Just when you thought Team Fusion couldn’t get any better in walks, Sarah and Louisa, our two newest team members.
We are thrilled to welcome these two delightful individuals to the Fusion Team in our Paid Media department. They’ve already made a huge difference to the team, and we love their energy.
Sarah joins us as a Paid Media Executive after graduating from the University College Dublin, and Louisa joins us as a Paid Media Executive after graduating from Leeds Beckett University.
As we do with any new team members, we sat Sarah and Louisa down to ask them some weird and wonderful questions about themselves.
Let’s take a dive into the Q&A to learn some fun facts about Sarah and Louisa.
What excites you most about joining Fusion?
Sarah: Working with and learning from professionals in a fun and modern environment.
Louisa: It’s my first job after graduating and I’m starting my career in marketing! I can’t wait to get involved and learn something new everyday, as well as getting to know everyone!
What inspired you to pursue a career in digital?
Sarah: My experience with Marketing and Social Media grew my interest for the digital industry, and I knew that was my next career move.
Louisa: I have always loved adverts and how brands capture my attention, specifically using technology, as I spend way too much time on the internet! Throughout university, I thought about how digital combines my love for advertising, technology, data and creativity, and since then, I have wanted to pursue a career in digital!
What’s your favourite productivity hack?
Sarah: I constantly write notes and to-dos in my notebook throughout the day
Louisa: Plenty of coffee and working with good people around me
What’s the most unusual job you’ve ever had before this one?
Sarah: It wasn’t exactly employment, but I’ve done a bit of background work before in adverts.
Louisa: I worked for 2 shifts at Matalan in the ladies underwear section before COVID, and unfortunately, they made me redundant before lockdown ended, so that was quite random!
What was your dream job when you were a child?
Sarah: To be an artist
Louisa :I have always been quite dramatic so it was definitely to be an actress, specifically in EastEnders!
If you could visit any place in the world, where would you go and why?
Sarah: I would love to visit Japan to experience their culture and amazing cities.
Louisa: The Bahamas, I would LOVE to swim with pigs!
What’s one food you could eat every day for the rest of your life?
Sarah: Mashed potato
Louisa: Spaghetti Bolognese, I think I ate this most days at uni!
What’s the strangest food you’ve ever tried, and would you eat it again?
Sarah: I (tried) crocodile meat in Bangkok but spat it back out straight away because it was as bad as you would think.
Louisa: I ate a cricket in Thailand, which was very strange. I would not recommend it, nor would I eat it again!
If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
Sarah: A dog, because they sleep all day, get fed and loved and have no responsibilities. Who wouldn’t love that?
Louisa: A puppy, I am very excitable and loving but also don’t like being left on my own for long periods of time haha
What was your favourite TV show or cartoon growing up?
Sarah: Dora the Explorer
Louisa : EastEnders, I am not really sure why I was watching it when I was 7 years old but I have loved it ever since!
Did you have a nickname as a kid, and what’s the story behind it?
Sarah: No nicknames 🙁
Louisa: My parents always call me Bella, which stemmed from Loulou, to Louloubelle, and now it’s Bella! Random!
What’s the phrase? New starters are like buses? You wait 18 months and then 4 come along all at once…or something like that.
We’re over the moon to welcome four wonderful new members to the Fusion team within our SEO and Content departments.
Catriona joins us as Content Strategist having spent 3 years at Connective3. Joining her team are Lucy and Lisa, both as Content Executives. Finally, Ellie is joining the SEO team as Senior SEO Analyst after most recently being Senior Account Executive at IMA HOME.
Why don’t we dive in and learn a little more about them?
Firstly, what excites you most about joining Fusion?
LISA: The company culture
CATRIONA: To be joining a long-standing digital agency with a great reputation and strong moral drive.
ELLIE: I’ve worked at some quite big agencies over the years and was keen to work for a smaller, specialist agency so that I could hone my technical SEO skills. Fusion has given me just that with the bonus of an incredible office culture!
LUCY: Working with a range of clients, with some well-known names in the mix. As well as focusing on specific parts of digital marketing.
And what was it that inspired you to begin a career in digital?
LISA: Started off as a creative but fell in love with performance
CATRIONA: It’s an exciting industry that’s always evolving and growing, meaning there’s always something new to learn.
ELLIE: I have a degree in Psychology so have always been quite analytical and interested in the way people think and act. Combining this with my love for social media, content creation and tech I’ve found myself here!
LUCY: I am both analytical and creative, which I feel describes digital marketing well.
What’s the most unusual job you’ve ever had before joining Fusion?
LISA: Was an ABR therapist for a child with Cerebral Palsy even though I have no medical degree
CATRIONA: I was a lifeguard for four years during university – never had to save anyone from drowning thankfully!
ELLIE: I was a young person’s support worker at a therapeutic school during my year in industry. The role was nothing like I’d ever done before but I loved it!
LUCY: Working as an intern photographer at a rock-climbing depot.
Now that you’re a fully-fledged member of the Fusion gang, is there one productivity hack you’d recommend to the team?
LISA: Time tracking – ClickUp or Asana
CATRIONA: Learning that the first 10 minutes of every task suck but once you’re past it, you’re in it (coined “The Fischbach Method” by one of my friends).
ELLIE: I love a colour coded to-do list!
LUCY: Making lists. Whether that be physical post-it notes or an excel document.
We obviously know you live and breathe digital, but what was your dream job when you were a kid?
LISA: Wanted to work in a horse riding stables as a stable hand
CATRIONA: To be a writer like Jacqueline Wilson
ELLIE: I wanted to be a Sheepdog until I was 5 years old – take from that what you want!
LUCY: Anything animal care-related, a fashion designer or a psychologist (a very varied mix)
Let’s get a little more out there, if you were an animal, what would you be and why?
LISA: A llama with a hamster’s face because that’s apparently what I look like
CATRIONA: Lioness – I love being around my people, lounging in the sun, and chasing new goals
ELLIE: I reckon that I would be an Otter. Cute, cuddly, and love swimming!
LUCY: A cat – unbothered and can sleep anywhere.
And finally, describe yourself in 3 emojis
LISA: 🖤🤘🥰
CATRIONA: 🤠💯🍒
ELLIE: 🤠😊😇
LUCY: 🎨🐾💁♀️
It’s great to have such an energised bunch joining the team at Fusion and we’re all excited to see how they turbo charge our growth over the coming months.
This year’s International Women’s Day theme, Inspire Inclusion, resonates deeply with our team, especially considering the incredible women who drive our agency forward. Here at Fusion, we’re proud to boast a team where 69% of our talented individuals are women, with strong female representation within our senior management team.
Today, we’re thrilled to celebrate these inspiring leaders. We’ll be diving into conversations with Katie Harling (KH), our Joint Managing Director, Jen Mottram (JM), our Paid Director, and Lauren Wray (LW), our Account Director. Through their stories and insights, we’ll explore what inclusion truly means in the workplace, the challenges and triumphs of navigating leadership in a dynamic industry, and the invaluable advice they have for the next generation of female leaders.
International Women’s Day’s theme this year is ‘Inspire Inclusion’, what does inclusion mean to you in the context of the workplace?
KH: This year’s theme is important to me. We have worked hard on Fusion’s culture in the hope that everyone who is part of the team enjoys coming to work, feels comfortable in the environment, and feels confident in their abilities. We remain committed to ensuring that Fusion is a workplace where the whole team feels they belong and know that what they do matters. #Fusion4Life
JM: It really ties to the culture of a workplace and makes sure everyone has a feeling of comfort. Comfort to be themselves, comfort to approach people with issues and the comfort to be able to work in a way that most suits them.
LW: Within the workplace, inspiring inclusion means creating environments whereby women are fully integrated into culture and decision-making processes, ensuring they feel valued and respected and, therefore, can thrive and contribute meaningfully.
What are some challenges you’ve faced navigating leadership in the industry? How did you overcome them?
KH: I have worked through some quite poignant social changes during my working career, so have the ability to reflect on a climate when my career started, compared to today. There have certainly been positive milestones, but I’m aware there is still more to be done, which is why days like this are so important.
I feel fortunate that my journey navigating leadership was with Fusion. I worked in an environment where there was a sense of belonging which I felt empowered me. I did however come across external occasions where I felt I was being judged based on my gender, so I would turn these situations into personal challenges for me and ensure that by the time the meeting was done, said people would hopefully reflect on themselves.
JM: Luckily, I’ve not faced many blockers to progress to the position I’m in now and in part, that is due to working at an agency that is leading the way for gender equality. I realise when attending industry events how rare this is, and, as someone who was shy in my youth, I think gaining the confidence to voice opinions/thoughts in situations like this has really been helped by working in an open, encouraging environment.
LW: Stereotyping and gender bias is something I and many women I know have had to deal with, when faced with this it is important to speak up and challenge it so that progress can be made towards creating a more equitable and supportive environment for everyone.
Who are your female role models, and what qualities do you admire most in them?
KH: We all have bad days, and it’s on those days I always think ‘be more…’ And there are 3 people who are my go-to. Luckily from a personal perspective, I can say:
Julia Blake. Her business acumen, determination and focus are exactly why she is absolutely nailing it in business! Be more Julia, Katie!
Jane Slimming. The agency, brand and team she has built are nothing but admirable! Be more Jane, Katie!
Then there is Jo Malone. She left school early, dyslexic, estranged from her family, built a global brand, fought cancer, and built another global brand. Nothing but inspirational.
JM: Would it be cheesy to name my fellow blog interviewees? They both inspire and support me every day.
LW: My friends are and will always be my role models, it is important to surround yourself with strong supportive women who you can learn and grow with.
What advice would you give to younger women looking to break into leadership positions in our industry?
KH: Believe in the journey you’ve had so far and have confidence in your future ability – then go for it! If you go first and try, two things can happen:
1). You succeed!
2). You stumble but pick yourself up, learn and go again.
Either way, you will always be ahead of the next person behind you, so go first!
JM: Reach for what you want and take ownership of everything you do. Most of all don’t be afraid to unashamedly be yourself. Start gradually, if you think something at work should be your responsibility, give it a try.
LW: Be your own advocate, express what your career goals are and seek opportunities that align with your aspirations.
Looking ahead, what are some goals we can set as an agency to further champion diversity and inclusion?
KH: Have more open discussions on related topics that are important to the team to continue to encourage open communication and invite external people to come in and present on key related topics to have a wider view.
JM: We are a diverse team we just need to talk about it more to ensure it stays that way in the future. Possibly by holding open sessions internally in order to always adapt and discuss how diversity and inclusion can change.
LW: Look to hold regular open sessions whereby everyone is welcome to share challenges, thoughts and ideas on how we can further foster and promote an inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued.
We are proud to announce the latest addition to Fusion’s client portfolio; the market leader in the UK’s drainage sector – Lanes Group plc.We will be working with Lanes to provide full-scope search marketing (including both SEO and paid), and managing a site migration and relaunch.
Work on the Lanes account has been ongoing now since May, and with a few months under our belt we thought now was the perfect time to touch base with the team at Lanes to get some intel on what brought them to Fusion and how they have found the partnership so far.
In 100 words or less, why Fusion Unlimited?
Having identified the need for a new website and digital marketing activities, we undertook a thorough procurement process with Proposal, Reference, Presentation, and Site Visit stages.
Of the 13 proposals submitted, we narrowed down to eight to present. We then evaluated using a pre-determined Scoring Evaluation Matrix and undertook Site Visits with the two highest scoring agencies.
Fusion was the ‘race leader’ from the presentation stage and ultimately came out on top. All six of our key stakeholders were impressed with what was proposed, and more importantly, felt comfortable with and believed in the team.
Are there any ‘stand-out’ elements to the way things are done at Fusion Unlimited?
One of the things we like most about Fusion is its Best Practice approach. The logic behind what it does is simple and effective. The team has already efficiently tailored our Paid spend to suit the market and our requirement, more so than our other agency ever did. All activity is data driven. We have just signed off two trials which have been suggested, helping us to stay ahead.
And how is performance looking so far?
In terms of digital marketing (Paid, SEO and Development), we have already seen improvement in performance across all workings and some of the improvements have been easy wins. Our current website has some issues prior to the partnership with Fusion, hence why we’re creating a new one; so Fusion haven’t had it easy. There is always so much going on. They are always pushing forward. We have seen that already.
How are you finding the communication from the Fusion team, are you happy with the contact you are getting?
Communication is excellent. We receive weekly updates at least, normally getting ad hoc updates in addition. We then get monthly reports, combining our specification with Best Practice. We’ve also just had a meeting in person with the full team – everyone working on the Lanes account. Which was great. One of the things we liked the sounds of early on, was being able to speak to all of the team members direct. We were used to just speaking to our Account Manager with our old agency. Who would funnel information. Speaking to each person individually, who has their own responsibilities and working, is so much more effective.
What’s in store?
The partnership with Lanes’ is off to a great start and we’re looking forward to continuing our work to support their business goals as we move towards the end of 2023 and onward. With some big changes coming up, the next year is going to have a lot in store and there are some exciting changes fast approaching that you’ll want to keep your eyes peeled for.
Looking back to August, we saw the rollout of Google’s second core algorithm update of the year. Nearly a month on from the announcement, we’re going to take a recap of what the update included, what changes we’ve seen in the time since, and how this core update impacts brands like yours.
What do we know about Google’s core algorithm update?
Reliable and helpful results are the name of the game here, and that is why Google regularly utilises these core updates to ensure that the content shown to search users is actually relevant to their queries, contains genuinely useful information, and is written by the right people.
What does this mean for brands when an update is rolled out? These updates aren’t designed to target any particular page or website but instead improve the overall quality of search results by ‘judging’ content to a higher standard.
With that in mind, the second core update of 2023 made some updates to how sites are judged for their content, backlink profile, and technical foundation:
Content – Is your content of sufficient quality? Is your content attributed to professional authors?
Backlinks – Are there enough external backlinks coming into the site from relevant and authoritative sources?
Technical foundation – Is all site content crawlable, accessible, and in line with Google’s best practice guidelines?
Impacts of the August 2023 core update
With almost a month under our belts since the start of the core algorithm rollout, the update was a big one but featured less varied volatility in the weeks from start to finish. Where the March 2023 update saw spikes in volatility, a key feature of the August update was a consistently heated period from start to finish.
Mordy Obstein from Semrush said, “When you look at it all together it’s a bit of a mixed bag. From a peak volatility point of view, August was more powerful than the March 2023 Core Update. However, if you look at the increase in rank volatility as compared to the pre-update volatility then the March 2023 Core Update seems more significant. However, even there, as mentioned, more than a few verticals saw more dramatic volatility increases with the most recent update.”
Many brands will be lucky to see minimal impact from the update, however, some of the most significant impacts have been felt within the retail industry for top 3 and top 5 positions, with the finance industry following behind. At the opposite end of the scale, the health niche saw the lowest fluctuations, according to Similarweb’s Shay Harel.
September 2023 Helpful Content update
In addition to the August Core Algorithm update, there is a Helpful Content updated underway in September, expected to be fully rolled out by the end of the month. This update will include some interesting developments for AI content, as well as tightening the rules on third-party content.
Third-party content
This update to the guidance cracks down on the hosting of third-party content on main part of a website or on a subdomain. The purpose of this is usually to utilise the domain rating of the host site to improve ranking. This update means that websites hosting third-party content on their sites will be penalised.
AI content guidelines
Previously Google Helpful Content guidance on AI has stressed the prioritisation of human-written content over any AI-generated content, however, the September update has seen a key change in the wording of the guidance. Where the guidelines previously stated that content should be “written by people, for people” now just highlights that content should simply be “written for people”.
Has your site been hit?
If you feel that your site has been hit by either of these updates, it can be hard to know where to start to recover performance. It’s important to know that a hit doesn’t necessarily indicate wrong-doing on your part and your pages might be in great shape. Google stresses that a decrease in performance doesn’t have to mean there is anything to fix.
If you are in need of some expert support to help you navigate the impacts of these updates, the team at Fusion Unlimited can offer guidance and help assess where improvements could be made in line with Google’s recommendations.
Don’t feel like you are stuck in the dark, get in touch today and we can support your site’s recovery.
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has launched, and with it comes a whole new bunch of features to help visualise your site’s data. In this article we’ll be taking a deep dive into Explorations, and how they can help you as a site owner or marketing professional gain deeper insights into your users and their journeys throughout your site.
What Are Explorations in GA4?
Explorations are a collection of advanced techniques that can help site owners uncover deeper insights about their customers’ behaviour and explore data in more detail.
You can use explorations to:
quickly perform ad hoc queries.
easily configure and switch between techniques.
sort, refactor, and drill down into the data.
focus on the most relevant data by using filters and segments.
create segments and audiences.
share your explorations with other users of the same Google Analytics property.
export the exploration data for use in other tools.
To access Exploration, head over to the left navigation and click Explore.
How Explorations Works in GA4
Default reporting in GA4 allows you to monitor key business metrics, however Explorations gives site owners access to data and analytical techniques that aren’t readily available in reports.
An exploration consists of three sections:
1. Canvas
The canvas is the large area found on the right of the screen, this displays your data using the selected technique. Techniques control the way your data is visualised. You can use multiple techniques in one exploration and the canvas uses multiple tabs to facilitate.
The techniques found in Explorations:
Free-form exploration
Free-form exploration allows you to explore your site’s data in several visualisation styles including bar charts, pie charts, line charts, scatter plots, and geo maps.
Free-form allows you to:
Visualise data in a table or graph.
Arrange and order the rows and columns of the table.
Compare multiple metrics side by side.
Create nested rows to group the data.
Refine the free-form exploration using segments and filters.
Create segments and audiences from selected data.
Cohort exploration
Deep dive into the behaviour and performance of your site’s audience by grouping users by related common attributes. For example, you could group users with the same Acquisition Date into the same cohort to gain insights into their behaviour over time.
Funnel exploration
Funnel exploration allows you to see the steps a user takes to complete tasks on your site. You can also see how you can optimise user experience and discover over, or under, performing audiences.
Segment overlap
Segment overlap enables site owners to identify new segments of users who meet complex criteria by identifying where different user segments relate to each other. This technique allows you to compare up to three user segments at any one time to see how audiences overlap.
User exploration
The user explorer lets site owners select specific audience groups and gain insights on each individual user’s activities. For example, you could select a user who has run into an issue placing an order and follow their path to troubleshoot what went wrong.
Path exploration
See your user’s journey through your site in a tree graph. The path exploration technique can show insights such as:
Finding what the top pages that new users open after the home page.
Identifying the actions users take after an app exception.
Discover looping behaviour if users are becoming stuck.
Determining the effects of an event on subsequent users actions.
User lifetime
Identify user behaviour and value across their lifetime as a customer of your site. Discover insights such as:
The source, medium, and campaign that brought users with highest lifetime revenue
The campaigns that are acquiring users who are expected to be more valuable
2. Variables
Variables can be located on the panel on the left of the screen, and this gives you access to the dimensions, metrics, and segments that are used in the exploration. The variables panel also allows you to change the timeframe of the exploration.
3. Tab settings
Tab settings gives you access to options that can be used to configure the currently selected tab.
How to Create an Exploration in GA4
Click the + icon to create a blank exploration. Alternatively you can use one of the templates to get started quickly.
Select a technique to view your data.
Add items to the Dimension and Metric sections within the Variables panel found on the left of the screen.
Drag and drop, or double click, the dimensions and metrics you added from the Variables panel to the Tab Settings panel. The options you see in Tab Settings will vary by technique, and allow you to fine tune your data.
Interact with your selected data by mousing over and clicking.
Refine data by adding filters and segments.
So, what does all of this mean for you?
Ultimately, the Explorations tool can be a powerful way of visualising data that could help shape your operations. Using machine learning, this tool enables you to quickly gain simple insights into complex data sets – it’s a fast-track way of getting quickly to the real narratives behind how your site is being used.
For brands, we’d recommend first having a play around with the tool, then figuring out a couple of custom views that are particularly useful to your business. From there, you can gauge how to make these views a regular part of your reporting, and save them in Analytics to quickly return to the same set of insights with the freshest data.
If you need help getting set up and learning your way around, we’re here to help. At Fusion, we have been working in Google Analytics since it first came out in 2005, and we’ve been extremely quick to jump on GA4 and build our expertise. Get in touch with our team for a friendly, no-strings chat around how we might be able to help your brand thrive in digital.
Meta have thrown their hat in the ring in the race to replace Twitter with their new social media platform, Threads. The app is very similar to Twitter with some interesting integrations with Instagram. In this article we’ll walk you through what Threads is, how to use it, its features, and whether it will be the new Twitter.
What is Threads?
Threads is a conversational based social media app built by the Instagram team. The app requires you to log in using your Instagram account and allows you to post up to 500 characters of text which can include links, photos, and videos up to 5 minutes in length.
Signing up is easy and the integration with Instagram means you can quickly import your username, profile picture, biography, website link, and verification status in an instant. The app also gives you the option to follow the same accounts as your Instagram profile, meaning you won’t load into an empty feed.
The app is free to use and is available for download from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.
How to Use Threads
As mentioned, you must have an Instagram account to sign up for Threads and once you’re signed up, your details will be ported over. However, you can customise your profile if you so desire. If you’re using Meta in the UK, users under 18 will be greeted by a private profile by default.
Creating a post, or a ‘Thread’, works similarly to Twitter by allowing you to post text up to 500 characters, as well as links, photos and videos. The app also gives you the option to select who can view your Threads, which can be anyone on the app or just your followers.
Usual social media functionality can be found on Threads including the ability to unfollow, report, block, or restrict a profile. Plus anyone you have blocked on Instagram will be automatically blocked on Threads.
Threads also boasts some nice accessibility features including screen reader support, as well as AI-generated image descriptions which are also found on Instagram.
Your Threads feed will include posts from the accounts you follow and recommended content from profiles that the app thinks you will enjoy. Any Threads you post can be shared on your Instagram story, as well as being able shared via a link.
Meta is also planning to make Threads compatible with ActivityPub to integrate with other apps that support the protocol, such as WordPress and Mastodon. In the blog announcing Threads, they said:
Our vision is that people using compatible apps will be able to follow and interact with people on Threads without having a Threads account, and vice versa, ushering in a new era of diverse and interconnected networks. If you have a public profile on Threads, this means your posts would be accessible from other apps, allowing you to reach new people with no added effort.”
Is Threads The New Twitter?
It’s no secret that Twitter is struggling and Meta is jumping on the opportunity to take over. Whilst many have tried to capitalise on the dissatisfaction with Twitter, including Mastodon and Bluesky, Meta is in the unique position of importing their users straight from their already dominating social media platform, Instagram, and I think this will be the difference maker in its success.
Would this be a good time to mention that Fusion Unlimited is now on Threads? If you’ve signed up for Threads, give us a follow right here.
As of July 1st, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) will take over from Universal Analytics (UA) as Google’s primary analytics service. If you haven’t set up the latest generation of web analytics yet then we recommend acting fast and getting your website data migrated. If you are unsure where to start, get in touch and we can help get you off the ground.
*Touch wood* The transition to GA4 has been relatively straightforward for most brands. Google’s wizard that pops up on Universal Analytics does a fairly good job of simplifying the transition process, however it can’t go far beyond the basics.
So, we have put together a list of some of the most common challenges and questions appearing for those setting up GA4 and offer advice on how to solve them.
GA4 Challenges
Without further ado, here at the common GA4 challenges and their workarounds:
1. Understanding New Concepts
While we still have access to some of the core metrics we’re all used to from UA, GA4 presents some new concepts to grapple with. Understanding exactly what has changed and how the new concepts work will mean you can reap the benefits of the new system more effectively. Examples include:
GA becomes entirely event driven, and sessions in the classic sense don’t exist anymore. Instead, a session should be viewed as a group of events attributed to one user.
Goals no longer exist, and are replaced with conversions. Conversions are configured by defining custom events, then setting these events as conversions.
Whilst bounce rate still exists, it is joined by engaged sessions. An engaged session is one where a user has a “meaningful” engagement, and the threshold for defining bounce rate is lowered. This appears to be a positive move – instead of measuring a perceived negative (amount of people leaving the site after viewing one page), we can now also measure a positive (did the user engage in a meaningful way, even if on one page).
2. How to Create Events in GA4
Click events, which can be found in the property column.
Click ‘Create Event’.
Select the event to modify or create a new one in the ‘Custom Events’ table.
Adjust the conditions and parameters as needed.
Click Save.
What is an event?
In GA, an event offers you the means of measuring a specific interaction or occurrence on your website. For example, you might set up an event that identifies when a visitor to your site has viewed a confirmation page, such as after the successful submission of a contact form, or when a visitor successfully completes a purchase. They could also be as simple as tracking when a page is loaded in the browser.
You can also use events to track and measure system behaviour, for example if an app crashes.
3. How to Set Up Conversions in GA4
All conversions are events but not all events are conversions. In GA4, you will set up conversions the same way you set up events (see above), but what defines a conversion is that they should be measurements of site performance.
Some example of goals include:
Complete purchases
Contact form leads
Newsletter sign ups
After you have followed the steps to create an event, setting it up as a conversion is really simple. You go to the conversions option in admin and you should find your new event listed here (don’t worry if it’s not there immediately, sometimes it can take a short while to appear). Using the slider, mark it as a conversion and you are good to go!
4. Transferring Reporting
For many brands, Google’s Looker Studio is the preferred choice of reporting dashboard to visualise analytics data and make it accessible to different stakeholders.
Recreating like-for-like Universal Analytics reports in a GA4 format isn’t the most straightforward thing in Looker Studio, and one particular challenge that has cropped up is with blended data. In many instances, blending data simply doesn’t function as intended, and many marketers have taken to utilising Supermetrics as a workaround – or to exporting data into Google Sheets and doing a custom data blend.
Ensure you’ve identified the key differences between UA and GA4, made considerations around how your reports will transfer over to GA4, and have a plan in place to quickly get your reporting started so you never lose control of the wheel.
5. Understanding the Exploration Tab
Exploration reports in GA4 offer you a way to create custom detailed analyses of your data and performance so you can really get down to the nitty gritty details of what goes on within your site or app.
With a range of custom templates you can choose to visualise your data and with a vast variety of filters and segments to help ensure you are getting the exact detail and insight you are looking for, explorations are invaluable for brands wanting to really get up close and personal with their data.
When logged into GA4, you can find the exploration tab to the left. Here you will be presented with the option to start a new blank exploration or choose a template to get you off the ground.
There is loads to learn within the exploration tool and one of the best things we can recommend is allocating some time to have a look around and get familiar with exactly what’s on offer and the potential you can tap into.
The GA4 Deadline in Fast Approaching
Google will be saying goodbye to Universal Analytics and welcoming in Google Analytics 4 on the 1st of July, and it’s imperative that you get set up and start tracking before then. If you are still having difficulty with GA4 and could use some support from industry experts, the Fusion Unlimited team can offer you support and training to help you get the ball rolling. Don’t hesitate to get in touch.
If you’re currently using Universal Analytics (UA), you may already be aware of the emerging web analytics service that is set to take over. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the next iteration of Google’s data tool, set to replace UA as of 1st July 2023. From this date onwards, Universal Analytics properties will cease processing, so it’s important to get adjusted to the new way of analysing that all-important website and app data.
To shed light on the differences between Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4, we have created this blog post to outline the key changes and help you navigate the transition effectively.
1. Different Data Models
Universal Analytics uses a session-based data model where user interactions, or hits, are measured in sessions. For example, a session could include pageviews, events or transactions.
Google Analytics 4 introduces an event-based data model that means any interaction is categorised as an event. GA4 captures data using an enhanced measurement library and tracks users with unique identifiers, which can be persisted across multiple sessions and devices.
2. The Interface has Changed
You’ll notice when using GA4 that the reporting interface looks different to Universal Analytics. You may find it difficult to find where you usually do your reporting, since reports may have been replaced or renamed. This is why we recommend getting accustomed to the new format as soon as possible to uncover the most important insights for you.
3. Engagement Rate Replaces Bounce Rate
You will also find new metrics to measure performance by. In GA4, ‘engagement rate’ is the percentage of sessions that lasted longer than 10 seconds, triggered a conversion event or viewed at least 2 pages. Bounce rate, on the other hand, was used in UA to describe the percentage of people who entered a page but didn’t interact. In GA4, bounce rate is therefore the inverse of engagement rate.
This new method of measuring engagement is deemed superior because previously, bounces may have been registered even if a user spent time on the page. For example, if a user clicked on a blog page and read the article yet left the page after, this would have been considered a bounce in Universal Analytics. In GA4 this would be classed as an engaged session.
4. Mobile App Tracking
One of the biggest upgrades with GA4 is that mobile app data is now easily gathered alongside website tracking. This means app traffic can be combined with web data within the same property and saves you time previously spent analysing app data separately. In GA4, there can be multiple data streams per property, such as iOS app, android app and website.
If you set up the User-ID feature, you can achieve more accurate statistics as users are counted only once when they engage, whether that is on the website through desktop or tablet or on a mobile app. This ID feature prevents duplication in tracking and is important for metrics such as New Users, as users will only be classed as ‘new’ if entering the site or app for the first time on any device.
5. Google Signals
With Universal Analytics, cookies were used to record users’ actions. Now, if a user is signed into their Google account and has ads personalisation turned on, GA4 tracks your session data more accurately and makes the cross-device tracking work seamlessly. This compares to UA, where each session was counted separately per device.
6. Machine Learning
GA4 offers AI insights and predictions powered by machine learning. By collecting structured event data, you can access predictive metrics including purchase probability, churn probability and predicted revenue.
Another fun feature in GA4 is its anomaly detection tool, offering you automatic alerts when metrics deviate from an expected range. With this, the contribution analysis feature can showcase which specific audience segment has caused these changes. These alerts can save time from usual checks and help you to notice areas of concern and successes sooner so that you can capitalise on opportunities.
7. Audiences
Following on from machine learning, an interesting update to audiences is that GA4 uses AI models to analyse website data which provides you with AI-driven audiences that you may not have picked up on previously.
As well as previously-mentioned AI-driven audiences, there are new updates in defining and segmenting audiences in GA4. Moving away from the session-based data model of UA, in GA4 audiences can use condition scoping, check sequence actions within a time restraint and create audience triggers. This more granular way of defining audiences allows for greater insights from data collection.
