The next interview in the B2B Marketing thought leader interview series is with Terry Whalen, a partner at CPC Search , a full-service SEM agency that optimizes PPC campaigns on behalf of its clients. It’s relatively easy to measure revenue via Google AdWords using a ‘purchase’ conversion tag that passes through dynamic revenue variables to AdWords reporting. But for B2B, we are typically only measuring a lead submission via AdWords, and all leads are not created equal. Editor's note: For example, using Salesforce for Google AdWords.) MORE >>

At its current rate, Twitter will process almost 10 billion tweets in 2010. Social Marketing Lifts Organic Conversions by MarketingSherpa. ** 5 Stars. According to MarketingSherpa research, marketers working in social media report an average 27% conversion rate for organic search traffic, while those not using social media reported a 17% rate. Email open rates continue to decline from 14% in the second half of 2007 to just 11.2% B2B advertising spending on social media is forecasted to grow at an annualized rate of 21% through 2013. Adam T. MORE >>

Home Members Only News Features Columns SEM SEO PPC Social Media How To Google & Search First Time Here? personally have seen B2B CPC rates vary wildly based on industry and the competitiveness and length of the keyword. We do everything we can to minimize CPC levels (attack Quality Scores) and maximize conversion rates (Landing Pages & Offers), but in the end we are usually still faced with high costs per click that hamstring our efforts to generate significant numbers of leads. Conversion actions are not all created equal (e.g. for B2C retailers and $1.93 MORE >>

5: The 8 Layers of a B2B Web Marketing Plan , October 8, 2008 Another strategy piece, this one on working outward from a solid website design, SEO and SEM through broader marketing tactics and media. 3: Google AdWords Average CTR and Best Practices , September 20, 2007 Hard numbers to help benchmark the performance of Google AdWords campaigns is hard to come by, which explains the popularity of this post. Based on recent data, the average CTR for b2b AdWords programs remains in the 1.1%-1.3% range, with a typical conversion rate of around 2.8%. MORE >>

The previous post on this topic advised search engine marketers to bid on their own company name and branded terms, keep keyword lists clean and cross-pollinate SEO and SEM efforts. Here are three more tips for optimizing results from SEM programs such as Google AdWords. Though the click-through rate (CTR) is generally lower on content than on search, the cost per click is generally lower as well, and conversion rates are often quite respectable. Their AdWords budget is modest and produces only a few leads per month, but is very cost-effective. MORE >>