How will you spend your money on technology this year? CMOs will take greater control of tech budgets from IT. I have heard this repeatedly for years, but Gartner now estimates that by 2017, CMOs will spend substantially more than CIOs. Bringing the budget into marketing requires a knack, an easy-to-understand interface, and less techie and more concrete strategy. Here's some food for thought.

New money continues to roll into the advertising industry. While companies offering programmatic and native advertising will likely capitalize on the move, a study examining both media uncovers challenges hidden in objectives highlighted by brands participating in the study.

Abandoned cart emails have significantly higher revenue per email than promotional mailings. In fact, the revenue per email for each mailing in an abandoned cart series was well above the promotional mailing average at $1.76 for the first mailing and $1.90 for the second, per a study released Thursday from Experian Marketing.

Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft, and other companies all have a mobile-first strategy, but determining the regions where brand marketers should initially invest in mobile campaigns may seem a bit more complicated. Any brand marketer or supporting agency partner that is surprised by the eMarketer estimates that 1.76 billion people will own and use smartphones monthly this year -- up more than 25% compared with 2013 -- needs to reboot. By 2017, the number will grow to become more than one-third of people worldwide. Here are some factual estimates that might help ease the confusion.

Apps not only change the game for mobile devices -- they have begun to alter the search behavior of consumers across the Internet, even when it comes to same-store sales. Since more consumers have a purpose in mind when they log on to the Internet, they rely more on shopping sites like Sears, Target, Google Shopping, Amazon -- and yes, even eBay.

Selfies have a lot to say, especially when they come from basketball star Kobe Bryant and football icon Lionel Messi. Google released Monday its Cannes to Cannes YouTube Ads Leaderboard celebrating the most popular global video ads since last year's festival.

More woman than men own iOS devices -- 68% vs. 23%, respectively -- and 60% either choose Android or iOS for both phone and tablet. Many marketers use audience segment profiles based on device types, but the trend will continue to rise as a way for marketers to better understand targeting segments without intruding on privacy more than they must.

Pinterest has added a do-it-yourself (DIY) Promoted Pins tool that allows businesses to promote Pins and traffic clicks back to their Web site. Some view it as a tool that can generate leads. The Promoted Pins become available on a cost-per-click basis through the ad system on the site.

Apparently brands will dump more advertising dollars into digital as they hang out and wait for consumers to arrive and spend in online channels. The PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) annual Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2014-2018 released Wednesday estimates U.S. advertising will outpace consumer spending as brands move more dollars to digital. Are advertisers taking a build-it-and-they-will-come approach?

It became obvious early on that Google's Project Loon and its acquisition of robotics and hardware companies eventually would lead it to build satellites that bring Internet connectivity to people in countries without. The satellites would provide encrypted signals similar to the way aerospace companies like Boeing and McDonell Douglas launched satellites in orbit to stream video for commercial and military applications.