Final Lap: Our Favorite Online Marketing Stuff for the Week of October 3

Here’s a synopsis (and some snippets) of the best online marketing articles our team The Pit Crew has read this week.

Mike Fleming (@mflem25)

How To Use 3 Competitive Intelligence PPC Tools
by Adam Riff

Dozens of factors go into winning of course, and one of the critical factors is knowing your opponents. If you don’t know them, it’s going to be difficult to beat them. Competitive Intelligence tools can help you do that and in this post, I’m going to disclose a few that we use to look at some key metrics and some tips on how to use them.

Unearthing Hidden Gems In Your PPC Account: A Guide
by Jessica Niver

One process we undergo for our accounts regularly is comparative past vs. present performance analysis. In AdWords you can do this at nearly any account level (campaign, ad group, keyword, ad), as well as segmenting by other settings such as distribution network. It can be extremely helpful in identifying areas of opportunity to increase your account’s profitability, and in addition it can help uncover and pinpoint the source of performance issues that otherwise can seem to be nebulously dragging your account down. The process can be time-intensive, but it’s useful enough that it’s worth undertaking.

Landing Page Relevance Criteria: Google’s Modus Vivendi
by Andrew Goodman

Following up on the news that Google is incorporating landing page relevance more directly into Quality Score as it affects position and thus CPC’s as well as eligibility in the keyword auction…

As a few of us try to digest Google’s high-level announcement, it’s still unclear what exactly Google is measuring now, or plans to measure in the future, when it comes to relevance and scent in the keyword, ad, and post-click user journey.

Annalisa Hilliard (@ahilliardm)

Branding in SEO – The Big Shift in Online Marketing
by KaisertheSage

…With these several changes in the search results’ landscape, particularly on Google, Branding appears to be one of the biggest factors that search engines might rely on when it comes to determining authenticity for web authority/popularity.

A question every brand should be asking: “What’s our verb?”
by Hugo Guzman

Well guess what? I’m going to write a post that’s all about Facebook.

Linkbuilding Recommendations When Using Contests
by Debra Mastaler

We talk a lot about using contests in link building and since this is a great one to learn from, (and a national brand so no points lost for outing) I thought I’d highlight a number of things I found impressive and provide a couple of suggestions you can use with your next contest bait.

Jen Carroll (@martijen)

Grande Guide to B2B Content Marketing
by Joe Pulizzi and Joe Chernov

If you’re among the uninitiated with content marketing and feeling the pressure to ‘just do it,’ there are scores of excellent books, webinars, e-books and blog posts for your learning pleasure. But, if you don’t have time for that kind of full-blown affair, the Grande Guide to B2B Content Marketing – available for review on October 4 – is the perfect quickie. Read my full review of the Grande Guide to B2B Business Marketing…

Comprehensive Guide to Measuring the ROI of Social Media Marketing
by AJ Kumar

…while social media marketing has its place, it’s not something that you should go all-in on without having a definite system in place for measuring its return on investment (ROI). Even though sites like Facebook and Twitter are free to join, you’re still investing your time in maintaining your presence on these sites, and it’s important to be sure you’re exchanging your time for some sort of value.

Facebook Launches New Metric: “People Talking About”
by Todd Wasserman

Facebook has overhauled its Pages Insights analytics tool and added a new metric to gauge the health of a page: “People Talking About.” That statistic, which users will see on Pages below the total number of “Likes,” will be one of four tracked by Pages Insights. The idea is that users will understand a Page with a high People Talking About rating is one that has compelling content. Likewise, content creators will be motivated to make their Pages more comment-worthy.

What’s the best thing about online marketing that you read this week? Leave us your comments.