In the Spring Edition of the Greenlight magazine, we explore the new reality of link building, how to get the most from mobile advertising, the impact of Facebook's latest product 'Home' plus we provide tips on how to achieve a fully integrated digital search strategy.

2. The Greenlight Sector Report
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3. ARTICLE
Contents
What will it take for
brands to embrace the
new reality of Search?
Interflora’s recent run in with Google gets
Greenlight’s SEO Director, Adam Bunn,
questioning the ‘state of link building’.
10
The Impact of Facebook ‘Home’
How can we get the
most from mobile
advertising?
Integrated
Search &
Digital Strategies
328
Article by Paul Byrne
6
feature articles
4
Magazine Contents
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3 Overview
4 Article - Exactly what will
it take for brands to
embrace the new reality
of Search?
by Adam Bunn
6 Article - How can we get
the most from mobile
advertising?
by Hannah Kimuyu
8 Article - Integrated Search
& Digital Strategies
by Paul Byrne
10 Article - The impact of
Facebook ‘Home’
by Sam Haseltine
13 Back Cover
Sam Haseltine explor es the potential to be unloc ke by your brand with F acebook ‘Home’ .

4. As I write this it’s been almost a
month since Interflora’s recovery
from the landmark Google penalty
caused almost certainly by a large
number of paid advertorials and
potentially by a number of other
link building techniques. Interflora
had suffered a milder penalty in
2012 from which it had recovered,
but then continued to link build
against Google’s guidelines thus in-
curring a rarely seen level of wrath
from the web spam team that saw
them lose rankings not only for all
of their generic and long tail que-
ries but also their brand – an almost
unheard of level of severity for a
link based penalty. It seems an
opportune time to put down some
of my thoughts on the “state of link
building”, current and future.
Linking without linking
As social media becomes the de
facto way of expressing appreciation
for a piece of content, naturally
given links are becoming vanishingly
rare. Frankly, why would you
bother when you can press a
“share” or “like” button and be done
with it?
Meanwhile there is a flight of SEO’s
to the few remaining link building
“techniques” that are collectively
deemed “safe”, however misin-
formed they may be.
Various forms of semantic markup
that allow content to reference its
source without an explicit link may
also prove important in the future.
Google’s proprietary authorship
markup is widely hyped but is just
one example of a burgeoning pool
of schema and microformatting
options for content providers.
Make no mistake: search engines
will have to use these “non-link”
link signals more in the future.
After all, they are companies that
have historically leant on links as
a signal, but are now faced with a
shrinking pool of those links, a greater
and greater percentage of which are
manipulated (if you think about it for
long enough you almost start to feel
sorry for them).
Mixed messages from Google
For marketers, things are getting
confused by Google’s apparent mixed
messages on various types of link,
caused by their increasingly prominent
television advertising for the Chrome
browser and the connected “ecosys-
tem” of Google services. In a classic
case of the left hand not talking to the
right, paid advertorials, sponsored
posts and product reviews have all
received apparent endorsements by
Google on the one hand while various
penalties, warnings and guidelines tell
a completely different story.
“Google’s hypocrisy is bound
to raise ire & confusion in
equal measure.”
Take product reviews. The basic ap-
proach here is to identify a number
of bloggers in your industry with a
desirable following and send them free
products to review. From there angles
vary, from the obviously unnatural “in
return for me sending you this I expect
a link to this page with this anchor text”
to “here’s a product, do what you will”.
The former line is explicitly named and
shamed in Google’s webmaster guide-
lines, and the shades of grey in the
middle have various degrees of risk. A
highly trumped campaign by Interflora
resulted in many product review style
blog posts, many of which had links
to Interflora that might have been
deemed unnatural (note that nobody
except Google, including probably
Interflora themselves, knows exactly
which links if any contributed to their
penalty aside from the paid advertori-
Feature Article
Exactly what will it take
for brands to embrace the
new reality of search?
FEATURE ARTICLE
Interflora’s recent run in with
Google gets Greenlight’s SEO
Director, Adam Bunn, questioning
the ‘state of link building’.
The Greenlight Sector Report

