When Google Voice was released in 2012, and then Amazon Alexa was released in 2014 voice search was expected to be highly influential.

Voice search didn’t quite take off in an industry-shaking way. But, as the technology has improved, it’s become integrated into so many devices and daily user journeys that it’s important to understand for SEO.

What Is Voice Search And Voice Commerce?

Voice search describes when people use their voice devices to access information available from search engines.

Voice commerce describes people using voice devices to make purchases. It’s part of voice search, and users often interact with search engines to complete purchases.

For SEO professionals, there are two core functions you should pay attention to:

1. Local intent searches: People often use voice searches when they’re traveling to search for things they need and places they need to go. In these cases, your local SEO is critical. You need to ensure your Google Business Profile is up to date and that you can be discovered in map applications.
2. Using voice assistants to access Search: There are all sorts of reasons someone might prefer or need to use their voice to access search engines. When this happens, the questions tend to be highly specific and in “natural language.” This means you should prioritize not only organic rankings but also SERP features, because SERP features tend to better represent natural language picked up in voice search and where you want visibility.

Alongside core functions, there are three different core voice search intents to consider for SEO:

Transactional Intent

Someone is looking to purchase a product or go to a location for a product or service.

• Using an Amazon Alexa to order products. Voice assistants can connect to accounts with saved payment options and perform the process automatically. “Alexa, order cat food.”
• Using a smart assistant, likely on a phone or a car’s own voice recognition feature, to direct them to a local business for a specific need. “Hey Google, take me to Home Depot.” “Hey Siri, find me a gas station.”

High-Intent Consideration

Someone doesn’t know exactly what they want, but they need something.

• While driving, looking for something to eat or a coffee shop. “Hey Google, show me coffee shops nearby.”
• Using an Amazon Echo device to create a shopping list. “Alexa, add eggs to my shopping list.”
• Asking a voice assistant where to find a specific item. “Hey Siri, where can I get cast iron pans?”

How-To/Active Learning Query

Users interact with voice assistants to answer questions or find information.

• Using a voice assistant to refer to a recipe while cooking.
• Accessing search functions using a voice assistant. “Hey Google, how do I find a wall stud?”

Informational Query

Someone uses a voice assistant to come up with a quick answer.

• “Hey Google, who is the current King of England?”

Accessibility

• Voice devices and screen readers are used by people with vision issues and other disabilities to access the internet.

Voice Is Part Of Everyday Search & Purchase Journeys

Voice search and mobile SEO are highly interconnected.

Basically, every mobile device is also a voice device, so I find it helpful to think about the place in the journey a user is when they use their voice.

If you take a look at what people say they use their voice assistants for, there isn’t much room for traditional SEO discovery – in the sense of Googling things, in the real-world functions. But they are making shopping lists and making purchases.

What Devices Use Voice Search?

Voice recognition technology has a long history, but the first true voice assistant was Siri, released on the Apple app store in 2010 and integrated into the iPhone in 2011.

Many voice assistants have connectivity to either the internet at large or certain aspects of search functionality, such as Google Maps. The main voice assistants are:

• Google Assistant.
• Apple Siri.
• Microsoft Cortana.
• Amazon Alexa.

Voice search is embedded into many devices. Some have limited functionality, like a Roku remote that searches for TV shows and movies. Others can access almost anything online, like an Amazon Echo or the Google voice assistant.

There’s voice tech in your phone and your car if you’ve bought a vehicle made in the last 10 years. There’s voice tech in your TV or streaming device.

Devices that can connect to voice search functions include:

• Phones.
• Tablets and laptops.
• PC computers and gaming consoles.
• Cars.
• TVs.
• Appliances such as refrigerators.
• Voice assistant devices (such as the Echo).

Not all of these devices have implications for SEO. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for you to do SEO for someone giving voice commands to appliances around their house.

Why Is Voice Search Good For SEO?

There are multiple reasons that voice search is critical for SEO strategy, and the specific reason depends on the intent and use case.

These intents also inform your approach and the tactics you use to target users engaging with voice search.

Accessibility

People with visual impairments likely use devices like screen readers and may use voice interactions to engage with content online.

Ensuring your content is easy for devices like screen readers to navigate improves the user experience for all users, not just those needing accessibility functions.

User Experience

Some people prefer voice interactions or activate search functions using their voice when they’re not able to use their hands. Common examples include driving and cooking.

Immediacy & Intent

Voice searches are often conducted for convenience when a user doesn’t need to spend time searching or when they need something quickly.

Examples of this intent include:

• Using a voice-activated device to place an Amazon order.
• Using the voice function in your car or on your phone to look for a local business while you’re out.

How Do You Optimize For Voice Search?

In many cases, if you’re properly targeting intent and keeping updated with the SEO fundamentals of your website and content, you’re already optimizing for voice search. This technology is advanced and mature and can read the web.

There really is no disadvantage to targeting voice search if you think about it in terms of intent and use case.

If you perform well in voice search, you likely also perform well in overall SEO because voice assistants can connect to external sources to provide you with information.

So, if you’re the top result in that source (Google Maps, Google Search, Amazon marketplace, Etsy, etc.), you’re more likely to be the result the user hears or sees.

However, certain elements of voice search need specific attention, such as conversational queries, Amazon shopping, and local search.

Local SEO: Voice Search & Near Me Queries

Voice search and local queries are closely aligned due to the use case. People on the road, looking for somewhere to stop, will likely use voice search. Or they might look for somewhere to go right before leaving the house.

The good news is that if you’re investing in local SEO, you’re already well-positioned to appear in these kinds of voice searches.

It’s critical to optimize for the Map Pack, build your Google Business Profile, and develop local-SEO friendly websites to serve these voice search intents.

You want to make a local-focused experience as smooth as possible. When people are out traveling or running errands, being the first to serve their immediate and specific needs can mean walk-in traffic.

• Make sure your Google Business Profile is complete, including contact information, address, service area, payment types, etc.
  • Navigate to your business profile by searching for your business.
  • Click on “Edit Profile.”
  • Ensure that you complete all relevant fields.

• Make sure that you add products and services to your Google Business Profile. This helps people discover you when they’re looking for something specific.
  • Click on “Edit Products” or “Edit Services” depending on your business type.
  • Add details about all of the things you offer. Pair this with keyword research to understand what people are looking for and align your offerings with their intent and wording.

Follow these resources from SEJ to achieve higher local rankings and show up in local voice searches:

Optimize For Ecommerce Queries On Amazon And Google

The Alexa ecosystem connects with users’ Amazon accounts and allows them to make purchases quickly and easily using their voice.

