When targeted well, social media ads offer far greater value than many other forms of digital or traditional marketing. As Marketing Land notes, Facebook ad revenue grew to an estimated $8.4 billion in just 10 years, and other social networks, from Twitter to LinkedIn to Pinterest, have also jumped into the mix. The current market is seeing major growth in social media advertising, and this growth is only expected to increase over the next few years. Small business owners should be excited about what this new form of targeting means for their current efforts. A well-run social campaign can offer incredible value and high returns.

In August 2014, Facebook launched its cross-device targeting tool for digital ads, as reported by AdExchanger, which sent a clear signal that the social media giant is becoming accepted by marketers as a way to measure and reach Internet users across smartphones, tablets and desktop computers. Cross-device targeting occurs when a brand identifies a visitor to its website and subsequently serves an ad to that consumer when they are browsing elsewhere on another device. If a person is perusing Kate Spade handbags from her work desktop on the Nordstrom website, for instance, she may see a Kate Spade banner ad for a sale on her mobile Pandora app.

The goal of cross-device targeting is to more closely follow the new customer journey, requiring multiple touches to influence purchasing decisions. Here are three ways the tool will change your digital advertising strategy:

If your business isn't using Google Analytics to examine its digital marketing practices, you're probably behind the curve on optimizing for the online market. Analytics has become a major tool for brands trying to expand their reach, spur engagement and increase revenue through online outlets, and Google Analytics is the foundational application that most other analytics programs are designed to complement.

For brands new to this tool, though, figuring out how to use Google Analytics can be daunting. While the initial draw of Google Analytics is that it's free, it's also an easy-to-navigate introduction into the world of analytics, making it a great starting tool for companies.

With this platform, you can evaluate your campaign success according to simple metrics that offer digestible insights into what's going well and what needs improvement. Here's a quick rundown of its benefits and best practices.

If you've ever gone from one website to another and saw an ad for a product you viewed earlier at an online store or website, then you've experienced retargeting. This process, in the simplest terms, uses digital marketing techniques to target website visitors who left a site before completing a conversion.

While it might seem that a failed conversion is a sign that a consumer will not convert, online research suggests that this isn't the case. According to CMO.com, only about 2 percent of visitors to any given commerce website make a purchase on their first visit, but many more will ultimately execute a related conversion through that online retailer or through one of its competitors.

Retargeting helps businesses stay visible to consumers and increases the chance of ultimately gaining their business. It's a simple marketing strategy that offers great returns when executed properly, and many businesses are investing in these campaigns.

Competing in the digital realm can be tough, but some marketing directors are further handicapped by resistance from management. You might understand the importance of diversified digital marketing strategies and have a keen understanding of PPC best practices, but what good is it if your boss won't green-light your paid search spending?

We understand that frustration. The sales pitch is key to getting your boss's backing, but the most successful arguments won't take a marketer's perspective — they'll speak the language of your boss and present PPC best practices in a way that matters to him or her. Here are some tips for convincing your boss of the importance of paid search.

When you launch a search engine marketing (SEM) campaign, success can be difficult to measure. Every business is different, and therefore campaign goals will be different. First, define conversion goals you can measure. Then you can look at the conversion tracking data in front of you and make informed decisions about your current campaign and about future campaigns.

Getting Started: Understanding Conversions

A conversion is, put very simply, any meaningful interaction with a product gained from marketing efforts. In the world of SEM, that can mean a visit to a business' home page, a like on Facebook, or even a viewing of a single product page. Though you might be tempted to narrow their definition of conversion to something like verified sales or app downloads, by broadening the definition, you can look at big picture trends and make significant marketing moves with legitimate data to back up your efforts.

Display ad networks offer incredible value in reaching consumers not just once, but over and over again. Brand visibility and awareness among consumers depends on ads that keep showing up across the Internet. This visibility is particularly key for businesses trying to retarget past website visitors and consumers.

What is retargeting? Essentially, it is the practice of displaying ads to past website visitors. Most online consumers have been the subject of retargeting campaigns at one point or another. Advertisers understand that a consumer's decision not to make a purchase doesn't necessarily mean that they're uninterested in that particular product.

In the past, a lost conversion was abandoned forever. With retargeting, you have an effective method of rekindling that consumer's interest and potentially triggering a sale. Recent research from marketing firm HitSearch found that in 20 percent of cases, retargeting can trigger a sale within an hour of the ad being displayed. Those are powerful results that speak to the value of retargeting as a revenue driver.

To make retargeting work for your business, though, it's important to stick to the established best practices. Many companies fail in their retargeting efforts because they make all-too-common mistakes in targeting their consumers. Here are three common pitfalls to avoid in a retargeting campaign.