Most marketers hold true to the notion that paid search is extremely measurable, focused on bottom-line ROI and grounded in analytics, whereas social media, including Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and viral video, is experimental, difficult to measure, and all about engagement and branding. But the reality is that search and social are becoming more and more similar, with each marketing tactic influencing the other in important ways. Integrating marketing programs always sounds like a great idea, but the challenge with integration lies in execution. How can marketers combine two distinctly different tactics—the keyword based, conversion-obsessed world of paid search and the audience based, brand-building world of social—to drive an overall increase in ROI?
