Let’s begin with Flowtown’s “How Far does Social Advertising Reach”, a nice graphic that reinforces the idea that as consumers continue to ignore traditional online advertising, the role of social advertising becomes more pertinent.

Flowtown – Social Media Marketing Application

One of the key discussions surrounding social media in 2011 has been in how you can effectively measure ROI. The Wall have created the below infographic that looks at the real costs of social media campaigns.

Finally, Bafton’s infographic “Why Content for SEO?” ties Social Media into SEO very nicely, summing up turn that SEO has taken, and will continue to follow into 2012 and beyond:

And those are my personal favourites. Disagree with my choices? Feel free to link to infographics that you like in the comments below.

Top position ads are displayed above the natural search results (top of your screen) and side position ads are displayed in a column at the right hand side of the search results page.

The new tool provides clear stats on how your ads perform in each of these locations.

The tool can be accessed at all account levels, Campaign, Ad groups, Ads or Keywords. Here’s how to access it.

1. Click on the Segment button in the tool bar above your data.
2. Select Top vs. Side form the drop down menu. See below.

Above, the results have been segmented top/side and the results are astonishing.

The ads on the side have a considerably lower CTR and conversion rate. With the recent introduction of extended headlines we wondered if these trends were influenced by the new ad format.

No change. Looking at historic data the performance trends are consistent.

So what does this mean for Advertisers?

Google’s Chief Economist, Hal Varian says on the Adwords blog ‘this distinction is important, since, on average, ads that appear above the search results tend to get substantially more clicks than ads that appear on the right-hand side’.

No change there then!

On a positive note the CPC’s are lower for the top positions.

The obvious tactic is to target the top positions aggressively:

• Increased traffic for a lower CPC
• Increased CTR – helps quality score
• Increased conversion rate – more sales

Not quite that simple. From an advertiser’s perspective the targets haven’t changed. It may not be feasible to target the top positions for all terms.

There will be a spike in clicks when increasing positions. This could lead to meeting your daily budgets quicker. You’ll need to adjust and manage the daily budgets accordingly.

If you don’t have sufficient budget to support the increase in clicks implement day parting tactics so you target the top positions at the right times for your business.

Luke leaves search agency Latitude after 3 years in various senior roles, most recently as Head of Social Media, in this time he has worked with brands including Tesco, Skype, Victor Chandler, British Red Cross and Post Office.

At Make It Rain he will focus on leading SEO and Social Media strategies for Make It Rain clients including David Lloyd and Best Western.

Make It Rain Managing Director, Justin Hayward said “ Luke is a great addition, backed by excellent senior experience on major brands.  The continuing convergence of SEO and social media channels is a natural fit for Luke’s talents.  We’re delighted to have him as part of our team.”

Luke Regan commented: “I’m delighted to have joined Make It Rain. We have a strong, experienced team committed to delivering excellent service and innovation to our client base. It is clear to me that SEO and Social Media should work together to maximise results and I look forward to an exciting and successful 2010 and beyond.”