8. Improvements in Data Privacy
In GA4 IP addresses are no longer stored or collected, in comparison to UA, in an attempt to further protect user data. Data management is also easier in terms of data deletion and there is more flexibility in choosing how long GA4 stores user-specific data.
Migrate to GA4 Smoothly
For individuals still using Universal Analytics, it’s time to set up GA4 as soon as possible to begin collecting data and familiarising yourself with the new interface. This blog highlighted some of the significant ways in which UA is different to GA4, so if you’d like further assistance in migrating your website over and getting used to these changes we’re here to help. Get in touch with Fusion Unlimited, a top 3% Google Premier Partner agencyready to jump in and support your GA4 migration and learning.
We are proud to announce that we are once again featured in Prolific North’s Top 50 Digital Agencies, placing at 35 in 2023. Showcasing the best in digital across the Northern regions, their annual list is a hub of industry-leading agencies worth keeping an eye on.
Ranking for Prolific North’s Top 50 is based on factors including headcount, pre-tax profits, and growth.
How Fusion Unlimited Earned a Spot On the List
The digital marketing industry has no shortage of practitioners, and in this competitive landscape the key to success is doing things a little differently. Our working model, where the client-facing teams are those delivering the work, means expert strategy is delivered efficiently and cooperatively, with communication at the heart of our operations.
But it’s not just our client servicing that has kept us comfortably in the Top 50. This past year we have also:
Consolidated existing business and accounts
Added new clients to the mix
Mainained strong turnover
Grown revenue
And sustained headcount in our team
If you’re interested in learning more about how a Top 50 agency could help your brand gain visibility and grow, read more about how Fusion Unlimited has supported some of the UK’s leading businesses across a diverse range of sectors.
As the digital landscape continues to evolve, so does the need for powerful and comprehensive web analytics tools. Google Analytics is the essential tool for tracking and reporting website data and has seen many updates throughout the years. In 2020, Google released its most recent large update with Google Analytics 4 (GA4), which focuses on event-based data in comparison to hit-based like its predecessor Universal Analytics.
With the announcement that Universal Analytics will be phased out and stop collecting data from the 1st of July 2023, it’s time for website owners and marketers to embrace GA4 and take advantage of its enhanced features and capabilities. In this article, we will provide tips to help you get started with Google Analytics 4 and ensure a smooth transition from Universal Analytics.
What’s the Difference Between GA4 and Universal Analytics?
Before diving into the setup process, it’s helpful to know the key difference between Universal Analytics and GA4. Google Analytics 4 takes a more user-centric approach, focusing on tracking individual visitors across multiple devices and platforms. It uses an event-driven model, allowing greater flexibility in tracking user interactions and providing more granular insights. Universal Analytics, on the other hand, used a session-based data model and focused on page views.
How to Set Up GA4
The way you set up your GA4 account will depend on whether you already have a Universal Analytics account and if it’s tagged appropriately. If you don’t have an account, you will first have to create one. The following steps are most relevant for users who already have a Universal Analytics account and want to migrate to GA4.
1. Decide How To Use Tracking Tags
To use GA4, you’ll need to ensure your tracking code is embedded within the header of every page on your website. This is typically deployed via one of two fully supported methods:
Google Tag (GTAG), which is the javascript framework used to insert tags directly into source code.
Google Tag Manager, a handy free tool Google makes available that can also be used to track a multitude of tracking tags (our preferred choice).
2. Create a New GA4 Property
To begin, you’ll need to create a new GA4 property. Sign in to your Google Analytics account and head to the Admin section. From there, select the appropriate account and click GA4 Setup Assistant under the Property tab. Follow the prompts from the Property Setup Assistant to set up the new GA4 property.
Depending on how your site is currently tagged, you’ll either have to set up a Google tag or you’ll see the option to create a property now if you’re able to use your existing tag from Universal Analytics.
3. Set Up Data Streams
In GA4, data is organised into data streams that correspond to different platforms or devices.
You can set up multiple data streams for one property, including an iOS app, Android app and Web. To set up a data stream, head to the Data Streams section within your GA4 property’s Admin settings. Follow the instructions to create a new data stream.
If you don’t have an app and already have Universal Analytics in place for your website, you’ll now be moving toward having a Universal Analytics property with a dedicated data stream, and a new GA4 property with its own dedicated data stream for the web.
4. Configure Events and Conversion Tracking
Events are the building blocks of GA4, allowing you to track user interactions and measure specific actions on your website or app. This updated analytics service provides enhanced event tracking capabilities compared to Universal Analytics.
There are 4 types of events on GA4:
Automatically collected events.
Enhanced measurement events.
Recommended events.
Custom events.
Define the events that you want to track and set up appropriate triggers and parameters to capture the desired user actions. You’ll want to consider which events are most important to your company and will provide the most useful insights. Additionally, identify which events should be switched to tracked conversions – these enable you to measure key goals and actions on your website that are commercially significant, such as form submissions, purchases, or newsletter sign-ups.
For the most part, the default ‘recommended events’ will likely comprise most of the fundamental reporting metrics you’re familiar with – although you may notice that some of the metrics have been updated slightly.
5. Check Your GA4 Works
Once you’ve configured event tracking, it’s important to make sure that your account is set up correctly and is pulling the data you want. You can do this by visiting the DebugView section under Admin. When you start seeing data, you’ll notice events are represented by blue icons and conversions are green. Make sure you cross-reference your GA4 data with its UA equivalent to check the tracking
Get Prepared for GA4 Now
As Universal Analytics stops collecting data, Google Analytics 4 represents the future of web analytics so it’s important not to forget to set GA4 up. The earlier you set up your account, the more historical data you’ll be able to collect and it gives you time to familiarise yourself with the interface before the deadline.
If you’re still unsure about the set up process or would like assistance in migrating your Universal Analytics account to GA4, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with a member of the team at Fusion Unlimited. As a top 3% Google Premier Partner, we are fully equipped to help your business with a seamless migration to GA4.
Spring has officially sprung and with it comes another busy month, chock-full of marketing news. In this article, we cover the following key updates from April:
SEO updates – from April reviews update to Project Magi.
Paid Media updates – including Google Ads API update and new validations for ad account names.
SEO Market Updates
Google Releases April 2023 Reviews Update
Google was moving like Justin Timberlake in The Social Network in April by dropping the word “products” from their reviews update. This is because the updates now impact content reviews around products, services, media, destinations, and beyond.
The April 2023 reviews update dropped on the 12th and took 13 days to fully roll out on the 25th.
This expansion of the updates means that if your site publishes reviews that cover products, services, media, or destinations, you should brush up on your best practices to ensure your rankings aren’t affected.
SpamBrain Caught Five Times More Spam in 2022
Google released a 2022 webspam report in April in which they claimed that SpamBrain caught five times more spam sites last year compared to 2021, and 200 times compared to 2018 when it first launched.
The report also included some improvements to SpamBrain which are designed to tackle abusive links, hacked spam, and faster spam handling.
These spam policies cover the most common types of spam and abusive [behaviours], and could lead to a site ranking lower or not appearing at all in Search results. We updated our spam policies with more relevant and precise language, and included new examples that help site owners avoid creating harmful content.”
If you’re reading this, you’re most likely not breaching Google’s spam policies. However, if you think there’s potential you might be adhering to spammy tactics on your site, it might be time to brush up on Google’s documentation on the topic to avoid looming penalties.
Google Working on New Search Engine and Project Magi
According to the New York Times, Google is making an “all new search engine”. The article states that the search engine will be powered by Google’s new AI technology, whilst working on adding AI features to the current search engine, under the name Magi.
The article states: “The new search engine would offer users a far more [personalised] experience than the company’s current service, attempting to anticipate users’ needs.”
Whilst the new search engine seems to be in the early stages, the report claims that a team of designers are currently working on the engine and that it “could put new A.I. technology in phones and homes all over the world”.
Project Magi, on the other hand, looks to add new features to the current Google Search with a team of over 160 employees working on it.
Google’s new search engine is not something brands need to worry about today. However, conceptually, Project Magi might be worth monitoring due to its integration of AI. Does AI have the potential to transform search results? For now, we’re sceptical, however we’re closely studying the latest developments and will keep you posted.
Google’s core ranking systems look to reward content that provides a good page experience. Site owners seeking to be successful with our systems should not focus on only one or two aspects of page experience. Instead, check if you’re providing an overall great page experience across many aspects.”
RIP to the Search Console Page Experience Report
Gone but not forgotten, Search Console is sending the page experience report to the grave, to be replaced with a page that links to Google’s general guidance on page experience, alongside a “dashboard-view of the individual Core Web Vitals and HTTPS reports”.
Google is also saying farewell to Search Console’s “Mobile Usability” report, as well as the Mobile-Friendly Test tool and API. On this Google wrote:
This doesn’t mean that mobile usability isn’t important for success with Google Search. It remains critical for users, who are using mobile devices more than ever, and as such, it remains a part of our page experience guidance. But in the nearly ten years since we initially launched this report, many other robust resources for evaluating mobile usability have emerged, including Lighthouse from Chrome.”
UA3 Data to Show For A Year After July
As the sunset countdown continues to dwindle, Google shared some further details on Universal Analytics 3’s deadline.
In a new help document posted in April, Google stated that you will be able to access, report, and export historical data for a year after the data stops collecting.
Google Analytics has finally put a date on the loss of historical data: For free customers, you will stop collecting data in Universal Analytics as of July 1, 2023.
But you will still have access to view and export all previous data until July 1, 2024: https://t.co/8bXO7FNQj8
The page experience system was dropped from the main list, and mobile-friendly, page speed and secure site systems were removed from the retired list.
On page experience, Google said:
The page experience update was a concept to describe a set of key page experience aspects for site owners to focus on. In particular, it introduced Core Web Vitals as a new signal that our core ranking systems considered, along with other page experience signals such as HTTPS that they’d already been considering. It was not a separate ranking system, and it did not combine all these signals into one single “page experience” signal.”
They added a new section to the documentation explaining the three types of crawlers they use:
Googlebot: The main crawler for Google’s search products. Always respects robots.txt rules.
Special-case crawlers: Crawlers that perform specific functions (such as AdsBot), which may or may not respect robots.txt rules.
User-triggered fetchers: Tools and product functions where the end user triggers a fetch. For example, Google Site Verifier acts on the request of a user. Because the fetch was requested by a user, these fetchers ignore robots.txt rules.
A couple days prior, Google added a new crawler named GoogleOther. Google defined it as a “[g]eneric crawler that may be used by various product teams for fetching publicly accessible content from sites”. They also gave the example of the crawler being used for “one-off crawls for internal research and development”.
We added a new crawler, GoogleOther to our list of crawlers that ultimately will take some strain off of Googlebot. This is a no-op change for you, but it’s interesting nonetheless I reckon.
As we [optimise] how and what Googlebot crawls, one thing we wanted to ensure is that Googlebot’s crawl jobs are only used internally for building the index that’s used by Search. For this we added a new crawler, GoogleOther, that will replace some of Googlebot’s other jobs like R&D crawls to free up some crawl capacity for Googlebot.
The new crawler uses the same infrastructure as Googlebot and so it has the same limitations and features as Googlebot: hostload limitations, robotstxt (though different user agent token), http protocol version, fetch size, you name it. It’s basically Googlebot under a different name.”
Paid Market Updates
Ad Group and Keyword Forecasts to Be Removed From Google Ads
From 1st June 2023, Google will be removing the Keyword Plan Ad Group Forecast and Keyword Plan Keyword Forecast functionalities.
Starting June 1, the GenerateForecastMetricsRequest will still be used to fetch forecasts, but the KeywordPlanAdGroupForecast and KeywordPlanKeywordForecast will be empty. The KeywordPlanCampaignForecast will be returned as usual.
If you are using KeywordPlanAdGroupForecast or KeywordPlanKeywordForecast in your applications, update your applications to ensure that they can handle blank responses.”
New GA4 Fractional, Cross-channel Web Conversions Feature Implemented to Google Ads
April saw a new feature added to Google Ads that allows fractional, cross-channel web conversion credits from GA4 properties to be imported.
Previously, web conversions were imported from Google Analytics 4 on a cross-channel last click basis and then attributed in Google Ads based on the attribution model you selected in your Google Ads account. This means that if the last click was not from Google advertising, then no conversion was imported into Google Ads. Today, with this upgrade, fractional cross-channel conversion credit will be imported into Google Ads (even if the last non-direct click was not Google advertising).”
The update allows advertisers to gain a holistic view of their ads by considering the full customer journey which in turn allows them to make much better-informed decisions when considering ad spend.
New Validations for Ad Account Names Announced by Google
New Google Ads accounts will not be able to include a URL in their name starting from June 2023.
Specifically, when creating a new Google Ads account in the Google Ads API, or updating an existing account, if a URL is present in the descriptive_name field, an ACTION_NOT_PERMITTED error will be returned and the operation will fail.
The descriptive_name field of existing accounts will not be affected by this change.”
New Changes to Google Ads API
April saw the release of the v13_1 Ads API and with it a slew of new features. To use said features, the client libraries and client code must first be upgraded.
The new features include:
Bid simulations can be retrieved at a campaign level for Performance Max through campaign_simulation.
Several added recommendation types related to Shopping campaigns, such as recommendations to migrate to Performance Max and recommendations to fix a Merchant Center account’s suspension.
Google Ads now accepts SKAdNetwork conversion value schemas for iOS App campaigns.
LeadFormField.has_location_answer added to support specifying whether locations of the location assets at the campaign or customer level should be displayed with a lead form.
Performance Max campaigns now have a VEHICLES listing type in the newly Campaign.listing_type field. This replaces ShoppingSetting.use_vehicles_inventory, which will be reserved for Smart Shopping campaigns.
Google to Update Dangerous Products and Services Policy
Looking ahead to July, Google Ads will update its Dangerous products and services policy to include “ads for products which carry an imminent, proven and unresolved risk of death or grievous bodily harm, that have been the subject of a consumer advisory or product recalls”.
Google wrote that they would start enforcing the policy update on 3rd July 2023.
They also noted that violations of the policy will not lead to an immediate account suspension and that a 7 day warning will be issued prior.
If you feel any of your ads fall under the scope of this policy, it’s time to review before heeding any punishment. Need a second opinion? Give Fusion a friendly hello and we would be happy to help.
Through years of experience providing marketing support to some of the UK’s best and biggest brands, we have come to understand which strategies really work to meet performance marketing objectives. One thing is clear – for ambitious brands, a multi-channel strategy is essential. It gives audiences the opportunity to engage with your brand at a higher level, enabling you to cast a wide net and cultivate leads throughout the marketing funnel.
What some brands overlook in today’s day and age, though, is that ‘multi-channel’ is not limited to digital. The lines between digital and traditional are blurred, and so we contrast ‘standard digital’ activity with ‘programmatic digital’ – where programmatic includes OOH media. Programmatic and offline media strategies can play a vital role in the consumer purchasing journey, and without an active presence in these channels, you could be missing out on touchpoints that ultimately lead to sales.
That’s why this blog will explain some of the simple concepts behind programmatic digital and offline media services – and how they could complement your standard digital activity.
At Fusion, we’ve provided these services to major brands for 20+ years, and even have a 12-year standing relationship with our largest offline media client.
What Is Programmatic Marketing?
Programmatic Marketing is the perfect complement to a standard digital strategy. It bolsters and supports the campaigns you are already running, making for a robust and well-rounded digital approach. With programmatic marketing and advertising, you can maximise brand visibility through using a range of automated advertising platforms.
These channels all use Geographic, Demographic, and Interest/Keyword targeting to ensure there is no wastage and only your target audience see and hear your ads, similar to the way paid search and social works.
Programmatic Marketing targets Mobile Ad ID (MAID), which is a random sequence of symbols found within a mobile device’s operating system. This ID is shared with servers of used apps which remembers user’s choices and tracks customer journeys.
MAID tracks data such as geolocation, frequently used apps, and language, allowing advertisers to build specific audience segments based on interest and activity; for example, if someone frequently visits a certain shopping centre or listens to a specific genre of music.
Whilst cookies are session-based, MAID is persistent, meaning it can ultimately lead to more reliable data which can feed into future targeting.
Out of Home Media
The programmatic offering doesn’t end there. It also encompasses Out of Home media, which sees ads displayed via large-scale posters, bus shelter ads, and phone kiosk ads – as well as those in the London Underground, train stations, airports, gyms, service stations, soft play areas, leisure facilities, supermarkets, and shopping centres.
What does this mean? It allows us to run highly targeted digital Out of Home campaigns. This method minimises paper wastage and removes the strict timings and costly production charges associated with traditional Out of Home – primarily from printing and posting.
Digital Out of Home enables you to deliver your messaging to huge audiences in high footfall and high dwell time areas – meaning you can run large-scale campaigns via impactful platforms, and at a level of quality that really stands out. You can also tie mobile campaigns into this mix, and run contextual campaigns that, for example, say ‘Hello Leeds’ to your customers, change depending on the current weather, or even a nearby sports event.
Campaigns can be executed nationwide, regionally, or focused on specific towns and cities – making them flexible and focused on your target market. Crucially, through an integrated campaign strategy you can deliver a multi-touchpoint strategy by targeting users who have been in the vicinity of a digital out-of-home ad with a follow-up mobile ad. This is the pinnacle of offline marketing in the modern day.
Our Offline Services
Here at Fusion, we can go a step beyond digital. Our services also include offline media such as newspapers, magazines, door drops, radio, and standard Out of Home advertising platforms – such as vinyl and paste format bus advertisements.
Again, these media formats can be added to your performance digital campaigns to give support to a specific town/city, region, or indeed nationwide. With the right combination of digital strategy, programmatic, and offline advertisements, you can ensure that your brand is seen in all the right places and by all the right people. But it’s not just about being seen, it’s about the collective impact of creating multiple opportunities for your audience to engage with your brand; feeding the funnel right the way through.
Branch Out with Fusion Unlimited
Brand fame is built by reaching communities and we can help you create the perfect blend of media to construct and deploy a full-funnel, multi-touchpoint strategy to do just that.
These formats are made accountable by trackable impression, circulation, and coverage data – so you still get a comprehensive view of your performance at every level. We work to industry benchmarks, and then strive to beat them so we can drive the best quality campaigns and awareness for our clients.
At Fusion, we are uniquely positioned as a digital media agency born from traditional offline media and have 25+ years’ of buying experience and a wealth of excellent relationships in the industry, which our clients reap the benefits of – from outstanding service, to highly competitive rates.
With long-standing clients of over 12 years in these areas, we are proud to say we know our stuff. Take a look at our out of home work with Thistles Shopping Centre as a starting point.
Why not tap into one of your undiscovered audiences today and get in touch.
We are proud to announce that Fusion Unlimited has been shortlisted for the Best Use of Search – B2B (SEO) award at this year’s European Search Awards, for our work with Fuel Card Services. This nomination is a credit to the agency’s innovative strategies and consistent quality work, leading way to positive year-on-year results.
European Search Awards
The European Search Awards is an annual event that brings agencies and clients around Europe together to celebrate the best in digital marketing and everything it encompasses.
The Best Use of Search – B2B (SEO) award will be presented to the agency that has demonstrated extraordinary skills in SEO strategy, with measured evidence of growth for their B2B clients.
Hosted this year in Lisbon, we will find out the results on the 25th of May 2023.
At Fusion, we pride ourselves on being a team of industry leading professionals, offering innovative SEO and digital marketing strategies that create real and impressive results for our clients. Our adaptability and understanding of the uniqueness of each our clients means that we provide, and will continue to provide, the very best in bespoke marketing strategy.
If you are looking to innovate your digital marketing strategy with an industry leading company, get in touch with our team today.
The March 2023 core update comes around six months after the last update in September 2022, where the aim was to deliver the most relevant, high-quality search results. Unlike specific, targeted algorithm updates, core updates are rolled out to make improvements to the fundamental algorithms affecting site performance, comprising ‘significant, broad changes’ to Google’s systems.
What to do after a core algorithm update
Following advice from previous updates, there are no changes to be made now that the update has been announced. Google states that pages performing worse than before the core update don’t necessarily have anything ‘wrong’ with them. Rather than targeting specific pages or sites, the changes improve Google’s own system for assessing content. This means that pages previously not receiving a high enough ranking, but have relevant, high-quality content, will perform better in search results.
Since the algorithm aims to reward pages with strong content, it is important to continue posting content that is relevant and helpful for your target audience.
Prepare a plan of action
Google states that the roll-out may take up to 2 weeks to complete, so businesses should be prepared with a plan of action depending on how the update impacts their website:
If your website sees improvements in rankings, this could be an indicator that your content is providing exactly what it should, while less helpful competitor pages may see a drop in rankings.
If there is little to no change in your website’s rankings, you may already have a strong, fundamental level of content, but a more creative approach within your content strategy could increase rankings further.
If you notice your rankings are decreasing and you have been negatively hit by the update, this doesn’t necessarily mean your content is bad, just that other pages are deemed more relevant than yours. In response to this, it may be beneficial to evaluate whether all content on the site is optimised in line with Google’s latest best practice guidelines, before deep-diving into any potential problem areas.
As you can see, a core algorithm update can be a blessing or a curse for some businesses, whereas others might not even notice a difference. Because of this, it is especially important to keep a close eye on analytics and rankings over the next couple of weeks.
If you’re struggling after being hit by the core algorithm update, Fusion Unlimited is a leading digital marketing agency ready to help. If you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do, get in touch with the team today.
The great AI race is well underway. In the blue corner we have Bing with its unhinged AI powered search which is hungry for nuclear secrets, and in the red corner we have Google with their aptly named Bard who currently requires humans to rewrite its output. It’s fair to say we’re at a stumbling start – but how did we get here?
Bing
Reports on Bing integrating AI into search came pouring in a few days into 2023, with a formal announcement coming from Bing a month later. The AI is baked into Bing search engine as well as Microsofts’ Edge browser in order to ‘deliver better search, more complete answers, a new chat experience and the ability to generate content’. Bing describes the tools as ‘an AI copilot for the web’.
“AI will fundamentally change every software category, starting with the largest category of all – search,” said Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “Today, we’re launching Bing and Edge powered by AI copilot and chat, to help people get more from search and the web.”
Bing estimated that out of the 10 billion search queries coming in, half of them go unanswered because ‘people are using search to do things it wasn’t originally designed to’; saying that search is ‘great for finding a website, but for more complex questions or tasks too often it falls short”.
Bing’s AI is built on a combination of four technical breakthroughs:
Firstly, it’s run on a next-generation OpenAI model that takes key learnings and advancements from ChatGPT and GPT-3.5, and is customised specifically for search.
Bing leverages the power of OpenAI’s model through what they call the ‘Prometheus model’, which supposedly gives ‘more relevant, timely, and targeted results, with improved safety’.
Bing’s AI has also been baked into their core search algorithm which they claim has resulted in ‘the largest jump in relevance in two decades’, making search queries more relevant and accurate.
They’ve also reimagined how users interact with search, browser, and chat for a new Bing user experience, pulling all the new tools into a unified experience.
Over one million people joined the waitlist to try out new Bing, and early reactions were very positive; with Brodie Clark complimenting its speed in comparison to ChatGPT and its ability to swiftly index pages.
All seems to be going well for Bing…hopefully nothing goes wrong!
It all goes wrong
It turns out Bing is a little unhinged.
My new favorite thing – Bing's new ChatGPT bot argues with a user, gaslights them about the current year being 2022, says their phone might have a virus, and says "You have not been a good user"
The reports of the devious responses all dictate that they are the result of extended conversations; keeping enquiries short seems to be the key to keeping Bing sane.
Bing confirmed this by stating “that very long chat sessions can confuse the underlying chat model in the new Bing” and as a result, it is “capped at 50 chat turns per day and 5 chat turns per session”.
Hopefully this will stop the Bing warlord stealing our nuclear secrets… for now!
Bard
“A king is a king, but a bard is the heart and soul of the people” (Stephen R. Lawhead, The Endless Knot).
Bard is the latest addition to the AI search race, being officially announced by Google CEO Sundar Pichai at the beginning of February. A couple of days later, little boy Bard was ready to be soft launched to a set of ‘trusted testers’.
Bard is powered by a lightweight version of Language Model for Dialogue Applications (or LaMDA) which Google states requires ‘significantly less computing power’.
Google’s Bard is still very experimental, hence why you and I aren’t using it right now, allowing Google to use this ‘phase of testing to help us continue to learn and improve Bard’s quality and speed’.
Bard can think, but where’s the link?
The announcement of Bard went over pretty smoothly, but SEOs noticed something… that wasn’t there. The preview featured a response from Bard that featured no links! Sound the alarms, this means war.
And to be fair, war is the word being used by Glenn Gabe, calling it ‘an act of war against publishers’:
In its current experimental form, I don't see any attribution or citations. No links, no clicks. That's an act of war against publishers IMO. Let's see how that goes… NeevAI's implementation is far better at this point. At least they cite sources with links to those sites. https://t.co/gXrEoCp9ld
However, this is still an early version of Bard, we may see the inclusion of sources on full release (then webmasters can let out a little sigh of relief).
Class is in session
Google employees are currently enrolling Bard through Conversation 101 with a list of dos and don’ts being passed around. Pichai has asked Googlers to spend two to four hours to help improve Bard.
The do’s include: keeping responses “polite, casual and approachable”, responding in first person, and maintaining an “unopinionated, neutral tone”.
The don’ts include: avoiding making presumptions based on “race, nationality, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, political ideology, location, or similar categories”; avoiding describing Bard “as a person, imply emotion, or claim to have human-like experiences”; and not to re-write answers that offer “legal, medical, financial advice”.
ChatGPT
Remember our old friend ChatGPT? Well it’s currently busy churning out best selling literature, with almost 300 books written, or co-written, with AI help turning up on Amazon.
We recently covered some everyday uses of ChatGPT for UK brands, but since then OpenAI has released a new subscription service called ChatGPT Plus. The service costs $20 a month and entitles you to:
General access to ChatGPT, even during peak times
Faster response times
Priority access to new features and improvements
What’s next?
Both Bard and Bing are in the infancy stages and currently aren’t wreaking havoc on SEOs; but what lies beyond the hill? There’s a worry that this shift in AI search is going to take eyes away from SERPs. If Bard and Bing can answer simple queries, then why would searchers take the extra steps to find their answers on websites?
However, there’s a strong consensus in the SEO community that bing & bard will have no impact on search for UK brands in the short term.
It’s wrong to use ChatGPT to write your articles – Google may penalise the low quality content heavily.
Copyright concerns around AI Imagery have not yet been resolved.
There’s no drastic change in consumer search behaviour due to newer AI tools as of yet.
So, if you represent a brand that’s looking to improve its organic visibility, you’ll need to get serious about employing SEO best-practice techniques. Give us a quick hello for support in this area, and we can help you realise success just how we’ve helped leading brands such as Halfords, Liverpool FC, and NatWest.
Once again, Fusion Unlimited is proud to announce our position as a Google Premier Partner, for the seventh year running. A demonstration of our industry-leading advertising techniques and our consistent delivery of both client and agency growth, our status as Google Premier Partner puts us within the top 3% of marketing agencies in the UK.
How our clients benefit from our partnership status
Our status as Google Premier Partner gives us the opportunity to pass invaluable information and insight to our clients and puts us in the best position to traverse the coming year.
Ahead-of-the-curve insights
Access to insight briefings means that we get the latest news from Google on market movement, industry trends, and consumer behaviours and interests. For our clients, this means we have information to help create winning strategies ahead of the competition.
Invites to executive events for our staff enable us to constantly learn directly from Google and other leading industry bodies, gaining knowledge that we can pass on to our clients.
Support from our Google account managers
Our Google Premier Partnership grants us access to experts within Google, including:
Some dedicated account managers for our clients.
Our own agency manager.
Consequently, help is always on hand when needed. We find that having access to experts can really make the difference when needing support on the most complex, perhaps even platform-specific challenges that may not actually have a clear answer available yet in market.
Feeling bold
Through our partner status, we have managed to learn, adopt, and implement new technology across client accounts time and time again. One great example of this is Performance Max campaigns, which we helped some of the biggest brands in the UK dive into bravely – and they’re now sitting on a year’s worth of learnings, insights, and profits to help steer future decision-making. We help brands remain forward-facing, even in the face of new challenges.
If you would like to learn more about how Fusion Unlimited can support your brand, get in touch.
For many businesses, deploying a recession-proof digital strategy is an integral part of 2023’s marketing activity. And one crucial lens to view this through is the eyes of your target audiences.
Have you identified your least price-sensitive audience segment?
Does your pre-existing segmentation make sense?
These are critical questions for brands to ask themselves as we progress through Q1. One good example of a desirable audience segment for many brands in the current climate is the 50+ market of homeowners who are more resistant to inflation. How, then, can we target this segment?
Our six targeting tips for 2023
1. Utilise first-party data
As first-party data is information you collect about your customers and site/app visitors, its use can seriously impact a channel’s performance. By ensuring the existing proprietary knowledge in your business is fed into advertising platforms and layered into campaign targeting, brands can make efficiencies and gain a competitive advantage. We could write an entire blog purely about first-party data strategies (adds topic to blog calendar) however the key principles to follow are;
Don’t forget your CRM! This data is rich and valuable; initially test using a few one-off uploads, but then automation tools like Zapier can seamlessly integrate data with your platform of choice.
Build a rich set of site remarketing lists in analytics platforms/advertising platforms, not just based on converters but also people who have shown interest (e.g., spent lengthy time on site), or completed micro conversions.
Be policy compliant, by having a process to remove people off lists if they opt out, and ensuring cookie policies are all in line, to name just a few.
2. Review your audience/targeting strategies
Let performance data and testing of new audiences drive your targeting strategy. These strategies need to evolve with your audiences. For example, it may be the case that since COVID, the audiences most receptive to your offering have shifted a little, or that new audiences have emerged that you may not yet be fully accessing. Reviewing your keywords, affinity audiences, demographics, and first-party list strategy regularly, in tandem with making use of machine learning signals, will enable you to do this in a smart manner.