If you’re in ecommerce, this makes your optimization on platforms like Amazon critical. While the Alexa ecosystem often means that users skip platforms like Google, that doesn’t mean SEO is irrelevant.

Amazon is a search engine, too, and properly optimizing your business and products on the platform could help you increase sales via direct voice purchases.

Other voice assistants might access search engines like Google for product searches.

Optimize your product landing pages with structured data (expanded on in the next section) for an easy user experience, both in Google Search and if a user decides to explore your page using voice.

Optimize Structured Data And Target Featured Snippets

SERP features and AI Overviews focus on providing short, quick summaries and answers to specific queries.

If you can appear in these additional features, then you’re right at the top of the page where those queries are answered, whether they’re typed or spoken.

Structured data is particularly important for voice queries, especially those spoken back to the user without a screen.

Properly structuring the data about your pages and content helps the algorithms choose what to display and helps voice assistants speak coherent results.

On the smaller screens of mobile devices, featured snippets become important because there’s less screen space for users to see organic results.

Schema should be part of your overall SEO strategy and you can learn more here:

Target High-Intent Long-Tail Keywords

Voice search involves answering queries that people speak. While SEO often involves targeting short phrases that people type, people speak very differently.

There are three key considerations for keyword targeting when it comes to voice:

1. People tend to speak in long phrases.
2. Many people use voice search for purchase-related queries, such as making online purchases and creating shopping lists.
3. Voice queries tend to express immediate or short-term needs. People often ask their voice assistants to find something or perform an action. (Play a podcast, find a recipe, find or direct to a place.)

All these facts make long-tail queries and high-intent task or product-focused queries important.

By creating content on your website that serves these types of queries, you can get yourself in front of audiences during decisions or consideration points in their process.

SEJ has many resources on long-tail queries and targeting query intent:

Answer Questions Conveniently

Developments in AI have improved how search engines respond to queries in longer form, “natural” or “conversational” language. These types of queries are more likely from voice searchers. They’re also key to successful SEO strategies overall.

As AI algorithms get better at understanding and responding to complex queries, voice search is becoming less of a separate thing to optimize for and more of a benefit of a robust SEO strategy.

Your content strategy should involve developing easily accessible answers to questions and common queries you expect from your audience.

You can use Google’s features, such as People Also Ask, and your keyword research tools to identify questions your audience will likely ask and then build them into your content strategy.

Read these resources from SEJ to find out more about questions and answers:

Understand Intent To Serve Voice Queries

Advanced natural language processing means search algorithms can easily interpret queries, even in complex language, and return results that match them.

Your focus should be on search intents for users who are either in a hurry, have a high intent to action, or need additional accessibility.

For all these users, you should make your website easy to navigate and focus on acquiring the top spots in featured snippets and local SEO results.

While voice search wasn’t as disruptive as expected, it was a step in the development of natural language processing towards AI technology. Understanding these concepts can help you succeed in modern SEO.

More resources:

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Featured Image: New Africa/Shutterstock

With 64% of marketers increasing their spending, influencer marketing continues to be a powerful tool. That being said, optimizing its full potential tends to be challenging, especially with new platform algorithm changes and stricter regulations.

Influencer marketing agencies provide expertise and industry know-how to navigate the constantly evolving influencer space. And while US-based agencies exist, Toronto has a strong selection of agencies equipped to help Canadian brands connect with the right audience.

In this article, we narrow down the agencies for you.

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Top Toronto-Based Influencer Marketing Agencies

Working with a local not only ensures customized marketing but also complies with Canadian rules on influencer marketing. 

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How to Assess an Agency’s Track Record?

To determine whether an influencer marketing agency is right for your brand, check its track record. Pay attention to the following:

Case Studies

Case studies provide detailed narratives about specific influencer marketing campaigns the agency has executed. These real stories from real past or current customers are social proof that shows if others have had positive experiences with the agency. 

They usually describe the client’s goals, the agency’s strategy, the influencer selection process, and the content creation approach. Most importantly, they highlight the results, often with metrics like increased brand awareness, website traffic, or sales figures. Reading a case study from your industry can be especially helpful, showing the agency’s experience with similar audiences and outcomes. 

For example, Stargazer has a dedicated page that features easy-to-read case studies:

Just below are clickable case studies in engaging colors:

Let’s take a look at Stargazer’s work with Poshmark. From the get-go, it highlights the platform used and the campaign’s target audience:

The case study also contains a brief company overview, the campaign goals, Stargazer’s strategy, and the results. This information is presented clearly, making it easy to understand.

Look for case studies beyond the agency’s website. Explore independent platforms so you can check the narrative without bias. You may also contact the client featured in the case study and ask them about their experience with the agency. 

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Client Testimonials

An agency that shares client testimonials amplifies its credibility with potential clients. Client testimonials are short yet impactful quotes from satisfied clients. They talk about their experience working with the agency and often highlight strategic expertise that leads to the campaign’s success. Testimonials are great because they present real people vouching for the agency’s expertise and experience.

That being said, you must be vigilant when checking client testimonials. It’s easy enough to create fake quotes. Look for an agency that has a dedicated testimonial page, like this from House of Marketers. 

It speaks volumes about the agency’s credibility when it can provide a “character reference” from a real person who can be easily contacted.

Another example is Grover’s testimonial. This is even better because it also links a case study page for the campaign so you can check the agency’s work in-depth:

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Portfolio

To check if an agency is reputable and gets results, review its portfolio of past work. Completed work shows their expertise and experience better than any marketing promises. A portfolio showcases the agency’s best work and helps you see the type of work they do and the clients they work with.

A portfolio is different from case studies because it is broader and categorized. It is grouped by industry, influencer type (nano, macro, micro), and content creativity (videos, photos, reels). When checking the agency’s portfolio, look for patterns to see if they match your industry and goals. If the portfolio mainly features companies in an industry that is different than yours, it might show a lack of experience with your target audience.

A good example is Going Bold’s social media and influencer marketing portfolio. The page highlights the industries the agency has worked with and includes vital stats. 

It then displays links on some of its campaigns categorized efficiently:

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Awards

Pay attention to any industry awards or recognition the agency has received. While not the only measure of success, awards are helpful when evaluating an agency’s reputation. These awards can show their expertise and credibility in influencer marketing. Recognition means peers respect their work. It also indicates how they follow best practices. 

Agencies typically display their awards and accolades prominently on their website, like this one from Moburst. 

Or this from The Influencer Marketing Factory:

You can also explore further by checking award-giving bodies like The Webby Awards, The Shorty Awards, and the Influencer Marketing Awards.

