Summer just started, but savvy marketers are already kicking their back-to-school campaigns into high gear because the shopping season starts heating up in July.

To kids, summer just started and school seems far, far away. To online marketers, the start of summer means it’s time to finalize their back-to-school (BTS) retail campaigns. BTS is the second-biggest consumer spending event of the year, behind only the winter holidays. Last year, BTS spending reached nearly $84 billion, reversing years of flat retail sales for the season, according to Wal-Mart. Here are tips and insights into the habits of BTS shoppers to help marketers get to the front of the class and be prepared for the school shopping spree that’s just around the corner.

The early bird gets the BTS leads

When we say BTS shopping season is around the corner, we’re talking a couple of weeks from now. Here are some findings from Deloitte’s study of BTS shoppers last year:

• 21% start in early July
• 29% start in late July
• 37% start in early August
• 52% said they’d complete most of their shopping by mid-August

Last year, back-to-school search queries peaked during the week of Aug. 4, according to 2012 data from Experian, but the action really started to pick up at the beginning of July. That’s when the search volume began to steadily climb, eventually leading to a 44% increase in back to school searches seen the year before.

Social media lead conversion rates are 13% higher than average lead conversion rates.

If you aren’t sure about the effectiveness of social media marketing, this week’s infographic might make up your mind. It rounds up 17 powerful statistics that show how social media marketing can produce significantly more leads, new customers, website traffic, and more. It fits in nicely with last week’s infographic on how to market to the seven types of social media fans.

Here are some highlights from this week’s infographic that could make you a believer:

• 15% of all mobile Web time in the U.S. is spent on social networking sites
• 46% of online users count on social media when making a purchase
• Companies with more than 1,000 Twitter followers generate 800 new website visitors a month
• Social media produces almost 2X more marketing leads than trade shows, telemarketing, direct mail or PPC

Jump over to the full infographic for more amazing stats.

Vote on the questions that have already come in or submit your own before June 25

The clock’s ticking. We’re presenting our “Ask Me Anything” search webinar on June 25, where the audience (that’s you) decides what will be covered at the event. Here’s how it works: Visit the webinar forum and vote on your favorite questions or submit new ones. The questions with the most votes will be answered at the webinar by our search expert, Chris Sanger, Senior Director of Global Search Product Management at Yahoo!.

With a week to go, there’s still time to help shape the webinar’s content. (First step, register for the event.) To get you inspired, here are some questions that have been nominated so far, with links to vote for them:

• Any plans for more ad extensions? Vote!
• Any consideration to allowing more granular day parting for better click-to-call control for call centers? Vote!
• What are Yahoo!-Bing's capabilities in mobile marketing, and what future plans do you have? Vote!

Black stars at Yahoo! session on producing original online content that resonates with consumers

The Web is a great medium for comedy because it supports a freewheeling creative process and allows artists to get shows out more quickly, said actor/musician /producer Jack Black at our Cannes Lions session today titled “The New World of Online Content: Appealing to the Habits of Today's Consumer." Black cracked up the crowd and discussed his Web comedy show “Ghost Ghirls,” which debuts on Yahoo! in the fall.

Joining Black onstage were Erin McPherson, head of video at Yahoo; Priyanka Mattoo, a partner at Black's production company Electric Dynamite; and Nick D'Aloisio, creator of the mobile news app Summly which was acquired by Yahoo! in March.

Here’s a helpful guide for translating advertising creative speak, courtesy of Ad Land

When traveling in any strange land, it’s a good idea to have a translation guide to help you understand the natives. If those natives are agency creatives, we’ve got you covered. Ad Land is an expert in "creative-speak" and this week’s cartoon offers a helpful guide for the uninitiated.

The secret, says our David T. Jones, is that what creatives say isn’t necessarily what they mean. It will all become clear when you jump on over to the full cartoon.

Mobile local ad spending is set to double in 2013; U.S. consumers open to streaming video ads; and tablet owners own more tech devices than general population.

In the world of advertising, if you're not there one second, you might miss the next big thing. To help you keep you up to date on the news you need to know, every week we'll bring you ad stories you might have missed, but can't afford to ignore.

Mobile local ad spending to hit $3.2 billion this year

Spending on mobile local advertising could hit $3.2 billion in 2013, more than doubling the $1.5 billion spent by local mobile advertisers in 2012, according to new forecasts from Borrell Associates. Mobile is now expected to account for 13% of all local advertising in 2013, which will reach a total of $24.3 billion.

The study also looked at mobile-local advertising spend by cities:

• New York City will spend $168 million
• Seattle, Baltimore, Milwaukee, and Miami will spend about $30 million—double what they spent last year
• Midsize markets such as El Paso, Hartford, Birmingham and Syracuse are forecast to spend about $10 million

Small-and-medium-sized businesses are taking to mobile local advertising:

• 37% of SMBs that hadn’t tried it will likely do so in the coming year
• 83% that had already tried it are likely to do it again

Our Ad of the Week is a wallet-like expandable that serves up the BankAmericard Cash Rewards program with a side of pro grilling tips

How do you whet the appetite of summertime consumers for a credit-card program? Bank of America played on America’s love of outdoor grilling with a fun and educational expandable ad on Yahoo.com. The ad opens up like a wallet to show how consumers can save on their summertime activities with a BankAmericard Cash Rewards credit card and shares expert tips on how to grill beef, fish, pork, and chicken safely and deliciously. Here’s how it all unfolds:

Yahoo! Sports app (formerly Sportacular) takes the field with more content, speed, personalization, and mobile features

For millions of online users, sports isn’t just a daily habit, it’s an around-the-clock obsession. Today we launched an inspiring and entertaining way for sports fanatics to satisfy their need to get the latest scores, stats, and stories with the new Yahoo! Sports app (formerly known as Sportacular). Offering more content, increased speed, and enhanced personalization, the new app provides a more immersive and engaging experience for fans across the wide world of online sports.

To personalize the app’s experience for sports fans, we’ll pull in more content from the award-winning Yahoo Sports editorial team along with additional local content about their favorite teams. The new app has been designed to provide a major league mobile experience for iPhone, iPad, and Android smartphone users. That means by logging into with their Yahoo! ID, fans can sync up their sports news content across desktops, tablets, and smartphones.