5. als that are about as open and shut a
case as it’s possible to get).
Meanwhile, the current Google
Chrome above the line campaign
you may have seen on TV recently
(http://youtu.be/E0qDrRJT4zE) fea-
tures the story of Cambridge Satch-
els, a start up company that sends
products to fashion bloggers as part
of its online marketing strategy. In
the ad this results in YouTube video
reviews, but Google certainly runs
the risk of being seen to explicitly
sanction sending products to blog-
gers in return for promotion, includ-
ing by extension links. In reality of
course, Chrome’s marketing team
just aren’t talking to Matt Cutts and
his web spam team, proof of which
came when a paid advertorial and
a number of sponsored blog posts
for Chrome went live on the day
that Interflora was banned including
followable links to various Google
pages. At the time of writing, Google
seems to have removed the specific
posts that were widely reported on
but others still remain, including its
links (search for “this blog is part of
a series sponsored by Chromebooks”
in quotes to unearth some). This
hypocrisy is bound to raise ire and
confusion in equal measure.
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In March Matt Cutts told us to
expect a “very large” Penguin update
at some point this year. Penguin is
the closest thing to an algorithmic
version of a member of the web
spam team, dishing out ranking
“filters” that feel like link penalties,
thus far to a very small number of
sites (to date Penguin updates have
typically affected less than 0.5%
of search results). It’s difficult to
say what constitutes “very large”
but I think it is now quite obvious
(despite Chrome’s best efforts) that
in general Google expects market-
ers to be going cold turkey on link
“building” and doing things properly.
At the moment this has resulted in
a lot of noise about content market-
ing.
Unfortunately I am not convinced
that many people really get what
this means. I recently attended a
content strategy conference full of
people whose jobs revolved purely
around content. The thing that
struck me most clearly was that
the concept of assigning value to
content was seen as weirdly alien.
In particular, in a session dedicated
exactly to this topic, the speaker
had to explain what ROI meant and
felt the need to speak to the del-
egates like a room of primary school
pupils. For someone coming from an
online marketing background it w as
faintly condescending and frankly
bizarre.
I have written often in the Greenlight
magazine of the need to blend the
various strands of on- and off-line
marketing into compelling campaigns
and I’m more convinced than ever
now that success will come from
mashing creativity together with the
science of numbers driven market-
ing – call it content marketing if you
like. Perhaps the Interflora case and
the threat of a looming super algo-
rithm update will turn out to be the
tipping point that convinces brands
to embrace the new reality we find
ourselves in.
The 2013 Google Super
Algorithm Update
ByAdam Bunn,
Director of SEO,
Greenlight

6. It took mobile advertising almost
three years (‘…2009/10/11 will
be the year of mobile’) to make
a serious impression until we hit
2011 when we saw mobile traffic
represent almost 38% of online
traffic for retail, and on average
18% for other sectors. Mobile
advertising is cheaper, with cost
per clicks still coming in at half
the price of desktop and is more
cost effective, delivering almost
twice the average basket value
and double the conversion rate.
This is also illustrated in our most
recent Sector Reports where we
now report the different trends in
mobile versus desktop growth; the
evidence clearly shows the num-
ber of mobile searches is catching
up with desktop queries. So what’s
the problem, why are most adver-
tisers still only dipping their toes
into mobile advertising?
12 to 18 months ago site experi-
ence was definitely an issue, with
many advertisers not even bother-
ing to develop a mobile friendly
site, never mind considering the
various different device sizes.
However with responsive website
design, advertisers don’t need to
worry about whether it’s worth
investing in a separate mobile
friendly site. Even Google states
that responsive web design is its
recommended mobile configura-
tion, and even goes so far as to
refer to responsive web design
as the industry best practice. To
explain why, responsive design
sites have one URL and the same
HTML, regardless of device,
which makes it easier and more
efficient for Google to crawl, de-
mand, and organise content.
Google prefers responsive web
design because content that lives
on one website and one URL is
Feature Article
MOBILE
ADVERTISING
Why haven’t we fully
embraced it yet?
by Hannah Kimuyu
With just two months until launch, Greenlight’s Director of Paid Media Hannah
Kimuyu explores the benefits that Enhanced Campaigns will offer for mobile.
The Greenlight Sector Report

