My Fusion work placement so far

This academic year, the Fusion team has been delighted to welcome a work placement student to our ranks – Marco Pellegrini – who’s taken a hands-on role within our Paid Performance team.

Now coming up to three months in, we asked Marco to write about his time with the company so far, to find out how he’s been finding it and the impressions he’s formed of all things digital marketing.

So, without further ado, we’ll pass over to Marco!

Hello Fusion Blog!

My name’s Marco Pellegrini – I’m a half Italian, half American, and now officially half British twenty-one-year-old, on a placement year as a Digital Executive within the Paid Performance team at Fusion.

I must admit, time has absolutely flown by, and as Christmas approaches I’ve just made it through my second monthiversary in the office without any major shocks – apart from infecting most of the office with a cold!

As I’m progressively easing into the team and settling into the world of paid search, it feels as good a time as any to reflect on how everything’s been so far. For this reason, I’ve decided to write a blogpost, firstly to keep track of my progress, but hopefully to provide value to all students approaching digital marketing, who are considering a placement in an agency to gain the best exposure to this exciting field.

Without any further delays, here’s a bit about my time at Fusion so far and my journey to get here!

Coming to Fusion

I’ll start by saying that though my arrival at Fusion definitely didn’t follow the conventional route, it did end up meeting the ideal conditions I was after in a placement year.

I applied while I was fully immersed in my second year University exams in late May. By that time I had gone through many assessment centres and final interviews all over the UK but never seemed to find a placement that ticked all the boxes. I had a very clear idea of what I wanted my placement role to look like. It should allow me to get hands-on experience of a digital marketer’s tasks and responsibilities, whilst being part of a vibrant, expert and united team, where I wouldn’t just be a number.

Such clear vision of my goals helped me greatly when filtering my job research, leading me to eventually discover digital agencies and their impact behind the scenes that allows most great corporate brands to shine. I soon came to realise the main differences that define working in-house compared to agency-based, with factors such as job variety, specialised expertise and a fast-paced environment proving key in my final decision to pursue an agency-based placement.

Just to knock off all my doubts, I applied for both in-house and agency-based roles to have all the elements for an informed decision. The main difference I noticed in the recruitment phase was the specificity of the interview questions and tasks required to work at an agency, as well as the higher sense of community agencies seemed to have.

Out of several agencies I looked into, Fusion clearly stood out to me due to its independent nature, variety of clients and proprietary software. I applied via a speculative job application through an email, which I only recently realised contained a clear spelling mistake. However, I was still invited to interview – it must surely have been a sign. Needless to say, the interview went great and my initial positive thoughts were reinforced by the relaxed atmosphere of the office and the passion of the team.

About five days later, just before leaving for the summer holidays, I signed my first real job contract for twelve months due to start in September.

The change

Fast forward two months. I’ve just been on my first Fusion night out. I’m officially part of the team. I’ve made it.

I’m working in paid media and literally learning something new every day. Since day one the team has been really helpful and welcoming, allowing me to quickly settle in. And I’m starting to get a clear vision of how work and student life differ. First of all, the hourly – and thus daily – productivity in the office increases by an infinite percentage, although the degree of tiredness at the end of the day remains stable across both work and ‘uni’ life.  Feeling tired from a productive day of work – rather than an unproductive day of University – has really boosted my overall mood and has allowed me to make the most of my post-work chill time.

Secondly, studying marketing theories and applying them to case studies at University only gives you an idea of the end product, whilst actually working in marketing – specifically digital every day – has allowed me to understand the process and consistent work that goes into a successful marketing campaign.

Another massive difference I’ve noticed between ‘uni’ and work life is the level of accountability one must hold towards one’s team members – as all my tasks affect the team, the agency’s performance and relationships with clients. There is an extra pressure that pushes me to perform and do well. At uni, apart from group projects, it’s all on me, which makes it easier to handle a misjudgement or result below expectations. Working at Fusion so far has given me the lifestyle shift that I wished to experience, hitting me with how time management, teamwork, attention to detail and task prioritisation aren’t just overused CV terms, but fundamental skills required for success in such a fast-paced environment.

In terms of my expectations of the workplace, I definitely thought it would be quite hectic at times, although the overall atmosphere of the office is more relaxed than I expected. This is absolutely great, as it allows all personalities and working styles to shine with greater lucidity under pressure.

