33 Metrics Every Marketer Should Know

33 metrics that every online marketing manager should know.

Article Written By: Rebecca Corliss on April 26, 2012 at Hubspot

"Good marketers live by their data. Why? Metrics help us set goals and track progress, and numbers confirm we did a good job. Marketers should have control of their own data, as well as determine what metrics they might need to track before starting any new campaign. By digging into results, we can understand what worked well, what didn't work well, and then learn from it."

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What to Do if Your Search Rankings Were Hurt by Google's Penguin Update

Did you notice a recent drop in your rankings?  This article discusses the latest Google algorithm update, provides ways to tell if your website was impacted by the update and how to correct the methods Google was targeting.

Article Written By: Pamela Vaughan on April 30, 2012 at Hubspot

"Have ya heard? A new animal may be wreaking havoc on your ability to get found in search. But this time, it doesn't take the form of a black and white bear. No -- this time, it's even more deceptively cute and harmless. This time ... it's a penguin."

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Smartphones and Tablets Changing Paid Search

Marin Software expects that by December 2012, mobile devices will generate a quarter of all paid-search clicks.

Article Written By: Susan Kuchinskas on March 26, 2012 at ClickZ

"Click-throughs from paid search are up on mobile devices - but not conversions. Still, Marin Software's stats may not tell the whole story.

The company's report, The State of Mobile Search in the U.S. 2012, found continued momentum in mobile adoption and search. Last year, mobile search ad spending increased even faster than clicks, the report said."

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Three Companies. Three Months. $50 billion Dollars in Revenue

Article Written By: Editor on April 25, 2012 at DM Confidential

"Time must fly, because it feels like just the other day that we were discussing how the tech behemoths - Facebook, Google, and Apple - faired in their past three months of business. It is yet again earnings season, and if the title is any indication, the three of them put together some numbers that mere mortals have a hard time fathoming. A small company for example generally has no complaints with a yearly take in the seven figure range, a band of revenues that includes quite a few networks. Larger players in the performance marketing space do seven figures per month, and during the heyday of the flogs, quite a few had eight figure months. Of the networks today, we can only think of one that routinely has eight figure months. Compare this to the smallest of the three behemoths, Facebook, whose three month haul of $1 billion implies an average of $30mm per day. The largest company, Apple, earned a staggering $1bn in revenue each day. They just earned $311,000 in the time that it took you read this paragraph."

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Why You Need Social Media, Even if Your Customers Don't

This is a great article that discusses why you should be taking advantage of social media even if you think your customers are not (this is a fallacy of course, especially for HVAC contractors). The top 10 reasons include:

1. Social Media Activity Impacts Your Organic Search Presence
2. You'll Have More Control Over Your Online Image
3. User-Generated Content is More Critical Than Ever Before
4. You'll Gain Industry Clout
5. Other Companies' Customers Are on Social Media
6. Social Media Helps Expand Your Overall Reach
7. It May Cost Less to Generate Customers on Social Media
8. Social Media Amplifies the Effectiveness of Your Other Marketing Efforts
9. By the Time You're Ready, It Might Be Too Late
10. Your "Irrelevant" Social Media Audience Could Turn Into Your Target Audience

Article Written By: Cory Eridon on April 26, 2012 at Hubspot

"Well, here's the thing: your customers probably are on social media. Can any B2B company make the case that its target audience isn't on LinkedIn? Are there B2C companies without potential customers on Facebook? I guess it's possible, but it certainly won't stay that way for long. 79% of US adults use social media (if you were tuning into our webinar with Facebook today, you would have heard that very stat)! And eMarketer predicts there will be 1.43 billion
worldwide social media users in 2012. Wow."

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Internet Ad Revenue Totals $31B in 2011, Up 22%

The Interactive Advertising Bureau's Internet Advertising Report indicated that Mobile advertising records fastest growth, going from $641 million in 2010 to $1.6 billion in 2011, while total digital advertising revenue totaled $31 billion in 2011.

Article Written By: Anna Maria Virzi on April 18, 2012 at ClickZ

"It's official: 2011 was the year of mobile - and search and display advertising.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau's Internet Advertising Report, prepared by PwC U.S., reveals that digital advertising revenue totaled $31 billion in 2011. That represents an increase of 22 percent over 2010.

