Meet Greg

Name: Greg Hayes

Title: Associate Director, Paid Social

How long have you worked at Catalyst?

I’m still a relative newbie – I started at Catalyst earlier this year, but have loved getting up to speed and becoming part of the team!

How long have you worked in social and what type of clients have you worked on? 

I have been in paid social for about 5 years now. I’ve worked in a variety of different verticals – CPG, healthcare, retail, tech, insurance, automotive, pharmacy, and banking.

How did you get your start in social?

Out of college, I knew I wanted a role at an ad agency. As my search started to get serious, I kept noticing paid social positions were popping up everywhere. I looked into it more, did my research, and really thought about how advertising was making a dramatic shift towards digital – with social media seeing incredible growth at the time.  I saw the opportunity and jumped in!

What do you like most about working at Catalyst?

The flexibility. The agency is filled with a lot of bright, driven people who work very hard – but everyone understands there is life outside of work. If you get your work done and do your job right, management is flexible with where and how you work.

What has been your greatest achievement or success in social?

A few years back, I worked with my team at the time on a detailed plan that persuaded social “non-believers” that their media dollars would be better spent on social then what they had done in the past. It was extremely tough because they weren’t 100% (not even 50%) sold on social and had a lot of budget to go around. Getting this “old school” client to adapt to modern, digital trends was tough, but we got a large chunk of business as a result and it was very satisfying.

In your opinion, what is the most important social trend or change for 2019?

A huge change that occurred this year was the roll out of the direct checkout feature on Instagram. This is a HUGE development in the social space. Various social platforms have proven their worth amongst retail brands, but the ability for users to purchase directly through a social platform will change the game. It makes buying easier than ever and provides mobile shoppers with an immersive, entertaining environment where they can quickly act on impulses and desires. I anticipate other platforms to make the shift down the road – especially Pinterest.

If you had to give one recommendation to an advertiser who wants to use search or social marketing to achieve business results, what would it be?

Focus on all areas of the funnel. While social is fantastic for driving DR and low funnel KPIs, it’s imperative to continuously grow your business and stack the funnel. The split doesn’t have to be even, but driving demand will pay off in the long run. This is the difference in having short term success on social and establishing yourself as a best in class leader.

Share a fun fact about yourself

I used to be a religious Vine user… Absolutely loved the platform and would spend way too much time messing around on it and making comedy shorts with friends. I was (and still am) devastated that it’s gone.

Why Greg Makes Us Proud

Greg plays an integral role in establishing a solid paid social practice at Catalyst. He’s knowledgeable, creative and a good listener. He keeps tab on the latest news and innovations in the field of social media marketing and feeds this knowledge into our client’s social strategy. He’s an invaluable team player and a mentor to junior employees. – Mariya Ruseva, Group Director, Search and Social, Catalyst

The post Catalyst Employee Spotlight: Greg Hayes appeared first on Catalyst Digital | Search Marketing & Social Media Agency.

Online shopping behavior is rapidly changing. Consumers are better informed and tech savvier than ever before, and on-the-go web interactions are introducing shopping experiences and habits that were hard to imagine only five years ago. Today’s online shoppers discover a brand on one channel, compare it with other options on a second channel, and finally make a purchase through a third platform. For example:

• Search engines are far more important for research and comparison purposes than for purchasing itself. 57% of consumers say they use search engines to discover new products.
• 60% of consumers report making online purchases via various social media channels including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest.
• Amazon plays a critical role across the entire shopping journey with 68% of online shoppers visited Amazon to research, compare ,and purchase products.

U.S. Shopper Preferences Throughout Purchase Journey (Discovery, Research, Comparison, Purchase)

Know Your Audience: Understanding Today’s Online Shoppers

This shopping behavior is challenging brands and advertisers to be visible on all channels in a compelling and strategic way.

New, Exclusive Research

It’s with this backdrop that we are excited to release Know Your Audience: Understanding Today’s Online Shoppers, a new Catalyst-ClickZ whitepaper. Read the new publication to gain powerful insights into online shopping behavior that will help you maximize visibility and sales across channels and platforms.