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Conclusion

Canada’s diverse population and businesses amplify the many reputable influencer marketing agencies nationwide. Local brands can leverage working with Toronto or Montreal-based agencies as they’re more fluent with the nuances and localized specifications of the cities. But even those far from Canada can work with the top-notch agencies cited above, thanks to remote offices and smart technologies that run seamless and successful influencer marketing campaigns. Check them out and use the tips above to look into their track records to see which agency in Toronto will work best with your brand.

WordPress has held the dominant share of the content management systems (CMS) market since it was launched in 2003.

Currently, the popular platform stands at 62.2% market share, according to W3Techs, which offers the most reputable and trustworthy data source. But in the last two years, WordPress has seen it’s market share start to reduce for the first time.

In this report, you’ll learn about the size of the CMS market, how it has evolved over the past decade, how different content management systems stack up against one another, and why this matters for someone working in SEO.

How Large Is The CMS Market?

According to W3Techs, 70.2% of websites have a CMS, and Netcraft reports 1.13 billion live websites.

From this, we can assume that the current market size for content management systems is approximately 793 million websites.

Top 10 CMS By Market Share (Globally)

Data from W3Techs, November 2024

What Is The Most Widely Used CMS?

*Graphs are separated due to the dominance of the WordPress market share.

• WordPress’s market share has reduced by nearly 5% in the last two years. This could possibly continue with the issues it has experienced this year.
• Shopify’s market share took a dip of almost 14% in 2023, but it bounced back and gained some ground this year.
• Wix’s market share is on the upswing, with just over 3% of all websites using its platform. This could be attributed to the work they do on branding.
• Joomla and Drupal are seeing a downward trend lately, while Duda is gaining some momentum, which could be attributed to the efforts of leveraging influencers for their webinars.

WordPress has held the dominant market share almost since its launch in 2003.

From 2013 to 2022, it experienced strong growth of 148%. WordPress then peaked at 65.2% market share back in January 2022, but, in the last two years has started to contract by nearly 5%.

Between 2023 and 2024:

• Websites with no CMS system have declined by nearly 8%.
• Websites with WordPress have increased by just over 1%.

WordPress Vs. Joomla Vs. Drupal Market Share

• Since 2023, Joomla has decreased its market share by nearly 15%.
• Since 2023, Drupal has decreased its market share by nearly 28%.

In 2013, Joomla and Drupal used to hold 15.9% of the CMS market share, but they have slumped to 3.6%.

This decline has seen them drop from positions 2 and 3 to 5 and 6, as Wix and Squarespace have risen and finally superseded them in 2022.

That’s quite a decline for Joomla, which might not have had the same market share as WordPress, but up to 2008, it had more search interest, according to Google Trends.

Why did these popular content management systems decline so much?

It’s most likely due to the strength of third-party support for WordPress with plug-ins and themes, making it much more accessible.

The growth of website builders, such as Wix and Squarespace, indicates that small businesses want a more straightforward managed solution. And they have started to nibble on market share from the bottom.

Website Builders Market Share: Wix Vs. Squarespace

• Wix has increased by 18.4% this year, from January to November.
• Squarespace has increased by 3.3% this year from January to November.

If we look at the website builders, their growth is a strong indication of where the market might go in the future.

From 2023 to 2024:

• Shopify grew by 15.8%.
• Wix grew by 25%.
• Squarespace grew by 3.3%.

When we compare the 5% contraction of WordPress over the last year to the other players, we have to ask, why is that happening?

SaaS web builders such as Wix and Squarespace don’t require coding knowledge and offer a hosted website that makes it more accessible for a small business to get a web presence quickly.

No need to arrange a hosting solution, install a website, and set up your own email. A web builder neatly does all this for you.

WordPress is not known as a complicated platform to use, but it does require some coding knowledge and an understanding of how websites are built.

On the other hand, a website builder is a much easier route to market, without the need to understand what is happening in the back end.

Consider that, during the pandemic, much of the population worked from home, leading to more interest and attention placed on how being online could be a source of income.

Elementor

Elementor is a WordPress-based website builder that has a market share of 16.5% and is used by 11.6% of all websites.

It also has significantly more market share than Wix and Squarespace combined.

However, because it’s a third-party plug-in and not a CMS, it isn’t listed in the Top 10 CMS above.

If we compare the volume of traffic to the number of CMS, we can see that WordPress is in the golden section, up and to the right, clearly favored by sites with more traffic.

Joomla fits into a niche of fewer installs but more high-traffic sites, indicating that more professional sites are using it.

Squarespace and Wix are to the left and down, highlighting that they are installed on fewer sites with less traffic.

This is a strong indication that they are used more by small websites and small businesses.

Elementor bridges the gap between the two and has the weight of the WordPress market share, but is used by sites with less traffic.

The appetite is growing for drag-and-drop, plug-and-play solutions that make having a web presence accessible for anyone. This is the space to watch.

Ecommerce CMS Market Share: WooCommerce Vs. Shopify

• WooCommerce has a market share of 13.1%.
• Shopify has a market share of 6.6%.

The ecommerce CMS space echoes a pattern similar to that of website builders.

Technically, WooCommerce is not a standalone CMS, but a WordPress plug-in – which is why it doesn’t appear in the Top 10 CMS data table.

However, it’s essential to the ecommerce space, so it’s worth considering and mentioning.

9.2% of all existing websites use WooCommerce.

Looking at the distribution, we can see a clear pattern emerge. In comparison to other ecommerce CMS platforms, WooCommere is dominant.

It has more market share than its competitors combined: Magento + OpenCart + PrestaShop + Shopify = 8.8% market share.

Smaller sites might favor WooCommerce, but it has the WordPress platform’s weight for market access and, therefore, more installs – much like Elementor.

Shopify has more market share, but the traffic levels are similar to WordPress.

Shopify saw growth during the pandemic, by 52.9% from 2020 to 2021 and then 26.9% from 2021 to 2022 – far more than any other platform. After that, it retracted in 2023, but in 2024 has come back to the same market share as 2022.

Why Does CMS Market Share Matter To Someone Working In SEO?

WordPress retains its dominance in the CMS market share, but website builders such as Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify are on the rise, indicating where market growth lies, especially for small businesses.

If more small businesses are switching to website builders, understanding the limitations and intricacies of these platforms for SEO could be a competitive advantage.

Shopify is installed on 4.6% of all websites (not just sites with a CMS) – a total potential market of 51.98 million websites.

With their increasing market share, specializing in Shopify SEO could be a strategic move for an SEO professional.

Similarly, specializing in Wix and Squarespace is a way to differentiate yourself from the competition.

WordPress might be dominant now, but that also means that many other people are servicing that specific CMS.

Aligning with a more niche CMS can be a strategic move for new client opportunities.

More resources:

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All data collected from W3Techs, November 2024, unless otherwise indicated.