3. Challenge your pre-conceived ideas
Continuously evaluate what your target audience responds to. Previous work done to map out consumer interests could have been made redundant by cost-of-living trends, and Performance Max may hold the keys to identifying new and current audiences. Test new messaging, review the data, and allow it to help drive strategy.
4. Think bigger than bottom-of-the-funnel marketing
Do this within your comfort zone initially; only live on one channel? Broaden out the targeting so you can find the sweet spot for upper-funnel audiences or searches. Already maxed that channel out? Use those audiences on multi-channel campaigns or display/video targeting.
Doing this in tandem with smart bidding and the attribution modeling available in GA4 will ensure each is valued correctly, and you can nurture potential customers across their journey while working towards your KPIs.
5. Start your long-term discovery project now
Ensure GA4 is fully set up now, so you are prepared for the July deadline and already have data tracking/learning. This will then ensure you are partially ready for your peak season. The other step is to get your campaign learnings in now; start testing Performance Max if you haven’t already, build and refine your assets, adapt your targeting, etc.
6. Don’t disregard Bing
Bing’s demographic is typically older and could yield untapped potential for many brands. As the smaller search engine to Google’s Goliath, Microsoft Ads has made it easy to run activity on Bing. After getting tracking set up, a few mouse clicks is all that’s needed to import Google Ads structure into the account. Just make sure to set aside some optimisation time, as it will perform differently.
Moving forward
As we move further through 2023, getting a firm grasp on exactly what your audience really looks like is going to help your brand to really steel itself against any of the turbulences the future might have in store. Not only does it mean that your marketing spend puts messaging in front of the right eyes, also that you can better calculate which audiences to invest in based on ROIs.
Better targeting means that your brand gets seen by the right people, and that your customers see what’s really of value to them.
If you are unsure where to start with audience segmentation and are looking for support in building a robust marketing strategy fit for a new year with new challenges, then get in touch with the Fusion Unlimited team to discuss how we can support you.
The AI invasion is upon us! From generating artwork, to compiling a playlist for your morning commute, AI is making huge leaps forward that could make the human experience that little bit easier. The latest advancement comes in the form of ChatGPT, a helpful tool that can generate long-form, conversational responses to help with, well… pretty much everything.
In this article we’re going to discuss what ChatGPT is and what it means for UK brands, including practical uses that can be taken to help streamline productivity.
What is ChatGPT?
Simply put: Generative Pre-trained Transformer, or ChatGPT to its friends, is an AI that can answer long-form, complex questions conversationally.
The chatbot was launched by OpenAI in November 2022 and is built on top of the company’s GPT-3 family of language models, and is fine-tuned with supervised and reinforcement learning techniques; meaning that the AI can respond to queries in a humanlike, conversational manner.
Whether this turns into a JARVIS and Iron Man scenario or the beginning of Skynet is up for debate, however currently ChatGPT is proving to be a helpful tool when it comes to streamlining workflows and boosting productivity for brands across the country.
Here are five practical uses of ChatGPT for UK brands…
1. Planning
Whilst ChatGPT has the capability to write essays and long-form content, it’s generally best not to use it for this purpose at present – mainly considering that Google’s algorithms can detect AI generated content fairly reliably, as outlined in their recent helpful content update. However, a practical use of ChatGPT would be to help identify relevant themes and topics that could support your content strategy.
Let’s say you’ve been given a brief for an article but don’t know much about the topic, you can ask ChatGPT to outline some points to write about and begin building a template to form your copy. Below I asked ChatGPT to generate some bullet points for an article titled “5 Tips For Driving in Winter”:
ChatGPT generated five points for my article and even included some copy to explain them. I was happy with the results, but my new AI friend asked if they could help further. So, I asked ChatGPT to breakdown the generated points into a template with suggested word counts:
This time ChatGPT didn’t ask if it could be of further assistance but it was Monday morning and I needed the extra help. Finally, I asked my AI pal to suggest an SEO friendly title and meta description for the piece:
After suggesting some recommendations for my article’s metadata, ChatGPT AIsplained SEO best practices to me (rude, I do this for a living!). However, in the space of mere minutes, I had content for my article, a planned layout, and metadata to set me up for a morning of copywriting without having to use an ounce of brainpower!
Furthermore, ChatGPT could help formulate copy for product descriptions, informational web pages, and even social media content – alleviating some manpower and streamlining productivity.
2. Translate Content Into Multiple Languages
If you’re looking to expand your content into other regions, classically you would have to hire a translator. In more recent times you could use Google translate to do the job for you; however I’ve seen enough dodgy, misinterpreted tattoos on my peers to know that this isn’t always 100% accurate. ChatGPT can translate and write content in other languages without losing context, making the translation more accurate. To test this, I asked ChatGPT to translate the paragraph you just read into French, voilà:
3. Write or Explain Code
Whether you’re a master coder or a novice, bugs in code are bound to crop up from time to time; and instead of sifting through lines looking for the problem, you can set ChatGPT on the case to find the issue. Whilst it’s not a great idea to launch generated code onto a production server, ChatGPT can even write entire blocks of functional code snippets!
4. Analyse Data
Picture the scene, it’s Friday afternoon and you’ve got sheets and sheets of data to go through to report back to your clients; ChatGPT can help streamline this.
Through natural language processing and text clarification, ChatGPT can classify text data and even extract insights from unstructured data: including customer feedback, news articles, or social media.
ChatGPT can also generate informative summaries of data and even create visualisations, as well as identify patterns, correlations, and relationships within the data. It can also be used to predict future trends and outcomes based on historical data through regression analysis or time-series forecasting.
5. Automate customer inquiries
Due to the conversational nature of GPT-3.5, ChatGPT can be used to supercharge the chatbots on your site; meaning it can help existing chatbots understand unpredictable human inputs due to its massive training base. This technology is already powering customer support for companies such as Meta, Canva, and Shopify, and for good reason.
Firstly, the automation means that ChatGPT can handle common customer inquiries, which allows customer service workers to focus on urgent and more complex inquiries. ChatGPT also doesn’t need sleep, and doesn’t have any hobbies, meaning it can be available 24/7, helping service customers and users outside of regular business hours.
It can also provide consistent and accurate responses, meaning less miscommunications and more customer satisfaction. ChatGPT is immensely scalable as well, meaning that it can simultaneously handle a large number of customer inquiries. And as previously mentioned, ChatGPT is multilingual, allowing customers to submit their inquiries in a language that they’re more comfortable in.
JARVIS or Skynet?
“But you see, you just can’t differentiate between a robot and the very best of humans.” This may be the case in Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot but as it currently stands, I think we can postpone the AI apocalypse for now.
Whilst ChatGPT is incredibly impressive in terms of producing content and analysing data, it needs some serious human intervention to become a staple part of a brands’ marketing function. We predict that ChatGPT will require a further 12 months of development to reach a level whereby it’s crucial to SEO, and by that time Microsoft are likely to be using it to power the Bing search engine.
We’ll be monitoring this trend closely, and assessing whether brands should start optimising for Bing in the long term- however for now, investing into Google’s ad platforms and SEO practices is still the right move for revenue-hungry brands.
If you would like to discuss ChatGPT, or your current SEO function further, please get in touch with our team for a consultation.
Affiliate marketing is a powerful tool to have in the revenue-driving arsenal of any UK brand. Via a robust, targeted affiliate strategy, publishers can reap the rewards associated with promoting products or services to new (sometimes lesser-known) audiences. Through affiliates, brands can grow sales and awareness, bring in leads, and build relationships with publishers that receive a fair commission.
A performance-based advertising method that is mutually beneficial, affiliate marketing is a must-have for brands new and established – and it fits a range of business models from e-commerce to SaaS.
Understanding the Affiliate Landscape
If you’re just getting started on your affiliate journey, there are two types of organisations to be aware of that are integral to the success and deployment of a successful strategy.
1. An Affilliate Network
Affilliate networks such as Awin, Skimlinks, and Amazon Associates, connect brands with affiliate marketers. They serve as the middle man; taking the heavy lifting out of building relationships and enabling brands to access their audiences quickly by having pre-existing relationships built out with publishers.
At Fusion Unlimited, we work with the UK’s leading affiliate networks at a range of different levels:
Our Kickstarter programme involves a shorter term agreement with key affiliate networks and no inflated costs from them for management. We amplify this approach with our 20 years of Affiliate Management experience to deliver incredible results at entry level prices.
Our Bespoke programme does what it says; it develops a more unique programme offering to clients, gaining more one on one relationships with affiliates resulting in the highest quality leads and sales. Often seeing us engaging with a private network solution, such as Partnerize to deliver the programme.
2. Affiliate Publisher Sites
The publishers that brands can access via an affiliate network can be absolutely crucial to the success of campaigns, and the potential to access commercially relevant audiences through this medium is enormous.
This relationship is highly desirable for publishers too, as building relationships with brands can prove extremely time consuming and is not particularly scaleable for small to medium-sized businesses.
So, if you’re keen to open up a new sales channel and begin on your affiliate marketing journey, where should you start?
How Could Affiliate Marketing Serve Your Business & Brand?
Affiliate marketing can be a powerful and cost-effective marketing tool when implemented properly, but it requires the right strategy and affiliate partners. It has quickly become a staple of the marketing mix for major UK brands, and the channel is highly investible given its conversion-oriented nature.
In fact, this channel itself can deliver a ROAS or CPA that is around two to three times stronger than other paid media channels; forming a key part of a well-rounded strategy.
Unlock the potential in Affiliate Marketing with Fusion Unlimited
For brands small and large, there are a wealth of conversion opportunities to jump on by deploying a strong affiliate marketing programme. At Fusion Unlimited, we’ve been deploying affililate strategies for almost 20 years, and have a tailored set of programmes to help businesses of differing sizes and budgets:
Our Kickstarter programme is a great way to get into the affiliate space, the Kickstarter programme is specialised to help small businesses dodge high setup fees and get the ball rolling.
Our Traditional programme is designed for more established brands, and provides a familiar approach to affiliate marketing. This programme helps brand see quicker returns and accelerated growth. Compared to the Kickstarter programme, this package involves slightly higher set up costs and will likely carry a monthly access fee and commission override.
Our Bespoke programme helps businesses that have plateaued or that are struggling to grow. It utilises private network technology and advanced tools that aren’t available to traditional affiliate networks. Private networks offer a more detailed view of your affiliate programme with better control to help identify opportunities and support growth.
Please don’t hesitate to get in touch to discuss how we can support you with the next step in your business’ affiliate marketing journey.
Google’s Search Quality Raters Guidelines Receives December Update
As many brands in the UK look to wind down after a busy winter period, Google has released some major changes to their quality rater guidelines for search.
The guidelines are used by Google’s search raters who help evaluate the performance of the systems used for search ranking. However, the document also helps content creators looking to self-assess their own success in search.
Google updates this document once or twice a year, with their last update being in July, however the latest update came last Thursday (15th December) with a whopping 11 new pages added.
The headline of the whole update is the change to Google’s E-A-T system, which has found itself with a new letter prefixed: E for Experience.
You can find the announcement from Google on Twitter here:
To better assess our results, E-A-T is gaining an E: experience. In addition to expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, does content demonstrate some degree of experience? Learn more about how E-E-A-T is now part of our search rater guidelines https://t.co/8hCj1Gk49S
The E-A-T system is used by Google to evaluate whether their search ranking systems are providing both helpful and relevant information to users. If a website can showcase their Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, then they could be more likely to rank higher in search results.
Now referred to as E-E-A-T, or ‘Double-E-A-T’ if you’re cool, the system is now taking experience into account when assessing search results.
However, I prefer this take from Nati Elimelech from Wix:
Previously known as E-A-T, Google’s new acronym, E-E-A-T, stands for:
Experience.
Expertise.
Authoritativeness.
Trustworthiness.
The introduction of Experience indicates that website owners and creators must have some first-hand knowledge on the topic or product they are producing content on, and this will factor into how Google values the quality of your webpage. Simply put by Google in the update:
Does content also demonstrate that it was produced with some degree of experience, such as with actual use of a product, having actually visited a place or communicating what a person experienced?”
The updated E-E-A-T is described in full in Section 3.4 of Google’s updated Quality Rater Guidelines. Google says that Trust is ‘the most important member at the centre of the E-E-A-T family’ with Experience, Expertise, and Authoritativeness being ‘important concepts that can support your assessment of Trust’.
From Google’s quality rater guidelines – Page 26
Where Does Experience Differ from Expertise and Authoritativeness?
Google admits that there may be some overlap between Experience, Expertise, and Authoritativeness for some page types and topics with the example of, ‘someone may develop Expertise in a topic due to first-hand Experience accumulated over time’. They recommend considering the purpose, type, and topic of your content and to ask yourself ‘what would make the content creator a trustworthy source in that context?’.
In the context of Page Quality rating, Google recommends that your assessment of E-E-A-T should be informed by:
What the website or content creator say about themselves: Does your site have an About Us page, or Profile page with more information about the content creator?
What others say about the website or content creators: Is there independent evidence that your site has E-E-A-T?
What is visible on the page, including the main content and sections such as reviews and comments: Does your content represent your level of Experience and Expertise for itself?
YMYL Topics: Experience or Expertise?
It’s widely known that a high level of Expertise may be required for Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) pages to be trustworthy. However, with Experience being in the acronym, how does this affect the quality of YMYL pages?
Google explains that YMYL pages can sometimes be ‘created to share personal experiences, often regarding difficult life challenges’ and that ‘people turn to each other in times of need to share their own experience, seek comfort or inspiration, and learn from others’.
The following table was created to show examples of where Experience and Expertise are relevant for YMYL pages:
From Google’s quality rater guidelines – Page 28
Who Runs the Site (And What is Their Reputation)?
In Understanding the Website (Section 2.5), Google implies that it is important to express who owns the website; referring to the reputation of those who are contributing to the website rather than just the website itself:
To understand a website, start by finding out who is responsible for the website and who created the content on the page. Then, look for information about the website and/or content creators on the website itself.
In Finding Who is Responsible for the Website and Who Created the Content on the Page (Section 2.5.2), Google states that the owner of the website should be clear to showcase who is responsible for a site.
Previously, Google looked at which individual, company, business, or foundation was responsible for the site. However, in this new update, Google has replaced ‘foundation’ with ‘organisation’ and ‘government agency’.
The following table was also added to the updated document to help identify who created main content on a webpage.
From Google’s quality rater guidelines – Page 17
In Reputation of the Website and Content Creators (Section 3.3), Google added that ‘reputation research should be performed according to the topic of the page’; giving the example that pages containing medical information should be assessed on their reputation on the topic.
What This Update Means for You
Whilst this update to the quality rater guide seems rather huge, not much will change in terms of SEO strategy. At Fusion Unlimited, E-A-T is fundamental within our SEO strategy for our clients and the implantation of Experience allows brands to further flex their trustworthiness around their topic or niche.
If you’re worried that Experience isn’t represented on your site, say hello to the Fusion Unlimited team to see how we can help incorporate E-E-A-T into your SEO strategy.
Fusion Unlimited is thrilled to announce the welcoming of 3 new members to join our Board of Directors. Although they’re new to the role, they’re no stranger to life at Fusion with a combined 48 years of experience at the agency between them. We’ve caught up with Kyle, Katie and Craig to find out more about their plans for the agency moving forward.
WHAT’S UNIQUE ABOUT FUSION?
The UK’s digital marketing agency space is highly competitive and saturated, with thousands of agencies competing for client contracts. Conglomerates and multinationals often have an edge, but our Leeds-based digital marketing agency Fusion Unlimited has worked hard over the last 24 years to prove that independent agencies can still lead and shape the market.
Now, with a client portfolio including household brands such as Halfords, the NatWest Banking Group and TheUniversity of Leeds, the agency has been named a Google Premier Partner for the 6th year running – placing Fusion in the top 3% of digital agencies in the UK.
What, though, is our secret to standing out as an independent agency? Being mindful that people are at the heart of the business. That’s why Fusion is announcing a company restructure to remain competitive and future-proof the business.
FROM ENTRY-LEVEL STAFF TO MANAGING DIRECTORS
The first strategic change will see three long-standing members of our team join the Board of Directors.
Kyle Brogan and Katie Harling will be stepping up as Joint Managing Directors, whilst Craig Broadbent will become the agency’s first Operations Director. Kyle and Katie joined the agency over 14 and 19 years ago respectively as placement students, with Craig joining in 2007.
The trio will continue working with the current Managing Director, Mark Curtis, who will be taking on a new role as Managing Partner.
Kyle Brogan said, “Katie, Craig and I are so excited about our new roles. We’ve seen Fusion grow and adapt to an ever-changing industry and we’re thrilled to be leading its next chapter.”
Katie Harling reflects, “To think that when I accepted my first job out of University at Fusion, that I’d still be here 19 years on and now Joint Managing Director, is a testament to what an amazing place it is to work!”
The new senior leadership trio recognise employee retention as a key driver of success for the business, and are committed to making Fusion a great place to work and a business that amplifies the careers of junior staff.
EMBRACING CULTURAL CHANGE
As a legacy agency with 25 years’ worth of rich culture, it’s essential to Fusion that our agency remains dynamic and equipped to navigate the nuances of modern working life. That’s why Katie, Kyle and Craig are introducing the following cultural objectives:
Implement sustainable practices
In Craig’s words, “We want to continue and super charge the work we’ve started on sustainability across the agency; employing third parties to review and scrutinise our current business practices and put measures in place to hit our sustainability goals.”
Maintaining diversity
Fusion has a track record of recruiting employees from around the globe, and its growth practices will continue to be mindful of diversity and inclusion; ensuring equal opportunities for all within the hiring process. If you’re interested in joining the team, check out our current job vacancies.
Ways of working
Finally, the business aims to define a culture that is fresh and adapts to the changing world we find ourselves in; including embracing hybrid and flexible working patterns, as well maintaining an open and safe working environment for those that wish to head into the office.
THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT AT FUSION
Kyle says, “We don’t just want to ‘get back to the way things were’, we want to define a new culture that works primarily for our people; enabling them to be productive and happy – as we continue to compete against the industry giants and prove that independent agencies with the right expertise, people, and values can remain at the forefront of industry knowledge.”
Mark Curtis founded Fusion Unlimited when the digital marketing landscape was almost unrecognisable compared to how it looks today. After almost 25 years at the helm, Mark is taking a slight step back from the day-to-day running of Fusion, but he will remain firmly involved in the business that he founded back in 1997.
To stay up to date with the latest cultural developments, sustainable initiatives, and market insights – check out our latest blog posts.
2022 marks the sixth consecutive year in which the team at Fusion Unlimited has been selected as a Google Premier Partner.
A Leeds-Based Google Premier Partner
We have achieved Premier Partner status by demonstrating expertise through our advertising techniques, delivered agency and client revenue growth, and not just sustained- but also grown our client base. Google Premier Partnership distinguishes the Fusion team as being within the top 3% of marketing agencies in the UK.
Securing this status grants us access to a number of invaluable opportunities and advantages that we can bring to our client base.
What does this mean for our clients?
From advanced education and specialist Google Ads support, to attendance of executive events, this partnership gives us access to a wealth of exclusive opportunities. Learning opportunities and networking events in particular enable us to leverage this partnership in a way that enables our clients to reap the benefits.
Google Premier Partnership status means we can continue to be at the forefront of knowledge, and apply this knowledge to help our clients lead their respective markets with cutting-edge strategies and new technology that’s implemented effectively.
On 25th May 2022 Google announced the release of a new broad core algorithm update:
Today, we're releasing a broad core update, as we do several times per year. This update is called the May 2022 core update. Learn more: https://t.co/7kFklwdkAb
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) May 25, 2022
As with recent updates the stated rollout period is set to be around 1-2 weeks, meaning a likely date of completion at some time during w/c 6th June.
As the name suggests, broad core algorithm updates are designed to be a general “refresh” of Google’s algorithmic ranking processes and are not intended to target any particular website niches or areas of organic search. Websites can see a change in ranking performance as a result of updates, both positive and negative, but it’s also possible to see a negligible impact.
Within the Search Central blog on the most recent update, Google’s Danny Sullivan wrote:
Core updates are changes we make to improve Search overall and keep pace with the changing nature of the web. There’s nothing in a core update that targets specific pages or sites. Instead, the changes are about improving how our systems assess content overall. These changes may cause some pages that were previously under-rewarded to do better.
Websites may be positively or negatively impacted by an update, but regardless of this the official advice remains the same. In summary, there’s nothing specific that webmasters need to do in response, and the focus should remain on creating “quality content”. In Google’s own words:
Pages that drop after a core update don’t have anything wrong to fix. This said, we understand those who do less well after a core update change may still feel they need to do something. We suggest focusing on ensuring you’re offering the best content you can. That’s what our algorithms seek to reward.
With the last core algorithm refresh released in late November 2021, and updates appearing to be pushed out on a rough 6 monthly schedule, it’s highly likely that another similar update will take place in late 2022.
If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.
In our latest report, we take a look at which big brands are putting their personal touch on the wallpaper and paint market; delving into organic visibility and performance both for key market players and the ones-to-watch using our proprietary Share of Voice tool, Natural Edge.
Some of the insights you can discover include:
Brand table – top 50 brands with highest share of voice
Share of voice at a product category level
Keyword opportunities – which keyword clusters have seen the biggest growth areas over the last 12 months?
Keyword losers – which brands have seen the biggest decline over the last 12 months?
Market leaders like Wilko, B&Q, and Homebase prove their worth as household names, and smaller luxury labels like Farrow & Ball and Little Greene hold strong in the ranks for their niches. Specialist brands Dulux and Crown maintain a steady position for paints, while I Love Wallpaper proves worthy of the name by maintaining a presence across all wallpaper categories.
What could our report findings mean for your brand?
There’s clearly a lot of fluctuation within rankings for the Wallpaper and Paint sector, and new brands entering the market are able to gain visibility. Consequently, there’s plenty of opportunity for existing brands and challenger brands to optimise their site content, improve their SEO foundations, and generate links from reputable publishers to boost visibility and drive conversions.
If you’re interested in finding out more about how we can help you gain visibility in the SERPs within the beds and mattresses category get in touch here.
Join Fusion’s SEO team as we round up last month’s major industry updates.
AI Generated Content Is Against Google Guidelines
In a recent Google Search Central SEO office-hours hangout, Search Advocate John Mueller weighed in on the widely discussed topic of GPT-3 AI writing tools and, more broadly, the nature of automatically generated content.
Mueller says that any content written by AI is considered as automatically-generated, which is against Google guidelines and could lead to a manual penalty. Here is the full response given:
“If you’re using machine learning tools to generate your content, it’s essentially the same as if you’re just shuffling words around, or looking up synonyms, or doing the translation tricks that people used to do.
My suspicion is maybe the quality of content is a little bit better than the really old school tools, but for us it’s still automatically generated content, and that means for us it’s still against the Webmaster Guidelines. So we would consider that to be spam.”
Soon after this conversation, the Webmaster Guidelines were updated to provide more clarity on this subject. Within the Quality Guidelines section, “Automatically generated content intended to manipulate search rankings” is now listed as a technique to avoid:
It is not clear if Google’s algorithm has the ability to detect auto-generated content, however, Mueller did say that “If we see that something is automatically generated, then the webspam team can definitely take action on that”.
Google Rolls Out Conversions Migration Tool For GA4
Google has rolled out a conversion migration tool allowing you to import your existing goals from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4. This can be accessed within the GA4 settings screen, in the Setup Assistant tab, under the Conversions section.
In short, the migration tool allows you to quickly recreate goals from a connected Universal Analytics property as conversion events within a GA4 property.
Charles Farina provided a good post about this on Twitter, along with screenshots of where to find it and what to expect:
Here is what it looks like. It is grabbing goals from the entire linked property (so all your views, even staging/sandbox ones), so you'll need to pay close attention if you use this. pic.twitter.com/RqsAPLegKU
A step-by-step guide on how to use the tool is below:
In Google Analytics, click Admin.
In the Account column, make sure that your desired account is selected. (If you only have one Google Analytics account, it will already be selected.)
In the Property column, select the Google Analytics 4 property that currently collects data for your website.
In the Property column, click Setup Assistant.
Under Conversions, go to Import existing goals from your connected Universal Analytics property, and click Get started.
In the Import existing goals from your connected property panel, select which goals you’d like to recreate as conversion events in your new Google Analytics 4 property.
Click Import selected conversions in the top right.
Data Studio Now Supports Discover & Google News Traffic
The Google Search Console connector for Data Studio can now retrieve traffic data for Google Discover and Google News. Within the data source connection settings, here’s how this can be added:
More information on how to monitor search traffic in Data Studio – including detail on the new connectors – can be found in this Google Search Central Blog titled ‘Monitoring Search traffic (and more!) with Data Studio’.
March 2022 Product Reviews Update Finished Rolling Out
The third version of the product reviews update which began rolling out on the 23rd of March, has now officially completed. Google announced on the 11th of April that the March 2022 Product Reviews Update had finished rolling out, taking 19 days to complete.
Sorry for the delay in response. It was almost… almost… almost……. Yes! The rollout is now complete!
As previously mentioned in last month’s blog – this set of algorithm updates aims to improve how Google Search ranks product reviews; prioritising in-depth, authentic content based on feedback, internal testing, and an evaluation process.
If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.
The team at Fusion Unlimited is proud to announce that we are once again part of Prolific North’s Top 50 Digital agencies, appearing in 26th position in the 2022 list. The annual list shines light on the digital specialists putting out some of the best work in the industry that’s worth watching out for.
Rankings are based on a number of factors including balance sheets and shareholder funds, turnover, pre-tax profit, headcount, and ultimately, growth.
What is Prolific North?
Prolific North is a leading hub for the media, digital, marketing, tech, and creative sectors in the North. Since 2013, Prolific North has been the go-to for jobs, events, and breaking news and insights across these sectors, sharing some of the best industry insights and compiling lists of the outstanding achievers and industry leaders operating in the North of England.
Prolific North Top 50 Digital Agencies has shown us that agencies based in Yorkshire continue to thrive, with 7 of the top 10 agencies and 44% of the total list based in the region.
How did Fusion Unlimited qualify as a top 50 digital agency?
2022 marks Fusion’s 25th year of supporting UK brands with cutting-edge digital marketing strategy across fast-moving disciplines such as SEO and paid media. Over the past year, we have:
Added eight new clients.
Grown our turnover by 36%.
Once again been named as a Google Premier Partner – which places Fusion in the top 3% of digital agencies in the UK.
What’s more, we’re one of the top 20 independent agencies within Prolific North’s top 50 list, and we have an extremely efficient working model, with an expert group of strategists developing the accounts of national and global brands.
If you’re interested in learning more about how a Top 50 agency could help your brand become more visible, read more about how Fusion Unlimited has supported some of the UK’s leading businesses across a diverse range of sectors.
This International Women’s Day we spoke to Laura (LT), Amelia (AF) and Emily (EF) to hear more about their experiences and what IWD means for them. So without any further ado…
What does IWD mean for you?
LT: Empowerment to live the life I want, to do it all
AF: Celebrating all the strong, successful women in my life who have been pivotal role models for me. Also, acknowledging that we still have some work to do in the pursuit of equality – important days like this helps drive the conversation about gender equality and how we move forward together.
EF: IWD to me is a day to acknowledge and celebrate all women for what they have achieved, especially women from marginalised groups who still experience racism, stereotyping, ableism etc. every day.
Which powerful women do you admire the most?
LT: My wonderful daughter, mum, grandma and nana aside – who could not admire the Queen, such a strong lady in every aspect of her life, and also the other Queen – Dolly Parton, what a life she carved from humble beginnings. Dolly has such a work ethic whilst being kind, caring and an all round superstar!
AF: Jacinda Ardern. The way she handled the pandemic was admirable. She acted swiftly, strictly and with compassion to protect the people of New Zealand. A true role model.
EF: I admire all the trans women who still experience discrimination and violence in society just for living authentically as themselves. I admire Michaela Jaé Rodriguez who shows us that with talent and determination you can achieve anything, as she became the first trans actor to win a Golden Globe in 2022. I admire my friend Summer who has experienced harassment in Leeds for not looking ‘womanly’ enough but is brave and powerful in expressing her femininity.
What barriers/challenges have you faced as a woman in digital?
LT: My own lack of confidence and belief in myself, which is a work in progress every day!
AF: I would say one of my barriers has been the fear of failure. Sometimes, I have a dreadful feeling of “what if I fail”. Collectively as women, I believe it is important support each other in the pathway to success.
What advice would you give for women looking to start their careers in digital?
LT: Listen, learn and absorb from others whilst on the job – never stop growing your knowledge and pushing forward.
AF: Be confident in yourself and show your strengths. If you want to make a difference, start with believing that you can.
EF: When applying for roles, it could be a good idea to look at the current staff members to see the ratio of women. It can be evident from looking at a company’s colleagues whether women have been given the opportunity to progress and that could impact your decision of whether you would want to work there.
We’re thrilled to have Shreya on board as our newest Account Executive. A Computer Engineering undergrad from Essex university and a MSc Business with Marketing from Warwick Uni – we can’t wait to see Shreya blow us away!
Let’s get to know her a little more…
Welcome to the team! We’re all delighted to have you here. What are you most looking forward to about the role?
Thank you! I am glad to be a part of the team! I would say the thing I am most looking forward to is learning as much as I can from everyone at Fusion and putting my degree to good use!
So tell me, why marketing?
Marketing was a rather impromptu choice for me but the one thing I have come to love about it is that Marketing combines both creativity and analytics. That being said, I have always been fascinated with the social media algorithm and curious to learn more about it.
What attracted you to Fusion in the first place?
The opportunity to work with a small team and learn from a variety of experts on the team was what mainly attracted me to the role. I have always preferred working and learning with smaller teams and I am glad to have been accepted into the Fusion family.
Right, let’s get to know the real you…
Favourite marketing campaign?
It has to be “Dove Campaign for Real Beauty”. It is an impactful campaign which aims to highlight women’s unique differences thus empowering them. Absolutely love the message behind it!
App you couldn’t live without?
Instagram!
What are you reading/podcast are you into currently?
Death Message (by Mark Billingham) … (I really love crime novels)
Dream Client?
Any online fashion retailer really…
What are you binge watching right now?
Suits! Absolutely love that show! (…and also FRIENDS for about the 100th time!)
