Analysing your AdWords budget & exploring history on your phone (Weekly round-up Vol. 74)

Posted on Sep 28, 2010 by Lesley Hays

A Guide to AdWords ROI, Profit & Revenue – Reload Media
ROI, profit and revenue are all important but which one should you aim to maximise with an AdWords campaign – or any advertising campaign – and do they all peak at the same time? Craig from Reload Media does the maths for you and takes an indepth look at how they could differ, and how this can impact your AdWords budget.

How Businesses Are Unleashing Their Employees’ Social Media Potential – Mashable
This article shows how some companies are harnessing their employees’ increasing technical knowledge to innovate.

6 new scientific findings about Facebook users – The Week
So heavy Facebook users are likely narcissists and 34% of users check Facebook in the morning before they even go to the bathroom? Checking Facebook often gets you lower tertiary grades? Users over-estimate how much their friends care about or agree with their status updates? None of this is surprising but at least it’s all scientifically studied! Maybe you should post these stats on Facebook – it might just make you happier, too.

7 Ways Mobile Apps are Enriching Historical Tourism – Mashable
Augmented reality is where technology is used to enhance (or “augment”) the physical environment around you to add new layers of information, visuals or experience. Think of something as complicated as a gaming headset that projects holograms of other gamers onto the street in front of you. Or as simple as Foursquare’s public location comments (I personally think this actually is augmented reality at its most basic and most useful).

…or think a simple iPhone app that gives you detailed information about the historical landmark in front of you. That directs you to subtle areas of significance in famous,  150-year-old murder cases. That guides you on a tour of London’s medical developments over the years or answers your pressing questions about bizarre statues at the Library of Congress.

Take a look at these seven apps used at American and English tourism centres – how could we use this technology in Australia? In Brisbane?

Will personalisation become a dirty word? - Claire Cooper, Bullseye (via Digital Ministry)
Nowadays, marketers know more about you than ever before: what you’ve bought previously, where you live, what you’re interested in. Claire Cooper raises some pretty important points in her article about the line between handy personalisation (of products, websites, emails etc.) and forced, assumed segmentation.

Providing personalised suggestions, offers or information is great – we all know how well Amazon does it – but we need to make sure our customers are given the option to break out of their segment and find other things they might be interested in, too. Claire might have bought that spa treatment coupon once but it doesn’t mean she’s only ever interested in spa treatments!

Elmo gets personal with Sesame Street fans

He’s not wearing a towel or catching silver fish, but Elmo is following in Old Spice guy’s golden footsteps and answering viewer questions through YouTube. It’s good to hear he doesn’t leave Sesame Street without a grownup!