The research is based on a survey of 511 US-based shoppers from a wide range of backgrounds—spanning all employment types, educational levels, and household income levels. Respondents were asked to describe their online purchase journey: where they go to discover new products, to conduct further research, to compare, and finally to purchase—and where they think they’ll predominantly purchase online goods in five years’ time.

Insights You’ll Uncover

Read the report for new insights to help your brand maximize consumer connections across consumers’ online shopping journey. You will discover how to better align your marketing budget and resources based where and how consumers are using search, social, and ecommerce sites throughout their path-to-purchase. You’ll uncover:

• Key differences and characteristics of online shopping habits for high spenders, medium spenders, and low spenders
• Insights into the role of search, social, Amazon, and more in the online shopping journey
• New data around Amazon’s dominance during discovery, research, consideration, and more
• Recommendations for how to expertly integrate search and social channel

The post New Research: Understanding Today’s Online Shoppers appeared first on Catalyst Digital | Search Marketing & Social Media Agency.

Managing a global paid search campaign is an international juggling act. You must expertly balance differences and nuances across countries, regions, platforms, and stakeholders, all while driving positive business outcomes across the board. It’s a lot to tackle, that’s for sure. But, there are ways to simplify the complexity. Join our “Getting Global Paid Search Right” webinar to learn how. We’ll share our global paid search approach that earned Catalyst the highest possible score for Global Execution in The Forrester Wave: Performance Marketing Agencies, Q3 2019.

You’ll learn how to streamline campaign management and maximize business result by:

• Creating a scalable global paid search framework
• Building a global strategy that is also locally tailored (accounting for unique legislation, cultural considerations, and search engine differences)
• Leveraging people & technology for real-time communication & collaboration across the world
• Use automation to ensure standards of excellence in all regions/countries

Webinar Date/Time

Date: Thursday, November 7th
Time: 1:00 – 1:45PM ET

Presenters

Cara DeBeer, Partner, Paid Search Director, Catalyst

Cara deBeer is a Paid Search Director at Catalyst. Based in Catalyst’s Boston office, she has over 12 years of experience in the search marketing industry. Cara has worked on both agency side and client side with some of the largest and best-known brands in the world. She has run managed paid search campaigns across a wide range of verticals, from legal (most expensive CPCs in the industry, $300+) to tech to CPG and pharma. In addition to paid search, Cara also has SEO and paid social experience.

Jim Kensicki, Managing Director, Search & Social, Catalyst

As Catalyst’s Managing Director of Search and Social Media, Jim Kensicki is responsible for the development of the search and social teams in Boston and ensuring the delivery of exceptional business results on behalf of Catalyst’s clients. Prior to Catalyst, Jim served as the Sr. Director of Content Marketing for North America’s largest content marketing agency, leading its teams of strategists, account managers and creative teams across their Boston and Chicago offices supporting over 300 brands. He’s led two performance agencies through acquisition, and has over 15 years of experience leading clients teams.

The post WEBINAR: GETTING GLOBAL PAID SEARCH RIGHT appeared first on Catalyst Digital | Search Marketing & Social Media Agency.

Meet Jaison

Name: Jaison Babu

Title: Software Engineer

How long have you worked at Catalyst?

I have been part of Catalyst for a little over one year.

How long have you been a software engineer?

I have been developing software for over 6 years now.

How did you get your start in software engineering?

I got my start as a junior backend developer on an anti-money laundering software team for a major bank.

What do you like most about working at Catalyst?

Almost everything! Everyone around here is very talented and inspiring to work with. It gives me an immense pleasure to be part of a cutting-edge technology ecosystem which empowers marketers to personalize, engage, and connect with their prospects and customers in much more meaningful ways.

How do you use your technical expertise to support digital marketing programs?

My primary objective is to ensure end users are happy and keep the development process simple and efficient. It mainly includes developing custom Knime plugins for various API integrations like Adobe Analytics, Amazon Sponsored Ads, DoubleClick, Facebook Marketing, Google AdWords, Microsoft Advertising etc. into our in-house Data Analytics platform for our data analysts and visualization team.

In your opinion, what is the most important data, analytics, or technology trend or change for digital marketing in 2019?

