How many adverts have you seen today?

I bet for most people, they wouldn’t have a clue, or if they did take a guess, it would probably be vastly wrong.

Back in the 1970s, it is estimated people saw on average 500 adverts a day. Fast forward to the not-so-distant past, and it is estimated the average person saw 5,000 adverts a day back in 2007.

Given that this was only a few years after the launch of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and before the big social boom that saw the creation of Instagram, Snapchat and a whole host of other social marketing opportunities, you can near guarantee that the number has close to doubled, if not more. Today, it is estimated the average user will see 1,000 digital adverts a day alone.

Now I should clarify that an advert can include anything from a bottle label, to a poster or Facebook sponsored content. However, with Facebook and Google predicted to account for almost 50% of advertising investment by 2020, if your business isn’t doing it now, you’ll be behind the curve for years to come.

Digital advertising is crucial not just for putting your brand in front of potential clients and customers, it’s also an important tool for helping your website rank above your competitors on Google, Bing and all of the other search platforms out there.

How many times have you searched for something on Google and clicked the top link? There’s a good chance that was an advert placed above the top-ranked business, and they’ve just taken your custom away from a competitor.

Search Engine Optimisation isn’t going away anytime soon, so getting a head start now will pay dividends in the future.

We’re helping so many companies grow their ‘digital footprint’ to keep them ahead of the curve, and if you’d like us to do the same for you, we have a whole host of options available from Facebook Marketing and Google Ads, to real-time marketing tools that put your advert in front of potential customers at the ideal moment. When a customer is looking for a product you sell, your business can be in front of them at the moment they’re looking to buy.

For a FREE digital health-check, or just for a friendly chat to find out how we can help, drop us an email or give us a call on 029 2141 4125.

What is the Facebook Algorithm?

Facebook has many algorithms that are used for all sorts of things, from suggesting friends or pages for you to like, to suggesting games for you to play. In this context, though, we’re talking about the algorithm that Facebook uses to determine what content is going to be displayed on a user’s news feed.

What changes have Facebook made?

First of all, it’s important to note that Facebook’s algorithm will never be finished, and is always changing based on what users want to see, and what makes money for Facebook (of course).

So, what’s going on now?

Well, back in January 2018, Facebook made an announcement which was a touch worrying for those of us in the industry of Facebook marketing. Mark Zuckerberg posted a rather lengthy status on the matter. In his status, he explained that posts from friends & family will be prioritised over updates from business pages.

“The first changes you’ll see will be in News Feed, where you can expect to see more from your friends, family and groups….

You’ll see less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media. And the public content you see… should encourage meaningful interactions between people.”

This sounds concerning for advertisers and businesses with a Facebook presence but it’s not all bad. It does mean that business pages will reach less people, but that’s not to say that no one will be reached. It’s still important to have an effective marketing campaign for Facebook, things just need to be approached slightly differently.

What Does All This Really Mean?

Facebook has always been open about the fact that they aim to prioritise posts from friends & family over content from businesses, but this isn’t news, it’s not even new. Facebook has been talking about prioritising these kinds of posts for years, there have been a few announcements of a very similar vein over the last few years from Facebook. In 2014 & 2016, Facebook told the world that they were going to give more prevalence to posts from friends and family over businesses. We’re still here.

The key thing to remember is that Facebook relies on the income from ads, which means that it will never make businesses obsolete on its platform. Facebook needs businesses, it just wants businesses to be more interactive and less spammy.

Okay, so we get what’s going on, but what does it mean for my business and what do I do about it?

Ultimately, this algorithm change means that we need to be a bit clever in what we post in order to get the algorithm to work for us. When I say work for us, I really mean it, this change could be a blessing in disguise. While it’s true that less people will be reached overall, what it appears Facebook is trying to do, is get people to interact with more things in their news feed. This means that, even though less people will see what we post, the people that do see it will be more likely to interact with the content as Facebook has chosen to continue targeting them.

What’s Our Plan?

Moving forward, we are going to ensure that we drive engagement by starting conversations. Facebook sees comments as a strong form of interaction, as a user has taken the time to look at the post and truly interact with it. The more interaction posts get, the more Facebook will trust the page and show it to other people who may enjoy seeing it.

Facebook needs businesses to survive and pay it’s bills so it has created tools such as Facebook Pixel and Facebook Business Manager to help businesses succeed in this increasingly difficult marketplace. We are going to use these tools to maximise business visibility and drive engagement.

How Will We Do it?

Content is key to Facebook so we create content that gets people talking, such as polls to get people to vote and competitions/quizzes which encourage people to not only get involved, but get their friends involved. These kinds of posts will ensure that the page is seen and spread further.

We aim to integrate Facebook Pixel where we can to ensure that everything we post will reach the right audience and, therefore, be far more effective and increase the reach of the page as a whole.

Now, more than ever, an effective digital strategy is crucial for a business’ online presence and, in this age, businesses without a prominent online and social media presence will be left behind.

What is SEO?

…and why does your business need it?

Search Engine Optimisation is the art and science of increasing the rankings of webpages for specific keywords, phrases and brands on search engines. Everyone wants to be on the first page of Google, so perfecting this approach is a vital part of your online advertising strategy.

Lets break down what it really means. Looking at the visitors that land on your website is important, for example if they’re coming to your site because they searched for a windows computer when really you’re installing windows into houses, that is not quality traffic. Instead you want to attract visitors who are genuinely interested in what you’re offering. Once the right customers are clicking through to your site from those search engine results pages (SERPs), then the more traffic the better.

BUT HOW DOES SEO WORK?
Google have robots that crawl your website. These ‘crawlers’ have a specific job to look for links between what the user has searched for and what your website contains. In order to show up in top search results for things you actually sell/offer these things also need to be listed in your keywords, description and metadata back links. So to run a successful website and online presence, you’ll want to check all of these things are in place.

SOUND LIKE A LOT TO GET YOUR HEAD AROUND?

Don’t worry… at Nation Digital we have experts working to ensure your website ranks well in the SERPs and drives traffic to your website.

Our team of specialists thrive on creating and outreaching great content to your audiences by using and optimising the following to your advantage:

– Search Engine Verification and Analytics.
– Metatags.
– Keywords.
– Create online presence inline with Google’s own SEO alorithms.
– Mobile Responsiveness.

If you’d like us to help you with SEO, please contact us!