Pay per click is the latest advertising idea that is a platform like Google AdWords offer businesses fantastic opportunities to effectively target customers online who are searching for their services. An effective strategy is necessary to get the most out of pay per click advertising, though. Targeting keywords and writing compelling ad copy are important, but you should also consider the 'landing page' you point your ads to as well.

One of the big mistakes that people make is to use their home page as their landing page. If someone has typed in a specific keyword, then clicked on your ad, they will expect that you take them to a page which provides specifics about what they searched for, not an irrelevant page or a home page. By sending them there you run the big risk that they won't bother to navigate their own way to what they're after, but simply hit the back button and click on the next ad.

Over the past few years, there's been a closer link developing between supply chain management in the electronics industry and online advertising, especially to the ad networks that serve up content. Last week, for example, Google unveiled a platform that would enable consumers to leave their plastic credit cards at home and pay for goods and services with an Android smartphone.

Google Wallet will roll out in beta form this summer in Manhattan, Portland and San Francisco. This application can also support personalized marketing and ad campaigns, as well as a network of hardware and software developers that will build on the standards. The next step is likely to be supporting backend enterprise systems. It's easy to imagine Google partnering with SAP and Oracle to develop auto-replenishment inventory platforms, for example.

According to a recent study, Apple mobile iOS devices are presenting a huge blindspot to advertisers who utilize tracking software. These devices are used by 130 million people, but up to 80% running the Safari browser don't count paid-search conversions (clicks) because cookie tracking is blocked. Overall, when you count all browsers, an average 38% of all paid-search clicks are not being counted.

These numbers are relevant for third-party cookies, not first-party cookies which come only from websites you visit. Because you don't get paid for what can't be measured, this blindspot poses a growing challenge to the online advertising industry, and especially to Google. The way that advertisers can overcome this problem is to use first-party cookies served from the Websites people visit, or to come up with better ways to measure the performance of online ads.