Web analytics can help search marketers track campaigns across multiple online channels. Jeff Campbell lays out both pros and cons you might want to consider before making the move to adopt any one of numerous applications. One benefit includes the ability to get at the data quickly, without waiting for the agency to call and report on the campaign's failure or success. Campbell writes that some apps limit the type of available data, which creates challenges. "Impressions, ranking, open rates, views, and more are not available in most [Web analytics] tools," he writes. "WA tools only report on …

You've decided to bring search marketing in-house, but how do you manage staffing, budgeting, content planning, infrastructure management and all the required nuances for success? Since priorities differ for organic SEO campaigns and paid search advertising, Duane Forrester steps through the basics for both. Forrester, a Microsoft exec, believes SEO campaigns typically need more careful planning because they call for participation from many areas throughout the company, from developers and programmers, to content creators and editors. Unlike SEO campaigns, setting priorities for paid search campaigns is a little more straightforward: define the goals and track the results.

Google has released two new display ad templates that allow you to easily create online coupons to run on sites across the Google content network. Digital ad agency Razorfish, which will continue to test display ad building templates, has begun to use the tool and sees it "as a great creative sandbox, allowing us to quickly test and iterate with new ad formats and capabilities that simple text ads can't offer," says Danny Huynh, associate search director. Each new template has a slot to feature a price or a discount such as "20% off." Extra room on the …

Don't forget the importance of display URLs in pay per click ads. Randy Pickard analyzes findings from a Centric eye-tracking study that measures the length of time people spend looking at display URLs on Google search query result pages. Thirty people participating in the research performed twelve searches using Google.com. Pickard discusses a variety of metrics, noting "a significant impact" on success from the display URL depending on the placement. Other metrics reveal heat maps that show "aggregated participant gaze activity during one of the twelve searches in the study." He gives us several tips aimed at achieving …

Brian Carter gives us a comprehensive introduction to Google Adwords Conversion Tracking, explaining why this tool is important and what insight it can give your campaigns. Carter tells us marketers can't optimize anything until they know that keywords and ad placements are producing a return on investment. Don't guess, he says: "Key performance indicators, the metrics to judge failure and success, should be conversion based." "It doesn't matter how cheap your clicks are if you're not getting a return on investment," he said. While Google Analytics provides insight into campaigns, it doesn't offer the ROI and conversion metrics …

Eric Ward likens link-building campaigns to seven-course meals. He writes that there are so many different ways to seek, chase, inspire, engender and obtain links that "it's mind-blowing." The main objective, however, remains connecting people with URLs and content. Follow "the rules of linking engagement" for success. Ward also ponders several questions as the Web turn 20 years old this month, suggesting not even Sir Tim Berners-Lee could have predicted that someone would chose a career in link building. "Would any of us do any of what we do if not for the potential positive effect we …

Targeting ads to specific consumer demographics can give small and mid-size businesses better leads to close the deal, according to Carrie Hill. If you already run a PPC campaign and know the demographic groups you want to target, Hill provides tips on getting started. Narrowing the target audience for a specific product or service could reduce the price of cost per clicks and traffic volume, but conversions should increase because you are showing your ads to people who will likely buy, Hill writes. She provides a brief tutorial of how to do demographic targeting on Google AdWords, …

Average orders rose and cost-per-clicks declined for three retailers who ran paid search campaigns this Valentine's season. Udayan Bose, founder and CEO of NetElixir, shared the results, but not the brands' names, on Internet Retailer. The average value of orders stemming from paid search clicks during the first 13 days of February jumped 4% for at the first retailer, compared with the prior year. Sales increased 2% for retailer No. 2, and sales jumped 38% for retailer No. 3.

Google tapped Dennis Woodside, formerly head of Google in the United Kingdom and Ireland, to oversee the search engine's advertising sales in North America and South America. He replaces Tim Armstrong, who left to run AOL. Woodside, 40, will report to Omid Kordestani, who oversees all Google's advertising divisions. Matt Brittin, Google's head of direct sales, will replace Woodside as director of U.K. operations, which has been reported at around 15% of Google's overall business.

Google has confirmed testing the display of favicons (graphics representing a Web site) in paid search results in the United Kingdom, according to Kerstin Baker-Ash. Greg Sterling at Search Engine Land also recently sighted favicons in Germany and Poland for AdWords advertises. The test in the U.K. was conducted on less than 1% of advertisers where there was a favicon associated with the display URL, Baker-Ash writes. Baker-Ash writes that it was not possible to opt in or out of the trial. Google chose the advertisers to participate in the beta, and "it is likely that those advertisers …