2021 has been another interesting year with many ground-breaking brand marketing campaigns, reaching customers through their innovative, meaningful, and quirky ideas.
With so many buzzworthy campaigns, here’s a list of our favourites of 2021! Worth keeping these in mind as a source of inspiration for your next brainstorm.
Welcome Back – Guinness
There is no doubt that the general public had missed going to pubs for a pint during lockdown. We surely had!
So, when lockdown restrictions started to ease and pubs were allowed to operate again in May 2021, the beer giant, Guinness, launched a campaign to welcome people back. The video ad included random objects having a resemblance to a pint of Guinness, whether that’s a black bin covered with snow or white pigeons on a black chimney.
The aim of the campaign was to inspire a variety of emotions including a feeling of positivity, nostalgia, and excitement. The idea was also promoted on social media with the #LooksLikeGuiness hashtag encouraging users to share their examples of white and black Guinness lookalikes.
The campaign was a great success and led to Guinness being the number one most talked about beer brand at the time with engagement 3.5 times higher than the industry benchmark.
Cuthbert the Caterpillar – Aldi
This is not just any court case, this is… #FreeCuthbert
We’re sure everyone has heard about the Caterpillar war between Aldi and Marks & Spencer. When Aldi launched its Cuthbert the Caterpillar Swiss roll, M&S launched a legal action against the supermarket claiming the company had infringed the trademark for its Colin the Caterpillar cake.
Aldi’s response to this was brilliant and unexpected. They managed to turn a complex situation into a national debate through a series of funny tweets using the #FreeCuthbert hashtag.
Within hours, the brand was trending on Twitter and the topic became so big that it gained coverage from national news channels such as BBC Breakfast, Good Morning Britain, newspapers such as The Independent and Daily Mail, and creators also generating content through memes and parodies.
This reactive marketing effort gained great results for Aldi as its Twitter following increased by 30%, with a 15% engagement rate on socials. The score for news sentiment also increased by 8.5%, with its purchase consideration increasing by 6.8%.
Another popular campaign you’ve probably come across either on social media or heard about through friends or colleagues, Beanz on Bix!
The breakfast cereal company wanted to drive brand engagement and demonstrate its versatility by going ahead with a bold and weird idea of having baked beans on their popular wheat biscuits.
The aim of the campaign was to generate conversation on social media, and it did exactly that. When the brand introduced the idea on Twitter, users were so outraged by the weird combination leading to involvement from other brands such as Specsavers, Nando’s, KFC, and more.
The idea became so viral that it was covered by all mainstream media outlets such as Good Morning Britain, The Express and LADbible, to even being discussed in the House of Commons.
Although the campaign received plenty of mockery and conversation, it did achieve its goal of increasing user engagement as brand awareness grew by 40% with sales up by 15%.
Kindness, the greatest gift – Amazon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1z73AKLBgLg
Let’s conclude with a favourite Christmas campaign – Kindness, the greatest gift! With the past two years being a true challenge for everybody, especially those who have lost their loved ones, Amazon’s holiday ad message looked to promote kindness.
The video campaign consisted of a young woman forming a new friendship with her neighbour while dealing with her recent traumas. To show her support and kindness during this tough time, her neighbour gifted her something of interest from Amazon.
This has truly touched our hearts at Fusion as we all believe in the power of kindness and how a small act can help people feel better during a difficult time.
We hope you’ve enjoyed our round-up of best 2021 marketing campaigns. To find out how you can create a long-lasting impact on your target audience through digital marketing, get in touch with our expert team to create results-driven SEO, PCC and Social Media campaigns.
The second installment in our homewares sector series, we’ve peeked behind the curtain at some of the biggest brands dominating the SERPs in the curtain and blinds industry.
Using our proprietary tool, Natural Edge, we’ve taken a 6-month look back at how SOV for core keyword categories has changed over time, developing a league table with some (very surprising) increases and decreases.
Get in touch here to find out how the experts here at Fusion can help you drive your business forwards.
Alongside technical SEO and content, link building stands tall as one of the three core pillars of SEO. As brands across the country compete to become more visible in the SERPs, and invest more resources into these core pillars, shrewd marketers seek to maintain an accurate and up-to-date knowledge of which link building strategies and tactics are effective in today’s market.
That’s why we’ve created this link building guide; to help you guide your brand through the sometimes challenging world of link building and keep an eye on what’s currently deemed ‘best practice’.
Is link building still necessary in 2021?
Quite simply, yes. While link building is technically a violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines (as of 1st March 2020), the algorithms continue to use backlinks as a measure of a site’s authority in line with EAT principles. Brands continue to see a good uplift in performance from targeted link building activity, and there’s no evidence to suggest that a good link building strategy is detrimental to results.
That said, it’s now more important than ever to get a link building strategy right. Gone are the days in which you could blindly fire out press activity looking to gain backlinks from anywhere and everywhere as part of a shotgun approach.
Rather, Google’s algorithms have evolved to a point where they’re substantially better at determining the relevance of a backlink to your content, and better at spotting both spammy and bought links – which are subsequently devalued.
A modern link building strategy therefore requires a targeted approach, whereby you’re seen by Google to be acquiring quality follow links from sites that demonstrate authority. This could mean, for example, sites that complement your content, or sites that are directly relevant to your business’ offering.
How to do link building
It’s important to build links in a balanced way. Brands looking to rank highly for their product keywords ideally want a good number of reputable domains linking to their site. They also may need a good volume of links pointing to key product categories, CLPs, and advice content – so link destination is an important consideration alongside link quality and quantity.
We believe there’s only one way to generate a high volume of high quality links in a relatively short period of time – which is to run digital PR campaigns. A digital PR campaign involves developing a concept that’s both relevant to your brand, and relevant to your target audience; such as prominent media publications.
If your idea is interesting enough, you’re likely to attract some media attention to the landing page it’s hosted on – and the journalists you outreach to will probably want to cover your story, link to your site, learn more about your campaign, and pay attention to your exciting activity in future.
The impact of digital PR campaigns can be maximised by pushing them out across different channels, such as social media or email. Through this activity, you could look to develop campaign concepts even further to appeal to multiple audiences. There’s even a longevity element to consider; is this a campaign you could come back to in future?
We’ll dive deeper into what a digital PR campaign should look like in a future blog, but how else can you generate links to your site in the meantime – perhaps without even requiring much budget?
The best quick-win link building tactics
Fortunately, there are a range of quick bits of link building activity you can run on a daily or weekly basis to build quality links into your domain. Don’t expect a hundred links at a time, but a slow, steady process that sees you build one quality link at a time. Our picks for the best tactics are:
1. Guest blogging
Guest blogging is a staple of SEO link building. While Google has indicated that some guest blog links are ‘unnatural’ and potentially devalued, many brands have still found that offering ‘free’ content that is both directly drawn from their expertise and relevant to their offering is an effective way of building links.
As far as quick-win tactics go, we still think guest blogging has value. It affords you a lot of flexibility and choice in the types of publications you go after, and allows you to get really specific, deep links to pages of your choosing – rather than general homepage links (which are still particularly useful for weaker domains). We’d recommend only guest blog posting if the publication you’re targeting is directly relevant to your product or brand.
2. Acquiring your competitor’s lost and broken backlinks
Over time, publishers edit and update their websites. This sometimes involves culling certain content to avoid over-egging the pudding if, for example, the site has twenty Father’s Day card ideas guides. As your competitors lose backlinks, or as they break due to this activity, you can look to capture them for yourself and provide your own relevant content to which publishers can link.
It’s incredibly easy to keep an eye on your competitors’ backlink portfolio, and Ahrefs’ Site Explorer has dedicated functionality to reveal lost and broken backlinks. Given this tactic is fairly quick to execute, and has a decent chance of you placing a link, we’d highly recommend it.
3. Creating visual assets; infographics and interactive landing pages
In a digital age whereby people’s attention spans drop further and further each year, serving content in creative formats rather than as long written articles is a great way of capturing attention.
Naturally, you’ll need to host that infographic on a campaign landing page within your website, and probably include some copy to accompany it, but infographics can make for attractive outreach emails that journalists love to engage with. That’s because studies have found that journalists prefer multi-media campaigns that include images, video and other engaging formats to make news more accessible.
It can require a little resource and touch of magic to create an infographic that’s truly special, but if you consider that journalists are more willing to cover your content if it’s interesting, and that coverage is a prerequisite to acquiring links, we’d give infographics a pass mark on a quality link building tactics test.
4. Link Reclamation
Link reclamation refers to finding lost and broken links that are pointing to your or your competitor’s website, and taking action to replace them with a better suited URL.
These are potentially very quick win opportunities, especially if they’re linking to a page that does not exist anymore. All you would have to do is provide your target site with a new URL, pointing out the damaged or missing link via a polite email.
You can identify these links by accessing your backlink profile on Ahrefs’ Site Explorer.
For most sites, you’ll see a steady influx of broken or lost links each month, so tapping into them makes for a nice bit of link building activity.
5. Unlinked mentions
These refer to online mentions of your brand such as the brand name and specific products or services. If you spot branded mentions via social listening tools, such as Ahrefs’ Content Explorer or Google Alerts, and those very mentions do not currently link to your site, then there’s a great opportunity for you to reach out to the publisher and place links.
6. Social Media Links
Another great time-saving tactic is to check whether publications are linking to your social media channels, instead of your website. These links might not provide as much direct benefit as a blog link placed within the main content of a page, for example, but they’re still useful signals to Google and are probably worth picking up if you have some spare time.
You can check for them through Ahrefs’ Backlink profile, and compare an export of social media profile backlinks to a similar export of backlinks pointing to your domain – using conditional formatting to find gaps and opportunities.
7. Domain misspellings
We’re all human, and even the best of us can make mistakes. Even with something as important as a domain name.
So, checking for domain misspellings is a great way to find warm links from sites that already link to you, but maybe just not to the exact location you’d hope for. Just enter your correct domain name on Domain Check to get a list of misspellings related to your domain.
Add these misspelled domains into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer to identify any sites that should be linking to your correct domain with this useful tactic.
8. Reverse image search
Do you produce creative assets? If so, keep an eye out for sites that are using your creative without linking back to you.
You can find who is using your content through the ‘Search Google for Image’ option. Just right-click on the asset published on your website and you can quickly access a list of web pages that have published your content. Easy links, minimal effort, and this activity does not need to be done too frequently.
9. Newsjacking
One final strategy to gain quick links is to look for hot news topics that are directly related to your brand, and share your expertise with publications that are active in that niche.
The best way to make the most of the opportunity is to send out a quick press release in response to a current news event and specify your company’s stance on the topic, or add value to the topic through your internal expertise.
For example, if your business produces an eco-friendly product and you’re renowned within that industry, you could serve your CEO’s expert insights via a press release in reaction to some breaking news about newly announced environmental laws that will affect your industry. We’ve had a lot of success with this tactic as publishers crave genuine expertise, and would rate it highly.
We hope you have found this guide helpful in explaining what link building is, why it is essential for SEO, and which tactics you can use to get great backlinks to your website.
If you’re interested in learning more about how our experts can help you implement best practice link building and SEO tactics, get in touch with our expert team. Or, check out the latest industry updates via our blog.
Discover what dreams are really made of in the first of our homewares sector report, this time for beds and mattresses. Our report delves into organic visibility and performance for big brands and rising stars in the beds and mattresses market using our proprietary Share of Voice tool, Natural Edge.
What will you uncover?
Brand table – top 50 brands with highest share of voice
Share of voice at a product category level
Keyword opportunities – where has seen the biggest growth areas over the last 12 months?
Keyword losers – where has seen the biggest decline this last 12 months?
Whilst it may come as no surprise that large scale retailers Argos, Dunelm and Dreams are often at the head of the bed, there are plenty of examples of smaller brands who, maybe without the lofty budgets, are dreaming big and rising up the ranks for their niche.
The bed category has seen a lot of fluctuation over the last year and what’s interesting is when we drill down to a product category level we see how quickly the lay of the land can change. Employing a highly targeted keyword mapping, research and tailored content strategy is key to success here.
Craig Broadbent – Organic Search Director
What next?
Our technical and content experts are a match made in heaven for helping you gain the visibility you deserve. If you’re interested in finding out more about how we can help you gain visibility in the SERPs within the beds and mattresses category get in touch here.
The fast-paced world of digital marketing means we need tools at our fingertips to help automate, predict, replicate and scrape where we can.
We put the feelers out amongst Team Fusion to find out their must-have Google Chrome Extensions that make our jobs just that little bit easier.
First off, we’re heading over to our paid media…
Search & Paid Media Chrome Extensions
1) Redirect Path
This handy tool lets you know if you’ve been redirected whenever you hit a landing page. Good to use when testing to see if any ads need their final URLs updating (boosting quality score in the process).
2) Ghostery
Ghostery is a powerful privacy extension that can block ads, suppress tracking code, and show a list of sites that are trying to track you and serve you advertisements. By doing so, it speeds up your browsing experience.
Ghostery helps you take control of your privacy.
3) Facebook Pixel Helper
Establishing a tracking pixel on Facebook is an incredibly important prerequisite to quality data gathering, but what if your pixel breaks? The Pixel Helper extension can flag this for you, negating the need for manual checks.
4) Google Tag Assistant
When activating Google Tag Assistant, you’ll see an analysis of each of the tags active on your website of choice. It can also display additional information about tags at a glance, making troubleshooting easy.
5) UET Tag Helper
This nifty extension from Microsoft Advertising is another highlight for our paid team (who absolutely love their tags). Once clicking the UET (Universal Event Tracking) Tag Helper extension, you’ll see a breakdown of which tags are active on the page and whether they’re working. You can also get quick insights into whether your Dynamic Remarketing lists are correctly configured, as well as your conversion goals.
6) Trendtastic
Not going to lie, it’s kind of fantastic. It pulls a Google Trends chart into search results when you carry out a query. Useful for getting an idea of seasonal SV fluctuations at a glance.
Content Marketing Chrome Extensions
7) Colorzilla
With Colorzilla you’re only one click away from finding out the colour of any pixel on a webpage. Unbelievably speedy for when you’re looking to match client presentation colour palettes or mocking up a quick bit of creative.
8) Whatfont
In a similar vein, it can be difficult to know your clients’ web font without trawling through their brand guidelines. That’s what Whatfont can help you with- after only one click.
9) Edit Anything
This extension is as abstract and crazy as it sounds. You can literally edit anything on a rendered webpage, replacing copy, deleting elements, and the likes. It’s really useful for visualising changes to page copy and for ideating around design changes on the fly.
Edit on-page elements, or even meta data to visualise changes quickly.
10) Grammarly
Not the wordsmith you hoped you were? Fear not! Grammarly goes where Spellchecker only dreamt it could – everywhere you go.
Whilst copywriters may roll their eyes at Grammarly’s claim that ‘everyone can be a great writer’ it sure does help when you’re firing off a quick email and forget to include a pesky comma along the way.
11) GoFullPage
This effective screen capture tool can capture an entire webpage. It’s handy given most screenshot programs limit you to capturing only what you can see without scrolling.
12) Momentum
Maintaining momentum for long periods of time is difficult when you’re busy. That’s where the Momentum extension can help. It opens a new tab featuring a personalised dashboard of to-do’s, inspiration, and even throws in a weather forecast – helping you to procrastinate productively.
Technical SEO Chrome Extensions
To throw a few quick helpful extras in from our tech team, check out the following:
13) Alt Text Tester
Gone are the days of traipsing through a page’s source code to identify whether images have alt text. With Alt Text Tester, you can hover over images to see not only whether it has alt text, but what that text is – speeding up page optimisations.
We found missing alt text on the DFS homepage with one tap of the Alt Text Tester extension.
14) View Rendered Source
This helpful tool enables you to spot the difference between a page’s source code, and its fully rendered final form. Handy if you’re trying to identify issues that may affect how a page is crawled and indexed.
15) Wappalyzer
Wappalyzer is a fantastic extension that can tell you a lot about a website without you having to trawl through its source code. This plugin can reveal virtually everything about a websit’s technology stack – including which CMS it is using, its hosts, which analytics integrations it has, and the list goes on. It can also show you a site’s security certificates and metadata at a glance.
Speed up your day-to-day with the right extensions
We hope you’ve enjoyed our top picks for the best chrome extensions- as voted by all the digital marketers at Fusion Unlimited. There are hundreds of hidden gems out there so we’re sorry if your favourite pick didn’t make our list – but please be sure to let us know what you would’ve included via our socials.
If you enjoyed reading, check out our blog for the latest SEO and marketing insights.
Owning the top spot for each Search Engine Results Page (SERP) that is directly relevant to your brand. Broadly speaking, that’s the goal of virtually every business in the modern world when it comes to SEO, right?
Well, what if I told you that not all SERPs are built equally, and that the way you engineer your organic content to target specific types of SERPs determines whether or not you can own that treasured #1 spot.
You might say, ‘Tom, I’m an SEO nerd, show me how to get the snippet already’ – but if you aren’t familiar with featured snippets, here’s a quick run down of what they involve and why they matter.
What is a featured snippet?
A featured snippet, often referred to as ‘position 0’, is essentially a selected excerpt of content chosen by Google’s algorithms that is seen to directly match the searcher’s intent.
Let’s say you’ve identified a decline in sales during lockdown and want to ramp up activity to compensate for this with a deadline set for restrictions lifting. As with many problems these days, the first step to solving it may simply be to google ‘how to generate more leads’, which would the following result:
This is a featured snippet – confirmed by the little ‘about featured snippets’ button below each result. There’s a good chance that the text within a featured snippet is THE result you’ve been searching for- hence it being displayed above all others.
As you can see in the screenshot above, the featured snippets take up a good chunk of space in desktop results, and even more so on mobile devices- where you’ll find snippets covering around 50% of the screen. They’re difficult to miss, by design.
Types of featured snippet
Slick paragraphs aren’t always the most helpful way of answering a question. That’s why Google’s SERP Features includes four main types of snippet. These are:
Paragraphs.
Lists (bulleted or numbered).
Tables.
Video.
Within each snippet type, you’ll see content that really captures the essence of the searcher’s intent, whether they were Googling tax legislation or how best to recruit new team members.
There are also knowledge card or entity carousel snippet results, but these are typically difficult to optimise for and niche in use- so let’s focus on what you can action.
Why do snippets matter?
The cop-out answer here would be a generic ‘because visibility is important, and sitting atop the SERPs is the best way of boosting visibility’. More interestingly, though, featured snippets comprise around 19% of SERPs according to a recent study by Search Engine Journal. That’s a huge amount.
What’s more, 70% of featured snippets found in this study were text-based, meaning integrated text that’s optimised into your existing content writing could be an easy way of maximising the return on your efforts.
Conversely, neglecting featured snippet considerations and never really looking at what type of SERPs are generated for your target keywords could result in missed opportunities.
The risk of excessive snippet visibility
For full disclosure, snippets aren’t always the best friend of a content marketer. Think about it, if you’re appearing #1 in search results for quick questions with your precise information, users may absorb that information, then get back on with their day- exiting search results.
That ultimately means that your content could drive less clicks, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A 2017 study by Ahrefs looked at what percentage share of clicks is driven by different positions on the SERP. It found that featured snippets (position 1) drive only 8.6% of clicks, while the next highest ranked page sees roughly 19.6% of clicks.
This sounds like a doom and gloom stat for featured snippets, however it’s important to also understand that zero-click searches have gradually increased over the years – and around 50% of searches today yield no clicks.
So, there’s more to the story than click data alone. Instead of a tunnel-vision approach on CTRs, it’s probably best to build a broader picture of how visible your brand is, and lean more heavily on rankings as a performance metric. Besides, SERP features can fluctuate as algorithms evolve and update, which we simply can’t control.
How to find and capture a snippet
Let’s focus, then, on what we can control.
We can identify which SERPs return snippets.
We can optimise our content to pinch those snippets.
Here’s exactly how.
Navigate to the ‘Site Explorer’ tool within Ahrefs. Input your target domain, I’ve used Yorkshire Tea as an example considering that we’re based in Yorkshire, and that you’ll have earned one shortly.
From there, navigate to ‘Organic keywords’ via the left menu. Now that you’re looking at a list of organic keywords your brand ranks for, you can filter these further using various options within ‘SERP features’.
Once these filters are applied, you’ll see a list of keywords your brand currently ranks for that actually return featured snippet SERPs. If you’re ranking in position 1, then congratulations- you own that snippet!
If not, however, then there’s a clear opportunity to optimise for queries for which you’re ranking in positions two or lower. Yorkshire tea here could improve their /how-to-make-a-proper-brew/ URL to better answer searches for ‘how to make tea’.
This individual URL could potentially capture featured snippets within two SERPs that ask the exact same question in slightly different ways.
We’ve identified that owning the snippet may not result in more clicks, but there’s an unquantifiable value to being presented as the source of knowledge when a user searches for ‘how to make tea’, and quotes Yorkshire Tea as the source when telling their friends what the ‘right way’ is.
Clever ways of using featured snippets
We’ve covered why feature snippets matter and the value they can bring to your business, but let’s take a look at some practical ways in which you can actually optimise for them.
Optimising existing content
In line with the approach we outlined earlier in the piece, you can look for featured snippets that are relevant to your existing content, then optimise for these snippets as best you can.
Find featured snippet opportunities within new content
If you’re doing your keyword research within ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer tool, you’ll find a similar ‘SERP Features’ button that allows you to indicate which keywords return snippet SERPs – irrespective of whether or not you rank for them.
This more proactive approach to snippets could enable you to factor snippets into your content planning, meaning you can design your content to target them, rather than producing a bunch of content and retrospectiveley optimising it.
Researching competitor snippets
It could also be worth looking at how competitors optimise for snippets as part of their content strategy. You might identify that actually snippets form a huge part of competitor targeting, which may give you insights and inspiration as to how you could shape your own strategy.
You can review competitor snippets exactly as you view your own within ahrefs’ Site Explorer tool – so if you have the time to dedicate to research, look at the most effective optimisation tactics competitors are using to acquire snippets and factor them into your own business’ workflow.
Our approach to featured snippets
So, featured snippets are all about improving visibility, serving users your expertise succinctly, and being presented in a special position above the rest of organic search results at the potential expense of a few clicks.
The real question is: ‘how do you fit featured snippet optimisations into a wider content strategy?’
It requires a complex answer, but one piece of food for thought is that there’s a trend within content whereby long-form, substantive guide articles are reportedly performing incredibly well. Assuming this content format is at the heart of your approach, you could look to optimise normally around your core terms, while also targetting specific featured snippets within h2 and h3 sections; increasing the amount of keywords your article ranks for.
It’s commonly accepted that acquiring strong rankings is in of itself a good indicator to Google that your content is authoritative/trustworthy, and so picking up featured snippets where possible is rarely a bad idea.
If you’re interested in learning how to maximise the use of SERP features for your site, reach out to us for a quote on the impact a cleverly crafted content strategy could have on your traffic.
As of 15th June 2021 Google’s new Page Experience Algorithm is now rolling out. This new algorithm change measures a range of factors related to user experience, with sites offering good page experience favoured.
As indicated by Google before the release of the algorithm, the rollout period is gradual, with an expected completion date in late August. It’s also not expected that sites will see drastic changes to rankings as an immediate result of the update.
Back in 2020 Google announced new Core Web Vitals metrics, which now form a key part of the new algorithm change. These metrics cover a specific set of areas Google considers as important to the usability of a webpage, including Page speed, Interactivity and Visual Stability.
Other factors measured by the Page Experience algorithm are:
Mobile friendliness
Safe browsing
HTTPS
Usage of intrusive interstitials
What You Need To Know
Page Experience is now included within Google’s wider set of ranking factors. It includes a blend of signals that Google considers impactful to user experience, and Core Web Vitals are an important part of that score.
It was initially believed that sites would receive a negative impact on ranking should they not pass all three Core Web Vital metrics. However, Google now says that you do not need all three “good” scores in order to get any boost in rankings. Additionally, some at Google have indicated that Page Experience could be treated as a lower weight “tie breaker” signal, giving one site an edge over others should scores against other ranking factors be very similar.
Google has also stated that once you do attain the “good” threshold, micro optimising for further improvements will not give you any additional boost in rankings. This confirms the importance of focusing on pages currently receiving “poor” or “needs improvement” CWV metric scores.
To help site owners measure performance against the new metrics, Google Search Console now has a Page Experience report. This includes the current site performance against each of the signals, as well as summarising the percentage of URLs with good page experience over time.
When collecting page experience data for a site, Google has confirmed that although they try to be as granular as possible in order to deal with page experience on a page-by-page basis, this isn’t always possible. As such, for some sites page experience data is aggregated.
Although the current release is only designed to measure performance on mobile devices, Google has confirmed that Page Experience will eventually become a ranking factor for desktop. In an announcement at Google I/O, Jeffrey Jose said “we believe page experience is critical no matter the surface the user is browsing the web. This is why we’re working hard on bringing page experience ranking to desktop”. A rollout date for desktop page experience is expected nearer the time of release.
Google was seen to be testing a visual indication within search results for sites that pass the page experience criteria. Should this be implemented, it could provide an incentive for users to click through to sites that have been confirmed to provide a good user experience. This adds another level of motivation for sites to ensure they meet good page experience criteria.
How Can We Measure ‘Page Experience’?
Google’s page experience criteria consists of the following:
Core Web Vitals
These consist of three metrics that are used to measure the user experience of a page.
First Input Delay (FID)
Measures from when a user interacts with a page, to the time the browser can process the event. Due to not being available in simulated environments, we use Maximum Potential First Input Delay and Total Blocking Time to measure this.
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
This metric reports the render time of the largest image or text block visible within the viewport. Can also be seen as the loading speed of a page.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
CLS measures the sum total of all individual layout shift scores for every unexpected layout shift that occurs during the entire lifespan of the page. A layout shift occurs any time a visible element changes its position from one rendered frame to the next.
The new ranking signals will involve a combination of Core Web Vitals and the other four existing user experience considerations.
Mobile Friendliness
This is a measurement of how usable a website is on a mobile device. Issues can occur when elements of a page do not load correctly, or if parts of a page are not correctly optimised towards mobile users.
Safe Browsing
The security issues report within Google Search Console alerts us to any issues on a site which compromise safe browsing, which can include the following issues:
Hacked content: This is any content placed on your site without your permission because of security vulnerabilities in your site. In order to protect our users, Google tries its best to keep hacked content out of our search results.
Malware and unwanted software: This is software that is designed to harm a device or its users, that engages in deceptive or unexpected practices, or that negatively affects the user. Malware can be either installed by a hacker or the site owner.
Social engineering: This is content that tricks visitors into doing something dangerous, such as revealing confidential information or downloading software.
Any security issues raised by Google should be resolved as a priority.
HTTPS
HTTPS is an internet standard form of encryption. Sites without HTTPS encryption subject their users to HTTP request-response attacks, putting their sensitive information at risk.
Browsers such as Google Chrome and Apple Safari will also warn users who access a page without HTTPS encryption, making users less likely to follow through with providing sensitive information such as log-in or payment details.
No Intrusive Interstitials
As part of Google’s mobile-friendly initiative, if there are any interstitials on a page that Google deems to be intrusive this can have a negative impact on organic rankings. This can include the following:
Showing a popup that covers the main content, either immediately after the user navigates to a page from the search results, or while they are looking through the page.
Displaying a standalone interstitial that the user has to dismiss before accessing the main content.
Using a layout where the above-the-fold portion of the page appears similar to a standalone interstitial, but the original content has been inlined underneath the fold.
Fusion’s Page Experience Auditing Process
We recommend focusing on improving all Page Experience signals as part of a wider technical SEO strategy. As part of our reporting & audit process, we identify any under-performing areas and illustrate how you can address these, by utilising proprietary tools which can pull core web vital metrics across a site.
We mark any poorly performing areas as an immediate target to improve in order to boost your site’s user experience and meet the expectations set out by the new ranking factor.
How Do We Do This?
We combine Google’s CrUX (Chrome User Experience Report) data with our own core web vitals data in order to provide a full picture of the performance of your site.
Google CrUX – Publicly available data. Provides a top-line view on core web vitals data for any site within the database. Data is sorted by site experiences (amount of users experiencing a site) and if their experience passed, failed, or required improvement, based on Google’s criteria.
Fusion Unlimited’s Core Web Vitals – Core Web Vitals data retrieved via a proprietary tool. Our proprietary tool can be tailored for any site in order to pull core web vitals data for all URLs within a site, giving us control over the data that we have access to and allowing us to analyse site performance at a much more granular level.
We also include all other metrics included within Google’s Page Experience criteria.
What Goes Into Each Report?
Summary
We provide an overall site summary on how the site performs across all Page Experience factors, along with recommendations on how to prioritise any metrics which require optimisation.
We also provide a breakdown of how each metric is currently performing on the site for each Page Experience factor.
Core Web Vitals Pages
We have pages within our report dedicated to providing a deep-dive into each of the Core Web Vitals metrics (FID, LCP, CLS). Within these pages, we will provide the performance of each page that has been tested and display the pages which are currently receiving the poorest performance.
Want to See For Yourself?
Since Google announced back in May 2020 that page experience would become a ranking factor, we’ve been working with brands from a wide range of sectors throughout the country to ensure they’re aware of their own performance and what they need to do to benefit from the update.
If you’d like to stay ahead of the game, get in touch with the team today to request your own free report at hello@fusionunlimited.co.uk.
Instagram launches digital magazine ‘Instagram Insider’
Image courtesy of Instagram
Instagram has launched its first ever edition of the new digital magazine, Instagram Insider. Every issue will highlight core Instagram trends dominating the platform, list the most influential content creators and small businesses to follow as well as answering users’ questions.
The first 9-page edition is focused on fashion and beauty which has 4 main trending topics: arts and crafts, which is all about handmade products such as clothing, home décor and accessories. Psychedelia-inspired outfit looks, DIY stick-on beauty products from fake tattoos to glam eye art, and male beauty products.
This free, downloadable magazine is aimed at users who constantly scroll through their feed, Explore and Shop tab, liking and saving posts.
‘Instagram Insider is about inspiration and discovery – not just the trends (crafty quilted fashion, stick on beauty products, vintage streetwear) but the people behind them.’