With the availability of enormous data, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence solutions can significantly help digital marketers to make faster and more accurate marketing decisions and predictions by optimizing their campaigns in real-time. Also, Blockchain can be the new technology disrupting digital marketing by providing full transparency of transactions between advertisers and publishers.

If you had to give one data or technology recommendation for advertisers using search and social marketing, what would it be?

In this ever-changing landscape of digital innovation, it is very important to stay up-to-date with technology and proactively build tools that support customer success. Voice search is also introducing new opportunities that marketers may want to consider when building search strategies.

Share a fun fact about yourself

I can speak five languages and understand a couple more.

Why Jaison Makes Us Proud

“Jaison Babu is a rock star software engineer! He started over a year ago and has rapidly developed an understanding of Fusion, Knime, and all of the development operations architecture. Within 2 weeks, Jaison was able to completely support the system. He has tremendous analytic and problem-solving skills, he is able to quickly develop and implement solutions. Catalyst is extremely lucky to have Jaison on the team!” – Ted Farrell, Project Manager, Catalyst

“Jaison is a big part of what makes our technology team successful here at Catalyst. His problem solving skills and meticulous adherence to the development process have allowed us to expand and scale our offerings which have really impressed our clients.  He does this all with a positive attitude, and I can say it’s a real pleasure to work with him day in and day out.” – Nick Vining, Director, Strategy & Insights, Catalyst

The post Catalyst Employee Spotlight: Jaison Babu appeared first on Catalyst Digital | Search Marketing & Social Media Agency.

GroupM Performance Debuts as a Strong Performer in The Forrester Wave

GroupM Performance (including Catalyst, Xaxis, and mPlatform) was among the select companies that Forrester invited to participate in its 2019 Forrester Wave evaluation, The Forrester Wave: Performance Marketing Agencies, Q3 2019. In this evaluation, GroupM Performance was cited as a Strong Performer in Performance Marketing.

GroupM Performance received the highest scores possible in 10 criteria, including global execution and privacy. According to the evaluation, GroupM Performance “sports one of the strongest programmatic offerings and can solidly execute globally.” The report also recommends GroupM Performance to “marketers with channel-specific needs, like programmatic or eCommerce, that may eventually want one agency to manage all of its digital marketing channels.”

More on GroupM Performance:

GroupM Performance is a Center of Excellence that combines the search, social and programmatic capabilities of Catalyst, Xaxis, and mPlatform. It simplifies the complexity brought on by media fragmentation and brings clients the most progressive digital, data and performance capabilities as they pursue brand and business growth. Our high-performing, innovation driven team comprises more than 800 performance marketing experts across GroupM.

GroupM is the world’s leading media investment company responsible for nearly $48B in annual media investment through agencies including Mindshare, MediaCom, Wavemaker, Essence and m/SIX. GroupM creates competitive advantage for advertisers via its worldwide organization of media experts who deliver powerful insights on consumers and media platforms, trading expertise, market-leading brand-safe media, technology solutions, addressable TV, content, sports and more.

The post GroupM Performance Debuts as a Strong Performer in The Forrester Wave™ appeared first on Catalyst Digital | Search Marketing & Social Media Agency.

Amazon has launched a new directory that lists partners who support services provided by Amazon Advertising. The new Find-A-Partner Directory will help businesses and brands find the tools and agencies that are best suited for them based on their specific marketing needs.

The directory offers two categories: managed-service providers and tool providers. As a leader in Amazon Advertising strategy and support, Catalyst has been accepted into the “managed-service provider” category.

Catalyst offers support for holistic advertising programs on Amazon, including paid media buys through Amazon Advertising and advanced SEO strategies and support for product detail pages. Through Catalyst’s eShelf and FUSION tools, we create sophisticated and data-fueled approaches for maximizing advertisers’ business results on Amazon. For example, for one Fortune 500 CPG client, we increased conversation rate by 32% and improved ROAS by 20%. See the full case study here.

You can find Catalyst and use the directory here.

More on Catalyst

Catalyst is the specialty search, social, and e-commerce marketing agency within GroupM. Catalyst specializes in digital solutions that are innovative, effective, and consistently deliver results for Fortune 1000 companies. From advanced Amazon marketing strategies to sophisticated search campaigns, Catalyst offers industry leading capabilities required for best-in-class search and social programs.

