ShareMeet Fran. Her entry into the digital marketing world may have come as a surprise, given her previous professional experience, but her PPC knowledge and expertise have quickly become highly valued assets to our merry band of digital marketers.
Read on to find out more about our newest recruit, Francesca Bartoli, below.
Welcome, Fran! You’ve worked in a few agencies, what strikes you as different at Coast?
You get the great fast pacing vibe of a London agency (big, demanding clients that need to be constantly kept up to date with the latest digital industry changes), but also the “cosiness” of a local agency where everybody knows everybody and you are part of a big team, not just a drop in the ocean!
How did you get into digital and, more specifically, paid search marketing in the first place?
Well, my background is in Tourism & Hospitality management, so not so much to do with Digital Marketing!
After taking my A-level equivalent in July 2000, I moved to London and started working in a travel agency within the Groups Management team; but 9/11 struck and nobody was travelling anymore.
The agency I was working for didn’t want to lose any potential staff, so I was moved to the Web Development Team where I took my first steps into the Digital world.
My main task was to update images, maps, and hotel and tour information on the company website; but I was also working closely with the PPC team, who worked on these new(ish) advertising platforms called Yahoo and Google, you may have heard of them…
My role was to make sure the landing pages they proposed on their ads were updated with the right content (tour offers, deals, promos etc). I got very curious about this new form of advertising. The moment a position became available within the team, I jumped at the opportunity, and this is how I started my PPC career back in 2002.
What’s the biggest mistake you see advertisers making in search marketing?
Not following Search advertising best practices! From the simple, good and clear account structure build-up to ROI monitoring post-click analysis, best practices will help you to get your goals and results quickly and easily, so why not apply them?
If your client isn’t keen on using exact match keywords, you should help steer them in the right direction by providing examples of the benefits.
What has changed since you first started working in search?
Oh gosh, where do I start? Nowadays anything you need is just a click away!
Want to know the latest news? You can check the news site (who reads a paper newspaper anymore?); Wondering what The Queen is up to now? Check Buckingham Palace’s Twitter feed; What can you cook in 30 minutes with just 4 ingredients? Let’s see that new “healthy-dinner-with-just-4-ingredients” video and tutorial; fancy a movie night? Find Netflix and Disney Plus; Want to learn Korean? Here is the app (네, 저는 한국어를 배우고 있어요!).
The possibilities are endless, and you don’t even need a desktop computer to surf anymore, thanks to little gadgets that have now become an extension of our arms: The mobile phone!
20 years ago, mobile phones resembled a mini remote control, could only hold 20 messages, it might have had a calendar or alarm already installed, and the available games were Snake or Bantumi.
But on the plus side, they were indestructible! I could throw my Nokia 3310 on a concrete floor and the screen would still be intact.
With today’s mobile phones, you can benefit from a massive memory space, add various apps to make it unique to your needs, take pictures or watch videos, listen to your favourite music without the DJ voiceover on it, and go to and from destinations without a paper A-Z map… So life is smarter and so much easier!
What does the future of search marketing look like?
Search has gone from strength to strength in the past few years, and nowadays 93% of online experiences start with a search query.
However, the world is moving at a very fast pace, so search needs to move with it. Users want answers and results tailored to their needs and desires, so search experts are making personalisation and audience-based targeting a must-have part of the search strategy.
At the moment, everything you need and want is just a click away, but in the past few years, voice search technology (Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri etc.) have become more and more popular. So, I am very curious to see what voice search ads will look like in the future!
Want to find out how Fran and our other search specialists can help you with your PPC marketing efforts? Drop us a line, we’re a friendly bunch!