W3Tech samples its data from the Alexa top 10 million and Tranco top 1 million. Websites with no content or duplicate sites are excluded. Limitations of the data source mean that hosted Tumblr and WordPress.com sites are not included, as the data collection doesn’t count subdomains as more than one site.

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Featured Image: Genko Mono/Shutterstock

Digital marketing has evolved a lot over the last few years. A concept like artificial intelligence, for example, was not cost-effective a couple of years ago, but it’s now growing more commonplace by the day. So, for a brand’s marketing plan to continue to stay effective and relevant, it has to review its digital marketing strategies continuously. 

The following are some of the most innovative digital marketing strategies that are expected to make a big impact in 2025. While these eight strategies are far from a complete list, they will steer brands in the right direction. The majority of these expected trends are fuelled by authenticity becoming increasingly important to consumers and an improvement in the functionality of digital channels.

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What Is Digital Marketing and Why Does It Matter?

In a nutshell, digital marketing refers to using digital technologies to reach your marketing goals. These technologies include business websites, email, search engines, mobile apps, and social media pages. A digital marketing strategy helps you to market your products or services by means of online channels like your website and Facebook page. Without a solid digital marketing strategy in place, your brand will not be agile enough. As a result you will fall behind and, make no mistake, your competitors will take over your market share. 

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Digital Marketing Practices for 2025

1. Incorporate artificial intelligence

Last year, artificial intelligence (AI) began to play a more influential role in digital marketing. What makes AI so attractive is that it can examine search patterns and behavior much better. Thanks to recent developments, AI can be used to identify how your target audience typically behaves which empowers you to predict more accurately what your customers actually want. For instance, with AI you can use data collected from social media sites and blogs to gain insight into how your customers discovered your business. 

In 2025, it is expected that the use of chatbots specifically will increase rapidly. While some businesses still prefer more traditional ways to offer customer service, many have already made the smarter switch to chatbots. One reason for their growth in popularity is the seamless experience that it can give. Thanks to developments in AI, you can sync your chatbots across various social media platforms. So, you can set up your website’s chatbot in such a way that it will also automate answers for direct messages that you received via Twitter or Facebook. 

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2. Create (even more) video content

Video marketing is not a new concept at all. Increasingly more brands across the world are starting to incorporate video into their marketing strategies. As a matter of fact, according to video marketing statistics by HubSpot, 54% of people actually want marketers to create more video content. 

Not only are videos what consumers want to see, it is also easier for businesses to shine the light on their product’s features and advantages, especially if you are trying to sell an interactive product like a toy. Though, if this is not the case, you can still use video effectively. There are many different types of videos that you can create such as interviews with experts or a quick behind-the-scenes update.  

Thanks to advancements in technology, creating captivating video content has also become a lot easier. Today, it’s much more affordable and less time-consuming which means that even smaller brands can create videos that are up to standard. 

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3. Use creative search methods

While voice search is at this moment not part of the algorithm used by Google yet, it is still a good idea to get ready. More consumers are growing comfortable with visual search and voice-activated tools like Siri and Alexa as this technology is becoming easier to access. As a result, digital marketing strategies will have to focus more on incorporating sitemaps for images and image alt-text. Also, the content must be optimized for voice search specifically by making it more direct and conversational. 

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4. Create a comprehensive sales funnel

Marketing content that is created for mass consumption will no longer be good enough. While it is straightforward, simple and not that expensive, it does not offer the personal effect.

Some people who visit your website will be brand new customers while others will be returning customers. As there will be different types of customers who will visit your website, it’s important that you create content for the different stages of their journey as the same sales pitch will not resonate with all of them. 

This is where a comprehensive sales funnel fits in. Marketers many times spend a lot of time on creating top-of-the-funnel content that evokes interest, but forget to create content that will maintain the attention during the middle and bottom of the funnel. As a matter of fact, experts often suggest that you must spend more time on the later stages of your buyers’ journeys. 

By using data-driven marketing and including animations, videos, infographics and even possibly podcasts, you can make your marketing content more versatile. You can also try to answer the frequently asked questions your target audience has in your content or look at past behavior to display the most relevant services and products to your target audience. In short, you want to ensure that you personalize all your messages and that the content on your website takes on different formats and topics.

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5. Provide interactive content

Interactive content such as questionnaires, polls, contests, puzzles and embedded payment calculators can grab your target audience’s attention instantly making them a popular choice these days. After all, who does not like to piece together a puzzle? Young and old enjoy this type of content that requires some input from them.

Not only does including more interactive elements offer more value to your target audience, but your brand can at the same time use this to find out more about what gets them excited. So, it really is a win-win for everyone. 

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6. Concentrate on creating a community and network

Big businesses can afford to spend a lot on social media marketing to attract more viewers. Though, if you are a new or small business, this pay-to-get-view model will not work for you. Instead, you will need to be willing to pay for ads every now and again. 

An answer to this marketing challenge is to leverage the features offered by, for example, Facebook and create a group for your business where you can build a community. By creating a group, a business can strike up a conversation with its group members or use this platform to respond to questions or complaints. What makes this a great digital marketing strategy is that it will give the members of your target audience who joined your group a sense of exclusivity. When done right and managed properly by an appointed admin, such a group can be an invaluable PR resource. 

All in all, brands should dedicate more time and money to social media marketing in the coming year. The global pandemic has meant that people spend a lot more time online and this has changed how they research products, services and businesses. 

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7. Make influencer marketing a key channel

A survey completed in 2019 by the Influencer Marketing Hub found that businesses can make $5.20 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing. This was prepandemic. The global COVID-19 pandemic is set to boost the impact that influencers have on consumers’ purchasing choices even further. Lockdown regulations and stay-at-home orders mean that people visit brick-and-mortar stores less frequently and instead turn to influencers for their opinions. Live-streams also became more popular as it manages to create a type of “in-the-moment” feeling that consumers missed out on because of the pandemic.

The advantage of leveraging influencers is that they can speak from personal experience. They can share authentic and impartial opinions that consumers prefer. Their honest thoughts create trust and resonate better with consumers than what your traditional marketing can hope to achieve. While influencer marketing is not a brand new concept, it is expected to become even more popular among Internet users as well as brands.

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8. Do good things

In 2025, it will become even more important for brands to do good things. The need for transparency and inclusivity will be greater as consumers will no longer be able to connect with a brand that they perceive as untrustworthy and unethical. 

So, in 2025 brands will need to work harder at creating more authentic and deeper connections and proving to target audiences why they should believe in their brand and products. Purpose-driven and goodwill campaigns, like sponsoring free accommodation for frontline medical workers or donating personal protective equipment, are strategies that more brands will embrace in 2025. 

