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

Study: 70% of Co-op Users Plan to Increase Ad Spend in 2019 (December 13, 2018)
LSA Insider: “It’s estimated that around half of the nearly $70 billion allocated co-op advertising funds each year go unused. These funds come from agreements between manufacturers and retailers to divide marketing costs in order to provide brand and product awareness in local markets.”

New ways to approach SEO in 2019: Accountability and customer experiences (December 13, 2018)
Search Engine Land: “Master your understanding of audience, measure beyond the click and find ways to mine data to improve efficiency are all ways you can improve your organic search performance in 2019.”

Search Engines Doing A Better Job Of Calling Out Paid-Search Ads (December 13, 2018)
MediaPost: “Google and Bing, and even Amazon, have been criticized for not doing more to distinguish paid-search advertisements from organic search results, but the findings from a survey results released Thursday suggest improvements.”

How Many Marketers Use Snapchat and Instagram in the US? (December 13, 2018)
eMarketer: “In 2018, 28.3% of US marketers will use Snapchat for marketing purposes, according to our forecasts. This year, we expect Snapchat to make more than $660 million in US ad revenues, an 18.7% increase from last year.”

Content marketing for Google SERPs in 2019 (December 12, 2018)
Search Engine Watch: “Adhering to the whims and fancies of Google’s unpredictable nature can be a tasking ordeal for content creators around the world. What once seemed like a harmonious relationship, the bond between consumers and producers of content has become somewhat volatile, asking marketeers to be agile in their approach to content.”