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much easier for users to share,
interact with and link to, than
content that lives on a separate
mobile site.
So that’s the site taken care of,
however does size really matter
because let’s not forget mobile
advertising isn’t just about the typ-
ical mobile handset, we also have
to consider tablet devices into this
mix as well. A recent study by
YuMe revealed “…that consumer
media consumption on mobile de-
vices is influenced by environment
and context, not just screen size”.
The study revealed that consumers
are increasingly screen agnostic
when it comes to consuming con-
tent. By device, 38% of respon-
dents accessed entertainment
content on their smartphone; 34%
on their laptop, and 28% on their
tablets. The study proceeded to
advise advertisers to throw away
their “…screen-by-screen media
planning rule books” and to focus
on a multi-screen strategy.
This advice is also echoed by
Google, who has gone as far as
overhauling its whole advertis-
ing channel (the first time since
its inception), putting mobile first
and announcing the ‘re-launch’ of
its Enhanced Campaigns in June
2013.
Enhanced Campaigns is all
about ‘…making ads simpler
in the contextual world we
live in today, yet providing the
right reporting and platform
to work with’.
[Kesh Patel, Strategic Partnership
lead for Google’s local channel
sales division]
For mobile specifically the three
real benefits include -
1. Ad Placement Focusing your
budget on the context that mat-
ters, including time of day, proxim-
ity, and type of device.
2. Ad Copy Refocusing your bid-
ding strategy and messaging to
reflect the different contextual
situations, allowing the adver-
tiser to be more consistent and
automated.
3. Reporting Being able to measure
the joint impact of where an ad
shows up and what it says e.g. mea-
suring app downloads, offers, and
click-to-call etc. (Also Google’s first
attempt at joining the dots between
different devices).
However the developments of
Enhanced Campaigns also bring a
few challenges, mainly the forced
inclusion and impending higher cost
per clicks. The higher cost per clicks
will of course be a real issue to those
advertisers who have enjoyed the
cheap, cost effective world of mobile
advertising to date. With brand
cost per clicks on the rise and the
increase in CPC’s from free shopping
becoming a paid format, some may
find it all a bit overwhelming to take
in.
That said mobile advertising is here
to stay and with Google laying out
a more sophisticated approach to
targeting the user, increased CPC’s
aside, mobile advertising is an
avenue we at Greenlight are excited
about.
by Hannah Kimuyu, Director of
Paid Media, Greenlight
So with two months
to go before Enhanced
Campaigns are fully
launched, let’s all embrace
mobile advertising once &
for all.
Given the trend so far it
can only get better!

8. A fully Integrated digital search
strategy is a difficult thing to
achieve but is a must for all
digital marketers in a com-
petitive multi-channel and
multi-device marketplace.
The search space has continued to
evolve at a rapid pace over the last
two to three years with the paid
and organic spaces constantly
blurring. This can be clearly seen
with the likes of Google Shop-
ping becoming part of the paid
space and aspects such as mega/
enhanced sitelinks appearing in
Paid Search ads. The addition of
Google Plus and so many search-
ers now being signed into Google
has also fundamentally changed
the Google SERPs. These recent
changes along with the introduc-
tion of universal search, a number
of years ago, has highlighted the
need for truly integrated search
strategies.
Marketers need to start using the
large amounts of data they have
at hand, to see where there is
crossover between their organic
terms and their paid presence.
Clear testing plans need to be
developed, incorporating metrics
such as traffic, rank, position,
conversion data and the volume
around keywords. A huge amount
of advertisers’ budgets are poten-
Feature Article
The Greenlight Sector Report

