September 4, 2018

Paid Search, Display & SEO Seminar Roundup: 30 August 2018

By Caity Dalby, Content Manager, at Figaro Digital

Last Thursday, Figaro Digital were joined by digital marketers interested in Paid Search, Display, and SEO at The Hospital Club, Covent Garden, for an informative afternoon of presentations and networking. With the industry in a constant state of flux, ever changing buzzwords, and new innovative technologies seemingly coming out of our ears, it is more important than ever to stay on top of such an important part of any businesses’ digital marketing strategy. Here, we take a look at the latest in programmatic display, link building and much more from the #FigDigSearch seminar.

The Future Of Programmatic Display And Changing How We Think About Data

Programmatic technology is in constant flux and is moving forwards at incredible speed, helping marketers to buy more media in real time and target exactly who they want. Whether your are scrolling through your newsfeeds on your morning commute, having a cheeky read of the news at your desk at work, or double screening it at home watching Netflix and Youtube, programmatic’s greatest strength is it’s ability to target the right person (you) at exactly the right time. Making the most out of their precious display time. Despite the positives there are still a few hurdles programmatic has to jump, from nine per cent of display ad views being from bots to the restriction of cookie pools by the IaB. And while the GDPR has had such a significant impact on business and the way things are done, especially in such a data driven industry, there is still huge scope to harness consumer data, target them with real-time ads, and maintain the privacy of their personal data. With this in mind, it has been forecast that programmatic will have doubled revenues from 2015 to the end of 2018. And with 81 per cent of agencies planning to utilise programmatic display and 60 per cent of agencies planning programmatic Audio or TV in 2018, it’s easy to see why programmatic is the talk of the industry.

Darren Bond, Digital Strategy Director at Coast Digital, undertook the brave task of unpacking the current roaring success of programmatic but also its uncertain future. Will it be a staple in the digital marketers toolkit for a long time to come? Absolutely. Will the industry move to blockchain to reinforce programmatic? Maybe, although the pros and cons of blockchain are both incredibly compelling. Will we be able to programmatically market directly into people’s brains and dreams? Who knows, although I suspect that is a question best left to science fiction and Futurama. For more information on the current state of programmatic, programmatic media, how we use data, and clever digital media campaign examples where data was used to great effect to inspire your future campaigns, watch Darren’s presentation. And no, I didn’t cry at the Battersea Cats & Dogs Home video, you did.

View Darren’s presentation here.

Link Building In 2018 – Why Content Is Still King (And Buying Links Will Always End Badly)

Buying links used to be standard practice in the SEO industry until Google started handing out manual penalties. Google’s view of paid links remains the same, yet link buying is growing again. And if you’re producing online content, no doubt you will have received a variation of the shady email offering you thousands of 100 per cent genuine and white hat links for a competitive and totally legitimate price. Whilst I try to be an optimist, this is one offer we’ve all received in our inboxes that is just too good – or absolutely impossible – to be true. Google clearly lay out the link schemes which can negatively impact a website’s ranking in search results, including exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links; excessive link exchanges for the sake of cross-linking; and large-scale marketing or guest posting campaigns with keyword-rich anchor text links. Whilst these make up only a few of Google’s guidelines, it is clear that link buying is not only frowned upon in the digital marketing industry, but it is financially penalised and just downright bad marketing. Which is why content will always be king and why, when generating high quality natural links, professional relationships with journalists and reputable publications are paramount to success.

In his presentation Dan Yeo, Head of Media and Online Relations at Search Laboratory, lays out exactly why link buying can have such a negative impact on your SEO strategy and the dizzying heights you can achieve with your content when marketed well. Whether you want to optimise your ranking, optimise onsite content, increase link acquisition, or improve brand awareness, check out Dan’s presentation for his top link building tips and tricks to optimise your contents effectiveness.

View Dan’s presentation here.

Advanced Adwords

It goes without saying that knowing your audience is absolutely paramount to a marketers, and a businesses, success. But with competition stronger than ever and the digital output of businesses rapidly increasing, you now need to know exactly who your audience is, what it is they want, exactly where in the world (or in relation to your brick and mortar shops) they are, and when they are engaging, or are likely to engage, with your digital content. It may feel as though this is easier said than done, but in his twenty minute presentation Gareth Morgan, Managing Director at Liberty Marketing, revealed how you can get ahead using advanced adwords techniques and how to get the most out of your Pay Per Click budget.

In this presentation, Gareth outlined 10 targeting options in 20 minutes to show you how you should be spending your money on targeting and how you can optimise your use of the incredible targeting options Adwords offers. These ranged from utilising ready-made affinity audiences to bid modifiers – using location, device, and time of day to modify what you are willing to spend on an ad. This is important for marketers working in the retail sector in particular, Gareth explains: when someone is in walking distance of your store within store opening hours, it is worth modifying your bid to optimise your PPC. For more functional examples of how to utilise Advanced Adwords in your marketing strategy, from universities advertising during the clearing period to targeting people before major life events, watch Gareth’s presentation and revolutionise your PPC.

View Gareth’s presentation here.

If you would like to join us at a future event, please check out our events calendar and get registering!


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By Caity Dalby, Content Manager, at Figaro Digital