Twitter set its IPO price at $26 a share, but when the trading began, demand was higher than expected. At presstime, the shares were trading at around $46, or 75% higher than the original price.

Facebook in April introduced a targeting feature called “partner categories” that uses members’ online purchasing histories and location to tailor ads. It allows marketers to target ads across some 500 specific audience segments using third-party data from providers including Acxiom, Epsilon and Datalogix. Today, Facebook announced doubling the number of partner categories available through the Power Editor tool to more than 1,000. These include ones in the retail and auto verticals including active buyers of women’s accessories, active buyers of sports and outdoor products, and auto intenders in the market for a Subaru Outback. “The goal of partner …

Food and condiments marketer H.J. Heinz is conducting a global media agency review, according to sources. Spending on the account is said to be approximately $320 million. The review, per sources, is procurement driven and comes just months after the company was sold for $23 billion to an investment consortium comprised of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and an investment fund affiliated with 3G Capital. Previously the company was publicly traded. Cramer-Krasselt handles creative and strategy duties in the U.S. Sources said C-K's assignment is not in review. Heinz positions itself as the company that offers "Good Food Every Day." In …

App marketing and analytics firm Appboy on Wednesday announced raising $7.6 million in a  first-round funding led by Icon Venture Partners, and including IDG Ventures and Buddy Media founder and CEO Mike Lazerow. The New York-based startup, which had previously raised $2.5 million in seed funding, plans to use the new capital to expand its sales and marketing staff and ramp up product development. Through its Mobile Relationship Management (MRM) platform, Appboy provides developers tools including an SDK that allows them to cross-promote their apps while tracking in-app purchases, social sharing, and other user activity. Appboy says it now …

Microsoft introduced a pilot for a new search ad concept in Bing Smart Search called Hero ads, designed to serve more information through the ad unit and image. The ad appears when users search for specific brands and terms in Bing Smart Search. The goal of Hero ads is to let searchers find the most relevant information and complete the most popular tasks for the brand they are specifically search on. The ad unit announced at a Microsoft event also included several business updates for Windows 8.1 through Smart Search. David Pann, GM for the search business, notes it's not about blue …

As Instagram begins to rollout photo and video advertising, a new study suggests video ads won’t necessarily take off on photo-sharing service. In the third quarter, video posts accounted for only 6% of all brand posts in the third quarter, according to the research by social analytics firm Simply Measured. Overall, a growing number of companies are embracing Instagram as a marketing platform, with 71 of the world’s top 100 brands having a presence on the service, up from 40 a year ago. That level of adoption puts it roughly on part with Google+ and Pinterest and makes …