Here is today’s roundup of news related to local marketing and advertising, local media, technology, local commerce, consumer behavior and more.

3 Steps to Finding a Co-op Advertising Plan that Works for Your Client (November 29, 2018)
LSA Insider: “If your customers have co-op dollars accrued for the products and brands that they sell, it’s crucial to utilize these dollars prior to their expiration date or they will disappear. Accrual balances refer to the money earned by retailers that can be used for advertising and are based on a percentage of products purchased from a manufacturer.”

Moz ‘State of Local’ report shows confusion, fragmentation in local SEO efforts (November 29, 2018)
Search Engine Land: “On the heels of its Local Ranking Factors survey, Moz has released a “State of Local SEO” report. The findings are based on the responses of roughly 1,400 local marketers, segmented by marketer type (agency vs. in-house) and company size.”

Facebook Debuts Local News Aggregator ‘Today In’ (November 29, 2018)
MediaPost: “Taking another crack at local news, Facebook’s Today In will live within its flagship app. After limited testing, the local news aggregator feature is now available to Facebook users in roughly 400 cities nationwide. As for international users, Facebook is testing Today In in Australia before rolling it out more broadly.”

Mobile shopping campaigns and dynamic product ads show strong Black Friday growth, study says (November 28, 2018)
Mobile Marketer: “Kenshoo’s report indicates mobile ads are a key part of the holiday marketing strategy for brands and retailers as shoppers shift their online buying to smartphones and tablets.”

For many marketers, platform integration is a ‘must have’ for new tools (November 28, 2018)
MarTech Today: “Marketers have many criteria for software tool selection, and the marketers of those tools have many angles to pitch. But one factor turns out to be a necessary first hurdle for many business tool customers: Is it integrated with [my favorite platform]?”

165 million people shopped online and in stores over Black Friday weekend (November 28, 2018)
Marketing Land: “Pre-Thanksgiving surveys indicated that more people intended to shop online this year than in the past. That sentiment did translate into actual behavior, as Black Friday in-store traffic was down according to retail analytics firms.”