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tially wasted on keywords they do
not need to bid on.
However an Integrated Search
based strategy is not simply about
whether you should bid for certain
keywords or not, it needs to be
broader than that and pull in areas
such as PR, Social Media and
content creation. When plan-
ning an Integrated campaign, you
should ask: what are our plans for
video content, blogger outreach,
alignment with above the line
marketing plans etc? And how can
these elements affect our search
presence?
This should then lead you to con-
sider how to step away from con-
sidering just search and construct
not just an Integrated Search
strategy but the elements involved
in developing an Integrated digital
strategy. This can lead to answer-
ing harder questions, rather than
whether you should be bidding on
certain keywords or not.
A truly integrated strategy moves
away from looking at keywords
and asks what the business’s goals
are and how they can be achieved
in the digital sphere. It suggests
that to be fully integrated, a com-
pany’s marketing team needs to
be wholly aligned. Having siloed
individual specialists manag-
ing PPC and SEO separately (all
fighting for different budget and
different channel targets) is not
the most efficient or integrated
way to manage your strategy.
This siloed approach needs to
change and needs to be driven
from the top, businesses need to
become ‘Digital First’ companies.
C-level employees need to realise
that to deliver an integrated
strategy, all departments need to
be aligned to work towards the
business’s goals.
This may require a number
of changes
• How does reporting change if
the basis for that reporting is last
click?
• How will integration fundamen-
tally affect the business’s fore-
casts?
• How will attribution affect the
companies channel/ marketing
plan?
• How to remunerate our agency
if we are no longer looking at a
single channel?
• How will this affect contracts,
targets and business planning
moving forward?
Over the past few months we
have worked with one of our
financial clients to integrate
their strategy, making
several changes:
• Contract was reviewed so it no
longer focused on a single channel
• Targets were changed to become
target focused
• All forecasting changed to suit
one integrated model
• Billing changed to be based on
time rather than percentage of
media spend
The above changes can be a dif-
ficult one for clients to stomach as
it can go to the heart of how their
business might be run, how the
business has reported its perfor-
mance in the past, even as granu-
lar as someone’s job specification.
Whatever your view, integration
is a necessary change required
in today’s digital world. To really
embrace it, a business needs to be
ambitious and courageous.
Businesses must be able to
recognise the changes that need
to be made and have the vision to
see the benefits a truly integrated
strategy and company can deliver.
by Paul Byrne,DiGITAL
Account Director,
Greenlight.

10. Greenlight’s Sam Haseltine
analyses the impact that
Facebook’s new product will
have for brands .
Despite Mark Zuckerberg describ-
ing his company as a “mobile first
social network”, up until now Face-
book’s mobile offering has been
largely fragmented and unreliable;
a main Facebook application, with
separate apps to improve features
such as messaging, managing
brand pages, photographing and
even poking. Although Zuckerberg
has regularly assured consumers
that “it’s not the right strategy for
us...to build a phone”, anticipation
had built prior to its most recent
summoning of press to its Cuper-
tino base, around what its latest
mobile release would involve. They
announced Facebook ‘Home’.
‘Home’ is not a standalone ap-
plication, rather it’s a launcher for
Android which adds a complete
integration layer on top of the
Android OS. Users will witness a
complete overhaul of their phone’s
UI (user interface) and Facebook is
promising three standout features:
Cover Feed, Chat Heads and App
Launcher to place people, rather
than applications, at the centre of
its mobile experience.
Although its intention is to place
people at the forefront of mobile
devices rather than applications, it
appears that with ‘Home’, Face-
book is placing additional empha-
sis on quality of relationships and
content (not too dissimilar to the
way Google rolled out Panda and
Penguin updates to add additional
weight to the quality of a link back
Feature Article
The Impact of Facebook ‘Home’
What could
Facebook’s new
product mean for
your brand?
The Greenlight Sector Report

