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NZ SMB Businesses: How to Choose a Digital Marketing Agency That is a Partner

If you're running a business in New Zealand, chances are you've been told you need digital marketing. And that's true—but handing over your marketing to the wrong agency can cost you time, money, and momentum. There are a lot of operators promising fast results with big claims. But not all agencies are set up to actually deliver.Whether you're just getting started or you've been burned before, here’s what to look for in a digital marketing partner that’s actually worth your time.1. Start W...

Great Digital Marketing Opportunities for Small Businesses in 2025

The digital marketing landscape is evolving rapidly, and 2025 presents a wealth of opportunities for Kiwi businesses to stand out and thrive. Whether you’re a tradie or an accountant, or you run a café or an e-commerce store, there are simple yet powerful tactics and strategies to connect with your audience and drive growth. Below are key opportunities to explore this year:...

Top Five Tips for Making Your Ads Stand Out for Black Friday Sales

Black Friday is one of the most competitive shopping days of the year in New Zealand, Australia, the US and many other markets. It is a critical time to get customers spending before the crazy Christmas period and businesses need to pull out all the stops to grab the attention of deal-hungry shopaholics. With countless ads bombarding potential shoppers both online and offline, crafting a standout campaign is no small feat. Here are five essential tips to ensure your ads shine brighter than the r...

ChatGPT Launch SearchGPT As Their New Search Engine To Compete With Google

OpenAI officially launched their new AI-powered ChatGPT Search Engine, called SearchGPT to compete directly with Google. Whilst Google is the global name in Search with well over 90% market share in most countries, ChatGPT has quickly risen to be the household name in AI information.ChatGPT has seen a massive spike in users, and while it doesn’t have the resources of Google, it has still become the benchmark brand in the AI-powered information space, making it the default ‘Google’ of this ...

What Are Google AI Overviews And How Can They Help My Business

AI Overviews are a new Google offering that presents more sophisticated and useful answers to questions online. It is being tested and rolled-out in the US, United Kingdom, India, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico and Brazil (at the time of writing in October 2024). For many people, Open AI got the jump on Google in the AI space with its ChatGPT which quickly became the ‘Sony Walkman’ of artificial intelligence searches. Google had of course been working with artificial intelligence for years and Gem...

Online Advantage Part Of New Google Partners Programme

A few weeks ago Google launched their new Google Partners program and notified us as one of the first companies in New Zealand to meet the updated criteria.Whilst some of the conditions for being a Google Partner revolve around selling more ads (and if you can make Google lots and lots of money you can be called a Premier Partner); there are still some factors that relate to performance and quality of work.For every ads client campaign, Google constantly recommends improvements as part of a...

Watch out for Mum! Google Is Getting Smarter. Way Smarter.

If the Terminator movies scared you, and you’re paranoid about Skynet, don’t read on.Google have announced a huge jump forward in the way it understands queries and language on the internet. In a lovely reassuring marketing spin they are calling their new AI ‘MUM’ – Multitask Unified Model (maybe the mother of HAL).This major reboot is not live yet but Google announced it in their blog here. They noted it is: “new technology Google is exploring internally to better understand la...

Google Recommends Keeping The Same URLs Whenever Possible

Every few years most clients deem it necessary to redesign their website. This can be due to Google and SEO requirements, such as creating a mobile friendly site, or because the backend CMS is being changed or updated. There is always a lot to check throughout the process and we make clients aware that a small drop in traffic and exposure in the search engines is normal and can be managed. Altering the address of webpages is one of the many things that adds complexity to a redesign.Followin...

Online Advantage Five For Friday Nov 3rd, 2017

Facebook has been testing a major change that would shift non-promoted page posts out of its news feed (i.e. standard posts from businesses that are not a paying ad). The test moves all non-promoted posts over to a secondary feed, leaving the main feed focused entirely on original content from friends, and adverts. If this is implemented permanently it will mean your followers will have to look at a different feed to see ‘Page’ posts. In other words, Facebook wants you to advertise your busi...

Five For Friday SEO, Google & Social Media News Oct 20, 2017

Here are your Five for Friday for this week:Earlier this year we shared an article explaining Google’s mobile first index, where they would crawl the web from a mobile perspective first.  Google has now started, on a limited basis, indexing some sites from a mobile first view – https://www.seroundtable.com/google-mobile-first-indexing-started-24637.htmlFacebook ad targeting is complex and can often be very confusing, especially when looking for tools to identify...

Five For Friday Google & Social Media Update 29th Sept 2017

Here is our Five For Friday for 29 September 2017:As of January 2018 Google chrome will block autoplay videos with sound.  Google claim this will help ‘clean up the web’ but others interpret it as a move to ‘further solidify Google’s monopoly’ on web advertising.  This move will adversely affect any of you that advertise with non-Google online platforms such as NZME – https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2017/09/chrome-will-soon-block-autoplay-videos-with-sou...

Five For Friday – Frances Valintine Special

This week the Online Advantage team had the pleasure of listening to a talk given by Frances Valintine, an Education Futurist & the founder of The Mind Lab by Unitec & Tech Futures Lab. Frances sits on the board of Callaghan Innovation, KEA, and Talentnomics (WashingtonDC). She was previously on the boards of Education New Zealand, NZTech & the New Zealand Game Developers Association, Santa Fe University of Art & Design, Auckland Screen & Digital Content & a member of the...

Google, SEO & Social Media Update – Five For Friday 18 Aug 2017

Mobile friendly websites are highlighted once again with Facebook’s latest algorithm update, organic search is still the main driver of website traffic & how you can leverage the seasons to for your business – read that and more Google & SEO news in Online Advantage’s latest Five for Friday for 18 August 2017:Facebook’s latest News Feed algorithm update, announced earlier this week, will reduce the reach of posts which link to websites that are not optimised for mobile viewing (n...