It will also become important for brands to show how they are involved in campaigns aimed at increasing inclusivity, especially with reference to eliminating racial inequality. It is key that brands use their digital marketing to communicate that they share their audiences’ views on diversity and social sustainability. 

There will also be a continued emphasis on environmental sustainability. Consumers are searching for brands that ensure their packaging and systems are sustainable and, overall, take our environment into consideration. 

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Tips for Planning and Implementing a Digital Marketing Strategy

While it is great that you are now more clued up with what the trends are for 2025, you still need to complete a few other steps before you it’s simply full steam ahead. The first step is to determine your objective. What is it that you actually want to achieve with your digital marketing strategy? For example, it could be to increase site traffic, generate more sales or simply grow your list of subscribers. Some marketing strategy examples suggest that once you have a clear goal, it will be much easier to plan your actual strategy.

You also need to identify your target audience clearly. If you feel lost, begin by looking at your current and previous customers. Are they mostly men or women? Are they local or from all over the globe? What are their pain points? Armed with this knowledge, you will have a much better idea of whom you are actually targeting with your marketing content.

Lastly, remember to take the time to measure your results. If you fail to put in place systems to measure your results, all these digital marketing trends will be worthless. You need to make time to analyze the data frequently. Though, most of your time should still go towards marketing your brand instead of checking the data. Ideally, you want to check your data once a week and then let the data drive your next action. 

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Wrapping Things Up

The COVID-19 pandemic has meant that brands, whether they liked it or not, had to embrace digital channels more to deliver their services as well as to market it. We can expect that the use of digital platforms, analytics, and AI will only increase in 2025. By making the most of the evolving nature of digital marketing, businesses can deliver a more seamless customer experience, boost the traffic to their website, get more leads and grow their sales.

About the Author

Writer

Koba Molenaar brings nearly a decade of rich experience in content writing, specializing in digital marketing, branding, SaaS, and eCommerce. Her passion for helping brands, from solopreneurs to established companies, connect with their audiences shines through her work. As a member of the Golden Key International Honor Society, Koba’s commitment to excellence is evident in her work, showcasing her as a relatable and knowledgeable voice in the industry.

In the early days of my career as a content marketer, I wish I had access to the meeting agenda examples to have today. Back then, I was managing a team that was fairly new to me, and I hated the idea of conducting meetings.

The questions flew around randomly, the objective changed every minute, and we couldn’t come to helpful conclusions. As essential as they were, these meetings did not get anything done.

Research reveals I was not alone: even in 2024 71% of professionals feel meetings are unproductive and inefficient.

Enter: meeting agendas. Having a solid meeting agenda revolutionized how I conduct my meetings.

In this post, I will explain the importance of a meeting agenda and its key components. I’ll also share some of the top meeting agenda examples and templates that I have personally used to transform how my team collaborates.

Table of Contents

Why a Meeting Agenda is Essential (Even for Short Meetings)

In my opinion, the purpose of the meeting agenda is not limited to achieving KPIs or assigning tasks. It is to balance the fundamental crisis of how people behave in hierarchical groups. Accomplishing tasks as a group is a complicated process, and each member has a different idea of why the meeting is held.

Meeting agendas work as a leveler between the attendees. An agenda informs everyone of the tasks at hand, the preparation needed for that task, what they must achieve at the end, and how, as a group, they will achieve that.

Especially for managers who are statistically known to spend 40% of their time in meetings, agendas are life savers.

A general misconception is that meeting agendas are not required for smaller, more casual meetings. I’d argue otherwise. In order for people to come together and effectively communicate to resolve and strategize, meeting agendas are a necessity. No exceptions!

In a conversation with Reilly Renwick, the chief marketing officer of Pragmatic Mortgage, he mentioned that “Agendas are there to help keep meetings focused and on track.”

“With an agenda, everyone knows what’s being discussed, who’s in charge of each topic, and how much time to expect for each discussion — straight to the point with no room for confusion.”

If you’re wondering if there are any success metrics to prove this point, Renwick said that having a meeting agenda “helped us cut meeting times by about 22-26.3%, making our conversations more focused, and giving us the chance to make quicker decisions.”

I don’t know about you, but I’ll take those shorter meeting times.

Meeting Agenda Format

The format of the meeting agenda is pretty simple. And it should be simple. It should provide an at-a-glance read with the minimum possible cognitive load imposed upon the reader.

Now, let me show you what I think is the basic structure of a meeting agenda.

Meeting Title

This is where you tell people what the meeting is about in just a few words. Think of it as a headline. It should be clear and specific.

Something like “Planning Q4 Goals“ works better than ”Team Meeting.” My advice would be to keep it short and easy to understand, especially since people might get multiple agendas in a day.

Duration

How long will this meeting take? And more importantly, how long is each part of it? Break it into chunks so people know what to expect.

For example:

• Introductions – 5 mins
• Project Updates – 15 mins
• Feedback and Q&A – 10 mins

This helps keep the meeting on track and stops it from dragging on.

Objective

Why is this meeting even happening? Write this in one or two plain sentences. I like to think of this as a quick way to ensure everyone’s on the same page.

For example: “We’re meeting to discuss the Q4 launch plan and finalize roles for execution.“

It doesn’t have to be fancy — just clear.

Agenda Items

This is the list of what you‘re going to talk about, in the order you’ll talk about it. Write it in a way that’s easy to read. Something like:

• Review data from last quarter (Go over key numbers and results)
• Plan marketing campaign (Brainstorm and decide on main goals)

Simple and straightforward, right?

Action Items

What happens next? End the meeting with a clear list of tasks and who’s doing what.

For example:

• Alex: Draft the campaign outline by Friday.
• Sarah: Share competitor analysis report by Monday.

Pro tip: Share the agenda well before the meeting (2-3 days earlier if possible). Also, share relevant documents along with the agenda. This will help everyone be well-prepared for the meeting.

Sheraz Ali, founder of HARO Agency, also shares a similar thought. Here’s what he told me about what his team does:

“A crucial practice we’ve implemented is the pre-agenda communication protocol. Team members receive agenda drafts 48 hours before meetings, allowing them to prepare, contribute potential discussion points, and arrive with thoughtful insights.

This approach transforms meetings from passive information-sharing sessions into dynamic, collaborative experiences.”

Meeting Agenda Sample

If you’re wondering how to create the nuts and bolts of a meeting agenda that’ll help you run a productive and efficient meeting, I’ve designed a sample meeting agenda that you can find below.

It’s based off the meeting agenda that Roger Schwarz, an organizational psychologist, a leadership team consultant, and CEO of Roger Schwarz & Associates, uses to run his team meetings.

