This week Matthew Oxley, Gravytrain’s Head of Search, talked to Fourth Source about paid search and how its use has become a lot less simple over the years. When pay-per-click (PPC) began it was quite straightforward and campaigns revolved largely around keywords and Ad text.

Matthew then looks at paid search in 2012. There are much more possibilities such as the issue of distribution and getting the right level of visibility across different device types. AdWords in particular have contributed to the expansion of PPC and he comments that “If you are a company with 4 core services, you might have been used to a campaign for each service – but it’s now easy to see how those 4 campaigns could become a daunting 36”.

With such a multitude of options to consider, he then makes some recommendations on how to effectively manage paid search accounts. They include knowing your limits, understanding your priorities, deciding how to report and keeping the customer in mind.

You can read the full article on Fourth Source’s website.

Gravytrain CEO, Kevin Taylor, was featured in the POSTonline.co.uk and talked about the increasing popularity of aggregator websites like Money Supermarket and Compare the Market. Based on research conducted by Gravytrain, it was found that these two websites ranked the highest for Google searches on car and travel insurance during 1 November 2011 and 1 February 2012; whereas insurers like Admiral, Churchill and More Than ranked between seventh and tenth place.

The purpose of aggregators was to avoid having to visit multiple websites to make comparisons but now there is a need for this to evolve and allow consumers to enter their details into just one site. Kevin suggests websites like Google, which already hold a lot of information with the accounts they have, could become a universal aggregator. He comments, “You have to question Google’s motivation for buying Beat That Quote last year. It runs Google Adviser in the US – a comparison site for credit cards”.

Despite what appears to be initial steps towards this notion of being the aggregator of aggregators, there is the potential risk of bias towards associate products and privacy issues if one hosting facility were to hold an incredibly large amount of data.

You can read the full article in the POSTonline.co.uk digital magazine.

Last week, Gravytrain CEO Kevin Taylor, talked to Decision Marketing about the importance of building brands over cutting prices as a way to drive sales. Due to the current state of the economy, price cutting has been the focus of many companies but they hold the risk of damaging a brand’s values and can cause a long term negative impact.

Other options should be explored first such as, raising brand awareness and trust. Based on recent research we found this to be an important strategy worth investing in. It was revealed 35% of consumers always buy from a brand they recognised and trust, compared to just 20% that chose a lower price alternative. In addition to this, when studying demographics, 43% of the over 55s bought from brands they trusted. Similarly, 38% of 18-24 year olds would buy from a recognisable brand, further confirming the necessity for all companies to invest in their brands.

Regardless of target market, a large proportion of consumers purchase products from brands they know well over cheaper options. Kevin concludes by saying “It’s much better to invest the money you were planning to write off in any price cut in an integrated marketing campaign to build brand awareness and trust”. Doing so can help improve long term competitiveness.

To read the full article, visit the Decision Marketing website.

Last week we were featured in an article on the BBC website. Kevin Taylor gave his opinion on the need for businesses to keep up with new technologies. The whole article involved comments from various business representatives, who covered related topics such as using technology for growth, being forced to put technological advances on the back burner and making the right choices.

Kevin talked about the warning signs businesses need to pay attention to like what their rivals are doing in order to stay successful. He adds, “Lean, efficient, micro-businesses, set up on the back of cloud technologies, effective outsourcing and flexible ‘virtual offices’ are increasingly posing a threat to traditional small businesses”.

To read the article in its entirety, visit the business section of the BBC News website.

How time flies, it has just been over a year since the Gravytrain team took part in a gruelling 24 hour simulator car race to raise money for comic relief. This year on Friday 23rd March, the team will be putting themselves forward and raising money for this great charity, by challenging themselves with cycling from the Gravytrain HQ to the Eiffel Tower. However, similarly to last year, we won’t be doing the challenge for real, but we will be using an exercise bike.

From 12pm we will be taking it in turns to get on the bike and reach 342km in less than 12 hours.

Comic relief is a major charity based in the UK which strives to create a just world free from poverty, through the power of entertainment. The charity raises millions of pounds through two big fundraising campaigns which you may have heard of – Red Nose Day and Sport Relief.

Sport Relief gets everyone active while raising money and helping to change lives in the UK and across the world’s poorest countries. It’s a great cause that we love getting involved in!

We are aiming to raise £2,500 so would really appreciate it if you could help us by visiting our sponsor page and giving what you can. You can also follow our journey on Twitter.