We had a lot of people out of the office last week, hence no Big Picture meeting, so this week you can enjoy a double-dose of search & social news & analysis!

PPC

• Google Display Network Introduces New Performance Bundle – AdWords has added several useful metrics & tools to Display Network campaigns: Relative CTR, Impression Share, Placement Diagnostics & Unseen Impression Filter.
• Google Experimenting with Coupon Ads (or, “My Offer” ads) –  Currently in beta to select local businesses who are participating in Google Offers, AdWords Offer Ads are an experimental feature that allow advertisers to provide coupons directly from the Google SERP.
• Google Correlate – If you feel like you’ve exhausted the Google Keyword Tool and Insights, here’s a cool idea for how to use Google Labs’ Correlate tool for PPC campaigns.  Correlate allows users to find out what related queries have similar trending to each other.
• 3 Awesome Remarketing Ad Strategies – The possible reasons why a customer doesn’t convert on your site are countless. This article provides three useful remarketing tactics to get in front of those non-converts again and try to re-spark your relationship.

SEO

• What the New ICANN Domain Names Mean for Google Rankings – the organization in charge of internet domain names has approved plans that may create thousands of new top-level domain names. If Apple, Google or Facebook wanted to have .apple, .google and .facebook names, that now becomes possible. Short answer: this will help for branding, not SEO.
• Google to Have Nearly 80% of US Search Revenues in 2012 – According to eMarketer, Google is increasing its dominance of search advertising, while Facebook steals the top slot from Yahoo in display.
• Google Instant Pages – In Google Chrome, the first search result will now pre-load in the browser while you’re still on the search engine results page, making #1 rankings potentially even more important.
• Google Adds Search by Image – You can now drop an image into Google rather than trying to describe it (eg. searching for a place, or strange animal).
• Adding Your Site to Webmaster Tools May Reduce Rankings – It appears as though Google may be geo-targeting sites once added to Webmaster Tools.

Analytics

• Improvements in Map Overlay reports for International Locations (GA) – Previously, only state level maps were available in the US – now over 170 countries have region level maps.
• New Digital Measurement Principles Released – 3 top ad agencies released their guiding principles for online measurement. Focused primarily around brand display advertisers and what needs to be changed to make online measurement comparable to offline measurement.

Link Development

• Five Sources of Links For Small Business – Need some inspiration for link building ideas? Check out these how focusing on local targets can get you high quality links in a time-effective manner.
• 3 Common Link Building Questions Answered by 4 Experts – Get expert opinions on which content is newsworthy, how a large influx of links will really affect your site, and the best way to inexpensively promote your blog.
• Kicking Off a Linkbuilding Campaign with Questions – Asking yourself the right questions prior to launching a linkbuilding campaign can help you make sure your actions are in line with your goals.
• How To Find Websites Likely To Link Back To You – Use these search queries to identify prime websites targets to maximize the ROI on your link building efforts, and find out why a site that auto-plays music might be a good target.

Social Media

• The Single, Most Important Question You MUST Ask Your Social Media Maven – With many different platforms, agencies, and tools out there this one question helps you dive deeper into the true meaning of social media.
• The Current State of Social Networks [Infographic] – Stats, winners and losers of the past five years.
• Twitter Users Respond When Brands Engage – A new study shows that 59% of Twitter users want to receive a response after mentioning a brand in a tweet and when they receive a response, are 64% more likely to purchase.
• Klout’s +K Button Lets You Find Topical Experts Across Social Media – New way that Klout is allowing users to give authority to people who have influenced them on different subjects.
• LinkedIn Users: You’ve Got Klout – Klout just rolled out LinkedIn into their platform. Now you can pool all three major social networks into your scores to help identify you as a topic expert.
• AddThis Launches URL & Live Sharing Analytics – Popular content sharing widget AddThis has now added URL monitoring for visitors that share a URL by copy & paste, as well as a real-time analytics dashboard.

Local Search Engine Optimization

• Google Places Basics: How does Google Create and Maintain/Add Location Records For Their Google Places database? – Wondering why it is such a mess? This will help explain.
• Google Places Basics: Listing A New Business – A Timeline for Launch – Nice step by step timeline of the steps you should take to get your new business location information out by opening day.
• How To: Get A Google Places Label – Use Google Map Maker to get a label on for your business on Google Maps.
• Daily Deal Providers May Be Violating Consumer Protection – Deals from Groupon and LivingSocial may come under fire for violating laws for gift cards, sales tax, and alcohol sales.
• Red Flags Are Starting to Emerge in Daily Deals – In a recent study, just over half of businesses that used a daily deal service said they aren’t sure or will not use a service again for a second deal.
• Google City Sites May Compete with Yelp, Online Yellow Pages – Google’s effort to bring a number of initiatives together in a single place: Places Pages, Offers, Mobile, Events and promotion of its ads/services to local business owners. (Check Out Portland: https://www.google.com/portland/ )
• Google Maps Returns My Maps As My Places – My Places is a personalized view of every review AND map that a Google user has created. (Google Blog Post)
• Google Mobile Search Now Featuring Places Integration – Google mobile interface updated to push Places search front and center
• Descriptive Terms Introduced Into Local Search Results – Descriptive terms now showing in local search results – terms are pulled from across the web including web pages, reviews and online references.

B2C

• Pier 1 Launches Site-to-Store E-Commerce Capability – Pier 1 like other large retailers (REI) has implemented new buy online/pick up in store capabilities.  This new feature continues to increase AOV, as customers shop more when they pick up their online order.

Web Design

• 8 Ecommerce Plug-ins for WordPress Development – If you need to add ecommerce functionality to your site, consider these plug-ins.
• Steps to better navigation – How to utilize your navigation to fit its purpose and not hinder your users.
• Top 10 signs you need to update your website – Some sure tell signs that your website is outdated and you need to make updates.
• 7 Steps to a successful landing page – A list of guidelines to implement a successful landing page.
• SEO can’t help a website that sucks – An article encompassing the pitfalls of having a website that can’t convert your potential traffic.

Mobile

• 79% Not Interested in Mobile Wallets – Companies are betting big that US consumers want to pay with their smartphones, but current interest doesn’t back up that bet.  Bottom line: mobile wallets are going to take some time to reach critical mass at their current trajectory.
• Mobile Advertising to Expand in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico – Target customers in Central and South America?  Now’s the time to get in as competition is only expected to increase.
• Mobile Display ‘More than Doubled’ in Past Two Years – mobile display advertising continues to grow, with more advertising taking advantage of mobile display than ever before.
• Product extensions now available on mobile devices – product extensions are now available on mobile PPC ads through AdWords.