The Week in Review

Twitter Begins Showing Ads for Brands You Don’t Follow

Twitter is expanding its test of ads on mobile devices to show users ads from brands they don’t explicitly follow. In Twitter’s words, "we are expanding this test, enabling brands to target Promoted Tweets to mobile users that share similar interests with their existing followers." (The Next Web)

 

The Death of PPC Advertising

There are clear signs that pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is dying. There are two reasons why it’s failing businesses: it’s a short-term fix and it’s brand-unaware. In order to make PPC work, businesses should be strategic, build loyalty and use ad extensions, among other things. (Social Media Today)

 

Marketing in the Mobile Email Revolution

Mobile email users engage at a much higher rate than people who engage with email on a desktop. This means people are on the run and don’t read emails the same way. "If you’re going to ask them to pay attention to your message, you should make it easy for them to read, interact, and respond to it." (ClickZ)

 

New Google Analytics Social Reports

Here’s a look at the new Google Analytics reports meant to help marketers better measure the actual value of social media. The rollout starts today, and the new reports will be available to all users in the next couple weeks. (Search Engine Watch)

 

Workaround for Gmail Background Transparency

"If a Gmail user has chosen one of the new HD inbox themes, the element encasing an opened email now has a translucent background color." This means email marketers will have to adjust their email code a bit. Here’s what they should do. (Responsys New School Marketing)

Email’s Flipped Funnel

“If the paradigm of the sales funnel shifts, then so too must our perceptions on how to use email to feed and maintain it.” The process is no longer controlled by the salesperson or marketer. Consumers are the ones with the power. (MediaPost)

Tips for Lifting Paid Search CTR and Conversion

BoostCTR and Marin Software offer some tips for boosting paid search CTR and conversions. Among them are to get multiple writers to write for the same ad group, test stronger calls to action and set up goal-based bidding. (Search Engine Watch)

3 Common PPC Ad Copy Mistakes

Here’s a look at three common examples of bad PPC ad copy, along with suggestions on how to fix them. (Search Engine Land)

How to Rank on the First Page of Google Through Videos

Getting on the first page of Google search results doesn’t require back-breaking traditional SEO. If you do it right, you can get there by way of video content. Here’s a seven-step process for doing just that. (Quick Sprout)

Top PPC Myths Busted

The more you spend on PPC, the higher you rank in SERPs. Traffic and leads must depend on PPC. PPC is easier to measure and manage than SEO. These are some of the biggest PPC myths out there. They are sufficiently debunked here. (HubSpot)

7 Places to Publish Content on Your Website (Other Than Your Blog)

Content creation is a key part of success for inbound marketers, and blogs are a go-to asset. But what about the “News Room,” resource centers and product details? These are among the seven non-blog places to publish content on your site. (HubSpot)

The Problem With Mobile Marketing

“Why is mobile marketing still such an underserved part of the relationship marketing mix?” The problem with mobile marketing is that marketers are thinking about mobile. (ClickZ)

Why We Are on Tumblr

Marketing Land and Search Engine Land recently launched accounts on Tumblr. If you’ve been pondering a dive into the world of Tumblr, reading their stories may help. (Marketing Land)

New Pinterest Profiles Go Live

The new profiles Pinterest has unveiled streamlines the look of profile pages. It also kind of resembles Facebook’s new profiles pages. (The Next Web)

Google’s Working on an ‘Over-Optimization’ Penalty

Google is working on a search ranking penalty for sites that are “over-optimized” or “overly SEO’ed.” The purpose is to level the playing field, to give website that have great content a better shot at ranking above sites that have inferior content but better SEO. (Search Engine Land)

Big Search Changes Coming to Google?

According to The Wall Street Journal, Google is about to make one of the biggest changes in its Web search history: “providing more direct answers and gaining ‘semantic’ smarts to understand more about what words mean.” In reality, this is more of a PR move than a substantial shift in the search landscape. However, the emphasis on direct answers will be good for searchers, but not for some sites. (Search Engine Land)

What Grade Is Your Email Program Entering?

Email programs, just like children, move on to start their life as a student. Here’s a look at what grades exist for email programs, from kindergarten (initial), to middle school (repeatable), to high school (defined), to college (managed), to grad school (optimize). (MediaPost)

Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo Begin Selling and Delivering Ads in Their Partnership

“The partnership that has Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo cross-selling display ads on the other sites is now open for business and up and running, according to a blog post from Microsoft.” The goal is to benefit from greater scale and reach, which will present an attractive alternative Google and Facebook. (Marketing Land)

Google Replaces PPC Ads With Google+ Content for Some Queries

Google is now showing a new “Latest Posts” section for some Google+ pages and profiles next to its normal search results. “Some brands might be happy with the change, in that it gives them much more visibility in the ‘above the fold’ search results. However, it also means those who liked how the old format could ‘push down’ possibly negative results might prefer the old system.” (Search Engine Land)

4 Creative Ways to Use the New Facebook Brand Pages

Facebook’s new brand pages aren’t easy for marketers to deal with, but a quick look will reveal some creative ways to reinvent these pages. Here are four ways: 1) featured cover photo, 2) contests, 3) go historical, and 4) pinned posts and starred posts. (Search Engine Watch)

AmEx: The Real Winner of SXSW?

American Express is the winner of the SXSW 2012 buzz bowl. It debuted an innovative product (AmEx Sync), expanded on a pilot, was digitally ubiquitous, offered a clever value proposition and was the loudest marketer in Texas. (AdAge.com)

Google+’s Problem: Design

Talking about Google+ can lead to a lot of varying perspectives, but what’s really the problem with Google’s social network? It has people trying it, plenty of content and doesn’t suffer from outages. When it comes down to it, maybe Google+ is suffering from bad design and a confusing user interface. (NYTimes.com)

Facebook Ads: Top Promotional Tool for Sellers Beyond Facebook Marketing

According to Payvment’s F-Commerce Facts survey, 39 percent of respondents report having used Facebook Ads, making it the most prevalent marketing tactic used by sellers to drive traffic to their stores, beyond general Facebook marketing. (Business Wire)

How Facebook Sponsored Stories Can Boost Engagement

Advertisers shouldn’t see Facebook Sponsored Stories as a one-size-fits-all tool. Domain sponsored stories, page “like” stories, page post stories and check-in stories are options to consider. (Mashable)

7 Common SEO Mistakes You’ve Been Making Since 1995

The SEO industry has been around since 1995, but that doesn’t mean everyone has gotten over some of the most common, basic SEO mistakes. Among the seven covered in this post are duplicate content, lack of link-building focus and duplicate page titles. (GeekWire)