Mobile advertising was the fastest growing segment, hitting $1.6 billion in 2011, more than twice the amount spent in the prior year.

Search advertising accounted for the largest category at $14.8 billion; that represents 46.5 cents for every dollar spent on digital advertising in 2011."

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Facebook's Q1 Ad Sales Climb to $872 Million

Facebook reported a 37 percent year-over-year increase in ad revenue at $872 Million. Other key stats reported include over 500 million mobile users, 532 million active daily users and over 900 million active monthly users.

Article Written By: Christopher Heine on April 23, 2012 at ClickZ

"Facebook's ad revenue totaled $872 million during Q1 2012, up 37 percent from the $637 million it took in during the same period the year before, according to its amended S-1 filing released today."

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Moms Trump Other Women on Social Networks

Performics and ROI Research recently unveiled "S-Net: A Study in Social Media Usage & Behavior: 'Social Media Mom'" for April 2012. The study highlights various ways in which mothers are more active on social networks than other women.

Article Written By: Jason Hahn on April, 2012 at Digital Moses

"Performics and ROI Research recently unveiled “S-Net: A Study in Social Media Usage & Behavior: ‘Social Media Mom’” for April 2012. The study highlights various ways in which mothers are more active on social networks than other women.

The study was based on a 30-minute online survey of 2,998 women, conducted in December 2011. Respondents were required to access at least one social network on a regular basis. The sample was screened to represent the general online population.

One of the findings was that moms are more likely than other women to own a smartphone (50 percent vs. 31 percent) and a tablet (27 percent vs. 15 percent). Also, 56 percent of mothers consider themselves proficient/expert at using social networks, compared to 36 percent of other
women."

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Yelp: 5 Tips for Managing the Reputation of Your Firm

What service professionals need to know about the popular review site to maintain and improve your online business reputation.

Article Written By: Kim Cabot, April 18, 2012 at ClickZ

"It may come as a surprise to lawyers, doctors, and real estate agents that clients are reviewing their work on the hyper-popular Yelp.com. With 66 million unique monthly visitors in Q4 2011, and over 25 million posted reviews, it is no surprise that Yelp has become the go-to consumer tool for discovering local services. While many turn to the growing site for gauging restaurants and hair salons, the masses are scanning reviews for professional services as well.

There's nothing stopping professional service firms from getting the same reputation management benefits of Yelp ratings and reviews as entertainment services. Here are a few tips for implementing a professional service-specific Yelp strategy."

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Google Claims 66% of the U.S. Search Market in March 2012

Google claimed 66.4 percent of the U.S. search engine market in March, unchanged from its share in February. Microsoft followed with 15.3 percent, unchanged from its share in February. Yahoo! was third with 13.7 percent of the market in March, down 0.1 percentage point from its 13.8 percent share in February.

Ask Network was fourth with 3.0 percent, unchanged from its February share. AOL Inc. was fifth with 1.6 percent of the market, up 0.1 percentage point from its 1.5 percent share in February.

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iPad Rules Mobile Shopping

The RichRelevance Shopping Insights 2012 Q1 Mobile Study found that the iPad dominates mobile shopping in many ways. For one thing, nearly two-thirds of all mobile shopping sessions happen on iPads.

According to the 2012 Q1 Mobile Study iPad users spent significantly more time and money on retail sites than other mobile users. Data from March 2012 shows that:

• iPad users constitute the bulk of all mobile shoppers—accounting for about two-thirds (68%) of shoppers.
• The iPad accounts for 90% of all mobile revenue (and 4% of total retail revenue).
• Conversion rates were also strongest with the iPad (1.5% for iPad vs. 0.57% for other mobile devices).
• Average pages per session were highest for the iPad compared with all other mobile devices, at nearly 6 pages per session (5.7 for iPads vs. 3.6 for iPhone vs. 4.1 for other mobile devices).

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New Facebook Page

In an effort to separate business operations from private life, we have a launched a new HVAC Business Solutions Facebook page . Going forward we will no longer post to the account associated with my personal profile.

Regards,
Brian Starzec
President