Frank Reed points to a report from eTail that explains what attendees to a recent conference spent marketing budgets on in August. The study shows 48% invested in SEO, paid and site search; followed by 32% in mobile and 32% in email. Other media, such as social, Web analytics and data, and multichannel strategies also gained high percentages. 

SideCar, which provides ride-sharing through mobile apps, has raised $10 million in Series A financing from Google Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The app enables people to find nearby drivers who have signed up to provide rides through the service. Sunil Paul told Forbes he received a patent in 2002 for the idea of accepting transportation requests for pickup, determining location and directing the vehicle to the location pickup.  

Research firm eMarketer suggests this year’s holiday season will see a 16.8% increase in sales compared with last year, according to Kayla Kurtz. She guides us through the steps, such as putting the plan on paper first and then building out modified versions of terms, explaining each. Kurtz suggests uploading the campaign into the paid-search account to make the final settings decisions before completing the account structure. The seven tips include copy stucture and landing page overhauls, and suggestions on eliminating unwanted traffic through negative keywords.

Kristi Hines expands on a list published a few weeks ago by Sujan Patel, covers some significant changes in social networks, and provides tips that marketers can apply to social media strategies. She reminds us to check email contacts for new social media connections, and breaks out each platform -- from Google+ to Pinterest -- to provide specific tips.

The lesson learned from an unusual Intel and Toshiba social media campaign titled "The Beauty Insider" leads viewers through a series of physical social meetings where the narrator remains the same internally, but changes appearance. The companies learned that people will engage with content when a story line appears compelling. The ad, which ran on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, targeted 18- to-34-year-olds as an "online coming-of-age love story." As content becomes more pervasive in search engine marketing, marketers need to understand the structure and apply it to paid-search ads and landing page content to drive traffic.

A series of automatically generated takedown notices sent by Microsoft to Google accusing the U.S. federal government, Wikipedia, BBC, HuffPo, TechCrunch, and Microsoft Bing of infringing on Microsoft's copyrights demonstrates the need to have checks and balances when it comes to automation. BoingBoing tells us the takedown was aimed at early Windows 8 Beta leaks, and seemed to target its accusations based on the presence of the number 45 in the URLs.

Small companies often need financial assistance. Google will launch a service in the United Kingdom that offers credit to small and medium-sized businesses needing a financial boost. The move extends a service it has been offering in the U.S. for more than a year. Starting Monday, Google will be inviting businesses to use AdWords Business Credit in the U.K. and extend more invites to others in the U.S.

Joanna Lord gives marketers some ideas to get feedback good and bad. The 10 tips can provide a consistent flow of feedback that will provide insight into trends and a method to start benchmarking sentiment. She explains how to ask customers about what they need, implement the procedures, and then begin tracking the progress.

Telecom, online retail and car companies are the top market segments using real-time bidding (RTB), according to eMarketer. AT&T spends the most in the space, with Sprint Nextel in fifth place and Verizon in tenth. Amazon.com took fourth place; eBay, seventh; and Dell, eighth, eMarketer tells us, citing a report from Rubicon Project based on its clients. Search marketers becoming more familiar with RTB, may see some similarities in bid marketing techniques.

Google has launched a new AdWords API that includes shared budgets and reports, along with the ability to rotate in with other ads and set up demographic targeting at the ad group level. The AdWords team also tells marketing it will "sunset" v201206 at the end of February 2013.