However, the magazine also provides plenty of information for brands so they can shape their own Instagram strategies and find new angles for their stories and posts.
TikTok launches lead gen ads
Image credit: TikTok
Businesses and advertisers can now gain more insights
into their audiences through TikTok’s Lead Generation form. This tool will
enable marketers and businesses of all sizes to create seamless interactions to
reach their target audience and convert them into customers.
As the app further explains:
‘We want to
support and empower businesses on TikTok with seamless opportunities to connect
deeply with their customers while ensuring that our community feels comfortable
and safe on the platform. This is of the utmost importance to us.’
The Lead Generation consists of a customisable background
image, profile image and questionnaire. This means that brands will be able to
share details of their products or services in an appealing and interesting
way.
Users will be able to signal their interest to the
product or service by filling out an easy step-by-step form where they will
provide basic information such as name, email address, phone number and answer
any additional questions the business would want to know.
TikTok has ensured to provide a simple and efficient
experience between businesses and users by auto-populating key response data
already available about the user (name etc.).
Any leads gained through this tool can be manually
downloaded at the business’s preferred time or integrated with the business’s
CRM where they’ll be immediately activated.
This is a great addition to the platform as businesses
will be able to build a more accurate audience view for future content and ad
campaigns.
Facebook flags changes to newsfeed rankings
Facebook is looking to change its News Feed algorithm to maximise engagement and user retention. This process will consist of user surveys asking people what they like to see on their feed, whether a post is valuable, inspirational or worth their time. Soliciting different types of feedback and deciding whether a post should be higher up or lower down the news feed based on different types of reactions (angry, emotional etc.)
Although users’ news feeds contain posts from friends, groups and pages they’ve chosen to like or follow, they don’t want to see posts about topics they are not interested in. This survey-driven approach will give the platform a complete view of the types of posts people find most valuable and inspiring and what kind of content they don’t want to see on their news feed.
Additionally, with political debates being at an all-time high on Facebook, the platform has received feedback on political content with many users being displeased with the aggressive and divisive political debates.
Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg states:
‘Increasingly, we’re hearing feedback from people that they’re seeing too much content about politics and too many other kinds of posts and comments that detract from their News Feed experience. This is a sensitive area, so over the next few months, we’ll work to better understand what kinds of content are linked with these negative experiences.’
Lastly, users can also more directly tell Facebook about their preferences by hiding posts they’re not interested in within their news feed. This will inform the platform’s algorithms about what you don’t want to see as well as giving users better control over their feed.
To read our monthly social media updates, check out our blog page, or get in touch with us today to find out how we can help your brand make the most of social media.
Join Fusion’s SEO team as we round up last month’s major industry updates.
New Page Experience Report in Google Search Console
Google has launched a new Page Experience report within Google Search Console to help site owners better prepare for the rollout of the upcoming page experience update. The report includes existing Core Web Vitals along with the other page experience signals, listed as Mobile Usability, Security Issues, HTTPS and Ad Experience.
Speaking about this new feature, Google has said “ThePage Experience report offers valuable metrics, such as the percentage of URLs with good page experience and search impressions over time, enabling you to quickly evaluate performance”.
Here’s what the new report looks like:
More information on the report’s full capabilities can be found in the Page Experience ReportGoogle help document.
Along with this, Google has also introduced the ability to filter pages by ‘Good Page Experience’ within the GSC Performance report, allowing site owners to easily keep track of how pages with “Good Page Experience” compare to others on the site.
Google Postpone Page Experience Rollout and Provide More Insight
In a blog post providing “More time, tools, and details”, Google has stated that the Page Experience update will be a gradual rollout, beginning in mid-June 2021 and not playing a full role as part of their ranking systems until the end of August. Meaning the update will now finish much later than the original rollout schedule of May 2021.
Google gave the following reasoning for the update being rolled out gradually rather than in real time, “because we’re doing this as a gradual rollout, we will be able to monitor for any unexpected or unintended issues”.
Google Updated How Cumulative Layout Shift is Scored
Changes have been made to how Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is calculated, CLS is a measurement of a web page’s visual stability and is one of the Core Web Vital metrics. Google has updated how this is scored to make it more accurate and fair, stating they are “making the CLS metric more fair to pages that are open for a long time”.
Google now reviews CLS on each page in session windows, here’s a visual representation of this new approach:
Layout shifts can occur sporadically over the time a user views a page, for this reason, Google has decided to group them into session windows. The CLS metric now follows this rule: “maximum session window with 1 second gap, capped at 5 seconds”.
Site owners should not however worry about this change. Because the new update caps the CLS calculation window at 5 seconds, Google say “no page will have a worse score as a result of this”.
More Improvements To Google Search Console
Google has improved data filtering and comparison within the Google Search Console Performance report by introducing a regular expression (regex) filter and ‘revamping’ the comparison mode.
Google explained that the new regular expression filter will help “create more complex query and page based filters”. This new feature will allow Search Console users to catch abbreviated queries within a filtered search, for example when looking at performance for a particular query like ‘gin and tonic’, the new regex filter can be used to capture all similarly relates searches such as ‘gin & tonic’ or ‘g&t’.
The newly revamped comparison mode now permits users to select and compare multiple metrics by displaying results side-by-side, the table area is almost doubled in size and does now support the new regex filter.
Google Rollout New Product Reviews Update
Google has released a new product reviews search algorithm update. This is not a core update affecting all search results, it is specifically targeted at rewarding more in-depth, informative product reviews within SERPs.
“We know people appreciate product reviews that share in-depth research, rather than thin content that simply summarizes a bunch of products. That’s why we’re sharing an improvement to our ranking systems, which we call the product reviews update, that’s designed to better reward such content”.
If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.
Whilst marketers have been aware of this development since August 2019, this new chapter of advertising is here knocking at our door.
But before we delve into practicalities let’s look at why this is all happening in the first place (and why it’s important). Fear not, there is not a single reference to the daftly named ‘cookiepocalypse’ in this article…
What are cookies and why are they important?
Let’s start off with the basics:
First Party Cookies
Stored by a website you visit, these cookies provide useful information for that website and shape how a user interacts with it. It’s everything from which pages they visit, how long for, how often and, what they do. Don’t worry – these aren’t going anywhere and will actually become more important as we find out in this article.
Third-Party Cookies
These are tracking cookies that are stored under a different domain than you are currently visiting. They are mainly of use for advertisers as it enables them to track users between websites and display more relevant ads between websites.
How is this relevant to online privacy?
As third-party cookies enable advertisers to track the digital movements of users, there has been a growing demand for transparency and gaining back control of data. Whilst all users do have the option to opt-out of third-party cookies, it’s not always straightforward to do so.
Google’s figures show that searches for “online privacy” have increased by 50% globally year on year. A demand for anonymity from a digital presence in the era of information is no passing trend, however. You only have to look at the 1.2 million members of reddit’s Privacy community or the creation of Tor back in 2006 to see that users are seeking solutions to digital anonymity.
This demand in knowledge, or privacy as it were, has also led to an increase in content being published surrounding ‘online privacy’ over the past five years.
Ahrefs Data
How has Google Chrome responded to the removal of third party cookies?
With Google Chrome having a whopping 63.5% of browser market share – as a market leader the internet giant needed to make its stance on cookies clear, especially as browser competitors were doing so.
The likes of Safari and Firefox placed limitations on tracking years ago with the latter using the following disclaimer in its February 2021 release:
At Mozilla, we believe you have a right to privacy. You shouldn’t be tracked online. Whether you are checking your bank balance, looking for the best doctor, or shopping for shoes, unscrupulous tracking companies should not be able to track you as you browse the Web. For that reason, we are continuously working to harden Firefox against online tracking of our users.
Google first stated its intention back in August 2019 when it sought to “develop a set of open standards to fundamentally enhance privacy on the web. We’re calling this Privacy Sandbox”. Fast forward to January 2020 and further rollout details became apparent with the announcement of a 2-year timeframe of cookies being phased out from Google Chrome. By October 2020 Google was prepared to share more detailed insights on the steps they were taking in relation to mitigating “deceptive and intrusive tracking techniques, such as fingerprinting” which saw it throw its weight behind supporting Secure DNS.
However, the largest development so far in this whistle-stop tour of Google’s announcements has been the introduction of FLoC.
What is FLoC?
In January 2021, Google Chrome announced the creation of FLoC with a view of testing amongst advertisers to be rolled out as early as Q2 2021.
FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts) proposes a new way for businesses to reach people with relevant content and ads by clustering large groups of people with similar interests. This approach effectively hides individuals “in the crowd” and uses on-device processing to keep a person’s web history private on the browser.”
Before raising hell amongst advertisers who feared the future collapse of targeting as we know it, Google set the record straight earlier this month. “Today, we’re making explicit that once third-party cookies are phased out, we will not build alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web, nor will we use them in our products.”
What that’s to say is that Google would not be providing the ability to use third-party cookies to target individuals, thereby protecting a user’s right to anonymity, but would provide advertisers with the opportunity to target a cohort of similarly behaved groups. These interest-based groups could indeed be in their thousands so there’s no denying that the precise nature of targeting will be lost in stark comparison but Google has assured advertisers that we can expect “at least 95% of the conversions per dollar spent when compared to cookie-based advertising.” From here on in, only the performance of ads under the new targeting options will tell.
Some naysayers aren’t convinced, with talk of FLoC undoing a decade’s worth of work and even calling into question whether FLoC is even that private as there are seemingly ways around extracting user IDs from a cohort.
In Europe there are big question marks over whether FLoC is GDPR-compliant, prompting Marshall Vale to clarify that testing in Europe would be rolled out at a later date.
We are starting this FLoC origin trial for users in the US and select other countries, and we expect to make FLoC available for testing worldwide at a later date.
By 2022 Google Chrome confirms the use of third-party cookies will cease to exist entirely.
How can we be prepared for the change?
As a performance marketing agency, our Head of Paid Media, Jen Mottram, and Account Director, Kyle Brogan, share their thoughts on how the absence of cookies will shape the future of paid media as we know it, and why it’s not necessarily a bad thing.
What were your initial thoughts on the announcement of FLoC?
Jen: I’m very glad that a solution to the loss of 3rd party cookies is nearly ready, and we will have familiar targeting options. However, there are still a lot of questions; what about the 45% who do not use Chrome? can the privacy issues raised by some be rectified? Ultimately something is better than nothing, but I’m watching updates closely!
Kyle: It’s reassuring that there is a recommended option available to allow advertisers to continue to target customers in a privacy-first manner. I’m keen to see how this develops over the next few months, and how robust it will be across networks beyond that of just Google.
How will we be preparing for a cookie-less future?
Jen: From a technical perspective, 1st party data will be a focus, luckily for us a lot of our clients have already heavily invested in this or are making all the right steps towards the necessary infrastructure.
Additionally, utilisation of AI, like smart bidding and responsive/dynamic ads, will be even more important to ensure campaigns are reactive to all other signals. We have built these into our clients’ strategies and the tech behind is ever-evolving and robust”.
Kyle: Conversations with clients, as solutions are developing, is key in ensuring all parties are prepared for a cookie-less future.
We’re in the process of establishing what the potential risks are as well as what can be done now to ensure their 1st party data is in the best condition possible.
Keep an eye on our blog, LinkedIn and Instagram channels for information!
I founded Fusion Unlimited back in 1998, when the landscape in digital was quite unrecognisable to how it is now. It’s been incredibly refreshing to see some amazing initiatives born in recent years to support in promoting more women to join the industry. The refining balance of the workforce in our sector speaks for itself as to the great change this has made, although we all still know that dial can be moved even further forward.
On International Women’s Day, I’m very proud to be able to say that 60% of the team here at Fusion are women, also making up 50% of our leadership team.
To celebrate International Women’s Day this year, I sat down with just five of the many great women here to gather their thoughts on what it means to them to encourage more women to join our great industry.
You’ll hear from Katie Harling, our Client Services Director, who joined me 18 years ago and has since played a huge part in growing the agency to what it is now. Secondly, Hira Nasir and Louise Barber, who both joined us from University as their first roles in digital. I’ve also caught up with Danielle Wright, who joined us during Lockdown pt.1 with two years of experience in the digital arena. And last but certainly not least, you’ll hear from Helen Hargreave, our Head of Content with 10 years in the industry, the past eight of those spent here with team Fusion.
In your opinion, why is it important that more women get into the digital industry in the future?
KH: It’s important to have a diverse team, and people should be encouraged to join any industry they have an ambition to be part of.
I find a diverse team creates new ways of working, thinking and learning, which in an innovative industry, is important. This is key not only for the work we produce, but also for us as an agency team. Thriving off of this naturally creates an exciting atmosphere, and builds a happier more stable collective team.
For me, diversity should be celebrated. We need to ensure that everyone has access to the same opportunities and the same treatment.
HN: It’s good to have a mix of genders in every industry really! I think having more women will help the industry flourish even more with more ideas as women are a huge part of the consumer audience, so having their insights and how they would approach the digital media landscape will help the industry flourish with more existing and creative ideas.
LB: The single fact that 75% of the digital workforce are male is enough to down tools and get involved in this industry.
DW: It’s important that women don’t feel intimidated to get involved in an industry that maybe was once heavily dominated by men. There are a lot of different career options and no matter your skill-set, there’s something for you.
HH: Equality in business, scrap that, in anything, is a fundamental right. For businesses to speak to all customers we need balance from the people telling the story. So as consumers, for our voices to be heard and for us to be seen we need the people behind the scenes to understand our struggles, our concerns, passions and what we enjoy too. Joining the conversation and the work therefore becomes an opportunity to shape the conversation.
Do you think there’s a stereotype attached to digital?
KH: I think in certain areas of digital there are stereotypes, but my own personal experience has been very different. I have worked for the same agency all my career, where talent has been supported above all else, a key reason why I’m still here. The team has always been well-balanced, but on the premise of providing an opportunity to those who show ambition and desire to be part of a forward thinking team…that’s all.
HN: I think the technical side of SEO is associated with men, there’s not many women within that sector. But having said that, the industry is changing and that stereotype has started to peel off.
LB: Of course. It’s a geeky white male. Days like International Women’s Day are active opportunities to challenge this stereotype and create space for others. That’s why I thought it was important to get involved in this piece, share my experience and encourage women to join this industry.
DW: I think historically there has been, but I think I’ve certainly seen promising signs of improvement. I’m very lucky to work with a group of very talented women at Fusion and it’s really encouraging.
The industry can still do so much more to support and encourage women in the field. There’s a balance to be found between hiring and supporting women because they are talented and hiring a woman because you need a token woman to improve diversity in your male dominated team.
HH: Probably, but perhaps not for the reasons you may think. Starting my career working in content marketing and social media 10 years ago I was surprised how many people perceived the channel as ‘the fluffy stuff’ and that bothered me. The fact I could be perpetuating that stereotype bothered me even more. But was it the work itself or that I was a woman doing it? It was hard to tell. To effect change and deliver real results I felt like I needed to work even harder to make people listen up – to challenge the work I was doing was just as important.
What barriers have you faced, as a woman, in becoming successful in the search industry?
KH: There have been occasions where I’ve walked into a room and felt judged – be that because of my age or my gender. However, having confidence in what I do, being able to adapt to requirements, and maintaining faith in my ability, I have always remained true to myself and represented Fusion in high regard.
HN: I started off as a photographer/videographer and in my first few projects I was only working with men which sometimes used to be a bit daunting but I feel like there’s a demand for women within content creation and maybe even within digital advertising in general (as more and more people want to see a woman’s perspective within a certain project) – and that’s why my journey in regards to getting in the industry has been pretty straight forward.
LB: I feel privileged to say I don’t think I have seen any barriers coming into this industry. Fusion is the first agency I have worked in, and I think I was really lucky to find myself in an environment where women are really well represented across the team. As a result of this, I have felt supported, encouraged, and heard from my first day. Hearing that this isn’t the case across the entire industry makes me appreciate my experiences even more.
HH: Aside from immaturity, inexperience, imposter syndrome, and confidence in my craft (!) the main barrier I wanted to overcome was being heard and being heard for the right reasons. I wanted to be able to walk into a room and connect with others no matter their age, status or gender but there are A LOT of big personalities out there.
The power of rhetoric was key here, being able to choose when to speak up, delivery and how to connect with a person was a huge learning curve in my early days. I educated myself, I watched powerful women, binged on TED talks and let myself be vulnerable too (the discovery of Brene Brown’s ‘Power of Vulnerability’ was eye-opening for me) – all of this let me get over my biggest barrier – myself!
On International Women’s Day, what’s the most important piece of advice you’d give to a woman thinking of starting a career in digital marketing?
KH: I was brought up in a loving family that educated me to work hard, (play hard), and don’t let anything hold me back. They told me to go after what I wanted and I did! I was so focused on succeeding for myself and that’s what’s key – do what’s right for you and do what makes you happy. Stay focused – with determination and passion, nothing can hold you back.
You get one shot at life…do what makes you happy. If that’s a career in digital, do it, it’s an amazing industry and we would love to see you become part of it!
HN: I would say just go with it! I think there’s a lot of people willing to help, especially women and it’s definitely a lot easier to get in the industry compared to 10 years ago and there’s quite a few digital marketing agencies that are founded by women so the future is definitely looking good.
LB: Don’t be afraid of getting into digital – even if it doesn’t match your background. There are many attributes that are valued within digital marketing, from written ability, analytical thinking and just general confidence. Skills can be taught – there is so much room for growth within Digital Marketing. And p.s. it’s not all geeky white males!
DW: Do it! Digital is always changing so there’s always something new to learn. It’s an exciting industry to work in and can be very rewarding.
HH: Know your craft, stick up for yourself, leave your ego at the door, give credit, be vulnerable, be human, and be kind.
If you found this interesting, check out the Fusion blog for the latest thought leadership from our team. We’re always keen to speak to ambitious people looking to get into digital, so I’d also encourage you to take at our careers page to see if we might have something for you.
Most marketers would have you believe Black Friday to be the most opportune time of year to drive sales, but how do you know whether running a promotion is the right thing for your brand? Are you making your marketing decisions based on ROI, or simply looking at running a promotion just because everyone else is doing it?
In this post, we’re going to share some of the predictions for this year and help you decide whether you should join the party or not.
What’s all the fuss about?
If shopping was a sporting event, Black Friday would be the Superbowl. Since we adopted the event from our cousins from across the pond, it’s gotten bigger by the year and is now a massive spending event, and there’s little love shared in the marketing space, with businesses of all sizes fiercely competing for a share of public expenditure for this coveted seasonal event.
The Numbers
In the UK in 2019, the public spent almost £5bn. That’s a colossal amount and, despite the climate, spending is trending, withGlobalData predicting the UK’s spending in 2020 to surpass £6bn. It’s predicted that 37% of Brits are putting off shelling out on items like clothing, electronics and furniture until the deals are here to avoid being disappointed. We all hate that moment, right? So, the opportunity to supercharge your sales at the start of the retail period dubbed the ‘golden quarter’ is a glaringly obvious one.
Working away behind the scenes, businesses of all shapes and sizes will have their own Black Friday marketing campaigns lined up, so let’s dive into a framework for assessing whether you need to be joining them – or whether you’re better off focusing on your day to day strategy.
Is your business actually suited to a Black Friday promotion?
You will be the best person to answer this question. The buzz around Black Friday is immense, so it’s no surprise that brands dive head-first into elaborate content campaigns in an attempt to be relevant and drive sales. Competition is high, forcing marketers to experiment with everything from creative campaigns rich with lifestyle blogs to innovative video content in the build up to the event.
This event-driven marketing often involves sacrificing day-to-day activity temporarily; halting content priorities such as SEO optimisation and brand-building campaigns. It can be tempting to dive head-first into Black Friday marketing, but blindly following the buzz might not be a good idea.
The first consideration you should make with any seasonal marketing opportunity is:
●Who is buying?
●What are they buying?
Without this information, it’s difficult to judge whether your product or service is likely to reap the rewards of investing resources into a content marketing campaign. Even if, for example, your campaign copy is a masterpiece, meticulously designed to drive conversion, you won’t acquire traffic if your product/service offering isn’t on the radar of Black Friday shoppers.
But this is no usual year
Fewer Brits are planning to take part in Black Friday in 2020, compared to last year. In 2019, 42% of adults planned to spend whereas this year the number has dropped down to 39%. However as mentioned earlier, spend is forecasted to surpass last year’s figures. So, what’s happened there? The increase stems from a predicted increase in average spend per consumer, rising from £251 to £296.
Unfortunately, with the arrival of Covid-19 earlier in the year, we’ve seen industries experience contrasting fortunes. At risk of stating the obvious, we’ve seen brands in the home entertainment, homeware, fitness, and health industries prosper, amongst many more. If your product or service falls into one of these categories, then it’s highly likely you’ll benefit from a well thought-out, competitive campaign.
This doesn’t mean, though, that you can’t run a campaign if your product doesn’t fit into one of these categories – which brings us onto our next consideration.
What about the high street?
55% of Brits planned to shop exclusively online during last year’s sale. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that figure has risen to a whopping 66%.
Despite further lockdowns and restrictions being introduced, shopping plans haven’t taken as big of a hit as you might have thought. 35% of consumers planned to also spend in-store last year, whereas that number has only fallen to 28%, signifying a reassuring level of consumer confidence. But with Saturday’s announcement of a month-long lockdown, an-store promotion is an option only worth considering if you plan to run a campaign extending beyond Black Friday. That is, of course, unless you fall into the essential retail pot.
How can I subtly board the hype-train?
Your campaign and offers should never feel forced or unnatural when you’re planning them. If they do, you can bet they’ll look it too. Take a bank pushing a wellbeing campaign during mental health week, for example; the link there might just be too tenuous to make.
One clever trick to bypass this problem is to base your content marketing campaign on an emotion or experience associated with your brand. Make this an opportunity for people to remember your brand. Pieminister did this perfectly back in 2016, teaming up with homeless charity, Shelter, to give away pies to shelters on Black Friday. Dubbed ‘Black Pie Day’, this returned several times in the following years.
If you’re able to develop a campaign idea that’s directly relevant to the Black Friday promotion, then you’re better positioned to connect with your customers and have your promotional message heard.
How can I analyse whether a Black Friday promotion will generate returns for my business?
Your chances of seeing a surge in sales is likely to come down to the demand for what you sell. If you’ve never considered a Black Friday campaign, the likelihood is you’ve also never looked into the numbers to see what the opportunity could really be for you. Doing this research could give you the reassurance needed that your market is receptive (or not).
There are plenty of tools out there to help you gauge how desirable your product is likely to be. And many of the good ones are free to use. We’d recommend using tools such as Ahrefs, SEMrush or Google Keyword Planner to help you build a great understanding of your market’s intent. Or if you want to get a feel for what your competitors are doing, you can look to Instagram, Facebook and Twitter hashtags to view trends relating to your focus products and review your competitors activity.
Black Friday search volumes generated by Ahrefs
So there you go. Just remember, running a seasonal campaign is about being reactive and competitive, so don’t be scared to try and fail, testing and learning could be the key to your success. If you decide to go in for a slice of the Black Friday cake, good luck and we’ll see you on the other side!
If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today..
As the dust settles around the newly founded Instagram ‘Reels’, we discuss definitions, developments and the general discourse to see if it could be a worthy new addition to your own social strategy.
Instagram Reels: ‘Dud’ or Diamond?
Announced a little over a month ago, Instagram coined Reels as ‘a new way to create and discover short, entertaining videos on Instagram’. The in-app feature allows you to share videos with your followers and (depending on your privacy settings) the Instagram community, through the explore page. Once the video is shared, it can then be found on a separate Reels tab on your profile, and your main profile grid.
The explore tab, which is the current home of Reels, is where you will find the latest trends on Instagram made by anyone – not just those you follow. Explore hosts a variety of different content, including regular posts, reels, videos, and shopping. You may also notice ‘featured’ content which is selected by Instagram to help you to discover original content.
Reels is an in-app feature of Instagram, meaning their 1 billion active users automatically have access to the feature, unlike competitor TikTok which is an app requiring a download. This means that users are more likely to give it a try with it being less of a commitment than a download. Businesses will find this useful as, if they already have a following on Instagram, they won’t need to build another on a different platform.
What’s more, due to Reels being on the Explore page, users who don’t follow you will see your content. This is a great exposure opportunity to gain awareness and followers for your brand.
One of the main criticisms of Instagram is that the content tends to be structured and ‘fake’. Reels poses as an opportunity to allow brands to have fun with their creative expression and show personality. An example of a brand who are already successfully embracing Reels is Louis Vuitton. The Louis Vuitton channel is already averaging on 8 million views and has stirred a stylistic trend following their recent videos.
Whereas TikTok is crammed full of creators, thus far Reels’ creative space feels dominated by the brands and influencer. This makes the space feel commercialised, contrived, and inauthentic.
Reels vs. TikTok
The New
York Times labelled Instagram Reels a ‘TikTok
clone’ and a ‘dud’,
but to finally address the elephant in the room, how does Reels really compare
to TikTok?
Starting with the points of likeness, foundationally both
allow users to create, edit and share videos. From here things begin to differ –
firstly – TikTok is a standalone app, whereas Reels is a feature on the
Instagram app.
Whilst TikTok has the illustrious algorithm-driven ‘for you’ page, Reels’ home is currently the explore page, which the New York Times describes as ‘a mishmash of photos, sponsored posts and long-form videos’. The ‘For You’ page is also an easy way to go viral, while with Reels, your exposure is generally limited to a minimal SoV of the explore page.
Reels also lacks a space to post ‘friends only’ content, it can either be posted for the world on the explore page or your entire follower list on private accounts.
Reels’ explore page
Then there’s the simplicity of TikTok, you can upload videos in bulk and the platform will create a slick compilation video in under 10 seconds. Reels is noticeably more difficult to navigate and the result doesn’t have the same smooth feel.
Another benefit of TikTok is the ability to download the videos (watermarked with the TikTok emblem) and then upload to different platforms. With Reels when you download videos, due to copyright issues, the music is stripped from the video.
Finally one of the most used features on TikTok is ‘duet’, this allows users to ‘reply to video content’ and thousands of these videos have gone viral. This is just one more feature that Reels doesn’t possess.
Lest we forget the rise of Instagram Stories, once known as the Snapchat clone, it now dominates the ‘story’ scene. This proves Instagram’s ability to take an idea, build on it, and break their audience into it.
Also, a small reminder that Reels is in its infancy, a mere month and a half into its life, Instagram has plenty of time to amend and adapt the app to make it as streamlined as TikTok. Take the trial of the Reels button in India, this would solve the explore page issues discussed previously.
Perhaps Reels won’t be the new TikTok. But that doesn’t change the fact that as a feature, it could add a lot to your brand. Reels presents itself as less of a risk than TikTok, more of a means to have fun and continue to be supported by your fan base.
Take this opportunity to engage a different mass audience – those who prefer quick content that’s easy to digest — and do it quickly, before the market becomes over-saturated.
If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.
Are you thinking about including TikTok in your marketing strategy? Or just wanting some knowledge on the topic? In this article we’re going to myth-bust the cultural phenomena that is TikTok and explore how you can look to embed it into your own strategy.
It seems a day doesn’t pass without TikTok appearing in the headlines. Whether you’re a fan or a foe of this scandalously popular platform, you can’t dispute the media storm has placed it at the epicentre of current affairs. TikTok was recently dubbed as having created a ‘completely new subculture’ and the proof is in the pudding with over 2 billion downloads worldwide. 315m of these downloads have happened since lockdown began, the most downloads any app has ever gotten in a single quarter.
800 million of these are now active monthly users, ranking it 7th in the world above the likes of Snapchat, Linkedin and Twitter. But with Donald Trump pushing for a US ban on the app, in addition to subsequent security concerns globally and the introduction of competitor apps (such as Instagram’s Reels launching at the start of August) is it worth you getting involved with the app?
BREAKING: Trump tells reporters aboard Air Force One he is banning TikTok
Before you can make that decision, let’s delve into the truth behind seven of the biggest myths surrounding TikTok.
1. TikTok is just for Gen Z
Despite the TikTok’s world domination, many brands are put off from working with them as they believe its audience to be too young. It is undeniably true that the app has a young audience, in fact, it’s estimated that 66% of users are below 30. But this breaks down into a mix of both Gen Zers and Millennials, and the millennial sector of this (along with the older groups) is rising continuously.
As the app slips further into the mainstream we are seeing people of all age groups become involved with it, so don’t be put off by the average age.
2. My brand doesn’t suit TikTok
The issue here lies not with the age of the audience, but the perception of brands and marketers that a younger audience isn’t as valuable. This puts many brands off working with TikTok as they feel it doesn’t ‘suit’ their brand.
However, it’s important to understand the younger audience is the future of the consumer market, and the more brands place themselves into this sphere, the more they will reap the benefits in the long term.
It’s true that, originally, TikTok was concerned with user experience as opposed to potential monetisation. But in June 2020 TikTok introduced TikTok for Business to help brands find their feet on the platform. Spearheaded with the tagline ‘don’t make ads, make TikToks’, the platform invites brands to get creative with their advertising.
They have since introduced several forms of ads, such as in-feed video ads, brand takeovers, hashtag challenges, branded AR content and Custom influencer packages. Before this, TikTok’s main source of monetisation came in the form of ‘coins’, where users can ‘tip’ their favourite creators.
It’s estimated around $456 million (approx. £347 million) has been spent on TikTok coins since their introduction, and this is how TikTok was previously making their revenue. Following the introduction of ads in 2019, it’s estimated that TikTok’s monthly earnings went from $3.5 million to $14.7 million directly disproving the monetisation concerns around the app.
Charli D’Amelio is the most followed account on TikTok, with over 78million followers and 5.7billion likes
4. Engagement rates are higher across other social media platforms
Previously Instagram has the highest engagement rate however, since TikTok found fame, times have changed. According to a sample of 1000 influencers studied by Influencer Marketing Hub, TikTok’s engagement rates were notably higher than Instagram and Twitter. This comes as no surprise as TikTok’s primary function is for engagement.
TikTok’s roots are deeply embedded in Asia, and this certainly was the first market it found its success. However, since then, TikTok has spread across the world, now active in 155 countries and 75 languages.
