It is said that New Year means new beginnings. Drunk by the Christmas spirit, we are getting ready to embrace 2019 with a big hug, set up new goals and face new challenges which will make us stronger as an agency.
Our Wishlist
Our great digital marketers from SEO, PPC and Social Media Team decided to share their wishes with you, our readers, and offer you an insight on how their year 2018 looked like in a nutshell!
“Balancing work and family life teaches you to bring the smartest people along”
Here we are, 2018 coming to a close, and it has been a memorable year for a number of reasons both personally and professionally! My wife Máire gave birth in November to our 3rd baby and we now have three wonderful girls all under the age of 3 ½ – and they’re just super craic!!
As I live in Co Clare and commute to our Dublin office weekly, this provides the opportunity to run a growing team and contribute to our home both in meaningful ways.
Balancing work and family life teaches you to bring the smartest people along to help reach your goals, and also to use your time efficiently. Otherwise you can get left behind in the hustle and bustle and wonder what has been achieved only to be left with an overwhelming sense of busyness.
Our team won some pretty big Accounts across PPC, SEO and Paid Social this year, and in so doing, we’ve learned a lot about where our combined skill set makes the largest impact.
We’ve some really savvy digital marketers (better than I could ever dream I could be) working on our team, the sum of the parts are worth more than the individuals. That’s what any team is. We’ve become hugely efficient for bigger spenders, driving increased conversions from larger spending accounts. We’ve developed an integrated approach collaborating between PPC, SEO, CRO and Paid Social depts communicating learnings for the greater good of our client work. This positively impacts conversions and makes for happy reports!
2018 has been a year where VROOM have invested in our new location on Merrion Sq, we’re doing more and more work over ZOOM and conference calls with our clients and each other, and we’re getting better at getting it right quicker.
The highlights for VROOM this year were many, most notably:
- 3 more people are about to join our Award-winning team
- Achieving silver for Best Conversion Strategy at the DMA’s back in February
- Being named a top 25 Agency in EMEA for Growing Businesses Online at Google’s Premier Partner Awards in October
- Being the most shortlisted Irish Agency again at the 2018 Google Premier Partner Awards for EMEA
- Shortlisting for the 3rd consecutive year at the EU Search Awards
We launched our new website back in January and haven’t looked back since, that feels like 3 yrs ago now! Lots of exciting add ons to come in Q1, looking forward to leading the team in an exciting direction next year, where VROOM achieve our potential both at home and further afield.
Shane Curtin, Managing Director
“It has been a year of bold decisions and great achievements”
With yet another year gone, it is amazing to look back and marvel at the speed of change happening all around us: “fake news” becoming mainstream, our personal data being traded for political gains, and Millenials driving a houseplant revival (and probably eating too many avocados). Everyone is an “influencer”, podcasts are becoming the new radio and the #repealthe8th hashtag was the top-shared hashtag in Ireland on Twitter this year. Revolution will not be televised – but we will probably watch it on Facebook Live.
For our Social Media department here at VROOM, it has been an exciting year indeed. With new Team members joining in and some big client wins, we are looking forward to new challenges and opportunities in the New Year. Hopefully, the long-promised Google Attribution model and the ever-improving Facebook analytics will enable us to demonstrate the true power of social advertising and e-commerce.
On a personal level, it has been a year of bold decisions and great achievements, which can be scary and exciting at the same time. As for New Year’s resolutions, I am hoping to continue my search for a more balanced, mindful life – and to become a #dublinfoodie influencer on Instagram!
Anna Pas, Senior Social Media Manager
“I certainly wish to pick as much knowledge as I can from the apple tree of Eden”
I have just arrived to VROOM Digital and I am as excited as an electron jumping to a different orbital to be working in one of Ireland’s top digital marketing agencies.
I have so many wishes for 2019, I don’t even know where to start from. I certainly wish to pick as much knowledge as I can from the apple tree of Eden and put it into practice for our existing and future clients. Secondly, I wish to adopt a data-driven attribution model focusing more on the customer journey than on traditional KPIs. Last but not least, I would love to get Mattress Mick as a client.
Giulia Brotto, Social Media Executive
“I’d like the Google Ads interface to perform at lightning speed”
My wishes are very simple. I’d like the Google Ads interface to perform at lightning speed (instead of me having to wait for hours for an account to load). I’d love for Google Shopping to be easier to set up, or have a magic fairy deal with all the Feed Issues we are continually faced with, and upgrade the look & feel & functionalities/features of the Google Merchant Centre as it seems to be forgotten by the Google Team. And lastly, I wish that ML and AI in Google will improve!!! Next year, my goal is to absorb new knowledge like a sponge and apply it effectively. Everything is a learning curve, but once we apply it, that’s where the true test lies on what we have learned.
