Sarah Pokorná

Those tidy bid percentages feel like craft. Mobile up 20%, evenings down 15%. On automated bidding, most do nothing at all. The machine listens to owner questions instead: what counts as success, and what is a customer worth? Read the full blog. Link below.  #googleads #googleadstips

GEO or SEO is not even an argument any longer. SEO = ranking a business for keywords. (And yes, before anyone comments something absurd like "it hasn't been that for years" go and see what the paid search team chases). GEO = increasing the likelihood that AI recommends a business in a buying situation. Both have deliberate and seperate processes. SEO = buyer intent keywords, brand mentions, links, page optimisation etc. GEO = category entry point prompt mapping, mutual infomation, fitness signals, brand mentions, fame. Links in GEO act as doorways to a business, and yes, before any SEO guru tells me that there is a correlation with links and AI 'visibility'. Please get a grip and go back to Substack. The reason for the correlation is called preferential attachment. Big brands and websites get more links. They act as hubs online. The reason they get cited is because they are digital hub/ brand. Now, I appreciate this is when all the SEO die hards rush and demand a buffet menu of different tactics GEO uses that SEO doesn't. And when you tell them...throw the 'that's just SEO line', (who knew so many SEOs were secret PRs). That is your positioning. If, your SEO processes help a business to increase revenue from AI...brill. Your SEO processes deliver GEO. If they don't, then you need a new approach...call it AEO, GEO, AI SEO or Scooby Do. The name matters not. The result does. And no, getting your content cited by AI is not GEO. That's you feeding AI for free. Your activity has to influence buyers for it to have any business benefit. GEO, SEO, content marketing, PR and more. There is always cross over and benefits. Obssess about the outcome. And that outcome is activity that leads to increased revenue. And that is how you will be judged. We are in an era where results are the judge, not rhetoric. The desired outcome of GEO is clear. If you can make that happen call it what you want...you deserve to. But the desired outcome of GEO is not the same outcome of SEO. Which is where the biggest difference is. SEO and GEO are about outcomes.

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Lovely point of view from Sam Attwood on the state of SEO - this is a direct response to the blow up last week of "Search being dead in 3 years" Intent-marketing, has and always will be, the strongest medium in media. The rest, Interest, Inspiration & Interruption marketing, only serves to CHANGE behaviour by selling people a better version of themselves.. Intent never did this and never well. If you want to succeed with Intent-marketing, you have to start with your product and the other P's of marketing. https://lnkd.in/gMifVrZe

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Traditional SEO isn’t enough visibility for your financial services company anymore. It needs better visibility. We see a lot of UK financial service and fintech companies right now who rank well in Google, get decent organic traffic, but are completely invisible in AI search. Completely invisible when prospects ask AI assistants for recommendations. They might even be investing heavily in content and SEO. And yet... They're missing the fastest-growing search channel entirely. The reality is: 1. AI-powered search is here now 2. Early movers in GEO dominate citations for years Most will adapt their strategy eventually. It's about how GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation - also known as AEO) is implemented. We always: - Audit content structure for AI parsing - Optimise for citations in AI-generated answers - Track AI-origin traffic alongside traditional organic There will always be a learning curve with new channels. But long-term GEO positions you where search is actually going. — PS, want to get your business cited in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews 3-5 times per week like some of our 150+ financial services client? Book a time to chat: https://lnkd.in/eYRJJTAS

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*Google Ads and the Heat Pump Principle* Heat pumps extract warmth from cold ground. Google's automation claims to extract value out of lower-intent search territory. Both sound counterintuitive. Both can work - with the right conditions. I watched AI Max place a wildly expensive bid on what looked like an overly broad search term. It converted - and not by fluke. It’s part of a pattern I’ve seen a lot: Google’s machine learning picking out high intent where we wouldn’t expect it. But the crucial question is: To what extent does this actually, sustainably work across our campaigns? And it's a question we need to be able to test - not try to answer based on blind trust, shiny object syndrome, or excessive scepticism. (All common conditions in our field!) There are specific metrics that can tell you when the heat pump is extracting real value, and when it’s just burning budget in cold ground. The trick is knowing which gauges to watch. 👉 I've written about that here: https://lnkd.in/eDATdX_7 Give it a read if you want to know which signals to watch - and how to interpret them.