Ultimately, Fusion is amazing as everyone contributes and feels part of the team. Executives have daily contact with team directors, account managers and even the MD, who works on the same floor as everyone else and is directly available for any questions! Not to mention, the insightful weekly catch-ups with the whole team, the seemingly infinite supplies of fresh fruit on a Monday and drinks on a Friday afternoon!

My growth

And, what about the actual work I do?

Well, as I mentioned at the start, I’m part of the Paid Performance team and my job mainly consists of managing everyday activity across an array of different clients and corresponding accounts, across Google and Bing. The exposure to almost all clients has thus far given me an invaluable opportunity to gain experience and market awareness in a variety of sectors. I’ve been enjoying every minute of it, from the very busy times to the quieter times, which I make the most of by gradually completing my Google exams and analysing blog articles to keep updated with the latest paid media news and tools.

Several weeks ago, like almost everyone in the Paid Performance team, I was involved in the crazy creation of thousands of ads to go live on Black Friday, which is an event I had only ever experienced from the customer side. The work that goes into the setup of Black Friday promotions from an agency perspective has allowed me to get a full sense of the level of detail and precision that are required behind the scenes for successful campaigns, as well as the enormous amount of discipline that the team showed in completing an incredibly high volume of tasks.

Overall, working at Fusion has made me realise even more how digital marketing is the career I want to pursue, as this is constantly evolving with technology and people’s shifts in needs and lifestyles, which makes it extremely exciting.

Above all else, the possibility to ask questions, network and get advice from an entire team of experts in the field is without a doubt the part I’m enjoying the most about this placement experience, and that will set the foundations for my future growth.

The future

To sum up, I’d like to round this unconventional blogpost off by reiterating my appreciation for the entire Fusion team that have given me this opportunity to pursue my career ambitions at such early age.

My learnings thus far have been both of technical nature and a general skillset to succeed in the workplace. Looking ahead at the remaining nine-and-a-half months I have at Fusion, I am very excited and curious to see how – with confidence and experience – my responsibilities will grow even more. Although I’m really passionate about paid media, by the end of my placement I aim to get in some shadowing days within the SEO, Social and Content teams too, to get a grasp of different aspects of digital and make the most of the team here’s expertise!

With the sincere hope that this piece can prove somewhat helpful for anyone, thanks a lot for reading!

Interested in a placement at Fusion and finding out about digital marketing for yourself? Drop us an email with your CV and a covering letter today, at hello@fusionunlimited.co.uk.

SEO MARKET UPDATES: NOVEMBER 2018

Join Fusion’s SEO team as they round up last month’s major industry updates.

GOOGLE

Updates that look place within Google SERPs and miscellaneous Google tools in November.

PAGESPEED INSIGHT REPORT REVAMP

Announced via their Webmaster Central Blog, Google have given the PageSpeed Insights report a facelift, along with assigning Lighthouse as its analytics engine in an attempt to help create more consistent results across Google’s auditing tools. The insights report will now also incorporate data from Google’s Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX).

The PageSpeed Insights will now provide the following information:

  • Field Data – displays real-world data, such as First Contentful Paint (FCP) and First Input Delay (FID), provided by the CrUX report. This report is updated daily and not all sites will have this data available for display.
  • Lab Data – simulating how a mobile device loads a page, this data is provided by Lighthouse and will display data such as First Meaningful Paint and Speed Index. The results from the simulation are summarised and used to provide a score between 0 and 100 to indicate how good a page’s performance is.
  • Opportunities – provides a list of suggestions on how to improve the page’s performance, these are ordered by how much of a performance improvement each suggestion should make.
  • Diagnosis – displays additional best practices in order to improve performance.

GOOGLE DISPLAYING MULTIFACETED FEATURED SNIPPETS ON DESKTOP

After being released for mobile searches this February, Google results have been spotted displaying multifaceted featured snippets within desktop results.

It is currently unclear if the same site can rank for both of the queries. Once this has been fully rolled out, site owners may see an uplift in traffic for pages displayed within these snippets, but also see a drop in traffic for standard organic results as these will be pushed further down within the SERP.

AMP ARE CHANGING HOW URLS ARE DISPLAYED

Many sites utilise AMP pages to help landing pages load near instantly, this has been seen to improve user experience, which can lower bounce rates, increase average session duration and ultimately help increase conversions. Regardless of those positives, the one glaring feature that has been receiving negative feedback since AMP pages release, has been the fact that the displayed URL makes it very obvious that users are on an AMP page, this can look confusing to users due to not displaying the sites URL as they expect.

