• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, April 1, 2014

Marin Software has developed technology that allows advertisers to integrate weather, television, inventory, sports scores, stock market fluctuations, and other data into their digital marketing campaigns. While technology makes many of the online Internet April Fools' Day spoofs feasible and leaves you wondering -- real or fake -- this latest one is all real.

Predictive analytics will play a pivotal role in search engine marketing as more companies integrate environmental, economic trends, and external sources of data to augment first-party data for ad targeting.

Through Context Connect, Marin reports that paid-search impression volumes rose 1500% higher than historic trends for retailers during the coldest week of the polar vortex -- Jan. 19-25. The amount that marketers spend on campaigns, along with clicks from consumers, also rose during the same week, but only at a fraction of the search impressions, indicating that advertisers missed out on a captive audience.

I'm sure you've heard about marketers and the Weather Channel and how the search agency PM Digital uses weather data to serve targeted ads. Rather than run from it, marketers can capitalize on environmental factors and the complex behavior of consumers combined with demand for specific products and services. Weather, television, stock prices, sporting events, and other sources of data influence consumer action and affect business outcomes in real-time. 

Marin's Context Connect provides digital marketers with a platform for integrating and taking action on critical external data sources as defined by the advertiser. It also allows marketers to evaluate search, social, and display performance alongside contextual attributes to quickly identify trends and take immediate action by adjusting audiences, creative, and bidding across campaigns.