September 9, 2020

SEO, PPC & Display Webinar Roundup 9 September 2020

As business leaders, we’re facing a mixed bag. The overall economy has seen two quarters of decline, but is ramping back up as the loosening of social distancing is both creating demand and making it easier for businesses to get back to fulfilling that demand. In July, retail sales increased by four per cent over June, and are now actually three per cent higher than they were in February. Of course, some sectors still have not recovered. Clothing, for example, had a great July with a 12 per cent increase in sales from June – but that’s still 26 per cent lower than it was in February. Ecommerce sales are similarly mixed; they fell to 28.1 per cent of total retail in July, down by seven per cent from June, and far below May where they actually set a record at almost 33 per cent of retail. So eCommerce is currently falling after its May peak, but July’s numbers are still 50 per cent higher than February.

But there’s more uncertainty on the horizon, with the presidential election threatening currency markets, the end of the Brexit transition, and the demise of the third-party cookie. So what we need as marketers and leaders is as much visibility and clarity as possible. Marketing budgets are tight, so we need to be very efficient with our spend. We need to know what’s working and what’s not, and we need to be able to report that through management and directly into the boardroom. Every department is going to be scrapping and scrabbling for budget, and we’ve got to be able to prove that we are driving sales and revenue. In our SEO, PPC & Display Webinar this morning, our speakers discussed how we can gain clarity and efficiency in our search strategies. Read on for a summary of the presentations.

Forecasting Organic Growth: the Benefits of SEO

Organic growth is a long game and it can be difficult to understand how to get from A to B. This can make it a less appealing option for internal marketing teams, meaning focus is placed elsewhere on shorter-term strategies. Done correctly with all the necessary due care and attention required, SEO can drive quality, long-lasting traffic to meet the goals of the business. Crispin Boden-Tebbutt, Senior SEO Specialist at Liberty Marketing, talks about how to get internal buy-in for SEO by providing a figure-backed business case.



How Machine Learning is Entering the Search Landscape

In the post-COVID world, big changes are happening in both human behaviour and Machine Learning. Siri, Cortana, Alexa, and Google Home Assistant are all part of our daily lives, and this is happening across Search as well. Ciaran Oliver, Head of SEO at Reflect Digital, discusses how Machine Learning has entered the world of Search both at speed and gradually.



The Future of Targeting: Intent Targeting in a Cookie-less World

Niall Moody, Trading Director at Nano Interactive, talks about some of the ways efficiency will be challenged by changes in our industry, and why Nano Interactive are well placed to address some of those challenges. He also provides some key takeaways on how you can put these ideas into practice in the future.



Our next webinar will be a B2B Digital Marketing Spotlight next Thursday (17 September). Register here to secure your spot, or email Paul Nichols for more information.