It’s (Still) Google’s World. We Just Live in It

Google AdWords is so two years ago. That’s the vibe you get from businesses that are jumping into social media marketing (and from the social media consultants who are encouraging them to jump).

But don’t shut down your AdWords account just yet, because Google still owns every consumer in the world.

OK, that’s a slight exaggeration. Google doesn’t own everyone. But it does own the buying behavior of almost every consumer, right down to the last hover and click.

Think about it. With the data gathered from its end-to-end arsenal of services -- from Google Search to Google+ to Google Chrome to Google Maps to Google Wallet -- “Google knows how you research, what makes you buy, when you buy it, how much you spend on it, what else you buy with it and how you react afterward,” says SEO expert Mitch Monsen in a recent article titled “Google’s Frightening Information Monopoly.”

And that’s not all. Google collects data on the mobile habits of millions of Android phone users. Google just delivered a potentially fatal blow to Mozilla, so a lot more people will soon be using Chrome instead of Firefox -- and sending a lot more information for Google.

Google is at work on providing free Internet, which means it could track everything you do online, even if you don’t use any other Google service. Google has even prototyped a self-driving Google Car. Why? Maybe it’s just generous. Or maybe it’d like to know everywhere you go in the real world. Google fridge? Check. Google house? Yup.

It makes a person think. And it should make a business think twice about cutting its AdWords budget. Because annoying as the idea of total Google domination may be, it means the company -- with its massive knowledge of consumers and the power to serve them ads and influence their buying decisions when it matters most -- could one day be the only game in town for online marketing.

How to make your landing page better. So you buy your Google ads and they bring new traffic to your site. Will your landing page convert them to purchasers? Here are 10 tips to improve your pay-per-click landing page, courtesy of Econsultancy, an online community of internet marketing and ecommerce professionals.

How much does free shipping cost? If you’re selling anything online, you’d better offer free shipping. Because most of your competitors are. Research by digital-measuring firm ComScore indicates that over half of online transactions this holiday season will include free shipping.

“Consumers have come to expect free shipping during the holiday promotion periods and retailers have realized they must offer this incentive if they want to maximize their share of consumer spending,” says ComScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “More than three-quarters of consumers say free shipping is important to them when making an online purchase and nearly half say they’ll abandon their shopping cart at checkout if they find free shipping is not being offered.”

But when you give, you also receive. ComScore looked at 2010 holiday purchases and found that online retailers significantly boosted their revenue by offering free shipping, usually by setting a minimum purchase to qualify. Transactions that included free shipping in holiday season 2010 were 45 percent higher than those without free shipping.

Follow Tim and Tom on Twitter @timntom.