More of Catalyst’s Amazon Thought-Leadership

Check out our Amazon whitepapers, webinars, and blogs to learn more about Catalyst’s advanced approach to Amazon Advertising.

Whitepapers:

• The Era of Ecommerce: Capitalizing on the New Customer Journey
• The Age of Amazon: Maximizing the B2C Marketing Opportunity

Blog posts:

• Planning for Prime Day
• January 2019: What’s New in the Amazon Advertising UI?
• Amazon Advertising Update: New Sponsored Products Targeting Types 
• The Updated Amazon Advertising Interface: 3 New & Helpful Features for Advertisers
• Amazon Advertising Product Update

Webinar:

• 5 Ways to Dominate Amazon’s Digital Shelf [WEBINAR]

The post Catalyst Accepted into Amazon Advertising’s Find-A-Partner Directory appeared first on Catalyst Digital | Search Marketing & Social Media Agency.

Meet Amie

Name: Amie DeCosta

Title: Project Director, Partner

How long have you worked at Catalyst?

I have been part of the Catalyst team for 10 years.

How long have you worked in digital l and what type of clients have you worked on? 

I’ve worked in digital in some capacity for over 17 years, supporting clients in virtually every industry and vertical: from CPG to non-profit, high-tech to agriculture and everything in between.

How did you get your start in digital?

Years ago, when I was working in PR, a client asked me if a press release I’d written included search terms. The question kind of caught me off guard. I had included all the key details and context for the offering they were announcing. What more was there to do? I started reading about SEO and educating myself about how search engines work. It really changed the way I thought about promotional writing. Later, when the opportunity arose to join the Catalyst team, I was excited about the chance to dig in more.

What do you like most about working at Catalyst?

The people. Everyone is so collaborative and everyone’s ideas matter. I love working with them to bring new ideas to the table and help solve our clients’ challenges (even when not directly related to search). It’s great to be part of such a driven and innovative team. We truly learn from each other every day.

What has been your greatest achievement or success in digital?

Each of our clients has their own way of working, knowledge of search, goals and unique set of challenges. As a project director, my greatest achievement has been collaborating with them to successfully implement integrated processes that leverage search’s full potential. I enjoy helping our clients understand where our team needs to be incorporated, why, and working hand-in-hand with them to figure out how. When we’re able to partner closely and provide guidance at every stage of a project, those experiences are the most fulfilling for me because they drive the greatest results.

In your opinion, what is the most important digital trend or change for 2019?

There are so many changes reshaping the industry right now (voice search, privacy regulations, mobile-first), but one that’s top of mind on a daily basis is the increase of featured snippets, a.k.a. the “answer box” on the search results page. Secure one, and you gain key visibility for your site and brand. Don’t, and your position 1 ranking can suddenly be located halfway down the page. That said, we’ve actually seen some instances where traffic declined because users are getting the answers they need right there in the snippet. No clicks required. The ultimate challenge is to earn a featured snippet that still entices users to visit your site.

If you had to give one recommendation to an advertiser who wants to use search or social marketing to achieve business results, what would it be?

Incorporate search throughout your projects, not at the end of them. There’s so much more to search than meta data or ads pointing to existing content. Search data offers unique insight into how people are thinking about your product (is it a “power toothbrush” or an “electric toothbrush”?), the features they are interested in, the questions they have that you aren’t answering. To fully maximize the value of search, leverage your search team at every step of the development process and work with them to shape your site, content and even your offerings.

Share a fun fact about yourself

Once upon a time…I performed at Disney World when I was captain of my high school dance squad.

Why Amie Makes Us Proud

“A thought leader and master of operations, Amie not only creates a strategic project framework for our clients, but also drives her team to executional excellence. Her ability to create best-in-class solutions and transform them at a global scale, while managing the details with such precision, are just a few of the reasons we love Amie and are so happy she is part of the Catalyst family!” – Jennie Raleigh, Sr. Director of Project Management, Catalyst

The post Catalyst Employee Spotlight: Amie DeCosta appeared first on Catalyst Digital | Search Marketing & Social Media Agency.

