The Week in Review

13 Facebook Marketing Tips

Here are 13 Facebook marketing tips from some of the top marketing-book authors and Facebook brand managers around. Among these tips are to give people a reason to become fans, ask the right kind of questions and run a Facebook contest. (Social Media Examiner)

Ads on Tablets Fare Better Than Ads on E-Readers

According to new data from GfK MRI, 55 percent of consumers who read a magazine on a tablet “noted” (saw or read) the ad on their device, compared with 41 percent of those using e-readers. The average “noting” score for all hard-copy magazine ads in 2010 was 53 percent. The tablet revolution for advertising is driven by two things: creativity and strategy. (GfK MRI, ClickZ)

What’s in a Good PPC Report?

If you’re an in-house or agency PPC professional, you’ll probably have to provide regular reports on campaign performance. But how should data be presented, and what data should be included? This post offers some pointers, such as the importance of context for numbers, the need for numbers to align with goals and the value of numbers pointing to recommendations. (Search Engine Watch)

Only 59% of Marketers Do External Link Building

A new report from MarketingSherpa offers a load of information to process and learn from. Among the important takeaways is that just 59 percent of marketers said their organization has done any external link building. The report also found that external link building is seen as the most difficult SEO tactic, with 75 percent calling it either “very difficult” or “somewhat difficult.” (Search Engine Land)

Facebook Launches Messenger App

Facebook is taking a shot at Google+ Huddles and BlackBerry Messenger with its very own Messenger app. It will be a standalone platform, which reflects a change of approach from Facebook. The social network’s Messenger app now treads on the territory of Google Talk and Google+ Huddles for Android, and BlackBerry Messenger. While this move in and of itself isn’t too inspiring, it may be the tip of a massive mobile iceberg to come. (ReadWriteWeb)

How to Avoid Being Labeled as Spam

Ads aren’t exactly the most adored thing ever created. In fact, a lot of people downright hate advertisements. A part of being a good SEO is sometimes hiding the fact that you’re doing SEO. After all, once some users even get a hint that you’re doing something for marketing purposes, they’ll consider it spam. To avoid being called a spammer, be aware of the following types of labels and how to avoid each of them: SEO/link spam, comment spam, blog spam and link-jacking, viral marketing, self-promoter, and anything that makes money. (Search Engine Journal)

How to Create a PPC Keyword List

Keyword research is the foundation of your PPC account. “The stronger the keyword list, the stronger your account will be and the less likely you are to get eaten by the big bad high CPL wolf.” Here’s a quick overview of how to go about building a keyword list, starting with the company website and ending with keyword research tools. Three tips for creating your initial PPC keyword list are: 1) start small, 2) don’t be too general and 3) don’t be too specific. (PPC Hero)

How Google Might Transform Search Into Multiple Related Searches

A Google patent granted last week offers a glimpse at how Google might transform a single string of search terms into multiple related searches — either by splitting multiple terms in a query into separate searches, or by enabling users to enter another search term/phrase to use to search within the top 10 results. “Both seem like they might benefit established sites that rank well for more competitive and general terms, to the detriment of less established sites attempting to climb in results by focusing upon longer queries.” (SEO by the Sea)

4 Tips for Success With Seasonal, Local SEO

The seasonality of your business should be an important consideration in your SEO efforts. If you sell kids’ backpacks, for example, right now (back-to-school season) might be a good time to rank well for related queries. To take advantage of seasonal and locally focused SEO campaigns, plan ahead, understand the time window, understand the SERPs for your keyword and create an editorial calendar. (Search Engine Land)

Google+ Has Legs

Read about why this writer’s month-long dive into Google+ has convinced her that the social network has serious legs. This centers on the ability to send updates to certain groups of people and not to others. According to a YouGov/Bloomberg survey, Google+ is well-positioned to be the No. 2 social networking in the U.S. within the next 12 months. (Ars Technica, YouGov)

How to Master Paid-Search Bidding

How much should you bid for each of your keywords? This is a big question to answer as you try to succeed with a search engine marketing campaign. Proper bidding, according to Google’s chief economist, is rooted in a simple cost vs. profit analysis. “All you have to do is make sure you bid in a way so that you bring in more revenue than you spend.” Here’s an overview of basic bidding and advanced bidding using incremental cost per click. (Search Engine Land)

