After Google announced its "disappointing" 2012 third-quarter revenues of $10.8 billion via AdWords ads, WordStream released findings from an analysis of the economics of Google's AdWords platform in an attempt find out how Google makes more than $100 million a day with search advertising. more

Among Facebook audiences worldwide, user engagement with brands—via likes, comments, and shares—is surging in 2012, according to Adobe's Digital Index, which covers some 260 billion ad impressions across 338 companies as well as Facebook activity among roughly 70 million fans. more

What's the first thing you do when your company needs a product or service? You go online, of course—and so do your customers. "Your prospects have a huge array of websites to choose to visit—and buy or learn from," writes Sonja Jobson at MarketingProfs. "You have to give them good reasons to choose yours." ... more

Does your website make it easy for customers to find and purchase the products they want? Here's a 10-point outline of an online merchandising strategy. Have you covered all your bases? more

In Sept. 2012, Google Sites, driven by YouTube, ranked as the top online video content property, with 150.3 million unique viewers; Americans viewed 9.4 billion video ads, with each top 5 video ad property delivering more than 1 billion video ads; and video music channel VEVO maintained its top YouTube-partner ... more

"If you check your subscriber lists, you'll probably find contacts lingering who should have been dealt with long ago," says Denise Keller in an article at MarketingProfs. "Instead of sitting in limbo, uncertain whether to save or dump email addresses, you need to decide which contacts you should keep and ... more

Boston University's Dean of Students Kenn Elmore discusses BU's sometimes-pioneering use of social media, including for "reaching the unreachable." During our conversation, I asked him to explain what he meant by "the unreachable." more

Candy corn is one of most enduring symbols of Halloween—and the subject of more social media buzz than any other type of Halloween candy—according to the NetBase Brand Passion Index, which measures the intensity of consumer passion for brands among users of online communities. more

A note to our readers: MarketingProfs has decided to cease publication of the Get to the Po!nt (GTTP) newsletters, and this issue of the Content Marketing GTTP is the last you'll be receiving. We hope you continue to enjoy our daily newsletter, MarketingProfs Today, and our best-of-the-week newsletter, MarketingProfs This Week. At long last, you know exactly what ... more

Companies that increase the number of blog posts they publish via their website each month can boost their inbound traffic levels and lead counts, according to a new report by HubSpot. On average, companies that publish 15 or more blog articles per month generate five times more Web traffic than ... more

A note to our readers: MarketingProfs has decided to cease publication of the Get to the Po!nt (GTTP) newsletters, and this issue of the Social Media GTTP is the last you'll be receiving. We hope you continue to enjoy our daily newsletter, MarketingProfs Today, and our best-of-the-week newsletter, MarketingProfs This Week. Facebook ... more

Google Sites remained the top-ranked Web property in September 2012, attracting some 187 million visitors, and Pinterest made its debut appearance on the top 50 chart, at No. 50. Microsoft Sites was No. 2 with 167 million, followed by Yahoo Sites with 164 million, and Facebook with 150 million, according ... more

Marketers usually discuss measuring the ROI of social media as a nebulous art or, worse, as an impossibility. But social media is measurable. The following infographic sheds light on that myth and others surrounding social media ROI. more

"Links to your website matter around 70% more than keywords to major search engines," notes Jasmine Henry in a post at Business 2 Community. But we all know that linkbuilding can be a tricky business. So what's the best way to generate valuable links? According to Henry, writing guest posts for ... more

In the digital age, when many people feel increasingly uncomfortable with personal data being collected and used for advertising, a majority of social media users nevertheless say they prefer that ads served to them on social networking pages be tailored to their lifestyle, according to a new survey from Ipsos ... more

In a recent article at Chief Marketer, Beth Negus Viveiros argues that leaving direct mail out of your B2B marketing mix might be a big mistake—even in the digital age. "Done the right way, good old-fashioned direct mail can be a key part of your strategy," she says. Viveiros interviewed marketers Michele Fitzpatrick and ... more

When you're driving along a cliff at 100 MPH, it's nice to have guardrails. So for those in the fast lane of social media marketing, here's some advice on how to avoid collisions with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and others. more

US small business owners favor Governor Mitt Romney over President Barack Obama as the presidential candidate better equipped to lead the US in an economic recovery, according to the MerchantCircle Confidence Index, which polled local business owners about the economy and their expected revenues and marketing. more

"Email marketing can be a tricky balancing act," writes Melissa Miller at HubSpot. "You want to use copy that will get your recipients' attention, but you don't want to select words that will raise red flags with SPAM filters." So what about the word free? Once considered the reddest of red ... more

Rick Jensen heads up both sales and marketing at Constant Contact, which is an interesting predicament to be in, considering the evolving relationship between Marketing and Sales. I thought he might have something interesting to say about the subject. I was not wrong. more

B2B marketers are spending more, using more tactics, and distributing their content on more social networks than they have in years past, according to the latest findings of a study from MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute: B2B Content Marketing: 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America. more

Do you wonder what an infographic is, exactly? Or how to create one? The Infographiclabs team gets these questions all the time. And they decided—very appropriately—to explain the infographic basics with an infographic. Begin the process with a good idea. Infographics often answer questions, provide compelling data, or demystify a process. ... more

When making a major technology or security solution purchase, information technology decision-makers (ITDMs) download an average of nine content assets throughout the buying cycle, according to a report by IDG. more

Blogging seems like a no-brainer. But it's grueling work that may not immediately yield the results you want. That's part of the reason why longtime blogger Mike Figliuolo has shared his list of tips for diversifying blog content, increasing content shareability, and using tools to maximize output (and profit). A bit ... more

Nearly two in five US tablet owners read newspapers or magazines via their device in the three-month period ended August 2012, and among them one in ten read such publications almost daily, according to data from the comScore TabLens service. Kindle Fire users were the most likely to read newspapers ... more