Meet Jim

Name: Jim Kensicki

Title: Managing Director, Search and Social

How long have you worked at Catalyst?

I have been working at Catalyst for four years.

How long have you worked in search/social and what type of clients have you worked on? 

Since 2001 – 18 Years.  I’ve worked across nearly every vertical and industry – in-house and agency – but currently focus on our more complex, global strategies.

How did you get your start in search/social?

I got my start in digital marketing in high school – I built an online mortgage lead generation website during my junior year.  It was at the start of the mortgage boom in the early 2000s, and it really took off. The business was acquired by a competing agency in 2002, where I followed to run their B2B digital channels for 7 years before they were acquired.

What do you like most about working at Catalyst?

The people. I’m surrounded by the smartest people in our industry. Some of which brands spend thousands to hear speak at events, and I get to sit next to them and ask them questions all day long. I learn something from them every single day – it’s truly a privilege. 

What has been your greatest achievement or success in search/social?

The success of the clients I work with is what drives me. It’s a lot of fun knowing your approach and hard work played a role in meaningfully changing their business. It’s equally fun watching some of the more junior members of our performance team become rock stars. Did I mention we have the smartest people working here?

In your opinion, what is the most important search/social trend or change for 2019?

The pendulum has quickly swung in the other direction as it relates to consumer privacy. This is going to mean more challenges stitching audience data to together to reach consumers across channels. Companies will need to invest more in 1^st party data and revisit processes and technology as it relates to their marketing stack to ensure they are setup for success.

If you had to give one recommendation to an advertiser who wants to use search or social marketing to achieve business results, what would it be?

Don’t go it alone. Start by working with your own stakeholders to really understand their needs and commercial objectives – you’re going to need them. Then work with a partner that can help you connect your online marketing activity to those business outcomes.

Share a fun fact about yourself

I have a 2 year-old Pomeranian named Tyrion Hufflepuff.

Why Jim Makes us Proud

“Jim is an absolutely integral member of the Catalyst team. He is an inspiring leader for our teams, a trusted advisor for our clients, and a key driver of our organization’s success.”– Beth LeTendre, CEO, Catalyst

The post Catalyst Employee Spotlight: Jim Kensicki appeared first on Catalyst Digital | Search Marketing & Social Media Agency.

Casper. Allbirds. Glossier. New and ultra-successful direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands are challenging the world’s legacy brands and creating new models for brand-to-consumer relationships.

Their innovation, nimbleness, and speed-to-market paved the way for success, but how will these brands continue to fuel performance? The key will be their performance marketing strategy. DTC advertisers will be challenged to evolve their performance marketing strategy to drive even more brand awareness and customer acquisition while overcoming diminishing returns.

Join our webinar to learn how DTC brands can do just this. Our experts will share actionable strategies for how today’s DTC advertisers can evolve their media and performance marketing programs to maximize business results. We will discuss advanced ways to unlock improved results from paid search, SEO, programmatic display, social media, influencer marketing, and more. Perfect for any DTC advertiser seeking new ways to maximize growth, this webinar is also valuable for any brand planning to pivot their performance marketing plan as they transition to a DTC model.

Webinar Date/Time

Date: Thursday, September 12th
Time: 1PM ET

Presenters

Kerry Curran, Managing Partner, Marketing Integration, Catalyst

Kieley Taylor, Managing Partner, Global Head of Social, GroupM

Stu Richards, Director, Xaxis West, Xaxis

Tim Flagg, ClickZ Podcast Host and Digital Marketing Consultant, ClickZ

The post Mastering Performance Marketing for your DTC Brand appeared first on Catalyst Digital | Search Marketing & Social Media Agency.

Calling all technical SEO trailblazers, savvy search scientists, and research extraordinaires! Are you doing innovative SEO experiments or research? Are you rigorously testing new ideas, approaches, strategies, and tactics? We want to hear about it! Submit your research or experiment to TechSEO Boost’s second annual research competition for the chance to share your findings and have your work honored by the SEO community. It’s free to submit and you could win the chance the present at TechSEO Boost 2019!