Carolina Cioara, PPC Specialist
“To have a greater control over targeting and bidding”
My wishlist for the next year is GDN – to be able to use In-Market or Intent Audience targeting without placement targeting being enabled, as at the moment there are way too many spammy sites on the network; Smart shopping – to have a greater control over targeting and bidding; Search ads – to use exact match keywords and know it’s an exact match as it used to be and not a variation of a broad match as it is now; I wish Google Ads interface will become as fast as AdWords was 🙂
Lola Usarova, PPC Specialist
“Shopping Ads for VROOM Digital has become a large part of business”
For 2019 I’d like to see improvements made in the functionality of the Google Merchant Centre Interface as there is a lot more businesses moving to Shopping Ads and for VROOM Digital as an Agency, it has become a large part of our business.
I’m excited to see how Google’s automation tools and machine learning capabilities continue to evolve and help gain better results going forward. I’m also looking forward to learning more about different Attribution Models and embrace that we don’t live in a single channel world with the goal of continuing to build successful cross channel strategies for our Clients.
Damien Hamilton, Paid Search Manager
“When searching for products and services, it is imperative your business is visible”
2018 has come and gone, it was the best of times it was the blurst of times. What 2019 holds is uncertain with Brexit but what is certain for businesses is to continue to advertise online. When people are searching for products and services that you offer it is imperative your business is visible.
My main wish for 2019 is for Google to keep to its core principle of Keywords as the fundamentals of advertising on Search. With all the advancements in technology and machine learning this may be forgotten.
While advancing and testing is great, there may be a possibility of losing this core principle of Keywords in the fog of machine learning. Keywords brings relevancy with relevancy brings Conversions. Whether the keyword is typed into a search engine, spoken through voice search or looking further down the line through thoughts of computer chips integrated with people brains (In Elon we trust – Neuralink), the fundamental of the Keyword remains the same in advertising.
Seán Higgins, PPC Specialist
“The SEO Team receiving a shortlist at the European Search Awards”
My 2018 highlights, on a professional level, coincided with 2 initiations: the SEO Team receiving a shortlist at the European Search Awards (1 out of 1 submission is certainly good going) and my first public speaking gig.
Initiations, discovery, change. In 2018 I embraced this approach with more enthusiasm than ever before. Growth seems to be a gradual process of getting out of one’s comfort zone. In the new year I’ll just try to keep this up.
Luciano Passavanti, Head of SEO Department
“2018 has been a year of growth and development for me”
2018 has been a year of growth and development for me. This year Google confirmed nine updates that affected how websites were indexed and presented to consumers. From these updates we here at VROOM Digital have learned quality content, security and page speed are important ranking factors Google use to rank websites.
In regards, SEO in 2019 I’m looking forward to focusing on the technical aspects of our client’s websites to push them ahead of their competitors and to earn them more rich results in Google.
Caroline Fahy, SEO Specialist
“A bunch of green arrows when doing reports every month”
2018 was the year of learning more about understanding complex data, different user’s behaviour and most importantly discovering a new brand of delish ice cream through organic search. For the New Year I’m strongly wishing the final season of Game of Thrones will be as good as expected! And a bunch of green arrows when doing reports every month. And that Google will not come up with an odd algorithm update which will send us back to 1999. Having said that a quick time travel to 1999 would be great!
Pawel Kozakiewicz, SEO Manager
“I wish backlinks grow on trees just like fruits”
This year 2018 was truly amazing for me, especially since I joined this team! I am happy this year brought me a lot of challenges, but I decided to accept them, face them & embrace them! My lesson learned this year is “don’t stop dreaming” and this keeps pushing me forward. Literally, this year I found my stronger side of myself and if you believe in what are you capable of and doing your best for achieving it, you will truly get to the point you pictured. It might sound like a cliché but if you love what you do & do what you love, you won a lottery! For the New Year, I wish backlinks grow on trees just like fruits and I could simply pick them up all! Enjoy yourselves and be happy! Cheers!
Nikol Bruderova, SEO Executive
VROOM Digital would like to thank all partners and clients for the trust and support throughout 2018.
Thank you for making this year so special for us!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
