Around 5:30 Tuesday, I was standing at the bar at 21 with Don Draper for a couple of Gibsons and some advice. It was a typical muggy August New York evening, but Don looked sharp, his poplin suit perfectly pressed, that little dab of Brylcreem keeping it all in place. "I got something to run up the flagpole," I said nervously. He grimaced. "Don, my clients are all asking about how to make this performance advertising stuff work. Is it all baloney?"

According to recent reports, local SEM resellers targeting small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) face steep challenges stemming from high advertiser churn rates. SEM done right is a proven tool, so what's the real issue: Are these companies evaluating the right metrics? Have they been educated on what to look for?

Lead quality trumps lead quantity. These and other trends were uncovered by our fourth annual Industrial Marketing Trends Survey. Also key: 48% of industrial marketers are shifting a greater percentage of their budget online.

Want to double returns from your lead generation? It's simple: just identify your MVPs and focus your conversion marketing on them. Who are MVPs? They are your Most Valuable Prospects. They are like the best customers you have now or the ones you wish you had. They have the highest lifetime value to your business, and getting more of them would mean a major bump in your margins. And with the right blend of segmentation and lead generation technique, you can find them and convert them cost-effectively.

The new realities of our current economy have impacted many sectors, and the changes make it more important than ever to market smarter. Based on research into market trends and feedback from our customers, here are recommendations to achieve marketing success for the rest of 2009. All of these recommendations have something in common: better decision-making when it comes to marketing choices.

While optimists are hoping for economic recovery to begin soon, advertisers across all channels are desperately awaiting signs of the slightest uptick. All advertisers continue to scrutinize their marketing dollars during the present economic situation; however, many of these advertisers focus solely on a simple cost-per-lead goal and, consequently, rely on this arbitrary goal as a true gauge of performance. The result? No matter their heightened scrutiny, these advertisers are falling short.

There's a saying in the business world: Customer acquisition is an investment, but profitability is built on customer retention. And with the economy in its current state, it's more important than ever to keep the customers you have.

Perhaps the most painful happening for any agency is the transitioning of a client. Whether you are gaining or losing the client, these occurrences are notoriously characterized as awkward and often- unfriendly exchanges that leave agencies and clients jaded, not to mention at a disadvantage. Client and agency performance suffers when transitions are handled haphazardly and with disdain, yet this is the environment in which we continue to operate.

It's important to know what to look for when working with new-media companies. Alignment with your goals, audience, reach: these criteria apply across all media buys. However, other issues are specific to the online world: online metrics, conversion accountability, reputation of Web sites and more. Below is a list of questions to ask when evaluating online media.

As performance advertising increasingly becomes an online standard, there are still many hold-outs who stick to the traditional media only -- or, even worse, cut back on all advertising in honor of the recession. Maybe you're still resisting lead generation Like any emerging methodology, lead gen does require some focus to get started. But the results are worth it, particularly when economic times make legitimate prospects hard to find. As we make the rounds of advertisers, there are seven objections we consistently hear. Which ones sound like yours?