Think AdWords isn’t important? With 92% of companies now incorporating social media into their marketing efforts, it’s no longer sufficient to just “be there” on social networks. Today’s most effective marketers are optimizing content across channels, coordinating search and social marketing activities with traditional PR, and measuring their web presence and performance with sophistication. The first step to improving digital marketing results is to understand the emerging trends and best practices. What do buyers really want from social media marketers? MORE >>

Keyword / Key Phrase Development: look at multiple sources—your existing site content, competitors’ websites, industry trade publications, relevant blogs, and the keyword suggestion tool in Google AdWords—to develop your long list of key word and phrases to use in your SEM campaign. Write at least two different ads that point to the same landing page, then in Google AdWords and Yahoo Sponsored Search, turn on ad optimization so that your more effective ads are being shown more frequently. Here are some best practices to optimize your results from SEM campaigns: 1. Write your ads. MORE >>

What Brands Need To Know About Google+ AdWords Social Extensions by Search Engine Land. Kelly Gillease explains what social extensions are, why they matter (“The main advantage for in-house marketers implementing the new Social Extension is to boost their +1 counts all around, AdWords ads and Google+ pages will receive boosts from each other’s increasing +1’s”), how they impact AdWords ads, and what companies need to do to complete the verification process with Google. Google+ (or Google Plus) is many different things, depending on who you ask. ”). MORE >>

How to Handle the AdWords Ad Rotation Changes by Search Engine Watch. Greg Habermann reports on Google’s decision to change AdWords ad rotation settings from “indefinite” to just 30 days, explains how this will screw up head-to-head ad testing (particularly for smaller advertisers with low impression volume and agencies managing multiple accounts), and then suggests some alternatives and workarounds to try until Google comes “to its senses and change this back.” ” Top 5 ways to use AdWords’ new Auction Insights tool by PPC Hero. MORE >>

SEMRush Geo displays Google AdWords advertisers on a Google Maps background, enabling users to identify the businesses within any geographic area who are running AdWords campaigns. Clicking the SEMRush icon within the pop-out or sidebar opens a new window displaying the keywords bid on by that company, and for each keyword the average cost per click, destination URL, percentage of AdWords traffic driven, percentage of AdWords costs and more. Clicking on any businesses opens a small pop-out with additional information (which is also displayed in the left sidebar). MORE >>