A marketing analytics company called RevTrax just completed a two year study on the effect of PPC advertising on consumer in-store spending.  The study analyzed the purchase habits of consumers referred by pay-per-click ads to e-commerce sites. RevTrax used landing pages with coupons that featured a unique barcode to track the information.  The bar code information was then able to track the consumers’ buying cycles and show conversions.

Eloqua is a marketing automation and revenue performance platform that executes campaigns, testing, measurement, prospect profiling and lead nurturing.

Is your firm transitioning to Eloqua 10?

The deployment of Eloqua 10 is now in full swing, and Eloqua 10 is the only option for new Eloqua clients. If you’re an Eloqua user and haven’t switched to Eloqua 10, you will most likely receive a call in the near future to schedule your update. However, your firm may be asking whether switching over to Eloqua 10 is a good idea.

As companies seek to expand their global advertising reach online, it’s impossible to ignore China. Despite the number of restrictions associated with advertising in China, the size of the potential audience is enticing. Unfortunately, China places restrictions on the flow of information into and within its borders, a fact which may discourage many companies from investing the time and money to understand the habits and interests of this tremendous market.

Yesterday Google announced “Search, Plus Your World,” a significant change to its search results that will put more emphasis on content within its social network, Google+. The new feature will allow Google robots to crawl data within Google+, and include this information along with public internet data when displaying search results.

The new Google “Personal Results” link delivers information relevant to searchers based on their search behavior, as well as their social connections. This means that two searchers will see different results for the same query. Regular, nonsocial search results will now be presented to users as “Other results.”

In a recent article by Search Engine Land, Googler Amit Singhal states, “The social search algorithm, and the personalized search algorithm are actually one algorithm now, and we are merging it in a way that is very pleasant and useful.” Only users logged in to Google will receive personal results, though each user has the capability to remove social content from their search results by disabling the option.

In October Google announced an increased privacy setting for Google account users that created nervous anticipation among many SEOers. In order to further protect the privacy of Google users signed into their accounts, Google added a default setting that makes browsing done while logged in occur from an encrypted SSL (https://google.com). This privacy update blocks Analytics from providing some search data. If the user is logged in, queries/keywords resulting in a click will be classified as “not provided” in reports. Data from logged in users who select pay-per-click (PPC) ads will still appear in Analytics.

Over the last several years companies have realized the importance of making their brands social, but many are still wondering how to encourage audiences to interact with their brands through social media outlets.  Public relations agency Weber Shandwick, in partnership with Forbes Insights, recently released a survey that discusses how to make your brand sociable. The results of the survey demonstrate multiple useful methods companies can implement to build their brand sociability.

One result of the survey states, “Global brand executives attribute 52% of their brand’s reputation to how social it is today and it is expected to grow to 65% in 3 years.” In managing your company’s social media, it is important to realize that having a major presence in the social arena is vital to your brand’s reputation. Consumers enjoy the opportunity to interact with your brand and appreciate knowing that their voices are being heard. As you listen to what your users have to say, you can improve your social media campaigns by determining what pleases your customers most and then catering to their interests.

The survey also says that most global executives say their “brand’s sociability is not yet world class.” In developing your company’s social presence, always remember why you are operating in that particular space. You are there to develop a relationship and open communication channels between you and your current and potential customers. Make your social presence personal by responding to customer comments and keeping the voice of your posts real, human and conversational.  Show that you genuinely care about your customers’ opinions and thoughts by engaging and interacting with them in a timely manner.

With the trends we have seen, it seems that sociability of your brand will continue to play a significant role in marketing.  Having a strong social presence for your company will help develop powerful relationships with your customers and make it easier to understand and deliver on what they desire. For more on the survey created by Weber Shandwick and Forbes Insights go to: http://mashable.com/2011/10/12/brand-sociability-infographic/