Topic	Preparation	Structure
1. What are the current issues with our blog’s email subscription strategy? Time: 15 Minutes Purpose: Analysis Leader: Cliff	Read the attached memo that includes images of recent emails we’ve sent out and our email subscription and engagement data.	1. Review data and highlight the key issues and insights extracted from it Time: 5 Minutes 2. Go over why you think email engagement has suffered Time: 5 Minutes 3. Ask team why they think email engagement has suffered Time: 5 Minutes
2. How should we enhance our blog’s email subscription strategy? Time: 15 Minutes Purpose: Brainstorm Leader: Tova	Come up with three ideas to boost the blog’s email engagement.	1. Propose possible solutions for boosting email engagement Time: 5 Minutes 2. Ask team what they think of your proposed solutions Time: 5 Minutes 3. Ask each team member to propose one of their own solutions Time: 5 Minutes
3. What are the next steps that we should take? Time: 15 Minutes Purpose: Decision Leader: Karla	Think about how you could practically implement each of your ideas into our blog’s email subscription strategy.	1. Decide on a proposed solution or multiple solutions Time: 5 Minutes 2. Explain why we’re going to pursue that specific path Time: 5 Minutes 3. Divvy up responsibilities to each team member Time: 5 Minutes

7 Meeting Agenda Examples

1. Team Sync Meeting Agenda
2. Brainstorming Session Agenda
3. Client Update Meeting Agenda
4. New Team Member Introduction Agenda
5. Performance Review Meeting Agenda
6. Crisis Management Meeting Agenda
7. Strategic Planning Meeting Agenda

To dig a bit deeper, let’s explore some excellent meeting agenda examples and what they achieve. These are some of the personal meeting agendas I have created over time for my diverse work meetings. Let’s get into it.

1. Team Sync Meeting Agenda

Team sync meetings are meetings conducted for ongoing projects and recurring tasks where the team needs to touch base periodically.

Here is an agenda I created for that purpose, preferably for a quick 35-minute team meeting (even though the duration isn’t explicitly mentioned).

This agenda is deliberately designed for quick outcomes and is suited for members who are already familiar with working together.

What I like

Not only is this easy to read and understand, but it also helps all attendees know what to expect.

It includes an estimate of the overall duration of the meeting and the distribution of that time. It also specifies the objective and the conclusion of the meeting very well.

Would you appreciate something like this sent to you before a meeting? I definitely would.

2. Brainstorming Session Agenda

Brainstorming sessions are very common in my field of work. In this kind of meeting, people usually come together to generate new ideas and creative solutions.

Here is an example of a meeting agenda for brainstorming sessions. This is a 45-minute meeting schedule, which can become longer if the meeting has more members attending.

For brainstorming sessions, it is important to leave room for an introduction as well as a conclusion.

This meeting agenda example gives the session structure while encouraging out-of-the-box thinking and collaboration. It also leaves room to break the ice and make the attendees comfortable before moving on to the real task: brainstorming.

What I like

This agenda is aware of the unstructured nature of the meeting and concludes by giving time fo ‘follow-ups without dictating what they will be. Personally, I love this one!

3. Client Update Meeting Agenda

Client update meetings usually involve an external client party where the team is liable to provide project status updates.

This meeting agenda example is specially made to touch base with the client for their feedback so the team can be more efficient at giving the client what they want.

The objective is carefully divided to keep all attendees and clients up to date about the project’s development and key achievements; then, the bottlenecks are acknowledged and discussed.

What I like

I really like that there is a specific welcome section to set the tone of the meeting. There’s also room for the client to give feedback and plan the next steps. This is brilliant and works for a rather formal setting.

4. New Team Member Introduction Agenda

This is a very common meeting that happens with all new team members. This agenda is not as purpose-driven as the others. Instead, the objective is to introduce a new member to the team and get them acquainted.

This is another great example of why — whether small, big, formal, or casual — all meetings need an agenda.

What I like

This meeting agenda example allows the new and regular team members to break the ice, encouraging smoother collaboration and momentum within the team.

5. Performance Review Meeting Agenda

Performance review meetings can be one-on-one conversations or even group meetings.

This agenda is suitable for in-depth performance analysis of the team members, from strengths to areas for improvement. In my experience, meetings like these are very difficult to conduct successfully without a meeting agenda.

In this meeting agenda example, you can see the extent of influence that a well-structured meeting agenda can have. It can even strategically set the tone of the meeting, especially in sensitive cases like performance reviews.

What I like

I really like how the agenda offers space to control the flow of the conversation that will occur in the meeting. This allows the attendees and the meeting lead to feel at ease and achieve efficient outcomes.

6. Crisis Management Meeting Agenda

This is a meeting between familiar team members with an urgent problem that needs immediate attention.

Here, there is a deliberate focus on the structure, which starts with determining the challenge. Once everyone is on the same page, the agenda moves on to the present and long-term challenges, setting the stage to find a resolution.

What I like

I really like how there is a recap section in this agenda that confirms action items and timelines. This helps the team members stay on top of their responsibilities and also helps team leads make sure that nothing is left unattended.

7. Strategic Planning Meeting Agenda

Strategic planning meetings map out the big picture and long-term direction of a project or even an organization.

This is a classic strategic planning meeting agenda example where the outcomes are high-stakes; hence, there is a lot of focus on the slow pace of the conversations.

What I like

This meeting agenda example is sweet and simple and probably the most recurring type of meeting agenda. In my experience, these agendas work well because of their straightforward structure.

7 Meeting Agenda Templates

1. HubSpot’s Free Staff Meeting Agenda Template
2. HubSpot’s Free Board Meeting Agenda Template
3. Project Kickoff Meeting Agenda Template
4. Problem-Solving Meeting Agenda Template
5. Quarterly Review Meeting Agenda Template
6. Stakeholder Alignment Meeting Agenda Template
7. Basic Meeting Agenda Template

In addition to all the meeting agenda examples from my work meetings that I shared in the previous section, I’ve also collected some meeting agenda templates that work for various team sizes and industries.

Below are some meeting agenda templates that can help you get started with just a few clicks.

1. HubSpot’s Free Staff Meeting Agenda Template

Staff meetings are one of the most common meetings in an organization.

HubSpot‘s staff meeting agenda template can be perfect for your recurring staff meetings where you’ll need to know what you‘ll talk about, who will be presenting, when they’ll start, and so on.

You can download this agenda template in PDF or Excel format for free and edit it as needed.

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What I like

I love how simple and neat this meeting agenda template is. The format is easy to understand, follow, and re-use for any type of staff meeting. It imposes less control on the structure and can be molded as per requirement.