Prizes:

• Three finalists will be invited to present at TechSEO Boost. Presentations will be several minutes in length and will summarize the respective research or experiments conducted. Finalists who are unable to travel to Boston to present in-person can opt to send a video file with a pre-recorded presentation that will be aired at the live event.
• Winner to be announced live at TechSEO Boost. Winner will receive a cash prize of $3,000.

Sponsor:

iPullRank is a digital marketing agency focused on Content Strategy, Solutions Architecture, Marketing Automation, SEO, Social Media, Measurement and Optimization. We are based in New York City and we are PROUD of what we do.

Timeline & Submission Process:

• Friday, August 30th: Email info@catalystdigital.com to declare your intent to submit research. Participants who declare their intent by August 30^th will receive the opportunity to ask the judging panel three questions to help guide their entry. Note: Declaring your intent to submit is optional. Participants are not required to declare your intent prior to submitting research.
• Monday, October 21st: Entries due. Please email completed entry template to info@catalystdigital.com no later than 5pm ET on Monday, October 21^st.
  • ***We are no longer taking entries for the 2019 Research Competition. Check back for the finalists on November 4th.***

DOWNLOAD TEMPLATE: TechSEO Boost Call for Research Template

• Monday, November 4th: Finalists announced on CatalystDigital.com & Catalyst social media accounts
• Thursday, December 5th: Winners announced live at TechSEO Boost 2019

Scoring Criteria:

Submissions will be scored on the following criteria:

• Importance of research area (not results) to industry (no preference given to positive findings)
• Relevance of research area (not results) to industry
• Novel research approaches
• Reproducible research models
• Open sourcing of data and modeling
• Presentation of research and clarity

Check out the 2018 competition results and the finalists’ research presentations to get a sense of the type of research the judges are looking for.

Why Enter?

Not sure you want to submit? Here are four reasons why you can’t pass it up.

1. Let your mad scientist shine. Let’s face it – there are not many research competitions singularly focused on SEO. This is a unique opportunity to nerd out on advanced experiments that push the boundaries of what’s possible. We speak your language and want to hear about creative SEO tests that produce new insights, challenge best practices, and maximize results. Don’t hold back, let your mad scientist shine!
2. The submission process is easy-peasy (and free)! We know what you might be thinking – another task for your to-do list. So, we’ve made it super easy to submit your research. We have a simple and easy-to-use submission template. Download it, tell us a little bit about your hypothesis, procedures/methodology, and results, and then send it off to info@catalystdigital.com. There are no crazy forms, no entry fee, and you can decide how much or how little to share with us. Just keep it under 10,000 words!
3. Industry recognition and free publicity. Each of the three finalists will be invited to present a summary of their research at TechSEO Boost 2019 in Boston. With hundreds of in-person attendees and thousands more watching via the livestream and recorded sessions, this is your chance to showcase your smarts to a wide audience of marketers, agencies, and other SEO thought-leaders. Can’t travel to Boston for the event? Not to fear! Finalists who cannot travel to Boston to present in-person will have the opportunity to pre-record their presentation. We’ll air it at the live event, so you still get the industry exposure without making the trip to Beantown. Feeling a little camera shy? You can also elect to have someone present on your behalf.
4. Shape the future of SEO. Testing and experimentation is key to the advancement of all businesses and industries, including the SEO industry. Finalists who share their findings at the event have the opportunity to improve the industry at large. Join the ranks of SEO pioneers who are positively impacting the future of the SEO for everyone.

Panel of Judges

Michael King – Research Competition MC, Managing Director, iPullRank

Russ Jones, Principal Search Scientist, Moz

Paul Shapiro, Senior Partner, Head of SEO, Catalyst

Alexis Sanders, SEO Senior Manager, Merkle

Clark Boyd, Research Director, ClickZ

Aleyda Solis, International SEO Consultant & Founder, Orainti

Rhea Drysdale, CEO & Lead Strategist, Outspoken Media

Geoff Kenyon, VP Online Marketing, SingleCare

Dan Taylor, Account Director & Senior Technical SEO Consultant, SALT.agency ®

David Iwanow, Global Search & Traffic Manager, Danone

Questions?

If you have any questions about the research please feel free to email us at info@catalystdigital.com.

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