CampaignUS reports that Adblock Plus "has made its opinion clear about Facebook’s decision to purge the network from ad-blockers, claiming that the social network’s plan to further blur the line between advertising and content will only alienate users. It’s a natural response given the impact that the move will likely have on Adblock Plus’ business. But it remains to be seen whether this will hurt or help advertising on the platform, and marketers have conflicting opinions." On Tuesday, Facebook said it will allow users to choose the ads they want to see, and at the same time, "it …

Aiming to draw more premium video to its platform, "Facebook is giving media partners more fine-grained looks at the demographics and engagement patterns of the social network’s viewers, as well as new tools for producing 360-degree videos," Variety" reports. "But the developments show Facebook is still primarily in 'build audience first' mode on its video strategy — and catching up with YouTube on the features front — even as publishers clamor for better ways to monetize their video content, including the ability to sell their own ads. Facebook has been kicking the tires on video ads served in third-party content, including a test …

The world's biggest advertising spender, Procter & Gamble, Co., is dialing down on ads on Facebook that target specific consumers, finding that the practice has limited effectiveness, according to a Wall Street Journal report. "Facebook has spent years developing its ability to zero in on consumers based on demographics, shopping habits and life milestones. P&G, the maker of myriad household goods including Tide and Pampers, initially jumped at the opportunity to market directly to subsets of shoppers, from teenage shavers to first-time homeowners. Marc Pritchard, P&G’s chief marketing officer, said the company has realized it took the strategy too far. …

In a LinkedIn post, Timothy Whitfield, director, technical operations at GroupM, writes: "Having a DMP [data management platform] without any data in it is like having a warehouse without any stock. Just empty shelves. Therefore the first task will be for DMPs to ensure that they have vast quantities of fresh data in the warehouse. Advertisers will start investing in in-house data scientists that will have personal KPIs [key performance indicators] measured in data quantity and quality." Whitfield predicts that DMPs and enterprise data clouds will rise, along with other demand-side solutions like location targeting and mobile creative. He argues that …

Dentsu Inc.’s Dentsu Aegis Network has agreed to acquire a majority stake in data marketing firm Merkle, as the Japanese advertising conglomerate continues its aggressive buying spree, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Baltimore-based Merkle specializes in customer relationship marketing, which includes creating loyalty programs for marketers and managing their customer databases that hold tons consumer information. It also offers other digital marketing and technology services including search advertising, data-driven ad buying, and analytics.

RAIN News ponders whether ad injection and programmatic are good for podcasting, which is experiencing explosive growth. The verdict is mixed. RAIN says ad injection "is central to programmatic delivery (not all ad injection is programmatic, but all programmatic ads are injected). Ad injection solves a problem in podcasting, which might be termed ad staleness....Ad injection happens at the server call — when a listener clicks a Play or Download button. Without ad injection, that person hears whatever ads were baked into the show when it was released, no matter how out-of-date and un-contextualized they are in the present. With ad …

In an interview with eMarketer senior analyst Lauren Fisher, Michael Lampert, SVP, New York Media and Account Management, 360i, said media channels are innovating faster than he can come up with ways to count them. "If you're Wal-Mart, Amazon or Target and you can use your own data and tie it back to in-store activity or brick-and-mortar activity, you're the exception, not the rule," he said. "We are a ways from the perfect attribution for digital... The attribution companies can't customize a product for every client, so they try to create things that are useful to the majority."

Tech Crunch seeks to "demystify the concept of “attribution” in digital marketing, casting a sports analogy. The report says attribution in business "is very similar to giving credit to a player for assisting another player in achieving an objective. It would be unfair to only recognize a player in terms of the number of baskets scored without acknowledging who helped make the play possible." In fact, "one of the most common methods of attribution in the digital marketing industry is based on last click, which means giving credit to the latest channel that the user clicked …

Online advertising firm Yieldbot has raised $35 million to grow its ad targeting and tracking software, the company reported on Wednesday. "The funding round was led by new investor Staley Capital, with participation from existing investors, and brings the company’s total funding to over $60 million to date," according to a Wall Street Journal report. "The company plans to use the funding to grow its sales and marketing presence across the U.S., and will also explore potential acquisitions. The company currently has offices in New York, Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis and Los Angeles, and plans to open more."

Rubicon Project saw its stock drop more than 30% in trading on Wednesday as analyst downgrades spooked investors, according to a Business Insider report. The stock had opened at $9.50 but fell to $9.20 as of today, pre-market opening. Rubicon reported Q2 earnings on Tuesday; it has admitted it was late to jump on the header bidding bandwagon. "Header bidding essentially lets Google's ad tech rivals jump to the front of the line in the contest for ad tech slots. A report from BI Intelligence published earlier this year suggested almost 70% of publishers claim to have adopted header bidding …