Marketing Pilgrim Published: "Trackur Adds Google+ Monitoring" plus 3 more

Trackur Adds Google+ Monitoring
Report Says Retail Paid Search Conversion Rates Dropping
Facebook Missteps and Failures [Infographic]
YouTube Offers Chance to Buy Music Merchandise

Posted: 17 Oct 2011 08:07 AM PDT

Can you believe that I now have to get permission from Frank to tell you about Trackur news. Something about integrity and transparency….

Well, after promising to disclose that I am the CEO of Trackur (as well as the publisher of Marketing Pilgrim), he agreed to let me tell you about Trackur's big news.

Google+ monitoring has now been added to all paid plans. Yeah, you heard that right. All paid plans! That means you can get Google+ monitoring for just $18 a month!

Like you, we have our fingers crossed that Google+ has a longer shelf-life than Google Buzz did, because it takes some work to add a new source each time. ;-)

BTW, don't forget that you can get a year of Trackur Plus for just $1056 and get a FREE PubCon Vegas pass–worth $1699! That's a better deal than you can get at the PubCon.com site!

Happy tracking!

Pilgrim's Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!

Report Says Retail Paid Search Conversion Rates Dropping

Posted: 17 Oct 2011 06:32 AM PDT

When you think about paid search advertising on a search engine like Google, Bing or Yahoo do you care about how much is being spent there in total or are you focusing on your conversions?

Most marketers will say conversions rule the day for obvious reasons. That's why a recent study from IgnitionOne is interesting in that it shows a Q3 trend of increased spend on paid search by the retail sector in particular but a significant decline in conversion rates. This is good news for the engines on increased revenue but will that be sustained if conversions are not taking place? Here are the numbers from the report (AOV is average order size).

There are plenty of reasons why conversions may be down in this area but the most obvious one is that paid search advertisers struggle with compelling landing pages. It is one of, if not the most, critical components that cause searchers to eventually convert into real leads.

So why the disconnect? If this is such an important element in the success of any online campaign, be it a paid search effort or some other inbound marketing technique that attracts a potential customer to a web presence, why is there more failing than succeeding in converting visitors to customers?

What do you see as the most common shortcomings in landing page optimization? Can this trend in conversions be about the overall effectiveness of paid search or is it more of a commentary of how much help most need to master this important online marketing concept? Or is it simply that people are looking but don't have the money to buy?

What's your take?

Marketing Pilgrim's Inbound Marketing Channel sponsor HubSpot is educates businesses of all sizes regarding the most effective techniques for success in landing page optimization.

Facebook Missteps and Failures [Infographic]

Posted: 17 Oct 2011 04:47 AM PDT

Sometimes it can feel like a bit of a hobby to point out the relative shortcomings of Facebook. If you ever want to see just how much time some people have on their hands just watch the comments after Facebook posts a service update either on their blog or their company page. Rarely do people talk about the update. Instead they use it as a platform to complain about what they feel is wrong with the social media giant.

Since these occurrences have happened quite a bit over the years, Wordstream has taken the time to put together an infographic to share many of the sources of the angst and other unkind feelings Facebook's many starts and stops have generated over the years.

Enjoy!

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YouTube Offers Chance to Buy Music Merchandise

Posted: 16 Oct 2011 10:45 PM PDT

YouTube gets 800 million visitors a month. A lot of that is focused on music videos. As a classic rock fan I can now see video of bands from when I was growing up that I only dreamed of seeing when these acts were in their heyday. I now have to avoid getting caught up in a jaunt down nostalgia lane on YouTube from which I could lose significant junks of my life.

Well, the folks at YouTube ain't stupid and they have now opened up the opportunity for partners to sell merchandise, concert tickets, digital downloads and more along with these videos that are like musical crack for someone like myself. Makes sense to strike when the iron's hot, right?

Here's a look at what you will see sooner than later.

Of course I don't see myself warming up to $10 bars of soap from a band any time soon but that's another issue entirely.

From the YouTube blog

We're launching a feature called the Merch Store that will allow YouTube partners to offer fans merchandise directly on your channel. Fans will be able to buy artists' merchandise, digital downloads, concert tickets and even unique experiences like meetups. These features are made possible through affiliates like Topspin for merchandise, concert tickets and experiences; Songkick for concerts; and iTunes and Amazon for music downloads. We'll be rolling out the Merch Store to music partners globally over the coming weeks.

This only makes sense. YouTube says it will only take a small percentage of the price to cover its costs. Awful magnanimous of them but as with any Google owned entity the advertising is where the money is so if more people come to the site for even more reasons the better it is for Google. At least they are pushing some responsibility for cost off on someone rather than the historical free to everyone on our dime model they have "pioneered".

So do you see yourself getting excited enough by a video to make a merchandise purchase through YouTube?