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Companies that have made it this far should feel hopeful about the future; we may finally be coming out of the recession.  Not everything's back to normal, though - just ask General Motors - and so if you're in the position of needing to justify the use of paid search (or just wanting to get better at it), a session at SMX Advanced aimed to help.

Coverage of SMX Advanced continues at WebProNews Videos.  Stay with WebProNews for more updates and videos from the event this week.

 

Kelly Gillease, Viator's marketing director, kicked off "Proving and Improving ROI in Paid Search" by talking about capturing key metrics.  Take a look at actual numbers vs. estimated averages and marginal revenue vs. gross revenue, for starters.

Don't forget to fully credit search engine marketing for ad revenue per pageview or visit, email signup value, and latent transactions, too.

Next, Ryan Gibson, the Rimm-Kaufman Group's director of marketing, discussed tracking.  "Javascript tracking may cause the misallocation for 10 to 30 percent of sales," he noted.  So to more accurately catch PPC connections, consider adding tracking to any call center applications you've got.  For PPC clicks that convert in-store, look into dynamic coupons, email capture at the point of sales, and customer feedback surveys, as well.

Alex Schultz, who's an Internet marketing manager at Facebook, then spoke.  "Data is your key advantage as a search marketer," he stressed.  Schultz also pointed out, "Most companies don't take a look at the true, long-term value of a new customer."

Finally, Kelly Thomas, a group product manager for Microsoft, suggested maximizing your ROI with better targeting.  Go after your best customers, certain types (gender, age, etc.), and be willing to pay a premium.

WebProNews Video anchor Abby Johnson contributed to this report.