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This is an interesting stat from a report by Kevin Indig, in a Search Engine Land article by Danny Goodwin. When you're writing content, you want AI Search Tools to cite, aim to get to the answer and explanation in the top third of your article. Use the balance to present more information and go into details. #AEO #SEO #AISEO #AIOs #DigitalMarketing

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I’ve noticed something interesting... (*Reads on. This is NOT interesting.) The folks I work with fall into two camps: 1. The business that never tried SEO 2. The business that did, but got disappointing results The first camp is the easiest to deal with. I get to tinker with websites that are blank slates—a fresh SEO canvas. Most of these business owners aren't SEO savvy, so it's clear what language I use and how I present the issues and solutions. The second camp is way trickier. These business owners have tried SEO, but it hasn’t worked. They may know why, but they often don't, so they're begrudgingly trying again. In this scenario, clients are sometimes familiar with basic SEO, so explaining gets interesting. As I’ve said before, I don’t know what folks know, so I assume they don’t know anything—not in a condescending way but in a way that guarantees they understand everything. The second camp is a bit sensitive. Whatever they paid to have done hasn’t worked, so they're rightly pissed off. SEO can be very emotive (apparently). These clients experience all five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally, acceptance. And once they accept that SEO isn't the problem, something else is, we can put things right. If any of this sounds like you, DM me. Or take a look at my off-colour emails: https://lnkd.in/evNtixKk

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Amy Hebdon discusses the PPC decision that cost her a good client relationship On episode 337 of PPC Live The Podcast, I speak to Amy Hebdon, an international paid search expert and founder of Paid Search Magic. The show focuses on the real stories behind paid media work, including mistakes, surprises, and lessons learned, rather than just tactical advice. Amy’s breadth of experience spans multiple industries and digital marketing disciplines, making her insights particularly valuable for marketers navigating complex campaigns. Early career mistakes and learning experiences Amy shares a formative experience early in her career managing a fitness client’s creative assets that were incompatible with Google Ads. Despite her intention to protect the account and comply with platform policies, her approach—particularly in a high-stakes meeting with leadership—led to friction with the creative team. She reflects that, while the decision was correct for the account, she could have handled the communication more tactfully to preserve relationships and maintain future collaboration. Accountability and oversight in campaign management Amy recounts another early mistake where she failed to manage a low-touch account after being temporarily assigned sole responsibility. The account ran inactive for several weeks due to an expired insertion order, highlighting the importance of personal accountability, proactive check-ins, and structured processes—even when managing seemingly minor campaigns. She notes that both her own oversight and the client’s lack of internal checks contributed to the problem. Stakeholder management and communication Throughout her stories, Amy emphasizes the importance of understanding stakeholders’ perspectives and managing relationships carefully. She reflects on how decisions that seem right from a tactical perspective can carry relational consequences, reinforcing the need for empathy, objectivity, and strategic communication when navigating conflicts or escalations. Lessons on team support and leadership Amy highlights the value of having a supportive team and managers who focus on shared objectives rather than blame. Effective leadership, she says, involves fostering collaboration, redistributing workload when needed, and creating an environment where mistakes can be acknowledged and corrected without fear. For managers, encouraging accountability and openness in their teams ensures both performance and professional growth. Strategic focus over tactics Amy stresses that paid media success requires a strategic mindset rather than purely tactical execution. Focusing only on bid settings or platform features often misses the broader goal of conversion optimization and audience alignment. She warns that even technically flawless campaigns can fail if they lack alignment with overall objectives, emphasizing the need to step back and evaluate strategy rather than just “chopping down the nearest tree.” Navigating AI and...

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