Years ago, when I was working in corporate marketing, our advertising agency came to us with an idea for a campaign featuring Dame Edna Everage. It was funny. Dame Edna was enormously recognisable and the campaign would undoubtedly have attracted attention. We also had a substantial advertising budget. But we didn’t do it. The concern …
We keep hearing that Australian businesses need to become more productive. But what does that actually mean if you’re running an SME? Australia’s productivity performance is concerning. Labour productivity growth has averaged just 0.4% over the past decade, the lowest rate of growth in 60 years, and while Australians are working more hours, the value …
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‘Our Google Ads aren’t working.’ It’s a common reason for a new client to approach us. And there can be many reasons why: poor strategy, inadequate execution, an ineffective landing page or simply constant changes to campaigns, often directed by the client, before they have had the opportunity to perform. But one reason is frequently …
Continue reading “Why Your Website Might Be Impacting Your Google Ads”
And why the shift to AI is changing more than most businesses realise For many SMEs, Google Ads has historically been one of the most reliable drivers of leads. It offered clear intent, measurable results and a level of predictability that made it a dependable part of the marketing mix. Over the past 12 to …
Continue reading “Why Your Google Ads May Not Be Working Anymore”
And how AI is quietly changing the rules of performance For many SMEs, Meta (Facebook and Instagram) has historically been a powerful growth channel. It offered strong reach, highly targeted audiences and the ability to scale results with relative predictability. Over the past 12 to 18 months, however, something has changed. We are seeing more …
Continue reading “Why Your Meta Ads May Feel Out of Control Right Now”
Why an integrated, customer-led approach is now critical for SME growth One of the most important shifts in modern marketing is not technological – it is behavioural. The way customers discover, evaluate and choose has fundamentally changed. The traditional, linear progression from awareness to consideration to purchase has largely dissolved, replaced by a far more …
And why brand clarity is often the missing commercial discipline At Milestone-Belanova, we regularly observe a consistent and often misunderstood pattern within growing small and medium-sized enterprises. These businesses are rarely lacking in effort, capability or even demand. In many cases, they are operating at full capacity, with strong pipelines and active teams. Yet despite …
Continue reading “Why Growing SMEs Stay Busy But Don’t Scale”
And what it takes to be visible in an LLM-driven world For years, businesses have focused on ranking in Google, and for good reason. As a search engine, it continues to dominate, holding close to 90% market share in Australia. However, while Google remains central, the way people search, discover and evaluate information has shifted …
Continue reading “The New Search Reality: Why SMEs Must Optimise for Both Google and AI”
One of world’s most controversial technology platforms at present is TikTok. TikTok is Australia’s fastest growing social media platform. It allows its users to create and share short videos and it has provided a unique advertising experience focused on user generated content and partnerships between brands and content creators. Since it was released in 2016, …
ChatGPT has been dominating technology headlines recently due to the impact it is likely to have on so many knowledge based sectors including professional services, education, technical support, customer service and more. So what is ChatGPT and why is it so powerful? ChatGPT is essentially a large language model developed by OpenAI, designed to understand …