Latest company updates and industry news
August 28, 2020
What are Featured Snippets? A featured snippet is a 'rich result' at the top of a Google SERP, set apart…
August 27, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the closure of many physical stores. As people maintain social distancing, a consumer…
August 19, 2020
Looking for a new approach to boost your click-through-rates and make your search ads to stand out from the crowd?…
May 11, 2020
"And this year's winner of the 2021, NZ Franchise of the year goes to..." It may be a distant and…
May 7, 2020
Google's announcement To stimulate digital commerce and compete with Amazon’s record-breaking customer sales since the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, Google has…
February 4, 2020
Creating high-converting, descriptive copy for pay-per-click (PPC) ads is a challenge that can make or break your campaign. Your goal…
November 12, 2019
You’ve noticed them, haven’t you? Each time you check social media. Chasing you. Stalking you. Waiting for you to notice…
August 28, 2019
You’ve got world-changing products, red-hot content and slick graphics on hundreds of dazzling pages. How do you bring it all…
July 29, 2019
Wow, another 15-second sales pitch? YouTube users have noticed a suspicious increase in non-skippable ads on YouTube. You can’t…
June 25, 2019
In February ‘19, Google declared they would retire the Average Position Metric. Google Ads introduced average position in the early…
By Brad Guthrie
September 14, 2018
Voice search, digital assistants and smart speakers. I spend most of my working time in the land of Paid Search…
By Karl Rooney
November 23, 2017
At first glance, people based marketing seems to be a relatively recent innovation. Facebook invented the term just 3 years…
By Brad Guthrie
September 4, 2017
A bit of search history Search Engine Optimisation, aka SEO, has been around since the first ever search engine “Archie…
August 29, 2017
Like a lot of Google AdWords features, NZ tends to be a little bit behind in getting our hands on…
July 7, 2016
In late 2015, Google in a characteristically cryptic fashion, announced that it had begun utilising an AI named RankBrain, to…
By Brad Guthrie
June 16, 2016
2016 is shaping up to be another good year for Google (we should now say alphabet when we talk about…
May 17, 2016
Just how important is local SEO? With local searches now leading 50% of mobile visitors to a store within a…
May 2, 2016
With Mother’s Day not too far away, I hope that most advertisers (or at least those that have a product/service…
April 18, 2016
Dictionary.com defines competition as the “rivalry between two or more persons or groups for an object desired in common, usually…
March 24, 2016
With Google rolling out a steady stream of ranking algorithm updates and mobile search features, 2016 is shaping up to be another huge…
By Brad Guthrie
March 14, 2016
It’s been quoted as “the biggest change in Adwords since its launch in 2000” - we are now 2 weeks…
By Brad Guthrie
February 24, 2016
As of yesterday it has been confirmed by Google that the change is now rolling out to all searches in…
February 23, 2016
What is social search? Social search is a form of enhanced search that combines traditional impersonal search algorithms with information…
January 28, 2016
A year ago I wrote a blog on the 2015 Edelman Trust Barometer; and in particular that for the first…
January 25, 2016
How to Write the Best Email Subject Lines Email is, or should be, in the arsenal of every marketing department’s…
October 23, 2015
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, or so they say; Christmas! A day to celebrate, eat, drink, be…
October 1, 2015
The continued viability of link building as an effective Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy has been debated by search marketing…
August 19, 2015
Conversion Rate Optimisation , often referred to as CRO for short, is the process of optimising a website to improve…
August 5, 2015
You changed your bidding strategy and your CPC decreased by how much? But what about CTR? And CPA? What IS…
July 13, 2015
Everyone has been exposed to ads online, but on mobile they can be particularly annoying. Users frequently find themselves clicking…
June 18, 2015
On January 18 2015, the record for the fastest 10 km on crutches was awarded to a New Zealander who…
June 15, 2015
Remarketing for Search ads (RLSA) is similar to display remarketing in that you are showing ads to…
By Brad Guthrie
June 11, 2015
Bing Ads – they’re no Google AdWords with only 3% of the NZ search market – but there’s often…
May 27, 2015
A month ago YouTube was updated with TrueView cards – to make videos (and ads) more interactive, particularly on mobile.…
May 5, 2015
A couple of weeks ago, Google announced that Search Funnels within the AdWords interface were being renamed to “Attribution”. Attribution…
April 28, 2015
Well not really… Changes to the Keyword Planner The change that Google has made to the Keyword Planner tool is…
April 22, 2015
In early March 2015 Google finally released an Android AdWords app. You can download it here. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.adwords&hl=en This is a great…
By Brad Guthrie
March 29, 2015
April 21st is Google’s ‘Mobile’ day (explained here https://searchrepublic.wpengine.com/mobile-friendly-algorithm-update/ ). So is it time for marketers to follow Google’s lead…
March 23, 2015
It’s no secret that quality content is key when it comes to getting recognised in the Search Engine ranks, with…
March 18, 2015
Google recently made an announcement addressed to all webmasters. “Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness…
March 11, 2015
On February 20 2015, Google AdWords introduced call-only campaigns. As this feature is still relatively new, a lot of people…
March 10, 2015
Occasionally, I’ll come across a slick looking landing page and save it to my swipe file to replicate and test…
By Brad Guthrie
February 19, 2015
According to Chinese Zodiac 2015 is the Year of the Sheep and it starts today, Feb 19th – So…
February 11, 2015
The 2015 Edelman Trust Barometer was recently released and offers some thought-provoking insight around trust, and in particular which media…
February 3, 2015
Shareaholic recently released an analysis of the traffic sources of over 300,000 sites and found that traffic from Facebook has…
January 28, 2015
I’m going to get a bit geeky here, but at the end of 2014 Google quietly released a new AdWords…
January 21, 2015
The amount of volume available on the Google Display Network (GDN) is eye watering but, with so much traffic available,…
By Brad Guthrie
December 21, 2014
The latest digital marketing figures are out from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and spend on digital marketing is soaring…
By Brad Guthrie
October 6, 2013
I’m sure since the announcement of Google’s new search algorithm Hummingbird (not an update such as penguin or panda) last…
By Brad Guthrie
August 21, 2013
Starting from small beginnings and one car rental booking website in 2004, Mike Ballantyne tells us how he’s taking his…
By Brad Guthrie
April 8, 2013
Hidden away on the top two floors of the Generator Building in the heart of Auckland City, is a multi-million…
By Brad Guthrie
February 1, 2013
By Sarah Stuart 5:30 AM Thursday Jan 24, 2013 – nzherald.co.nz Mike Ballantyne owns under-the-radar Kiwi internet business Online Republic,…
By Brad Guthrie
January 31, 2013
With a new year underway, perhaps you've realised it's time to take your online investment more seriously. You’re probably doing…
By Brad Guthrie
November 19, 2012
How do you manage your Adwords in a fierce marketplace? Chances are, that you are doing this manually online or…