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2. Focus on building a better relationship
with your customers
By investing in the relationship with the
people who use your Facebook page, you’ll
be building a foundation of trust that will
bring your fans to a place where they’re
more receptive to your content; a place
you’ll need to be in if you don’t want your
fans to grow tired of seeing your content on
their phone ‘Home’ screen.
3. Promoted Content
How Facebook intends to use Home for
promoted content is yet to be announced,
although Adam Mosseri, Facebook Product
Director, says “We’re designing a lot of really
high-quality ad units for Cover Feed.” At this
stage I would anticipate it to involve the op-
portunity for brands to pay a premium rate,
above that for promoted posts, to reach their
existing fan base through Home. Unless this
happens, we can confidently say that Home
will become nothing more than opt-in spam.
to your site when organising
SERPs). Facebook’s mechanism
for doing so is fronted by a
dynamic home and lock screen
(Cover Feed), populated by
imagery and content from users
friends and the pages they have
liked. Without the quality of this
content being to a high standard,
users of the Android launcher
may quickly be turned off. Unless
their network is populated exclu-
sively by professional photogra-
phers, it’s highly likely their home
screens will become inundated
with pixelated images of their
friends’ babies and food.
Equally, users of ‘Home’ may find
themselves scrutinising the qual-
ity of relationships they maintain
within Facebook (between friends
and brands). Once the relation-
ships become the focal point
of a device you use as often as
your phone, it may soon become
apparent that there are many
connections that just don’t war-
rant the exposure ‘Home’ could
give them.
What could Home
mean for brands?
Zuckerberg has already expressed his
intention to use Home as an opportunity
for brands to purchase premium advertis-
ing real estate. The potential for this
assumes the success of Home and uptake
by Android users. However, what impact
does it have for brands?
1. Focus on quality content
Your brand’s latest update could find itself
front and centre, in the palm of your cus-
tomers hands when they glance at your
phone. With this in mind, the quality (res-
olution, visual appeal, lighting etc) needs
to be better than it’s ever been if you’re to
stand out and grab your customers atten-
tion. On the contrary, if the quality is poor,
you will not only be losing an opportunity
but also may find yourself losing fans and
engagement levels dropping.
What other opportunities
could Home introduce?
Inadvertently it’s possible that
Facebook has heralded in a new
dawn of opportunity for brands.
And it doesn’t involve Facebook
‘Home’.
Currently the Android ‘launcher’
marketplace is relatively small;
instead consumers opting to trust
and use the built in UI. With this
in mind and, again, assuming the
success of ‘Home’, it could raise
awareness and drive adoption of
the launcher marketplace. With
more consumers realising the
potential of a Launcher, this could
open the door for brands to take
a leaf out of Facebook’s book and
build their own. I know, for one,
that if a brand, company, band or
sports team were to build an app
that afforded me the opportunity to
have a mobile experience centred
on them, I’d be keen to take it
up, especially if it was West Ham
United F.C.
Facebook ‘Home’ is new, and
there’s more to it than just the
Cover Feed. Chat Heads, for
example, allows messaging to take
place in an overlay on top of other
applications so you never have
to stop what you’re doing to chat.
Equally, the Cover Feed can be
turned off. However, once you take
that away and reduce the launcher
to just Chat Heads and App
Launcher (which is just a menu),
what’s really left for users to get
excited about?
Regardless of whether Facebook
‘Home’ is popular, brands should
still be improving the quality of
their content and investing in fan
relationships. By getting this right,
companies’ Facebook pages and
content will become a far richer
experience for users. And if Home
proves popular, they’ll be in a
great place to leverage what it
potentially has to offer.
by Sam Haseltine, Social Media
Strategist, Greenlight

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