what they're doing -- perform better than display and nearly as well as paid search.

From my very first involvement in digital marketing in 1993, I have felt that "digital" changes the dynamics of the consumer-brand relationship. It shifts control towards the consumer and away from the marketer. Yet what a new report indicates is that while consumers have gained control, that is not really what they're looking for in their brand relationships.

A recent followup study found community participation has mixed effects on customers’ likelihoods of participating in buying and selling behaviors. In fact, they found that community participation had a negative impact on the number of listings and amount spent.

Nine out of ten word-of-mouth conversations still happen offline. Don't neglect them in the current obsession with social (online) media.

The vast majority of companies are now not only using social media in some form, but also have an actual social media strategy behind their online presence, according to a new King Fish Media research study.

Over the past few years, the idea of ‘Cause Marketing’ has really been on the upswing. And it’s extremely fascinating to me because, amongst a younger consumer demographic who already has very little expendable income, during a recession, we are still willing to pay a bit of a premium if we’re supporting a good cause.

Web video gets a lot of hype, but do actual viewing patterns justify it? According to Nielsen's recent "Three Screen Report," maybe not.

The metrics CMOs say they use to measure the importance of customer engagement -- as revealed in a new report from Forbes -- don't always reveal actual engagement very well.

An interesting test comparing the wording of two guarantees indicates that while some marketing messages may need longer text, simple may be better when it comes to guarantees.

Sixty-nine percent of companies in the U.K. said they regard social media "as the next big threat to protecting their brands online." But don’t worry, they won't be abandoning the Web altogether. Read on to learn more about a new study by London-based intellectual property firm Marks & Clerk.

What is the biggest challenge for marketers? A survey by Aprimo and the Argyle Executive Forum suggests accountability and measurement is keeping marketers on their toes as they try to justify marketing activities to the powers that be.

Should advertisers seek out the most emotionally engaging shows they can find?

Do you think Twitter is a social network or news media? The question posed in a recent study by Korea’s Advanced Institute of Science & Technology offers interesting insights into people's social networking behavior.

Check out HubSpot's five marketing takeaways from a a new survey by Edison Research that helps marketers better understand Twitter usage.

Jason Falls of Social Media Explorer says most research about social media is skewed. A recent survey to small business owners by Citibank is just one example of what real businesses are doing with digital marketing.

Are marketers who haven't gone into m-commerce behind the curve? Or are they wise to wait? According to an ATG survey, this is still very much the year for mobile even though the data may not necessarily say so.

comScore keeps an eye on how the online video market develops in Asia and what it will mean for media companies in the region. Also, Will Hodgman, EVP of comScore's Asia-Pacific Region, shares his insight in a two-minute video.