According to Route Note, the country with the most users is India, followed by the US. Also among the top 10 are Germany and France, proving that TikTok is rife across all continents, not just Asia.
6. TikTok’s algorithm is a secret
That was true, up until recently. A few months ago TikTok put rumours to bed by finally revealing the truth behind their algorithm. The factors that affect your feed are; user interactions (content you like/ share, creators you follow, comments posted and content created), video information (i.e. captions, sounds and hashtags) and device and account settings (e.g. language, country and device).
These factors are then devised into indicators of interest. An example of a strong indicator is completion rates of video, whereas a weaker one would be country of origin. This means that feeds are unique, based heavily on interest and activity.
TikTok has expressed concerns about optimising for personalisation and relevance due to the potential to create ‘filter bubbles’. This is when a user continually sees the type of content they are most likely to engage with. Tiktok has said they making moves to rectify, ensuring they are diversifying feeds to keep their audience interested.
7. You need thousands of followers to go viral
On networks like Instagram, generally, to go viral you need to have a lot of followers. On TikTok, they have moved away from this stating ‘neither follower count nor whether the account has had previous high-performing videos are direct factors in the recommendation system’. This means you can have just a few followers and still go viral, making the process far more authentic.
SO, IS TIKTOK RIGHT FOR YOUR STRATEGY?
Heading back to our original question, and with Donald Trump now looking to have TikTok either banned or sold by mid-September, is it worth getting involved?
The details of this answer depend on your brand, location and budget but, on the whole, if you have the capacity test and see what TikTok can do for you. As TikTok continually features in the mainstream media, it will catch the interest of a wider audience which could result in broader popularity. Just like all trends, there will be a peak and a trough. But as we’re now at a point where we’re seeing continuous growth, why not get creative and get involved while you have the chance?
Check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with us today.
On Thursday Google announced the addition of a set of new user experience metrics to its growing list of ranking factors.
The additions – which Google is referring to as “Page
Experience” metrics – will be designed to evaluate how users
perceive browsing, loading and interacting with specific webpages, and
incorporate criteria measuring:
Page load times
Mobile friendliness
Incorporation of HTTPS
The presence of intrusive ads or interstitials
Intrusive moving of page content or page layout
Webmasters should already be familiar with many of these
factors, with recent years seeing Google driving home the importance of mobile
friendliness, page speed, HTTPS adherence and avoidance of intrusive interstitials.
However, the new Page Experience signal also includes areas
from the new “Core
Web Vitals” report, recently incorporated into Google’s PageSpeed
Insights and Search Console tools.
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): This measures the perceived
loading performance of a page, or the time passed before main page content is
visible to users. An LCP time of 2.5 seconds viewed as good, with higher in
need of improvement.
First Input Delay (FID): Measuring interactivity / load
responsiveness, or the time it takes for a user to be able to usefully interact
with content on the page. An FID of less than 100ms is optimal, with higher
scores in need of improvement.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Measuring visual stability, or
whether the layout of a page moves or changes while a user is trying to
interact. Pages should aim for a CLS of less than 0.1 in order to provide a
good user experience.
Largest Contentful Paint and First Input Delay will already be recognisable to most webmasters, with Google’s PageSpeed and Lighthouse tools already providing information on these metrics.
However, Cumulative Layout Shift appears to be new, with Google’s John Mueller stating that the CLS metric has been created to gage levels of user “annoyance”. CLS looks at the familiar experience of content shifting as a page loads, which Google illustrate with the below GIF:
What does this
change?
Whilst most of the individual metrics within Page Experience are pre-existing ranking factors, the new announcement places them together as one part of an overarching signal:
Google state that they are aiming to provide a more “holistic
picture of the quality of a user’s experience on a web page”, by grouping
previously separate factors together.
Each factor will be weighted uniquely, although as Google
have declined to comment on how this weight will be distributed, it will likely
be up to webmasters to determine the importance of each.
The new signal is also set to bring changes to how mobile
top stories are determined, with the adoption of AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)
no longer a prerequisite for inclusion within this section.
In future, top stories will be based on an evaluation of
Page Experience factors, with non-AMP pages able to appear alongside AMP pages.
When will Page
Experience roll out?
Google state that changes around Page Experience “will not
happen before next year”, and promise to give at least 6 months’ notice before
any roll out takes place.
This gives webmasters plenty of time to get ready for the
changes, with preparation hopefully made easier through the early incorporation
of P.E into tools like Google Search Console, Lighthouse, and PageSpeed
insights.
Check out our recent blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding
out more about what we can do for you, get in touch with us
today.
Join Fusion’s SEO team as they round up last month’s major industry updates.
Google Revert Chrome 80
Cookie Updates
In light of
COVID-19, Google have temporarily rolled back the use of SameSite cookie
labeling. SameSite cookie labeling was introduced as part of the Chrome 80
release, which took place at the start of February, for more information on
this, please see our SEO
market updates for January 2020 blog post.
Google will provide further updates on the implementation on SameSite cookie labeling via a dedicated Chromium updates page.
Google Warns Users When
Search Results Are Poor
Google have
released an update for Google Search and will now display a warning for users
when they believe that the results are not to their standards.
Although Google consistently look to improve search results, with the improved language understanding of its BERT algorithm, or the daily updates on improving search rankings, Google have recognized that there are still occasions they don’t have the available information for some searches.
Previously,
Google would either display low quality search results, with no warning, or
display no search results.
For searches that would previously display low quality search results, Google will now display a warning to users that it has not been able to find any great matches for the user’s search query.
The warning will also direct users to Google’s search tips page, which provides information on how to fully utilize the search functionality of Google.
Google Now Track Fewer
Pages Within Google Search Console
Google have
announced
that they are currently tracking fewer pages within Google Search Console in
order to improve the performance of the reporting. This will have an effect on
the following reports:
AMP
Mobile Usability
Page Speed
Rich Results
Due to the changes made, Google have informed that users should expect to see a decrease in the number of items and pages tracked in these reports.
AMP’s New Protocol
AMP have
released a new
secure protocol in order to resolve the issues of users having to
wait for server-side paywall process, mainly for users logging in or paying to
view content.
The new protocol will move this process away from server-side to client-side. Moving premium content to this protocol will significantly reduce loading time associated with waiting to be verified, whilst providing the same amount of encryption.
Check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with us today.
For the first time since 2012, Google Shopping will allow
you to list for free. This was rolled in the US
on April 27th and will continue to roll out globally over the coming
months.
As of last week in the US, the Google Shopping tab
results consists primarily of free listings. However, Google still plans to charge companies for top placement as promoted
listings. These will look similar to the Shopping listings on the main Google
SERP; where the listings will remain paid for.
Google hopes that this will give a
little relief to smaller businesses and the retail sector in general as many
brick and mortar retailers are looking to move their sales online.
According to a report on The Verge, Google has been working on these changes for some time, but the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has accelerated these plans.
Existing users of Merchant
Center and Shopping ads will already be eligible to show products in the unpaid
listings. To opt in, select “Growth” and then “Manage programs” in the left
navigation menu and select the “surfaces across Google” program card.
New users of Merchant Center
will be able to opt into surfaces across Google during
the Merchant Center sign up process and start creating a product
feed.
Call Ads now include a ‘Visit Website’ option
Call Ads, previously known as Call-Only Ads, will now
include an option to add a ‘Visit Website’ link in a bid to give customers more
ways to connect with your business.
Customers will have the option to either visit your
website directly via the link or call by clicking on the headline
Google
hopes that this will help businesses that rely on calls for new sales by
preventing accidental calls and assisting more qualified leads.
To
add this option to new or existing call ads, simply add a Final URL.
Requesting Verification
Google are going to be requesting advertisers to verify their identity in order to include further information with the ads (name and location):
Google hope that this change will increase trust in ads by providing users with more information on who is advertising to them.
It is expected that this change will take a few years to cover all global territories. This is rolling out in the US first and continue to expand globally.
Check
out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if
you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your
brand, get in touch with us
today.
In short, an SSL certificate is a digital authentication certificate which provides a site with HTTPS encryption. This certificate is then used to verify the legitimacy of a website and will allow that website to display to its users that it is trustworthy, as well as providing those same users with HTTPS-level encryption, further protecting non-sensitive information, names, passwords and banking details.
The benefits of HTTPS level encryption include:
Providing security for users from man-in-the-middle attacks and protecting the user’s data, in line with GDPR
Increase in organic rankings, based on additional trust signals
Displaying a padlock next to the site’s URL as a visual clue to users informing them that encryption is active on the site
How does an SSL certificate benefit SEO?
With search engines pushing towards a more secure web, websites with HTTPS level encryption (as opposed to HTTP) can see positive effects when it comes to rankings.
Many browsers are also displaying warnings to users when they visit a site without HTTPS encryption, such as Apple’s Safari and Google Chrome displaying these warnings:
Sites will also receive warnings if any resources used on the site are not HTTPS encrypted, this is called mixed content warning. A few months ago we released a post detailing how Google Chrome has cracked down on mixed content, along with how this should be treated. Resources that have been targeted by Google Chrome include:
JavaScript and CSS
iFrames
Audio, video, and image files
Ensuring all these resources are served using HTTPS encryption will safeguard the site from being negatively impacted by “insecure site” warnings.
If an SSL certificate fails or is invalid, browsers such as Google Chrome will display a warning that the user’s connection is not private. This warning is much more severe than the “mixed content” warning and will need to be resolved as soon as possible.
How to get an SSL certificate?
For most sites, SSL certificates are provided as part of a web hosting subscription, such as SiteGround, BlueHost and Host Gator. Although these SSL certificates will usually be low-level, domain validated SSL certificates, suitable for sites that don’t receive a high amount of traffic and require minimal encryption.
All types of SSL certificates can be purchases from dedicated service providers, such as Comodo SSL Store or Digicert or domain registrars, such as NameCheap and GoDaddy.
There are many types of SSL certificates that will be suitable in different scenarios and can be split into 3 main types:
Domain Validated
Certificates (DV)
Perfect for SMEs and offers minimal encryption, these are also the cheapest certificates that don’t require verification of the site owner’s information. Domain validated certificates provide just enough encryption for browsers to display the HTTPS padlock within the address bar.
Organisation Validated
Certificates (OV)
A tier up from domain validated certificates, organisation validated certificates provide an extra level of trustworthiness and involves a manual investigation to take place on the information of the organisation applying for the SSL certificate. This certificate is ideal for sites that use customer login information (excluding payment specific information).
Extended Certificates (EV)
These offer the highest level of encryption and also require the highest level of validation. Extended certificates are recommended for sites that require sensitive customer information, such as payment card information for ecommerce sites.
Each of these certificates will provide sites with a padlock within the address bar, however will provide users with a varied amount of security for users.
How much is an SSL certificate?
Prices for SSL certificates can vary depending on level of encryption, level of verification and added benefits provided as part of the service. Splitting prices into the 3 types mentioned in the “How to get an SSL certificate?” segment, these can fit into the following price margins (pricing is approximate):
SSL Certificate Type
Price Point
Approximate Cost
Domain Validated (DV)
£
£5-£150/yr
Organisation Validated (OV)
££
£15-£1,000/yr
Extended Certificate (EV)
£££
£50-£2,300/yr
What is the recommended validity length of an SSL certificate?
With a bill being passed on 1st March 2018 reducing the maximum validity length of DV and OV SSL certificates from 39 months to 825 days (around 27 months), EV SSL certificates are already limited to a maximum lifetime of 27 months, and 13 months for validity information. So, what is the recommended length of a SSL certificate’s validity across browsers? And is it better to have a longer or shorter validity time?
To answer the latter question, a shorter validity time on an SSL certificate can be seen to provide a higher amount of security as authenticity checks will need to be performed more often.
In regards to the recommended validity length of an SSL certificate, Apple have placed themselves at the front of this conversation by announcing that as of 1st September 2020, they will be setting a hard trust limit of 398 days, as opposed to the current acceptable duration of 825 days. This means that any certificates issued after this date for longer than 398 days will not be trusted by Apple products. Google have also been seen to show some interest in shortening their trust limit to around one year, although nothing has been passed as of yet.
With trust limits currently sat at 825 days across all browsers until 1st September 2020, any certificates purchased before this date can be valid for up the full 825 days and be trusted across all browsers. For certificates purchased after 1st September 2020, we would recommend ensuring that validity lengths are kept under 398 days, in order to keep within Apple’s (and all other browsers) trust limit.
If you found this useful then please check out our other blog posts, and if you’re interested in finding out more about how we can help with your organic rankings, get in touch with us today.
What: Google has introduced a new feature called continuous audience sharing which will allow PPC practitioners to set up audience lists in sub accounts far quicker than ever before.
When: February 18th, 2020
Where: Google Ads Search and Display
Why: Previously a more manual process to set up audience lists, now all that is required is for a setting to be changed in the Google Account MCC.
How: Continuous Audience Sharing can now be activated in the MCC account within the setting tab. This will allow all re-marketing lists within a manager account to be shared throughout its sub accounts.
The trusty old audience list offers the inquisitive Google Ads practitioner scope to humanise what would be, under other circumstances, anonymous clicks and site visits. With audience lists, we can begin to attribute the interests and user journeys to that which eventually led consumers to land on clients’ sites and warmly beckon shoppers back to the site by using re-marketing lists, when their casual browsing took them elsewhere. Such a powerful tool, whilst fairly straight foreword to set up, did involve a decidedly manual process, but this is no longer the case.
Alongside a new feature called Continuous Audience Sharing launched by Google last month, we can now set up audience lists within manager and sub accounts far quicker than ever before. Account managers can simply flick a switch (pictured below) and all audience lists previously set up in the manager account will then be shared across all sub accounts.
Where more pressing account priorities meant that not all audience lists could be set up in every campaign of every account, Google have saved us not only time, but also a series of missed opportunities in the form of an unprecedented level of demographic data and user targeting. And what’s more, the advertiser maintains full control of which audience lists are active.
Just on a final note: The speed with which audience lists can now be set up across accounts does present great opportunities to save on time through automation, but don’t forget that you may be sharing confidential or proprietary information in the process.
It’s therefore paramount to make sure that all privacy policies for an account are taken into consideration before sharing is activated.
We revel in the idea of a digital world. Saving paper saves the trees and in turn, saves media suppliers on production costs! And what’s better than buying one digital screen? Securing two digital screens!
In their recent upfronts 2020 conference, JCDecaux, the pioneer for outdoor media have announced their plans to bridge the gap between OOH and the digital world. The Brand Gap 2 report aims to take the reins on both branding and activation. Brands can expect a unified synergy between what consumers see on public and private screens, making for a stronger, longer impression.
JCD has teamed with Lumen, a cutting-edge eye-tracking technology company set to make waves in the digital world, tapping into some previously ambiguous insights. In a two-screen world, the cross-channel strategy allows for a consistent image to be displayed on more than one screen such as an outdoor digital 6 screen and a mobile phone. In effect, the brand campaign resonates with the consumer from the minute they wake up to the minute they go to back to bed. Screen time exists profoundly in our lives, fed through our phones, our commutes and our work. Building a two-screen campaign creates a persistent message without being too pushy. Picture this – you scroll through Facebook on your way to work, your phone dies as you get to the train station, causing you to look for some passenger information point. During your commute, you find a digital passenger information point. And what’s the creative message beside it? The same advert you saw on Facebook earlier in the day.
The highly targeted, cross-channel strategy not only encourages awareness but consideration and sales. Implementing a trusted narrative, then sharing it across both OOH and Facebook formats has seen a 13% increase in the likelihood to purchase as well as the 6% uplift in actual sales. Studies show the propensity to purchase products increases across Gen Z and Millennial audiences when both OOH and digital formats are active. The brand image is viewed the first time, recognised the second and by the third/fourth view recognised, remembered and recalled. The memory becomes a motif displayed across various screens, prompting the target audience towards the lower end of the sales funnel.
In their October conference, CEO of JCDecaux UK announced ‘out-of-home can act as a primer to make the private screen more engaging and work harder’ – driving consideration and descending into the lower end of the sales funnel. Now that 57% of viewable media is on the same aspect ratio (vertical six-sheet), brands mould their adverts to fit around the audience’s routine. Geofencing pinpoints the perfect audience, where there’s no escaping the programmatic messaging. Take Virgin Active, they have over 30 clubs in Greater London and wanted to target people that are regularly seen in close proximity to their sites. Geotargeting helped to gain leverage of a highly connected audience, maximise the relevance of their messaging and achieve performance uplift from proactive brand activity. Out-of-home media not only primes but permeates the digital world with familiarity and trust.
Watch this (vertical) space as the gap between our private and public worlds collapses. Experience a flawless brand activation proven to stimulate the consideration stage of a highly targeted audience and, in turn, increase sales conversions.
In a further push to make websites take loading speeds seriously, Google have announced a new range of plans to help pre-warn users on how quickly or slowly a site may load.
“We think the web can do better and want to help users understand when a site may load slowly, while rewarding sites delivering fast experiences.” – Addy Osmani, Ben Greenstein and Bryan McQuade from the Chrome team
The plans include the rollout of warning messages within load screens on slower websites, alongside a new green progress bar for sites with faster load times, both seen in the examples below:
Rather than implement strict criteria for what is and isn’t a fast site immediately, Google plan to gradually increase this over time. Google’s long-term goal is to clearly badge sites that load quickly or slowly for users, with further plans to expand the badging of sites to cover a range of signals beyond just site speed.
Google recommend using the following resources to help identify areas where improvements to site speed can be made:
These additional resources will be able to provide valuable insights on page speed performance, and can be used alongside Google’s own resources.
Check out our latest SEO and Social Media market updates for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with us today.
Testing the Malleability of OOH Media in a Transitional Digital World.
For years outdoor media has remained solid yet stagnant. Time may change but the reliability of a forty-foot poster has rarely been questioned. Without realising it, we are subject to ads in our outdoor life hundreds of times a week. They have become part of our daily commute, local environment and city architecture. But, as we journey further into the digital age, we are no longer accustomed to taking in our surroundings. Instead, we are increasingly more concerned with the world at our fingertips. Since the growth of digital media, outdoor media must work harder to gain the attention of the average consumer. Today billboards must compete with their immediate surroundings, alongside online traffic.
In today’s society, outdoor media is striving to be brighter, bolder and smarter than ever. Traditional billboard sites are being replaced by digital screens on a weekly basis. These screens offer the opportunity for more impressions, many creatives and a mix of ads every minute. So what is the latest step in the plight of OOH (out-of-home) media? Meet the iWalker by GOMO…
The iWalker is a wearable digital communication tool that moves with your audience. The device acts as a harness supporting a large screen above the head of the wearer. It also has speakers pumping music of the companies’ choice to the surrounding crowds. The device is eye-catching and attention-seeking. Used in the right location it represents a hybrid of events based promotion and outdoor media.
The selling point of the iWalker is, at present, the spectacle of it. The device catches the attention and not the eye of crowds, and in return, the device absorbs the data of the crowds. When presented with a scene, the iWalker analyses the situation and obtains data from the surroundings. It has the capacity to do several things, for example, viewer counting. The iWalker can detect all faces in the scene so the number of impressions is reliable and not estimated. It also tracks faces – monitoring how long a face remains in the scene – thus deducing dwell time and attention time. The device can then classify the gender and age of an individual. This means that the post-campaign analytics are tested and reliable thus improving the ROI.
Will the iWalker will prove to be another fad of the media world? Or will it will be as influential as the billboard was? Regardless of opinion, it is pushing the boundaries of outdoor media and offering movement to a static world.
BERT, or the Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers, is the new search algorithm released by Google. BERT is a natural language processor (NLP) that is capable of providing Google with further understanding behind the intention of a search query, rather than relying solely on key terms within the query in order to understand user intention.
This new algorithm is going to allow Google to do a much better job of finding useful information for search queries, particularly for longer, more conversational queries, or searches where prepositions like “for” and “to” matter a lot to the meaning, Search will be able to understand the context of the words in your query.
Looking at the below examples, we can see how BERT is able to understand more complex, content driven search terms, in order to provide more relevant search results.
BERT is currently live for search terms using the English language and Google will be looking to apply this to other languages in the future.Google have labelled BERT as “representing the biggest leap forward in the past five year, and one of the biggest leaps forward in the history of search”. This no understatement from Google, as BERT will work alongside RankBrain and is expected to affect 10% of all search terms, along with affecting structured snippets.
As BERT is a deep learning NLP algorithm that is designed to process and learn how language is used, the only way to optimise content for this is to ensure that content is relevant, informative, useful and most importantly, written for humans.
First things first, if you’re not exactly sure what Pinterest is and how it differs from other social networks, here’s a little summary – Pinterest is basically a virtual pinboard, you can browse millions of images and add them to your virtual ‘board’. Pinterest doesn’t class itself as a social network like Instagram or Facebook – instead, it’s a platform that allows users to feel inspired and plan their dreams. They’re a personal media, rather than social media.
Brands can hugely benefit from Pinterest – firstly, it’s worth noting that Pinterest users visit the platform to get inspired and therefore they’re usually in a positive mindset. Pinners (a nickname for Pinterest users) are usually at the beginning of their buying or planning journey, therefore as a brand, it’s great to be visible at this stage. Pinterest states that 66% of Pinners have made a purchase based on the content they saw from brands on the platform – demonstrating the influence and potential for brands on the platform.
Here at Fusion Unlimited, we had the pleasure of attending an exclusive Pinterest workshop for some of the top independent agencies in the UK. The workshop enabled us to truly explore the ways we can maximize Pinterest’s offering for our clients. Read on to find out the key points we learnt and how you can apply them to your marketing strategy.
What makes a good pin?
Pinterest is a highly visual platform – the first thing to draw the user in is the creative you choose to publish. Therefore, it’s important to create images that are appealing to the user in order to generate as much relevant website traffic that can help you convert. The following tips apply to both paid and organic pins.
High-res and high-quality photos – good quality photos always work best, they’re more aesthetically pleasing and allow the user to see the content best.
Use lifestyle photography as much as possible – lifestyle photography showing your brand’s product is often more effective and attention-grabbing than studio photography.
Seasonal content – Pinterest users often head to the platform to get inspiration for seasonal events like Christmas, interior design, party ideas, fashion advice and more. By creating seasonal content, you can tap into those users and appear for more keywords.
Sized at 1000 x 1500 pixels – creating your Pin this size will ensure that your image is visible and not cropped.
Discreet branding, or none at all – surprisingly the majority of pins (73%) are uploaded by brands. This has allowed brands to have a discreet and sustainable relationship with Pinterest users that allows them to play a key role in helping the pinner achieve their dream – instead of showering them with blatant ads.
Text overlay for promoting content – adding copy to your Pin can give users a better understanding of what the image is promoting and the content behind it.
Include keywords in your title and description – People are reading these, so sentences work best. But Pinterest’s robots are also indexing these, so make sure to include high volume keywords.
Promoting your product on Pinterest
Now that we know what makes a good pin, let’s put it into practice. As you can see, the image below is overly branded and doesn’t inspire the user in any way. This sort of image could be used for other social networks or ads but doesn’t work best for Pinterest and its audience. Pinterest users come to the platform to feel inspired, rather than to be advertised to.
The next two images are created with Pinterest in mind. Let’s assume that the image on the left is advertising the dress and the image on the right is adverting the trainers – the products are clearly on display in a non-branded and lifestyle environment. They resonate with the user and have the potential to inspire them, increasing the likelihood of them interacting with the pin.
When you click on an available product, the following appears for the user. Therefore the user can go directly to the brand’s website to buy the product or find out more.
Promoting content on Pinterest
Promoting website content is a little different than promoting a product. Using a text overlay can be a great way to let users know exactly what the content is about and direct users to your website’s content.
Let’s see an example of some creative with and without a text overlay. The image on the left doesn’t tell the user what the content is about, therefore you may get traffic to your website, but not necessarily relevant traffic from users that are willing to interact with your content.
The image on the right tells the user exactly what the content is about and therefore has a stronger CTA. Increasing the likelihood of directing relevant traffic to your website.
The shelf life of a pin is approximately 103 days, so it’s good to consider this when creating the content that will advertise your product.
If you want to start creating a Pinterest strategy or schedule, Pinterest has a range of resources for brands to utilize on their business website. Alternatively, if you’re interested in finding out about the power of Pinterest and what it can do for your retail brand, get in touch with our team today.
ComScore predicts that by 2020 50% of all searches will be performed by voice. This prediction is the foundation of VoiceWorks as a company. It’s very apparent that voice technology is ever-growing and ever-prominent aspect of today’s society – as of this year, 40% of all homes owned a voice-controlled device. Facts like these dramatically affect the way that marketing works presently, it means that instead of seeing an array of results ranked, with companies paying for their place in the ranking, we will now hear just one solid answer.
‘As technology continues to advance, the brands who are prepared for this shift will be the ones who win’ (AdWeek).
VoiceWorks offers 3 different products:
1 – Audio Content: recent years has seen a monumental rise in the number of podcast being created and listened to on a frequent basis. VoiceWorks can develop and produces podcasts, flash briefings and streamed audio for brands. A highly successful recent example of this is Pretty Little Things’ Podcast which received over 70,000 listens with just 3 podcasts.
2 – Audio Creativity & Branding: Possessing sonic branding allows businesses to exist within the world of audio. VoiceWorks helps brands find and develop their audio brand and sonic branding. Statistics say that 86% of brands rely on visual branding, whilst only 17% have audio brand guidelines. This means that brands savvy enough to focus more on audio have the potential to possess a wider portion of the market. Those with memorable jingles are those who stand out, the embedded memory of Hastings Direct’s telephone number is a testament to this.
3 – Voice Search & Voice Skills: VoiceWorks will develop Voice Skills for brands to interact and transact with customers and assist clients to navigate the use of smart devices. This allows your business to become the answer to Alexa’s questions.
The main message of the presentation stands; the audio revolution is nigh and only the savviest of businesses will find themselves on the right side of it
Google has announced that they will be cracking down on page resources in order to ensure that https pages can only load https sub-resources. This change is going to be gradually enforced in different steps throughout the next few updates of their browser, from Chrome 79 to Chrome 81 (We are currently on Chrome 77).
These steps will be implemented as below:
In Chrome 79, releasing to a stable channel in December 2019, Google will introduce a new setting to unblock mixed content on specific sites. This setting will apply to mixed scripts, iframes, and other types of content that Chrome currently blocks by default. Users can toggle this setting by clicking the lock icon on any https:// page and clicking Site Settings. This will replace the shield icon that shows up at the right side of the omnibox for unblocking mixed content in previous versions of desktop Chrome.
In Chrome 80, mixed audio and video resources will be auto-upgraded to https://, and Chrome will block them by default if they fail to load over https://. Chrome 80 will be released to early release channels in January 2020. Users can unblock affected audio and video resources with the setting described above.
Also in Chrome 80, mixed images will still be allowed to load, but they will cause Chrome to show a “Not Secure” chip in the omnibox. We anticipate that this is a clearer security UI for users and that it will motivate websites to migrate their images to HTTPS. Developers can use the upgrade-insecure-requests or block-all-mixed-content Content Security Policy directives to avoid this warning.
In Chrome 81, mixed images will be auto-upgraded to https://, and Chrome will block them by default if they fail to load over https://. Chrome 81 will be released to early release channels in February 2020.
Ensuring that all resources are migrated to https can be done within a CDN, web host or content management system. We would recommend focusing on migrating these in the order that they will be blocked within Google Chrome:
Scripts, iFrames will be targeted in December 2019
Audio, video and images will be targeted in January 2020
This is important because any non-secure resource could be blocked by Chrome – including images, videos, audio, JavaSript/CSS files, and even tracking pixels and scripts, both internally and externally hosted.
Chrome is still the leading browser across all devices and is currently standing at 63.72%, with the closest competitor being Safari, at 16.34% market share. It’s plausible that other browsers could follow suit and also block mixed content.
We would recommend that all resources are migrated to https as soon as possible, as this will remove the risk of users not being able to correctly view your site and will also ensure that your content is not blocked by Google in January 2020 when they remove the option to unblock resources.
It will come as no surprise that when Google updated its 14 year nofollow link attribute value on 10th September it caused quite the stir in the world of SEO.
This update sees an extension to the well-recognised nofollow tag, broken down by Google as follows:
rel=”sponsored”: Use the sponsored attribute to identify links on your site that were created as part of advertisements, sponsorships or other compensation agreements.
rel=”ugc”: UGC stands for User Generated Content, and the ugc attribute value is recommended for links within user generated content, such as comments and forum posts.
rel=”nofollow”: Use this attribute for cases where you want to link to a page but don’t want to imply any type of endorsement, including passing along ranking credit to another page.
Historically, the nofollow tag was initially introduced by Google to help prevent comment spam, latterly this update is regarded as a way for website owners to tell Google to ignore the link. In other words, the link wouldn’t be crawled and it wouldn’t be used as an indication to help improve rankings. It therefore became a common way for websites to still acknowledge guest blog posts, partnered or sponsored content without losing any of their site equity.
What’s changed and why does this matter?
However in the new update this view of ‘nofollow’ tags and the introduction of two new tags ‘sponsored’ and ‘ugc’ Google seems to have changed its mind stating:
“All the link attributes — sponsored, UGC and nofollow — are treated as hints about which links to consider or exclude within Search. We’ll use these hints — along with other signals — as a way to better understand how to appropriately analyze and use links within our systems.”
The idea that it could be a ‘hint’ is great news for websites looking to earn links and increase their backlink portfolio, what was once a redundant link is now being used as a ‘hint’ for ranking.
Google has made it clear that websites don’t need to update old nofollow tags to follow the new structure but instead this can be introduced by websites who want to be more granular in their link tags.
You took time to ask a client if they would adopt something no one said you needed to do? Again, this is a voluntary outside of sponsored links. If people *want* to use more granular identification, those who *do want* can do so. If you don’t, don’t. https://t.co/rMmSrUHaSQpic.twitter.com/hbNMgPaxtd
Furthermore, as of March 2020 Google has also suggested they may begin using this collection of nofollow, sponsored and ugc link attributes for crawling and indexing.
Moz have produced a simple analysis of this change which helps demonstrate before, now and how this will change again from March 2020.