2. HubSpot’s Free Board Meeting Agenda Template

Board meetings are usually high-stakes meetings involving the company‘s board of directors. They are where the company’s most important decisions are made, so there is much less room for error in these meetings.

HubSpot’s free board meeting agenda template will make sure you cover everything you need. This template is also available for download in PDF or Excel format for free.

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What I like

I really liked how this template helps you get everyone on the same page by laying out which topics you‘ll discuss and how many minutes you’ll spend on each topic.

3. Project Kickoff Meeting Agenda Template

This is a template that you can use for meetings that introduce a new project or goal where the team needs end-to-end briefing about the objective and tasks. It also simplifies assigning work and summarizing the next steps of the project.

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What I like

I love that the template offers a Q&A session. In my experience, there will always be many questions when a project starts, and having space for Q&A is ideal.

4. Problem-Solving Meeting Agenda

This meeting agenda template is useful when teams come together to tackle a specific challenge or issue. It works equally well for meetings where one party drives the conversation, or where the meeting is rather casual between a workgroup coming together to bust their bottlenecks.

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What I like

I really like how the template makes space for an in-depth analysis of the problem and the things needed to resolve it. For example, the “What are we missing” section has the potential to bring up topics that might have been neglected before in the meeting.

5. Quarterly Review Meeting Agenda

This specific template is designed for formal meetings where a team or organization’s work over a quarter is overviewed. This template is perfect for meetings that require the attendees to put goals and tasks from a period into perspective.

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What I like

This template covers almost everything you would expect from a quarterly review meeting, and I highly recommend using it as is.

6. Stakeholder Alignment Meeting Agenda

Stakeholder alignment meetings are where all the key people involved in a business or project come together to get on the same page.

This template is suitable for such formal meetings where the structure is very important. While adopting templates like this, make sure to keep your company‘s or projects’ hierarchical needs in mind, and add a dedicated time for everyone to speak and share.

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What I like

I love the checklists that are provided in the template, as they help you keep track of the various tasks essential to structure the meeting properly.

7. Basic Meeting Agenda Template

This is an all-purpose meeting agenda template that can be used for almost all meetings. If you are confused about the objective or outcome of a meeting, you can start by using this template and slowly work your way to more specific templates.

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What I like

I love that this particular template is useful for almost all settings. When in doubt, go for this one!

Meetings Shouldn’t Be a Waste of Time

Unproductive or unorganized meetings are as beneficial to you as procrastinating on the web – they’re time-sucks.

Fortunately, the meeting agenda examples and templates I provided above can help you design and structure a productive and efficient meeting that will make people feel excited, focused, and ready to get to work.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in December 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Faced with an urgent need to brush up my spreadsheet skills, I went online and searched for the best Excel resources available. I discovered a lot of amazing options, both free and paid.

Microsoft Excel is a versatile spreadsheet application that’s useful for data entry and storage, budgeting, data analysis, project management, reporting, inventory management, and much more.

Whether you’re a marketer, freelancer, entrepreneur, or business owner, and no matter your profession, Microsoft Excel is a valuable skill to have.

Today, I’m going to share some of the best ways to learn Excel online free of charge, plus some paid options.

Table of Contents

Here are the things you’ll be learning in Excel through the training resources I’ll share:

Below are the 21 amazing free and paid Excel resources I discovered. Feel free to bookmark your favorites and take advantage of them so you can work more efficiently in Excel.

How to Learn Excel With Free Training Resources

1. GoSkills & HubSpot Academy Excel for Marketers Course

This is one of the best free Excel resources I found out there.

In this GoSkills and HubSpot Academy free Excel for Marketers course, you can quickly get up to speed with Excel’s most common formulas, functions, and shortcuts. This universal course content can be applied to any context, including marketing, and is perfect for those who need a refresher in Excel fundamentals.

By the end of the course, you’ll have mastered time-saving hacks to simplify your workflow and gain a shiny certificate of achievement for your efforts.

 

What I like: I love that I can complete this crash course in just under two hours since it was created for busy people like marketers, business owners, and other professionals.

2. HubSpot Excel Resources

Since Excel is one of the most in-demand skills for data-driven marketers — and because we want marketers and others like you to succeed — we’ve created some of our own educational content about Excel here at HubSpot.

From free eBooks, to templates, to video tutorials, we tried to cover a wide range of Excel-relevant topics.

Here are a few of our best Excel resources:

What I like: I’m excited that I can pick and choose resources in different formats, like a video tutorial, a blog post, a free eBook, free templates, a free course, and more.

3. Microsoft’s Excel for Windows Training

To learn a new application, I’m sure it makes a lot of sense to consider the source.

And in this case, no one knows Excel better than the people at Microsoft.

In this training, they did a great job by putting together this resource hub for all Microsoft Office applications and services.

The Excel training has a whole bunch of free tutorials that cover the latest version of Excel, organized into functional learning modules.

Check out the training here.

What I like: It’s great that the videos are broken down into short topics and modules that are practical, straightforward, and easy to understand.

4. The Spreadsheet Page

Unlike most of the Excel resources on this list, the Spreadsheet Page creates and shares professionally designed Excel templates you can download at no cost, and customize for personal, business and educational purposes.

You can find templates for to-do lists, invoices, budgets, calendars and more.

The well-organized site is chock full of helpful Excel tips, collected by an expert named John Walkenbach. Over the past 30 years, he’s written more than 60 Excel books for users of all levels, and around 300 articles and reviews for magazines like InfoWorld, PC World, and PC/Computing.

At one point, he wrote the monthly spreadsheet column for PC World. In other words, the man knows his stuff — and he knows how to present it.

I learned they’ve been around since 2005, and millions of users around the world have downloaded their free templates and workbooks.

They also have a blog where you can find more Excel tips, resources, tutorials, random observations, and jokes.

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What I like: When you download any of their templates, you’ll also get a handy tutorial on how to customize the file for your own use, so you can learn by doing. How cool is that?

5. Contextures

Contextures is a place where you can find hundreds of free Excel resources in the form of training videos, tutorials, a monthly newsletter, and sample workbooks.

This Excel resource has hundreds of downloadable spreadsheets that offer step-by-step instructions for performing data validation, adding filters and conditional formatting to rows and columns, designing charts, creating PivotTables, running functions and more.

Debra Dalgleish, a Microsoft Excel Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award recipient, started Contextures in 2000 and has built hundreds of Excel solutions for clients as a consultant. She got her first MVP award from Microsoft in 2001, and every single year since. And in 2021, she also got her 20-year MVP ring.

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What I like: Debra stated clearly on her site that readers should let her know if there’s a topic they think she should cover on Contextures. How nice of her!

6. Chandoo.org

This site is another fantastic resource that can help you learn Excel at no cost.