3 Overlooked Tasks When Uploading New or Changed Content

Working on big projects often causes you to overlook the small stuff. For SEOs, this means checking things like keyword research, keyword integration into their copy and getting links, among other things. Three commonly overlooked tasks when uploading new or changed content to your site are: forgetting to check spelling and grammar, overlooking HTML validation, and failing to fix broken links. (Search Engine Guide)

Google+ Business Invites Are Being Sent out

Google+ is taking another step toward legitimacy. The social network has been a fairly “clean” site, as Google quickly deals with spam and fake accounts. Late last week, Google began sending out invitations to businesses that requested invites to preview its Google+ business platform. (Geek.com)

Targeting and Optimizing for People’s Values

“What will people do next?” That has been the question fueling much of the technology behind behavioral targeting. An interesting alternatives approach would be understanding “why” people do things. One company is attempting to analyze the underlying values that drive shifts in brand metrics to observe why people are or aren’t responding to campaigns. (MediaPost)

Social Media Marketing Metrics

Social media marketers have a variety of analytics tools at their disposal. These tools should be used to look at essential information, such as conversions to sales, blog activity, positive engagements, traffic leads and time. (Flowtown)

Best Practices for Landing Pages to Maximize Conversions

If your landing page gives off a first impression as being a time-waster, your prospects for conversion will quickly fade away. To design landing pages to boost conversions, keep things short and logical, remember that the layout is critical, minimize the number of links, and keep things above the fold. (Search Engine Journal)

Nielsen to Bring Ratings System to Facebook

Nielsen is bringing its ratings service to Facebook ad campaigns. The company will begin this effort on Aug. 15 and will emphasize gross ratings points. “By using these gross ratings points instead of traditional online metrics like impressions and click-through rates, marketers will be able to buy online ads the same way they buy ads for TV and print.” (Inc. Technology)

Facebook Is the Preferred Choice in Social Advertising

Facebook is the preferred choice in social advertising – by a mile. According to numbers from eMarketer and Strata, Facebook has a safe lead when it comes to usage for social media marketing and satisfaction. (Search Engine Watch)

Facebook Ads in Your Personal Feed? Maybe Not

A Wall Street Journal report indicated that Facebook was planning on inserting advertising into News Feeds. Angry users can rest easy for now though – a Facebook spokesman squashed that report. (Gizmodo)

It’s Time for a Search Revolution

Search is made up of a simple search box, blue links and keywords. How drab. A professor at the University of Washington is calling for a revolution. If you’re looking for a hint at what might be possible for the future, IBM’s Watson supercomputer might hold some clues. (seattlepi.com)

We Need a Bloomberg Terminal for Advertising Data

Advertising is becoming “guided by math, but moved by art.” This is becoming the norm across all marketing disciplines, thanks in large part is because data is so actionable now. An unbiased third party can fill a huge void if they created a Bloomberg Terminal for advertising data. (paidContent)

Low ROI Holds Back Spending on Mobile Advertising

According to a study from The Relevancy Group, 43 percent of marketers who aren’t planning to boost their mobile ad spending in 2011 cite low return on investment from mobile advertising as the top reason they won’t increase spending. Not surprisingly, 93 percent of marketers said they would increase mobile ad spending if they generated higher ROI. (Marketwire)

Diagnosing a Problem PPC Account

PPC account managers will eventually encounter accounts that just seem stuck. “Conversions start to steadily decrease, click-through rate starts to slide, and if you’re especially unlucky you’ll start seeing your traffic numbers stall too.” Here’s a rundown of how to conduct an audit or diagnosis for these problem accounts. (PPC Hero)

5 Steps for Online Marketing Strategy

If you’re a business that has yet to nail down the fundamentals of online marketing, here are five steps to get you moving: 1) define your business and marketing objectives; 2) define your target markets and audiences; 3) develop a compelling online value proposition for each of your target audiences; 4) decide on your optimal marketing mix; and 5) define the key metrics you will use to track the effectiveness of your efforts. (Search Engine People)

Unconventional Opportunities for Conversion-Rate Optimization

There are numerous ignored opportunities that marketers rarely pay attention to when thinking of ways to boost overall sales and conversions. This post discusses some of them, including 404 error pages, conversion optimization on Flash elements, thank you pages, support pages and business cards. (Search Engine Land)