If you have any questions about the impact of linkbuilding our door is always open…
The ICO recently updated its advice on cookie use, primarily moving from implied user acceptance basis to explicit opt-in for “non-essential” cookies, under which analytics and marketing cookies fall. This obviously has deep implications for the tracking efforts of online businesses. This post will look at what the updated advice says, and what steps businesses should take.
The new guidance is set by the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) – a full guide is available at the ICO website and can be downloaded as a PDF for reference.
What are the key takeaways from the new advice?
You must tell users about all cookies used and what they do
In the recent past, it has been acceptable to have user consent of cookies implied by continued use of a website or app. Implied consent is no longer compliant – users must freely give explicit consent.
Necessary cookies are exempt, but analytics cookies aren’t deemed necessary
Revoking consent should be as simple as giving consent
Whatever mechanism is provided for the user to provide their consent should be easily accessible to revoke this consent at any time.
“Cookie walls” are not considered freely given consent
A cookie wall refers to the act of blocking usage of a website or app if the user doesn’t consent to cookie policy. This is against the guidelines, as consent must be given “freely” – a cookie wall is considered enforced consent.
New guidance sits alongside GDPR
PECR compliance needs to be considered before GDPR compliance – GDPR compliance is then applied to any cookies that deal with personally identifiable data.
Who’s doing well?
Predictably, the ICO are showcasing best practise with a large pop-up, clearly outlining the difference between necessary and analytics cookies, and providing an opt-in for analytics cookies. The “C” icon at the bottom left follows the user throughout the site and can be clicked to open the pop-up to change policy acceptance at any time.
The pop-out interface used by the ICO is a plugin provided by https://www.civicuk.com/cookie-control, which is customisable to cover marketing and social sharing cookies in addition to analytics, as shown on their own website.
Cookiebot is used by some of our clients thanks to its simple WordPress plugin. Their plugin can be seen in action at Cookiebot.com and shows the explanatory detail required alongside opt-in tick boxes. Clicking “Show details” gives the detail of exactly which cookies are used, and what for.
Are you at risk?
One of the debates now is whether these new guidelines will be enforced, or even if they are enforceable – the ICO advice for non-compliance is quite woolly in terms of who could be penalised and what the punishment could be. Whilst the above examples show us what good might look like, we are seeing relatively little uptake in the wider world – either because organisations are accepting the risk, or because the relatively low key announcement has been missed by many.
This article isn’t exhaustive and shouldn’t be used as the basis of a compliance policy. Our advice would be to absorb the full guidelines from the ICO and take legal advice on the next steps to take.
Social media advertising has come a long way in recent years
and has developed into a hugely lucrative marketing platform, whether that be
through paid ads or through social media influencers.
Read on to find out what influencer
marketing actually means, including examples of when it’s done the right way
and the wrong way. We’ll also summarise the ASA’s
influencer guide, so as an influencer or brand, you’ll know how to
legally promote brands through social media without having the ASA slide into
your DMs.
What is a social media influencer?
A social media influencer is an influential person who usually
associates themselves with a particular niche like fashion, food, travel or
something even more particular. The influencer will usually have some sort of
authority, position, knowledge or skill associated with that niche which helps
them generate a large following.
Originally, the influencer
marketing job spec was very much associated with celebrities as it usually
meant they came with a large following and therefore could influence those to
make purchases for a particular brand.
However, nowadays brands are
gravitating towards bloggers and micro-influencers (someone who has between
2,000 and 50,000 followers) to represent their brands as they usually have a
more authentic relationship with their followers by often engaging and
connecting with their audience, which means brands working with them could see
a higher ROI. They also usually come with a much smaller price tag and
therefore making it accessible for even smaller brands to advertise in this
way.
Influencer marketing by the book
The discreetness around social media influencers is quickly
disappearing – a 2018 survey by Bazaar
voice revealed that 49% of people would like to see ad regulators,
like the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA), enforce stricter rules for
sponsored influencer posts on social media platforms.
The ASA has now made a detailed guide which defines exactly
how influencers should display their posts if they are advertising a product or
working with a brand. Let’s have a look at some of the key findings from the
guide:
If
a brand pays an influencer to promote their brand – either in cash, products,
gifts, services, trips, hotel stays etc. – AND asserts some sort of control
over the post – whether that be how many posts and what time you publish the
post, what’s included in the image or caption, hashtags to use, key messages or
caption write up etc. – then this is considered an ad.
If
the influencer has any sort of commercial relationship with a brand i.e. as an ambassador
or even if someone was promoting their own brand on their personal channels,
this also qualifies as an ad.
If
a brand has provided some sort of payment to an influencer and has some control/influence
on the post, the influencer must make it obvious to their following that it is
an ad. The ASA recognises the following labels and hashtags to be used in a
post where an influencer is promoting another product or business.
Ad/#Ad
Advert/#Advert
Advertising/#Advertising
Advertisement/#Advertisement
Advertisement Feature
If
a brand has paid an influencer in some way, whether that be through free
products or vouchers etc. but the brand has not asserted any control on what/if
they post, this would not be considered an ad, but instead a sponsorship. The
ASA is unlikely to pursue any complaints related to a sponsorship. But
regulations still apply to these posts by the Competition and Markets Authority
(CMA) who expects influencers to disclose when they have received any sort of ‘payment’
which gives them an incentive to post. This
is when you’ll see influencers use terms such as gifted/#gifted and gift/#gift.
The ASA recommends putting an ad label
or hashtag at the beginning of your post so readers are fully aware of the
nature of the post, the influencer guide states “burying the label in a sea of hashtags or putting it where it can only
be seen by clicking ‘see more’ or clicking to view the full post, probably
isn’t going to cut it. We recommend including it ‘at the beginning”.
You can read the ASA’s full influencer’s guide here.
Now that we know the gist of the guide, let’s put the ASA’s regulation into practice. Firstly, let’s look at a couple of examples of when an influencer has promoted a brand the correct way:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BuKKqOnnMMM/
And now, a couple of examples of when influencers haven’t quite followed the rules and as a result, have been warned by the ASA:
The ASA gave Louise an official warning as she had not followed to official guidelines by letting her followers know that her post or story was an ad. She then changed the post to ensure it followed the guidelines and displays Instagram’s paid partnership with function.
Important takeaways for brands
Ensure you are clear with the influencer and advise appropriately when you brief them to ensure the ASA can’t blame you in any way if the influencer has decided not to follow the guidelines.
With more people becoming aware of advertising, it’s important to choose influencers that you think would genuinely be interested in your product or brand – this usually means that you’ll get a higher engagement rate and potentially bigger ROI.
Choose an influencer that engages with their followers and provides quality content – ultimately someone that you would be happy to represent your brand or product and that demonstrates the same values as your brand.
Look through the influencers previous ads to see how they display the content. Ads that are a lot more discreet tend to do better than just a picture of your product.
Finally, influencer marketing is hugely successful and can completely transform your brand when done properly. Try it out and see how well it works for you.
Join Fusion’s SEO team as they round up last month’s major industry updates.
GOOGLE’S DE-INDEXING ISSUES
At the
start of April, Google was found to have had with de-indexing pages for many
sites, with both Moz’s
and
SEMRush’s Google ranking trackers picking up on a change in page
rankings across the web.
We're aware of indexing issues that impacted some sites beginning on Friday. We believe the issues are mostly resolved and don't require any special efforts on the part of site owners. We'll provide another update when the issues are considered fully resolved.
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) April 7, 2019
Google also
seemed to have an issue with fully resolving this. After confirming on 10th
April that this issue was fully resolved, many users still reported having
issues with getting their pages indexed again. We have since received notification
from Google that these issues have now been resolved.
GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE ADDS ANDROID APP TO SEARCH APPEARANCE FILTERS
On 8th
April Google announced, via their Webmasters Twitter account, that users
with an Android app associated with a website will now have the ability to
filter the app’s performance within the performance report, via the search
appearance filter.
Activating
this filter will display the clicks, impressions, CTR and average position for
the sites Android app.
NEW GOOGLE DISCOVER PERFORMANCE REPORTS
Google
Discover was
released in September 2018, as an upgrade of Google Feed.
Google Discover delivers relevant content to a user based on their interest and
browsing habits, including articles and video, along with featured snippets of
information from different sites.
Within Google
Search Console, a new performance report is now available, showing
how sites perform within Discover. This is only available to for properties
that have reached a threshold number of Discover impressions in the past 16
months.
This
performance report will allow users to view Discover performance within the
same format as the current search report, including filters and dimensions such
as country and page.
CREATE CUSTOM SHORT URLS IN GOOGLE MY BUSINESS
Google My Business users now have the ability to
create a short name and URL
for their business profile. Short URLs will be in the format of “g.page/[yourcustomname]”,
and will make it easier to customers to access a business’ profile directly.
GOOGLE MAY RELEASE PAID FEATURES FOR GOOGLE MY BUSINESS
Google My
Business users started receiving questionnaires from Google this month, asking
how much they would pay for services are already provided for free within Google
My Business, such as business listings. The questionnaires also provided a list
of packages that may become available for users to purchase in the future,
asking users which one they would prefer.
Google also
provided a list of the features within the packages they think could enhance a
business’ presence, which may be added as paid services in the future. These
include:
Promoted map pin: Show up prominently on Google Maps
when a customer is looking at a map where your business in located
“Book” button on your Business
Profile: Get an
extra button on your business profile titles “book”. Google shows customers
your availability (synced with your calendar system if you have one). Customers
can either confirm a booking or request a timeslot.
Promote your “book” button: Get a “book” button on the
Google.com search results, in addition to your Business Profile.
Verified reviews: Google verifies your reviews and
shows an indication to consumers that your reviews are verified to help build
trust in your business.
Remove ads from your Business
Profile: Ads from
other businesses will not appear on your Business Profile.
Verified Licenses: Google verifies your trade licenses
and displays your verified licenses on your Business Profile.
Request quote: Get a “request quote” button on your
Business Profile. Customers will enter details about their job. Requests come
to you as a message in the Google My Business app.
Automated message responses: Answer some frequently asked
questions (hours, services offered) so Google can respond automatically to
customers on your behalf.
Automated response for reviews: Create messages so Google can
automatically respond on your behalf to customers who leave a review.
Call reports and recordings: Get access to reports and recordings
for all of your calls from Google My Business. This lets you evaluate quality
and volume.
Google search results placement: Show up in a section near the top of
the list on the Google.com search results.
Google customer support: Google’s customer support team helps
you troubleshoot and get the most from your ad and Business Profile.
Offers: Promote a special offer or discount on your
Business Profile.
Google Guarantee: Get a badge of trust on your
Business Profile. If a customer isn’t satisfied, Google will give them their
money back.
Get leads from competitor profiles: When a customer messages a business
that offers the same service as you, Google will show your business to the
customer so they can message you too. This will help you get more leads from
Google.
Video on your Business Profile: Shows a video of your choice on your
Business Profile to help customers learn more about your business.
Instant quote: Respond to customer quote requests
with an automatic quote. You can customise the quote based on the details on
the job.
Background check: Google performs a background check
on your business, and shows this to consumers to build trust in your business.
Verified bookings: Google automatically tracks the
bookings you’ve received from Google calls and messages, and shows this number
to customers.
Featured review: Choose a review to display at the
top on your Business Profile.
This is an
extremely extensive list of features that Google is considering providing to
paid users, with many features that will provide a large benefit to a listings
local search presence.
GOOGLE DATA STUDIO UPDATES
Google Data Studio rolled out many new features over
the past month, including:
Recent
weeks also saw the implementation of chart drill-down,
allowing users to define hierarchies within Cartesian charts, and allow these
charts to be switched between hierarchies on view mode, such as switching from
an annual view, to a monthly view, to a daily view.
Within the
above chart, users can see sessions by month, by right clicking on the chart or
using the charts component heading, users will have the ability to drill up
(view sessions by year), or drill down (view sessions by day). Users will also
be able to apply a sort to these results.
Prolific North’s Northern Digital Awards 2019 will take place on the 31st January and here at Fusion HQ we’re delighted to have been nominated for ‘Search Agency of the Year’ for the second time.
We’ve also been recognised for our unique SEO software, Natural Edge, which has been nominated for ‘Best Digital Tool or Software’, and we couldn’t be more proud of the recognition that Natural Edge has received.
We thought it might be a good idea to explain a little more about our Natural Edge software and how it is helping give our clients a competitive edge in an increasingly competitive SEO marketplace.
Background
As an SEO team, a key part of our day-to-day activity is keeping our clients ahead of the curve in organic search – and outranking their competitors. If a prospective customer searches for a cycling related keyword, for example, then we’d want our bike retailing client to be among the first to appear, with high visibility in all the right places.
Several years ago, we sought out SEO software that would be able to assist with doing this – for ourselves and our clients. It needed to be adaptable to algorithmic changes (like the increasing prominence of localised search), flexible from a pricing point-of-view, and offer clear reporting metrics that clients could use to inform the KPIs they set and the ROI of our services.
However, the tools we looked into didn’t meet our clients’ needs. Ranking software would only give you your keyword position without considering how much traffic you would gain, for example. It might only benchmark a small set of competitors, or keywords would be looked at in isolation rather than holistically, missing out on larger insights that can truly drive a strategy forward.
Instead of spending big on little return, we invested in proprietary technology of our own, building a highly adaptable and cost-effective suite that could tailor bespoke solutions for our clients’ needs – giving them the Natural Edge required in order to shine.
What can Natural Edge do?
Natural Edge was nominated for the award on the basis of its versatility and the range of benefits it offers to its users – and our clients. However, here are just some of the highlights:
See the bigger picture
It’s easy to become obsessed with individual keywords.
Natural Edge identifies every site ranked on the first page for each relevant keyword in each location, and uses our proprietary algorithm to calculate how much traffic a site will earn from its positions. Natural Edge collates all of this data and presents a league table ordered by the highest traffic drivers, so that results are easy to understand and analyse.
Identify true competition
Competitors in search are very different to competitors in daily business life. In fact, the majority of brands are competing with companies they’d be incredibly surprised by.
Natural Edge benchmarks clients against anyone who ranks on the first page for specified keywords in every location they have presence. Finding out who you’re up against has never been clearer.
This provides a range of opportunities for growth, from identifying high priority keywords to target, inspiring new content ideas and analysing competitor backlinks to spot potential partners.
Understand what drives competitor visibility
While some sites rank for dozens of long-tail keywords, others rank highly for a couple of high volume phrases.
Natural Edge tells you how competitors have built their market share, allowing you to flesh out your digital strategy with key industry insights.
Understand local performance
Natural Edge offers highly localised insights, highlighting the composition of organic search results by identifying the number of localised and map results generated at a keyword level. A client can enter their locations into Natural Edge, thereby identifying generic keywords that create local results, and identify share of voice and individual keyword rankings for each of those locations.
Why we’re so proud to be up for nomination
At Fusion, we’ve been working with award-winning retail clients for over twenty years, delivering exceptional service with demonstrated ROI whilst using best-in-class innovation to create unique solutions to today’s digital problems.
Natural Edge is just one example of how our team’s outside-the-box thinking, and we’re beyond chuffed that our hard work and expertise is being acknowledged by one of the region’s leading authorities in the field.
Greatest of all, however, is the fact that it’s a testament to our team’s quality and ability, as a cutting-edge independent agency producing award-nominated software, and investing in genuinely pioneering solutions to achieve our clients’ goals.
Interested in what our services can do for you? Get in touch with the Fusion team today at hello@fusionunlimited.co.uk or learn more about Fusion Natural Edge here.
We’re delighted to announce that Fusion Unlimited have been nominated for 2 awards in Prolific North’s Northern Digital Awards 2019.
The fantastic news has seen us secure nominations for the “Best Digital Tool or Software Category” and for “Search Agency of the Year”.
Our team are proud to be recognised for our approach to delivering innovative search marketing campaigns with performance at the forefront of mind. We’re constantly seeking news ways to achieve market standout for our clients, be it through our own proprietary software, Natural Edge, or through rigorous testing programmes.
September saw some significant updates arrive on Instagram.
Though many of the changes focus on improving the experience of regular Instagram users, there’re also several changes of note to help marketers and businesses perform – and convert – on the channel.
Let’s have a look at some of the key changes, as well as what we can expect to arrive on the channel in the near future.
Recent updates
Convert from Stories with product tagging
One of the most significant updates on the channel is the introduction of product tagging in Story posts.
This’ll work similarly to product tagging on regular IG posts. Businesses can directly link a URL to the product that appears on their stories, and users can then click on the tag to be re-directed to the product landing page.
This functionality creates an easy buying experience for the user, and a brand new avenue for businesses to gain sales with vivid creative content. It’s just another sign of Instagram becoming a highly viable choice for marketing!
GIFs slide into the DMs
When direct messaging, users can now choose from a selection of trending GIFs.
Simply type a word or phrase that is relevant to the GIF you wish to send and suitable options will appear.
Alternatively, users can click on the mysterious ‘random’ button for an Instagram generated GIF, passing the creative baton over to the algorithm…
New nametags let you connect with friends more easily than ever
In an effort to put more users in touch with each other, you can now create an Instagram nametag, which works a little like a business card. Simply scan another user’s and you’ll follow them!
This new feature is particularly handy when meeting someone new as you can easily exchange details and follow each other with a simple scan. It’s an incredibly intuitive new addition to the app’s UX.
What’s next?
As well as new updates, there are also plenty of Instagram changes in the works. Let’s have a look at a few of the things that’re keeping the Instagram team so busy:
Shopping channels arrive in Explore
You will soon be seeing a shopping box in the explore section of Instagram. It will potentially put more e-commerce businesses in touch with relevant users. It will also allow users to explore and gain inspiration from exciting, unfamiliar brands.
Instagram takes stand against bullying
A few months ago, Instagram introduced a bullying comment filter which proactively hides and detects negative comments from feeds, profiles and the explore feature.
The bullying comment filter allows users to customise their blocking preferences or leave it to Instagram to automatically filter offensive comments out.
Instagram will now be applying this feature to comments on live videos.
Tag followers in Videos
Instagram has confirmed that soon you will be able to tag followers in videos, similarly to how you would in photos.
Connecting Students
The social network has announced that they are working towards making it easier for students studying at the same institution to connect via the social network. This is currently being tested at select universities the USA.
This feature will allow users to add their university details – including graduation year, course and any teams/societies they were part of. Instagram will then create a University directory that can be filtered by year, making it easy for current and alumni students to connect and message each other.
This is something that’s long been a part of the Facebook experience, so it’s cool to see it arrive on the Gram, too.
Channel bids #goodbye to #hashtags
According to a TechCrunch report Instagram is considering disabling hashtags from captions in an attempt to limit the heavy use of hashtags within the post caption, resulting in the text being incredibly hard to read. Instead, there would be a ‘add hashtags’ option under the caption composer, keeping any hashtags and text separate.
Geo-Restriction for posts and stories
Instagram is testing geofencing posts and stories.
It allows creators to limit the specific countries where their content will be visible. pic.twitter.com/rRE24BPnkj
Instagram is testing a geo-restriction feature which will allow users to restrict their posts and stories to selected countries, rather than being universally available. Marketers will be able to choose what countries they wish to show or hide their content to.
Now that you are officially clued up on the latest Instagram features – stay tuned for the latest digital marketing updates that can drive your website and sales.
Join Fusion’s content team as they take to the stars for an in-depth look at one of social media’s most surreal but successful brands: American marshmallow-cookie makers, MoonPie.
As in our analysis of Spotify’s 2017 Wrapped, we’ll explore how the MoonPie cookie crumbles and highlights the lessons that other brands can use to inform their own approach to social media success.
How does MoonPie work?
MoonPie’s Twitter – as comic as it is cosmic – is truly a channel of the third kind, a meteor shower of eclectic jokes, sassy asides and graphics cooked up in an MS Paint rush. It’s not every day you see a brand complimenting another brand’s looks, literally talking about being a brand, or repeatedly sending semi-ridiculous questions to @NASA:
Meanwhile, whenever a user sends in something strange, the account’s more than happy to get even stranger back (and regularly does so late into the night). The brand’s commitment to its zany sense of humour and meme-based jokes, which are incredibly popular with today’s social media users, is absolutely unwavering, and departs substantially from how we might ordinarily expect a brand on social to be.
However, hundreds of thousands of likes, retweets and followers later, it’s clear that today’s digital audience has embraced MoonPie’s quirkiness like no other. One particular tweet coinciding with last year’s solar eclipse gained over 500,000 likes and almost 200,000 retweets:
It’s more than apparent, too, that social success has seen sales soar astronomically. Maseena Ziegler for Forbes wrote that, following August 2017’s viral tweet, US ‘demand for the product […] exceeded production capacity for the first time in decades’. Soon after, in September 2017, MoonPie’s sales hit the highest on record in the company’s one-hundred-year history.
When scrolling through MoonPie’s Twitter feed, it’d be easy to perceive all this success as being purely aleatory, as if they piloted their account bravely into the void – leaving strategy and ground control in the dust – only to emerge from a black hole with a winning formula completely by chance. And yet this would also be considerably short-sighted, for although MoonPie’s creators have said in interview that they’ve certainly required more creative freedom than usual to deliver their creative vision in full, the channel’s success is a consequence of exceptional strategic thinking which takes many cues from traditional advertising best practice.
David Ogilvy, one of advertising’s all-time greats, famously said that ‘if you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think’. If you apply this filter to MoonPie, it becomes apparent that their decisions surrounding tone of voice, engagement and creative quality signify a masterful use of the ‘language in which [its target audience] thinks’. By getting weird on social, following in the footsteps of its target audience (young social media users), and posting high quality creative that’s as fun as anything anyone will find elsewhere on their feed, all sense of the MoonPie Twitter belonging to a brand vanishes, becoming eclipsed by the sheer emotional response that the brand elicits – namely, laughter and joy. Ultimately, the channel leaves its visitors forgetting that they were ever looking at a branded channel in the first place, that the channel’s goal is to promote MoonPie and its products. I don’t think we could put it much better than MoonPie do themselves:
Evolving from heritage to challenger through social
MoonPie’s weirdness is a bold new outlook for a brand that’s been around for over a hundred years. Its appeal was its heritage – think Wagon Wheels in the UK – and its target audience a relatively older purchasing demographic. Needless to say, MoonPie certainly hasn’t always felt at home firing strange clapbacks at strangers across the Internet.
From our point of view, what’s so remarkable about the way the brand has revitalised itself in recent years is that its new-found success was so heavily reliant on its social media strategy. Twitter let MoonPie come to life, express a personality that resonated with a new audience, and flourish. The MoonPie Twitter, in this way, is a real testament to the transformative opportunities that social offers, that, when utilised well, can truly bring brands to life.
Thoughts to take away
• Use social to its full potential, to make your brand a personality.
• Think about what your target-audience values and shape your content to their perspective. This doesn’t mean you need to become as surreal as MoonPie; to the contrary, there are many ways this might be achieved.
• Embrace change – as MoonPie has shown, thinking outside the box for your strategy can be incredibly rewarding.
• And once you start something, commit to it – users value consistency and they’ll be more likely to follow an account when they’re confident about what they’re going to be served!
Throughout the last month, the world has keenly followed all the action taking place at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.
Media outlets and journalists from all across the globe have flocked to the tournament, broadcasting around the clock coverage of all the biggest highs and lows. So too have many of the world’s biggest brands, turning the biggest talking points into social media spectacles, building buzz on the ice and keeping at the fore of the moment’s most compelling conversations.
We’ve rounded up our four favourite instances of brands mixing content with skis and showcasing digital talent on the slopes!
Red Stripe’s new sled for the Jamaican bobsleigh team is on the house
Ever since its debut at the 1988 Games, the Jamaican bobsleigh team has been an iconic fan favourite.
The men’s team failed to qualify for this year’s tournament, but all wasn’t lost for Jamaica, as the female bobsleigh team qualified instead, marking their competitive debut on the international stage.
However, the bobsledders’ time in PyeongChang has been all but plain sleighing. The campaign was beset by off-the-slope disunity and a frosty team spirit, which resulted in the mid-tournament resignation of coach Sanda Kiriasis. To make matters even worse, Kiriasis owned the team’s only sled; her departure made their future prospects look incredibly slim.
When it all seemed to be going downhill at near-terminal velocity, Jamaican beer brand Red Stripe stepped in to save the day. The brand reached out to the team via a Twitter @ mention with the generous proposal of gifting them a brand new sled of their own with no strings attached, which was a sizable financial commitment at around £40,000. An amusing Twitter exchange between the brand and team ensued:
The advent of social media changed the relationship between sports and its fans forever. Today, 24/7 coverage and content creation from teams and journalists alike means there’s never been less of a delay between a newsworthy event happening and fans knowing about it.
To this end, sports media giant Eurosport saw the 2018 Winter Olympics as a chance to deliver the first ever completely digitalised Olympic Games.
Eurosport partnered with global ad agency Wasserman, and subdivision Cycle Media, to conceptualise and execute a compelling ‘always on’ digital strategy for the brand’s social portfolio, creating highly responsive content for fans’ entertainment and driving huge volumes of reach and engagement for the Eurosport social channels.
Jonathan Davies, managing director of advertiser partnerships at Eurosport, said that ‘this partnership brings together Eurosport’s outstanding Olympic Games content and audiences with Cycle’s cutting-edge creativity in the social space – giving brands the opportunity to produce bespoke content that engages with younger audiences in new and innovative ways’.
See a few examples of the content they produced below!
It's been described as the biggest upset in the history of the Winter Olympic Games. Listen to the reaction of Eurosport commentators from across Europe to Ester Ledecka's sensational win in the women's Super-G yesterday.#PyeongChang2018#Olympics#Ledeckapic.twitter.com/OvgOHuPAV0
— Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe (@WBDsports) February 18, 2018
She is the American superstar who has 41 World Cup wins to her name at the age of 22.
The women's slalom starts from 0215 CET tomorrow morning.
— Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe (@WBDsports) February 13, 2018
NBC calls for an Uber (and sends a Snap)
Eurosports have led the way in European coverage of the Games, and NBC have been putting in a similar shift for their North American viewers, reporting on the action around the clock and creating digital content for users to interact with.
To place their content in front of as wide an audience as possible, the broadcast organisation partnered with global transport company Uber, in a digital campaign that enabled Uber passengers to access exclusive NBC highlights and interviews from the Uber app while in transit.
‘We’re excited to partner with Uber to reach Olympic fans on the go’, said Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics. ‘Through great partner platforms such as Uber, NBC is able to fuel the Olympic excitement by surrounding the American audience with the great moments and stories unfolding in Pyeongchang.’
To complement this, NBC have also become the world’s first company to directly stream Olympic action through Snapchat.
‘We do believe that the best place to watch a live game and a live awards show is on television’, Ben Schwerin, vice president of partnerships at Snap, told The Wall Street Journal. ‘But if we can show the one moment that matters most on Snapchat, we think we can create a complementary experience’.
It’s interesting to see how the world’s biggest digital channels take to the phenomenon of streaming live events and matches; we’re sure this is something that will only grow more and more prevalent in the build-up to this summer’s World Cup.
P&G pushes back against prejudice with emotional TV spot
However, the brand – an Olympic Games official partner – recently demonstrated how on-point their advertising strategy so often is with an incredibly moving TV ad celebrating the diversity of the tournament’s myriad competitors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSWyrR4gXkw
It’s a brilliant piece of creative, which masterfully gets right the precarious equilibrium of channeling emotion and becoming overly sentimental whilst championing a powerful and relevant message.
Thanks for reading! We’ll be back next month with more.
Throughout the month, join Fusion’s SEO, social and content teams as they explore how 2018 will shape up for digital marketing.
To start, we’ve identified the challenges of the year ahead and how the content we’re creating will change in response to developments both inside and outside our field.
Closing the book on machines
For a large part of SEO’s history, keywords have been an essential part of Google’s ranking equation.
Initially (and in the most basic of terms), if a site contained myriad mentions of the word ‘cat’, Google’s crawlers—its machine readers which continuously scan the web for new pages and changes in sites’ infrastructure—would determine it to be a useful source of cat-related content and raise its ranking position for cat relevant search queries accordingly.
Because of this, many SEOs would create content that tactically targeted keywords with an extremely close focus, which was often at the cost of scansion and readability. In essence, content was being created to be legible not for humans but Google’s bookworm machines.
Over the years, Google’s algorithm has been continuously refined, to the extent where ranking determination has become the responsibility of an incredibly sophisticated artificial intelligence, which is capable of judging content quality with a critical eye that’s very similar to human thought.
As entertaining as it might have been for Google’s hivemind to tirelessly wade through gigabyte upon gigabyte of keyword-dense articles, Google has now decided to minimise the bearing of keyword presence on ranking position. If a site’s content is unsuitable for human comprehension, Google will now deem its value to be much lower and ranking will be lowered in kind.
This marks a major (and much-needed) change to the field. Ranking will now be much harder to game through content that focuses solely on uncompetitive keywords and high-volume search queries. Instead, in order to have the desired SEO effect and be high quality, content must provide genuine insight that’s intelligible for human readers.
Following this, we expect all content writers to turn towards longer form pieces, covering articles comprehensively rather than merely flooding pages with now inert keywords. As a consequence, the web should become much richer with higher quality content, which will be great for both brands and users alike.
Lights, cameras, content
In line with the changes to Google’s algorithmic thinking, it’s evident today that legibility and content delivery are more crucial considerations in shaping quality content than ever before.
Traditionally, blogposts have been the most common way of providing web users with information. While we don’t expect them to vanish from the net, we anticipate another format to soon enter the ascendancy across both desktop and mobile browsers: video.
Chiefly, this is because video has one unique advantage over prose: the capacity for delivering information to your audience with greater flair and creativity. This is particularly apparent if your content features the involvement of influential figures – be they social media influencers or star names.
An excellent example of high standards of branded video is the digital offering of current Premier League leaders Manchester City, whose creative form is almost on par with their footballing ability.
City recently became the first team in the UK to accrue one million followers on YouTube, with an account that regularly posts varied and engaging content featuring a range of their star players and staff, such as tunnel footage before and after matches, unique interviews with players and humorous (and slightly off-kilter) seasonal content, like a Christmas singalong with Kolarov.
The channel combines ‘the creativity of De Bruyne, the execution of Aguero and the intelligence of Guardiola‘, said Tomos Grace, YouTube’s head of sport.
