Fledgling Signpost Secures $3.75 Million In Funding To Support SMBs by Laurie Sullivan

Small and medium-sized local businesses continue to receive an abundance of attention these days. Google Ventures invested seed funding in Signpost back in October 2012, joining an initial investment from Spark Capital. At the time the company described itself as a community-powered deals site. Now, the focus turns to SMBs in online advertising. On Tuesday, the company reported closing an additional $3.75 million in funding led by Spark. ...Read the whole story

  • Wrapp Up Social Gifting On Facebook by Laurie Sullivan

    The Sweden start-up Wrapp has brought social gifting to the United States, along with specials from Gap, H&M, Sephora, Bjorn Borg, Gant, and SpaFinder Wellness, among others. ...Read the whole story

  • search Attribution: IgnitionOne Gives Marketers Another View by Laurie Sullivan

    Attribution technology from companies such as IgnitionOne continues to advance, but business models need to follow. Inherent challenges exist, but marketers don't have a choice, according to Tim Schaeffer, search engine marketing manager at Zappos.com. This is the future -- sink or swim, he said. ...Read the whole story

Digging Deep With Google Analytics Custom Variables by Ryan DeShazer

Out-of-the-box website analytics tools are rarely satisfying. Sites that track only standard visits, pageviews, and bounces are missing out on some of the richest Web marketing data available. Every digital marketer should have a clear understanding of the data points that will be essential to maximizing the on-site user experience, which will ultimately foster greater audience engagement and yield more revenue. ...More

  • Enough With The Attribution Excuses by Roger Barnette

    Just get on with it already. You've thought about it. You've made excuses. You know it's time. As a search marketer, you need to get off last-click attribution. Ahh... last-click attribution. Like any addictive drug, it gets you hooked and is hard to give up. But, like any addictive drug, the fun days are over, and now, if you don't quit, you will only see the negative consequences. ...More