AMP released a blog post on November, 13th to announce that they have begun a trial that will be available in Chrome 71 in which users can transform AMP URLs to look like the sites URL rather than an AMP URL.

For a demonstration of this new AMP feature, users will need Chrome 71 (or use Chrome Beta), visit https://g.co/webpackagedemo and search for “Learn AMP by Example” and click on the ampbyexample.com home page.

GOOGLE’S NEW HOTEL LOCAL PACK IS AVAILABLE

Google have released a new design for their hotel local pack which is currently displayed below paid results and above organic results.

The results are optimised to the search query used and the users Google account, if they are signed in. These results will also highlight hotels that the user has stayed in before and allow users to click on filters, such as guest favourites, budget options and luxury stays.

COMMENT ON LIVE SPORTS WITHIN GOOGLE SEARCH RESULTS

This feature was originally added during the World Cup, but has since received a dedicated help sheet and management page that will allow users to view and manage all of their comments and reviews.

This feature is currently only available for some sporting events, such as Football. It is currently unclear if Google are looking to expand on events or topics in which commenting is available.

GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE

Updates that look place within Google Search Console in November.

GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE IS WARNING USERS OF UNCLEAR SUBSCRIPTION PAGES

In an effort to stop users from accidentally signing up to subscriptions or paying more than they expected, Google is cracking down on unclear mobile subscription pages by warning webmasters who aren’t following Google’s mobile billing best practices via Google Search Console.

Starting from Chrome 71, Google will also display a warning for all users who visit the mobile subscription page if the page still does not comply with Google’s best practices. This warning will appear on Chrome Mobile, Chrome Desktop and Andriod’s WebView.

GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE TESTS DOMAIN PROPERTIES

Currently only available to a limited amount of accounts, Google is testing domain properties within Search Console. These properties will group together subdomains, protocols and subpaths:

For example, if you define a Domain property as ‘example.com’, it includes example.com, any subdomains of example.com (for example, m.example.com, support.m.example.com, www.example.com, and so on), as well as any subpaths in any of those domains, on both http and https.”

Users will be allowed to define a domain using a public suffix (e.g. .com, .org, and .co.uk), only one public suffix can be used per property, so users will be unable to mix this data within Search Console (e.g. combining .co.uk with .com data).

The above table displays examples of what URLS Google Search Console will group, depending on what is defined as the property URL.

GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE DISPLAYS EVENT LISTING AND EVENT DETAILS IN PERFORMANCE REPORT

Available within the search appearance filters in Google Search Console, the event listing and event details filters will now allow users to view the performance of these within the performance report. The event schema will need to be applied to the event pages in order for Google Search Console to track the performance.

GOOGLE MY BUSINESS

Updates that look place within Google My Business in November.

GOOGLE ADDS NEW FEATURES TO THE GOOGLE MY BUSINESS APP

The Google My Business App received an update mid-November. App users will now be able to post pictures, offers and events, view when a customer posts a review, messages or follows the user’s business listing within the new Customers tab, and view performance analytics which will be displayed from the homepage, all within the app.

In addition to the new app being released and the new ability to follow businesses, as discussed in our previous blog, Google My Business have also updated how messaging businesses works. Previously, messaging a business through a Google My Business listing would send an SMS to the business. Users are now being given the option to message through the Google Maps app rather than SMS if they prefer.

GOOGLE DATA STUDIO

Updates that look place within Google Data Studio in November.

GOOGLE DATA STUDIO ALLOWS USERS TO CREATE FILTERS WITH CHART DIMENSIONS

Released at the start of November, Google implemented the option to create filters from the dimensions of charts, tables and graphs. Within the below report, clicking on ‘United States’ within the pie chart will filter the results of the table to only display sessions for this location and vice versa. This filter will work on all grouped charts within the same data source.

Right clicking on the report and clicking ‘reset action’ resets all charts back to displaying their data without interactive filters applied.

SEARCH ALL FILTER CONTROLS ADDED TO DATA STUDIO REPORTS

The ‘search all’ filter was added to Google Data Studio at the start of the month and will allows users to filter data by phrases, numbers or regex.

EMBED EXTERNAL CONTENT WITHIN GOOGLE DATA STUDIO REPORTS

Using the new URL embed button within Google Data Studio, it is now possible to embed YouTube videos, web pages and Google Docs in order to create a rich, multi-media experience.