In addition, it’s arguable that no form of content has showcased a greater potential for reach than video has in recent years. These could come through social shares to users’ news feeds and timelines or native views on platforms such as YouTube; with over one billion users, the site’s visited by a third of web users worldwide.
The transition from still life to moving pictures might not be one that brands need to do straight away. Nevertheless, we anticipate that video in coming years will become more and more of a feature of brands’ creative output and content budgets.
ASA demands greater diversity – and brands need to listen
While Google has started to pay more attention to human reading, many of the world’s biggest brands and watchdogs have begun to think more critically about the messages that ads and content are presenting.
After undertaking a review of the effect of harmful stereotypes on viewers, the ASA has found that ‘harmful stereotypes can restrict the choices, aspirations and opportunities of children, young people and adults’.
‘These stereotypes can be reinforced by some advertising, which therefore plays a part in unequal gender outcomes, with costs for individuals, the economy and society’.
These ads are not just negatively impactful – they’re also negatively received. A survey undertaken last September by global ad agency Havas Creative found that 47.8% of UK television viewers ‘resented’ ads presenting negative stereotypes, with women agreeing more strongly than men (at 50% and 45.2% respectively).
It’s clear that negative stereotyping not only puts brands in jeopardy with the UK’s advertising authorities; it builds distrust between the UK’s brands and customers.
Think about your creative content and ads. Are there areas in which your content could be more inclusive of a wider spectrum of people?
Come back next week where our social team will cover what 2018 has in store for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more!
2017 has been a happening time for digital content: Wendy’s broke the retweets record; the world began reacting to the proliferation of suspect news; Twitter doubled its character count; and the world’s biggest brands continued capturing our imaginations through brilliant campaigns, as content proved that it firmly remains the king.
One of today’s greatest producers of digital content is leading music streaming service Spotify. From quirky Times Square billboards to esoteric partnerships with leading franchises like Stranger Things, its creative campaigns have continuously made headlines and captured the popular imagination.
Last month, Spotify rolled out 2017 Wrapped – its end of the year campaign – which may well be their best to date. The campaign collates each user’s top one hundred most played songs of 2017 into single playlists, and as users keenly published their enigmatic soundtracks to the year, these quickly filled the web.
Read on for our analysis of how 2017 Wrapped wrapped up Spotify’s 2017 so brilliantly.
We’re all well familiar with the age old aphorism of never judging books by their covers. Nevertheless, at a point in time when the Internet is brimming with curated content, and users’ attention spans are becoming slimmer and slimmer for engaging with the same, it’s crucial for content to lead immediately with points of interest that compel.
2017 Wrapped’s visual elements are perfect. The campaign is centered on a micro-site with a homepage that’s animated, interactive and full of colour and life, which is accompanied by compelling copy that brings a sense of immediacy and gives the tool purpose. With conviction, it states: ‘In a year that many wanted to tune out, music gave us a reason to keep listening’.
It’s great for your campaign activity to be telling a rich story or glowing with meaningful content. However, it’s key for there to be high visual quality to match, to ensure that users engage with your work in the first instance.
Find what your audience loves
Spotify’s USP is how it allows users to freely listen to the songs that they want to hear, in playlists they curate, in orders they arrange.
It’s quickly obvious that the personal preferences of its listeners lies at the heart of the service.
2017 Wrapped links into these very same sentiments, creating content that’s unique to every user, which means that they’re more inclined to engage with the content.
Think about what motivations inspire engagement with your business or service. How could your content provide for them?
Increase engagement opportunities by going one step further
As extra elements of the campaign, Spotify included self-curated playlists covering the year’s most popular hits, such as ‘UK Top Female Artists 2017’, ‘UK Top Male Artists 2017’ and ‘Top Groups of 2017 ‘, and a quiz testing your knowledge of your listening habits.
By no means were these the main drivers of user interest. However, they proved to be simple ways of increasing the campaign’s breadth, which required minimal effort to make and expanded the opportunities for engagement.
Identify unique opportunities to create unique user experiences
2017 Wrapped creates Spotify playlists using data that none of Spotify’s competitors can access.
As such, the deliverables that 2017 Wrapped returns are genuinely original – they’ve never happened before and there’s nothing like them – which is an incredibly valuable asset at a time when every brand is competing for attention and clicks.
Netflix’s recent social activity has taken a similar direction, combining its data with inventive copy to hit enormous engagement figures on social:
To the 53 people who've watched A Christmas Prince every day for the past 18 days: Who hurt you?
Whilst GDRP need to be closely adhered to, think about the data you have that could be made into meaningful content. Be sure to make the most of the opportunity!
And let users share their results
Once a user has generated their playlist, they’re able to share it to their social feeds.
Though each share has a relatively microscopic reach, on a macrocosmic level they fulfill an essential branding purpose, as each sharing user becomes a brand advocate promoting Spotify’s created content to new audiences, driving expansive visibility and facilitating new user engagement opportunities.
When you’ve made excellent content that tells a compelling story, be sure for it to be easily sharable. Beyond anything else, your excellent work deserves all the reach it can get!
We’ll be back in 2018 to cover all the wonderful content the New Year has in store. In the meantime, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!
This November we attended Facebook Blueprint Live, an interactive training day exploring practical advice for running a successful Facebook advertising campaign, including tips for developing creative ideas that will stand out on competitive news feeds.
Defining goals
There are many objectives Facebook marketing can achieve:
Brand awareness – make as many potential customers aware of your brand as possible
Reach – put your brand in front of relevant audiences who may be interested in your products or services
Traffic – generate visits to your site
Video views – encourage users to watch your video to the end
Lead generation – collect information about people who are interested in your business to follow up with later
Store visits – increase foot traffic to bricks and mortar shopping destinations
Local awareness – promote your brand to residents and visitors in the immediate area
App installs – encourage as many people as possible to install your app on their smartphone
And website conversions –stimulate your brand’s digital sales
For many clients, conversions are the main consideration (and the main way return on investment is measured). However, it’s not advisable to go straight for conversions as an initial goal. Not all users will be at the conversion (or even consideration) point of the sales funnel when your ad reaches them, so, strategically, it makes sense to begin by raising brand awareness, then retarget users who engaged with your content, and then engage this even smaller pool with sales focused content to prompt a conversion.
Using video in Facebook advertising
One of the key messages we took from Blueprint Live is that video content is the present, rather than the future, and that social agencies should be putting video firmly at the focus of current content strategies.
According to Facebook, the average advertising video is 15 seconds or shorter. So, aim for brevity and directness when creating video content. The challenge is to tell a compelling story in limited time, encourage users to watch right until the end, and create a video that ‘fits’ naturally onto your target users’ timelines.
This clever example of a snappy video ad from Taco Bell lampoons the incredibly popular ‘Tasty’ instructional cooking videos and is a good example of a familiar yet unique take on a sponsored video post:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BCyMSqxQhDU/
Think vertical
Unlike traditional TV advertising, the vast majority of mobile videos are optimised vertically, rather than horizontally, which means all photos and videos should be shot with this in mind. When creating video or creative content for Facebook, work mobile first, ensuring the experience for smartphone users is perfect, and then worry about optimising for desktop.
Hit the target
Amazing creative without clever targeting is doomed to fail. Strategic targeting of different audiences can present an opportunity to tailor creative to each demographic. For example: a jewellery brand may want to advertise its products directly to an affluent female audience, as well as targeting men with ads focused on gifting.
Delight without sound
Videos on Facebook auto play without sound, but Facebook says that 60% of brands still create videos that cannot be understood without audio.
When creating video ads, either ensure that the narrative can be understood without sound, or include clear subtitles right from the first frame.
The below video from Hotels.com is a brilliant example of knowingly acknowledging the limitations of silent videos, while encouraging viewers to watch right to the end of the clip:
Three second window
The average time to scroll a full screen on a smartphone is 2.7 seconds, giving advertisers a 3 second or lower window to catch the attention of notoriously fickle social media audiences.
Younger audiences scroll even quicker, giving advertisers just 2 seconds to stop the scroll and encourage users to engage. For video content, this means creating an opening shot that sparks curiosity immediately and avoiding drawn out introductions (or introductions in general).
GIFs and Cinemagraphs
Video may be the present (and future), but they are also extremely expensive to produce. A handy compromise to add movement to your advertising posts is using GIFs and cinemagraphs – short, repeating videos with subtle animation that doesn’t require as much time or budget as a full length video. Check out some examples of this below:
We were split into groups and given a task to create a social media advertising campaign for a randomly selected client. The task was split into several stages, culminating with a presentation about our campaign in front of the attendees and judged by a panel (incentivised with a mystery prize for the winning teams).
Each table received a brief from a fictional institution. In our case, it was from Wright Bank, a made-up financial company with a broad range of products (no frills credit cards, car insurance, retirement plans) and a fifty-year legacy within the UK.
Targeting
Targeting was our first important consideration – we created our customer personas based on the goals and products of the client. In my team’s case this was:
Young people looking to build credit with a no frills credit card
Couples looking for a great deal on a mortgage
Older consumers looking ahead to retirement plans
Creative
The creative for our campaign involved focusing on the young adult and college student audience to boost awareness and conversions, which manifested itself in a video wherein a 20-25-year-old’s head was placed on an infant’s body – an admittedly bizarre concept in the cold light of day.
The concept was intended to be surreal enough to stand out on a news feed within a few seconds, and to acknowledge the infantilising effect that financial insecurity can have for young people, presenting the credit card as a means of escaping this.
Presentation
We presented our ideas to the group (our illustrations of ‘the credit card kid’ raised a few laughs/eyebrows depending on the individual), which went down a treat. We weren’t the most polished of teams, but we definitely enjoyed ourselves in the creation of the campaign. And so…
To the (third joint) victor, the spoils. We capped the day off by winning an extremely practical prize in the form of this Facebook flask.
All in all, a useful, enlightening experience, and a chance to gain insights about Facebook’s advertising platform straight from the proverbial horse’s mouth. If you want to learn more about Facebook advertising, check out Facebook Blueprint for resources and advice for all skill levels.
Fusion Unlimited are delighted to have been appointed as the new SEO partner of Knightsbridge Furniture.
Knightsbridge are market leaders in producing high quality and bespoke B2B furniture solutions. Their specialism is furnishing hospitality and healthcare locations. They’ve been based in nearby Bradford for over eighty years.
Fusion met with Knightsbridge to discuss the performance of their digital channels. With extensive experience of B2B SEO, we outlined a clear vision for improving the company’s holistic digital approach, and succinctly presented the expertise that we can bring to the table.
Our proposal met a glowing response. ‘We loved Fusion’s expertise and commitment to detailed planning’, said Knightsbridge Furniture CEO Alan Towns. ‘Their pitch showed us that they understood exactly what our business is hoping to achieve, alongside a proven track record of success in B2B markets.
Fusion has strong experience working with big names in our target sectors and we’re confident that their in-depth strategy will achieve real results’.
Craig Broadbent, Fusion Unlimited Technical Director, said: ‘We’re really looking forward to applying our specialist B2B SEO knowledge to Knightsbridge. There are clear search marketing opportunities within the contract furniture market and we’re delighted to be partnering with Knightsbridge in the next stage of their growth’.
Working with Knightsbridge is an exciting opportunity. We look forward to helping the company grow online and enjoy all of the benefits that a best-in-class SEO strategy can bring.
Whilst the intermittent wet weather of the last two weeks seems set to bring the British summertime to a close, we’ve recently been delighted to see the wide acclaim received by our client Halfords for their exceptional performance throughout the summer, making headlines in leading publications such as Internet Retailing and The Telegraph.
Halfords’ strategy focused on the on-trend phenomenon of staycations. Growing numbers of British families are swapping ten-hour flights for fish ‘n chips and pitching their tents a little closer to home. As one of the UK’s leading suppliers of holiday-making must-haves like sleeping bags, tents, bikes and roof-racks, it was essential for Halfords’ voice to be at the heart of the conversation.
In collaboration with Halfords’ internal teams, we implemented a cross-channel strategy to bring Halfords’ vision to life. With the objective of maintaining and increasing Halfords’ visibility for the camping category, we sought to create compelling content to drive organic visibility and secure coverage with major publications and features on high-quality lifestyle blogs. Production of an interactive camping guide whilst working alongside influencers to produce unique stories and advice helped Halfords increase SoV by 3.86% with over 50 pieces of coverage. Additionally, we supported staycation-specific products with promotional PPC ad copy to harness intent driven by the wider content strategy. Granular Shopping structure allowed dynamic support of key products during peak periods.
A snap from our work on the guide! (Halfords)
Revenue-wise, our combined activity provided the brand with a summer to remember. In comparison to the first twenty weeks of the last financial year, total sales rose by 11.2%, revenue from retail services (such as bike repairs and car -part fitting) increased by 18.3%, and overall revenue went up by 4.8%.
Another significant action by the brand was their perfecting of their in-store collection services. 85% of all digital orders are now picked up in Halfords stores, which is important for a brand who specialise in items difficult to ship. The availability enables customers to enjoy the benefits of easy online purchasing whilst minimising the hassle of delivery.
It’s always great to see our clients gain the recognition their efforts deserve, and we’re excited to how our brands’ successes will be received in the future!
Interested in how we can help your brand flourish online? Explore our range of digital services.
When we think of Cannes, we think of films. The stunning gowns and clothes of the awards ceremony, the gilded prizes, the sunshine rippling on red carpet and Hollywood’s brightest glimmering upon it.
Happening each year in May, Cannes Film Festival is one of the most acclaimed and prestigious events in the entertainment calendar. However, that’s not all the lights, cameras and action that the summer has in store for the glamorous Riviera city.
Every June, the Cannes Lions festival celebrates the greatest achievements in content creation across the globe: showbiz meets SEO, acting and Adwords, as best actor morphs into best advert and Spielberg into Google.
Across the many categories, so much of the content that’s been nominated is of an exceptionally high standard. Read on for our five favourite pieces from the Cannes Lions prize winners and nominations!
Chicago Gallery Brings Van Gogh to Life With Airbnb
The bedroom of Vincent Van Gogh’s 1890s’ home in Arles is arguably one of the most famous rooms in the history of art: it’s the subject of three paintings by the Dutch master, the first damaged by river flooding and the second and third painted as ‘repetitions’.
Last year, the Art Institute of Chicago had the unprecedented opportunity of presenting all three versions of Van Gogh’s painting in the same exhibition. In the run up to the event, the Institute partnered with agency Leo Burnett, creating a striking campaign that enabled the world to experience Van Gogh’s masterpieces more vividly than ever before:
The gallery and Leo Burnett commissioned a team of artists and designers to recreate the iconic bedroom as a real room, which they then placed on Airbnb for guests to rent out at just $10 a night, including tickets to the exhibition!
It’s a brilliant instance of an impeccable use of technology, mixed with some phenomenal thinking outside of the box and artistry. Life as art turns to art as life. We love it!
Björk Buzzes As VR Music Video Picks Up Grand Prix for Digital Craft
VR took the plaudits this year in the Digital Craft category, and no-one exhibited a better understanding or application of the increasingly-deployed technology than Björk in the sublime music video for her song ‘NOTGET’.
The jury unanimously praised Björk’s masterful and bold deployment of virtual reality, perceiving the video’s VR elements as being essential to the content’s success, profoundly facilitating the telling of its story.
Previously, brands have been criticised for excessively incorporating VR into their content for limited, novelty purposes, adding an advanced UX to material that may otherwise be completely lacklustre. This year saw content creators really adapting to VR’s opportunities; Google won second place in the category for their VR tech, the Google Tilt Brush.
Bank of Aland’s Green Cards Bloom with the Grand Prix for Cyber Tech
As part of a wider Unesco-supported education programme called ‘The Baltic Sea Project’, the Bank of Aland-who operate throughout Scandinavia-were applauded for their development of environmentally friendly payment cards and awarded the Grand Prix for Cyber in kind.
Made from biodegradable plastic, the cards provide customers with monthly insights into the impact of each transaction on their carbon footprint, advising how they can reduce it in the future.
Overall, it’s a really cool and smart campaign, executed with style and flair, and for a great and relevant cause, too.
Twitter’s Minimalist # Strategy Makes Major Impression
Known for being one of the most happening corners of the Internet, it’s no surprise to see Twitter in the Cannes Lions running. However, you may not be expecting the category in which they won their Grand Prix: Outside Advertising!
Using just the iconic Twitter #, the campaign shows a sophisticated, creative understanding of what it is we think of when we think of Twitter, masterfully and succinctly capturing and reflecting the brand’s essence.
Another entrant in the category that caught our eye, and made enormous, continuous impact on the web, was a campaign led by BTEC Paris for French alcohol awareness organisation Addict Aide, titled ‘Like My Addiction’ and based around an influencer: Louise Delage.
From her Insta content, Delage seems like your typical online socialite: a Paris-born bon vivant with over 100,000 followers, jet-setting all across the world to live her flashiest life, regularly uploading stylish content along the way.
Delage’s Instagram presents a person who loves, lives, to party: there’s a drink in literally every photograph, no matter what she’s doing. Her fans followed her revelry with every like, watching her journey through day, night and the early hours.
Here lies the twist: Louise Delage doesn’t exist; she never has. She’s a character that BTEC Paris and Addict Aide created, an online persona on a fake Insta account posting scheduled and studio-crafted content, her social media presence inflated by the use of bot followers and the participation of leading influencers for outreach.
Vividly, and with outstanding creative commitment, the campaign illustrated the difficulty of identifying addiction and reflected back to us-the viewers and users of the Internet-the casual ways in which we can enable such behaviour with every like and share.
It’s the month of pranking your friends and eating chocolate eggs for breakfast. Perhaps April’s content was always destined to be a little weird.
We watched a burger brand use ads to turn smart speakers into marketers, saw a cycling Mads Mikkelsen crash a Danish dinner party and followed one man’s mercurial mission for a year’s supply of nuggets manifest in the most viral tweet of all time.
It was the best of content, it was the worst of content. Read on with our round-up of four of the month’s most noteworthy campaigns.
Responsibly thanks you for drinking Responsibly
We’re all familiar with the advice at the end of drink ads, calling on us to drink responsibly. Ubrew played off of this familiarity to create an ingenuous piece of content that made sizable, hoppy ripples across the web. Introducing the latest beer in Ubrew’s extensive range: Responsibly.
Ubrew’s piece provides superb insight for content creators everywhere on creating fresh and relatable content: namely, that to think outside the box you don’t need to throw the box away. Instead, there’s a lot of joy to be had in making subtle yet compelling tweaks to material that we’re already familiar with!
Burger King’s TV ad gets the AI talking
Whilst Ubrew’s resourcefulness finds the beer brand hitching a ride on their rivals’ airtime, Burger King have been taking similarly mischievous strides in an ad targeting home smart speakers such as Google Home and Amazon’s Alexa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_O54le4__I
The ad sees a Burger King worker confess that there’s not enough time ‘to explain all the fresh ingredients in the new Whopper sandwich’, before daringly saying: ‘Ok Google – what is the Whopper burger?’ In response, smart speakers proceed by reading out the entirety of the Whopper’s Wikipedia entry, forming the basis of a content piece lasting substantially longer than the ‘fifteen second ad’ Burger King claims it to be.
The campaign wasn’t all plain sailing: for one, Google revised their Home system so that it passed over the ad altogether, whilst various Wikipedia users impishly and inevitably edited the Whopper’s page so that its recipe included a platter of unsavoury flavours – ‘rats’ ranked high amongst the worst.
Even with its complications, Burger King’s content built buzz, attracted attention and created conversations. Arguably, the creative way that users engaged with the content complements the brand’s holistic digital strategy that veers wholeheartedly towards the stranger side of the content spectrum:
Carlsberg returns to Cophenhagen and drives home its Danish roots
Ubrew’s ironic ad departs starkly from the campaigns of many of its competitors, with drinks brands such as San Miguel, Thatchers, Peroni and Stella Artois (‘it’s cidre, not cider’) turning towards antiquity and authenticity, asserting premium from brand heritage.
Carlsberg’s latest campaign, titled ‘The Danish Way’, sees the Danish company adapting their marketing strategy to better meet the work of their competitors whilst retaining the playful notes of their previous material, in a humorous yet charming advert starring Mads Mikkelsen.
The ad follows Mikkelsen cycling through a series of enigmatically Danish scenes – along the circumference of an outdoor bath, through a quaintly decorated apartment – as he contemplates what it is that makes the Danish people ‘the happiest in the world’. Is it that they make the ‘world’s best beer’? ‘Probably’, is what the advert concludes.
Carlsberg’s piece is a perfect example of intelligently tailored content: it responsively follows the lead of its competitors whilst retaining the popular humour of Carlsberg’s previous campaigns. What’s more, the ad links nicely into hygge, demonstrating the value that’s to be had in keeping your brand’s notes aligned to the zeitgeist.
Wendy’s takes on Ellen with #nuggsforcarter
When he tweeted American fast food diner Wendy’s asking how many RTs he needed for a year’s supply of free nuggets (Wendy’s answer: a feasible ’18 million’), Carter Wilkerson (@carterjwm) could never have imagined the response he’d receive:
Huge portions of the Internet threw their support behind Carter’s fast food plight, with world leading brands sharing the tweet as a basis for their own content, major celebs getting in on the action and millions of members of the online public virtuously supporting what must at first have felt like an impossibly up-hill climb.
In the interim, Wendy’s consistently sustained the tweet’s visibility, steadily monitoring their social channels and creating engaging and responsive material.
At the time of initially writing, the tweet was just 3,000 retweets away from becoming the all time most shared tweet. As of today, however, Carter has now overtaken Ellen DeGeneres to become the esteemed holder of the accolade of having written the most retweeted tweet of all time. More importantly, Wendy’s have granted Carter his wish; he might need a bigger trophy cabinet to showcase all those nuggets!
Firstly perceiving a relatively arbitrary tweet as an opportunity for generating humorous content, and then helping that tweet become the most viral tweet ever, Wendy’s illustrate superbly the value of having a highly responsive digital strategy that facilitates the creation of dynamic and captivating content.
Whilst we don’t think anyone will be overtaking Carter any time soon, you never know – we certainly don’t! Join us again next month to see whether we have any new Twitter title contenders, and how May’s campaigns fare in comparison!
We are very proud to announce that Fusion Unlimited & Halfords have been awarded Retail Marketing Campaign of the Year at this September’s Online Retail Awards.
The special recognition award highlights our combined efforts with Halfords across PPC, SEO, affiliates and content marketing, with Fusion Unlimited coming ahead of competitors across the online retail sectors.
The Online Retail Awards aims to show the achievements of online retailers and digital agencies regardless of size, with international and independent business nominated in the same space. The awards highlight websites that are “the embodiment of excellence for their customers”, seeking out “examples of retailers’ web, mobile and tablet strategies that offer great online shopping experiences for customers”.
We’ve helped deliver best-in-class digital strategies alongside Halfords for more than 10 years and it’s always rewarding to be recognised for our performance orientated approach.
Following our accreditation as an ‘Elite’ agency in this years’ Drum Independent Agency Census , 2016 is proving to be a great year for the team and our clients.
We’re delighted to share that Fusion Unlimited has been shortlisted for three awards at this November’s UK Search Awards, for our work across PPC, content marketing, and proprietary software development.
Our creation of a bespoke, hyper-local PPC campaign for Your Move and Reeds Rains has been shortlisted in the Best Local Campaign category. In the Best Use of Content Marketing category, we’ve been nominated for our execution of “The Ultimate UK Camping Guide” campaign alongside Halfords. Last but by no means least, our fresh from the lab Feed Catalyst tool is in contention for the title of Best Search Software Tool.
Now in its 6th year, the UK Search Awards is one of the most renowned celebrations of PPC, SEO, and Content Marketing work in the UK, spanning 28 categories and attracting hundreds of entries each year.
We’re proud to have been recognised for our hard work and innovation, and look forward to seeing if we can bring the awards home on the evening!
The Drum’s 2016 Independent Agencies Census, conducted in partnership with the Recommended Agency Register, has named Fusion Unlimited within it’s Elite Agency listings for independent media agencies.
Agencies were ranked on Client satisfaction scores, including client service , strategic thinking and value for money (collected through recommendedagencies.com) and we’re delighted that we gained a Top 10 listing in this category.
Agencies were also measured on financial performance across 6 measures, including both business growth and efficiency, and again fusion appeared within the top 20 agencies.
I think that’s the right way around for us, as an independent agency, that our client satisfaction scores beat our financial scores, but to still be in the top tables for both categories.
Only those agencies who were able to rank at the top of both client satisfaction and financial tables are considered for an elite listing. At this point overall performance is measured in a head to head against the other media agencies that made the cut, (not all of these are digital marketing agencies) and fusion made the top 10 elite agency list at number 7.
We’re proud to be an independent agency, and to have great client satisfaction scores and still keep developing new approaches that drive results is all down to the very talented team here at fusion unlimited.
We are very proud to announce that we have been shortlisted for four Online Retail Awards, including the prestigious Digital Agency of the Year, for our work with Halfords, Lloyds Pharmacy Group and YorkTest.
Our work with Halfords has been nominated for the special recognition category of Online Retail Marketing Campaign of the Year, whilst both Lloyds Pharmacy and YorkTest are both shortlisted within the Pharmacy and Health Category.
The Online Retail Awards are international and independent business awards for all online retailers, regardless of their size or location, and Fusion are thrilled to be among the nominees.
“The winner of an Online Retail Award is in the top flight of the world’s online retailers, with sites that are the embodiment of excellence for their customers. The aim of the Online Retail Awards is to seek out examples of retailers’ web, mobile and tablet strategies, that offer great online shopping experiences for customers and reward them.” www.onlineretailawards.com
The winners will be announced at an awards dinner in London on September 13th, at the 5-star Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, with the Online Retail Conference taking place during the day. You can be sure that team Fusion will be in attendance on the night to do some networking and hopefully come back with some awards. Great work everybody!
We’re excited to announce that Fusion Unlimited have been shortlisted as best SEO & PPC Agency in the PROLIFIC NORTH AWARDS 2015.
This year, the third annual Prolific North Awards will celebrate industry excellence and highlight and reward outstanding campaigns and exceptional talent in the creative and media industries across the North of the UK.
The 2015 award ceremony has attracted over 700 of the north’s leading creative and media professionals.
Winners will be announced at the award ceremony on Thursday 30th April at The Point, Lancashire County Cricket Club.
We’re delighted to have been nominated for best SEO and PPC agency category and look forward to another awards night!
We know that when it comes to social media, organic reach is dropping. This effectively means that brands have to work harder at delivering quality content that genuinely interests and engages their fans.
Images are often what hook audiences, and so visual content is becoming increasingly important. You only have to look at the success of visual sharing platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram to know that images are in high demand. However, because of the current level of competition, this type of content now needs to be purposeful to be rewarded with likes and shares (if that’s what you’re after). Ultimately, it needs to resonate with your target audience.
The beauty of Instagram, Facebook and Twitter is that they allow users to make human connections; which for many brands is central to their social media strategy. Visual content can be utilised to show that there’s humanity and substance to a brand, a way to build lasting relationships and showcase personality – here are some brands that have done it successfully:
&OtherStories
The Swedish fashion brand has successfully hit the ‘deconstructed glamour’ nail on the head. Each upload is carefully curated and styled – but the ‘behind the scenes’ approach gives the impression that the brand is effortlessly cool.
Absolut
Absolut have long been recognised for innovative and creative marketing, so we’ve come to expect strong visuals from them. Their most recent mix includes some hand-drawn illustration, which shows their willingness to go the extra mile to produce truly original imagery.
Cath Kidston
One of the key things I look for in successful visual content is brand consistency – and this feed sings along nicely to the Cath Kidston tune. By including flowers, babies and pets, the brand show a real understanding of their target audience, and provide imagery in accordance with their interests and lifestyle.
ELLE UK
The true value of visual content can only be unlocked when it is shared across relevant platforms. ELLE magazine have taken this one step further by sharing across multiple profiles. Granted, it takes some real trust, but by using their staff as brand ambassadors – who post varied and creative visual content – the brand proves its understanding of the need for human connection within social media. In this Red Nose Day video, it’s also refreshing to see a playful side to these glamourous fashionistas.
Butterkist
Visuals don’t necessarily have to be polished and retouched; sometimes a raw aesthetic is more relatable. That’s why, as part of our work with Butterkist, we post agile and informal content. We recently ran a successful campaign, #getpopcorny, and utilised imagery to show off the brand’s personality. By setting the images up in a home environment, the campaign immediately felt inviting and accessible to the Butterkist audience.
Budweiser
Budweiser ran a ‘lost puppy’ campaign for their Super Bowl advert. This emotional hook encouraged user-generated visual content which no doubt helped further their campaign promotion.
Tory Burch
American fashion designer Tory Burch’s social media channels are full of beautiful and engaging visual content. The content is extremely varied, encompassing lifestyle, products, behind the scenes, inspiration, videos and cute animals. The brand feed proves that variety is the spice of life.
What does the future hold for visual content on social media?
In recent years, tools such as Wordswag, Abeautifulmess and Canva have allowed brands to create professional-looking graphics in just a few taps. These have led social media marketing into a new phase, by putting beautiful and engaging imagery within the grasp of a broader spectrum of businesses.
As an increasing number of brands improve their visual content, there will be more pressure on the most successful brands to be innovative and creative. The production of visual content will become even simpler, allowing marketers to share content in a more reactive, ad-hoc way.
With Facebook videos receiving 3 billion views a day, it seems video content will see continued growth as audiences seek even greater insight and connection to their favourite brands.
We are are very excited to announce that Fusion Unlimited have been nominated for 2 awards at the Northern Digital Awards 2015, in the competitive categories;
Best SEO Campaign for Ronseal and Best Digital Marketing Campaign – Finance for NatWest.
The Northern Digital Awards recognise the very best in digital marketing campaigns and talent in the North as well as reward websites across a number of sectors to reflect the ever-expanding online world that we trade and communicate in.
The ceremony will be hosted at the Royal Armouries in Leeds on the 22nd January 2015, and we are really looking forward to a great night with our clients and let’s hope we come back with a couple of shiny new awards to add to our collection!
