Category: Uncategorized

Are we at Peak Google?

What is “peak Google,” are we there, what does this mean for you, and what can you do about it? Let’s define the term by comparing it to “Peak Oil” which Wikipedia calls “…the point in time when the maximum rate of extraction of petroleum is reached, after which the rate of production is expected to enter terminal decline.”

We think that Google meets that same criteria, and we’re not alone. Here’s a piece from Quartz about how “Google’s dominance in search is nearing its peak.“; John Battelle, who wrote the you-must-read-it-before-you-work-here book “the Search” wrote about the phenomena; Strategery’s bluntly-titled “Peak Google” posits that it’s a function of the rise of native advertising.”

My own take is that Google’s search growth has flatlined to some degree, but that it’s not at the expense of something else – I think they’re unquestionably the dominant player in search, and will be for years to come.. But think about it – do you use Google as much as you used to? Or do you search for stereo components on Amazon? Find the weather via search, or use your iPhone? The examples go on and on.

What Does This Mean For You? For 10 years, our (mostly .edu-based) clients have counted on sustained growth in search queries from Google – they/we could forecast 10% yearly growth in search volume. So what happened? First – the broadband explosion of 2005-2008, where most of the country quickly came online, is over – so that growth ended. Second – Google got better at returning relevant results – so if used to visit four (or whatever) websites to find what you were looking for, you might visit one now. So the other three lose out. Third – Mobile mobile mobile. The mobile screen shows what, four results? So if you’re not in the top position, you’re toast. Fourth – People are on Facebook or Twitter to Fourquare or whatever. Bluntly, this means that you can expect less out of Google – or that you’ll have to do more to get the same results you’re used to.

What Can You Do About It? That question demands a long and complicated answer. Three brief ideas: Rethink what data is truly “required” on your forms. People simply are not on their desktop computers like they were – and they don’t want to fill out a 10-step form with their thumbs. Try twitter cards. A basket of our more adventurous clients are getting leads there for a great cost – with the caveat that these leads do not fit the since-2005-business-rules. Try a mobile-only campaign where you give leads no other option but to call you – don’t let them fill out a form, just make them call you, One .edu client is seeing an 11% call-to-enrollee ratio on inbound calls from paid search marketing. Of course, we’re happy to help you implement any of these strategies 🙂

We’re Hiring for Interactive Media Jobs: 

Hi. We’re seeking applicants for several Interactive Media jobs. If interested, please send a resume to hello@masoninteractive.com. The positions are, in order of experience needed:

Social Media Coordinator Schedule: Part time (with possibility of becoming full-time). Students are welcome to apply. Pay: $10 per hour. Responsibilities include: Managing a hand-full of clients’ social media presences, focusing on using the social media to generate sales, views, and engagement. You’ll learn how to use Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (among others) to generate real results for real clients. This role will introduce you to all the basics of working at an agency – creative work, reporting, client-facing, and more. Skills Needed: A good attitude, and a willingness to learn. This is an entry level position, and it’s ideal for someone just out of college who’s looking to break into online advertising.

Graphic Design Associate Schedule: Part time (with possibility of becoming full-time). Students are welcome to apply. Pay: $10 per hour. Responsibilities include: Creating engaging visual content via ads, facebook posts, and more. Skills Needed: Strong Organizational skills, the ability to take feedback from non-designers, and skills to produce ads in a timely fashion.

Interactive Marketing Coordinator Schedule: Part time (with possibility of becoming full-time). Students are welcome to apply – many of our full-time employees started in this role in college. Pay: $10 per hour. Responsibilities include: Working on Social Media, clients’ blogs, and other properties to make sure they show up when someone looks for them. Skills Needed: Attention to detail, ability to write clearly, and comfort with excel.

Account Manager, Paid Search Schedule: Full-time salaried position. Pay: 37.5K to 42.5K annually. Responsibilities include: You’ll learn to manage interactive search media accounts – the backbone of Google, Yahoo and Facebook’s businesses. You’ll be working on a small team and will be directly responsible for managing clients’ advertising. Skills Needed: A good attitude, attention to detail, and strong excel skills. Adwords and Bing experience is a must-have.

Hi. We’ve settled into our new long-term home at 20 West 38th St. It’s right off of Fifth Ave. It took a little longer than we wanted, but it was was worth it – – more office space, more natural light (skylights!) and we finally got new chairs (any who’s worked here in the last 6 years knows – those new chairs were a long time coming.) Accounting and design stay in Long Island – and so does our mail – but the account management team is all here on 38th. Come and visit soon! Mason Interactive offices – they say we were supposed to move in. Dan Cardinale coming in on an off day to help with the move. The Day we did move in.

Our agency is steadily porting our edu clients over to Twitter’s advertising platform. We love it. Here’s the issue: There’s no Twitter agency account capability. This means that we have to log in separately to each account. This is not a big pain, really. What is a big pain: I have to put my own corporate credit card in their accounts. Why is this a problem? Because my credit card is now in the hands of whatever intern has log ins to a client’s twitter account. Side note: Because our clients aren’t seeing a real, scaleable ROI attached to Twitter, it’s given less attention. The CMO of a Sterling Partners portfolio company certainly does have log ins to his adwords account handy; it’d be silly not to. But nobody’s getting dozens of daily applicants to their school via Twitter, so it falls down the totem pole to an associate or intern. It’s simply not on the CMO’s radar. So if the intern decides to change the password – a perfectly likely event – or we part ways with the client – it happens – our corporate card is essentially held hostage. God forbid clients starts spending $30,000 monthly on Twitter – this would give us real hesitation. So the suggestion is: Create a Master-Agency-Account capability. Let that account have restricted permissions in a client’s account. Give us the option to use our CC for the media spend. Give us a mechanism to retract/remove our CC if we ever need to. It would certainly make us less hesitant to spend more.

The Task: Increase lead-to-conversion rates from high-volume, low-cost sources. The Results: 2x Increase in Lead-to-Enrollee Conversation Rate. The Process: To achieve the 2x increase in lead-to-enrollee rates, we employed advanced email marketing tactics. If you’d like a free remarketing audit, let’s talk about it: sales@masoninteractive.com.