Purna “Chandoo” Duggirala, Chandoo.org‘s founder, says he has one goal: “to make you awesome at Excel and Power BI.”

He started the blog in 2007 and built it as a community, citing values like humility, passion, fun, and simplicity. He also works to make it a valuable resource for folks who do not have English as their first language.

Today, the blog contains hundreds of Excel articles and tutorials. You can sign up to receive weekly Excel tips through his newsletter, and also watch Excel training videos on his YouTube channel.

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But it’s not all so formal. For example, Chandoo once created a digital Easter egg hunt for a blog post a while back, which included a downloadable Excel workbook containing seven hidden pandas. Readers were challenged to locate the pandas using clues, Excel techniques, and even “I-Spy” skills.

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While the articles, videos, forums, and other parts of the site are free, you can pay to join one of Chandoo’s structured training programs, like Excel School ($147 – $247), or VBA Classes ($97 – $347).

Plus, there’s always the option to buy one of his books — The VLOOKUP Book or Excel Formula Helper Ebook.

What I like: When people ask questions about Excel formulas, formatting, shortcuts, pivot tables, and so on in the forum, anyone can answer them. But I think it’s wonderful that Chandoo goes a step further and uses some of these questions to create articles and tutorials.

7. Excel Easy

I found Excel Easy to be a comprehensive tutorial for learning Excel. Its learnings are divided into chapters, and these are sorted into the following sections:

• Introduction
• Basics
• Functions
• Data Analysis
• VBA
• Examples

In each chapter, Excel Easy walks you through what it perceives to be the fundamentals of Excel, in the form of written guides with screenshots to help you master each concept.

At the end of the tutorial, you have access to 300 examples showing you how to perform each concept in real scenarios. Concepts include basic formulas and functions, how to create a ribbon, creating multiple worksheets, formatting cells, data validation, table creation, and more.

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What I like: With hundreds of examples available for learners to practice with, I believe this can make it easier for beginners to understand and learn Excel at a faster rate.

8. MrExcel.com

With this free Excel resource, you can learn Excel and also get in touch with Excel experts to ask questions or make inquiries.

MrExcel.com was launched by Bill Jelen in 1998m and its claim to fame is its interactive message board, which is constantly monitored by its community of Excel gurus. The board is organized according to subject, like general announcements, questions, and MrExcel.com products.

When a user posts a question, a member of the MrExcel.com expert community will reply with an answer. The questions range from simplifying an Excel task, to solving urgent inquiries.

Not a native English speaker? You can ask questions in your native language.

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What I like: I think it’s great that the site also has a library of helpful Excel books and ebooks. And if you need help with problems that are more complex, you can hire an Excel consultant directly from the website, for a fee.

9. Exceljet

Dave Bruns, a Microsoft Excel MVP award winner, founded Exceljet in 2012 and runs the site with his wife. Their goal is to help ordinary people use Excel faster and more effectively.

I discovered that Exceljet has several thousand pages of content, including articles and over 400 short videos, that allow you to itemize your Excel training based on the project you’re working on.

Other free resources include the following and more:

• 500 Excel Formulas
• 350 Excel Functions
• 222 Excel Shortcuts
• Pivot Table Examples
• Excel Tables Guide
• Pivot Table Examples

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They also have several paid video trainings that take a deeper dive into specific Excel topics of interest to their users and followers.

What I like: With their bite-sized videos, I love that I can watch and practice a skill in less than 10 minutes. And I can subscribe to their free email newsletter to join over 100,000 people who get weekly Excel tips on useful formulas.

10. Excel in an Hour

This crash course is a free tutorial from GoSkills, an award-winning education platform that’s trusted by more than 8000 organizations worldwide.

To my pleasant surprise, Excel in an Hour includes:

• 16 easy-to-digest Excel tutorial videos.
• Downloadable exercise files and reference guides.
• Unlimited quiz and test attempts.
• Certificate of completion.

It was designed to help beginners quickly learn the most common formulas, functions, and tools they need to handle everyday Excel tasks with ease.

The downloadable practice worksheets also make it easy to apply new knowledge to real-world scenarios.

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What I like: I’m really excited that this free course requires no prior knowledge of Excel and I can get a shiny certificate once I complete it. Hurray!

11. Trump Excel

To share his knowledge and help people learn Excel, Sumit Bansal, a Microsoft Excel MVP award winner, created this Excel tutorial site in 2013.

On Trump Excel, I found a huge number of free Excel tutorials and videos like:

• 100+ Excel functions with examples and videos.
• Excel tips you can apply instantly to boost productivity.
• Excel VBA tips to automate repetitive tasks.
• Excel charting tips.
• Excel dashboards, including detailed tutorials, examples, and download files.
• Excel templates for every situation.
• Best Excel books to make you an Excel pro.

But that’s not all. There are also free courses on topics like Excel Power Query, VBA, Dashboard, and a comprehensive Excel training made up of 12+ hours of basic and advanced videos.

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What I like: In addition to the huge number of free Excel resources available, I love the free 51 Excel tips ebook that I can download, study at my convenience, and keep in my personal library.

12. Introduction to MS Excel

Here’s another detailed Excel resource you want to consider. It’s a free training from Simplilearn, a global leader in digital upskilling that offers world-class training to individuals and businesses worldwide.

In this free Excel course, you’ll enjoy seven hours of self-paced video lessons and learn essential spreadsheet features, plus how to automate activities, analyze data, create reports, and use Excel for real-world tasks.

It’s great for beginners and all those who have never used Excel before.

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What I like: I’m excited that this course was designed for beginners no matter their background or profession. And I love that I can get a shareable certificate once I complete the course.

13. Microsoft Excel – Improve Your Skills Quickly

I found this free Excel resource on Udemy, a leader in online learning that’s trusted by over 16,000 companies and millions of learners around the world.

The course instructor, Phillip Burton, has been teaching on Udemy since 2015 and has over 800,000 students so far — plus over 40 video courses. Here’s everything you’re going to learn in this free tutorial:

• Learn more about formatting, filters, and conditional formatting to improve the presentation of your spreadsheets with a few clicks.
• Create tables, Pivot Tables, Charts, Pivot Charts and Sparklines.
• Find out how powerful Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is and automate your code.
• Learn functions such as SUM, SUMIF, VLOOKUP, OFFSET and INDIRECT.

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What I like: It’s great that this course was designed for people who want to develop their Microsoft Excel skills in a couple of hours, including all those using older versions of Excel, who want to learn newer versions. The practice activities included here also help learners gain hands-on experience.

How to Learn Excel With Paid Training Resources

14. GoSkills

GoSkills offers a range of Excel certification courses for all skill levels. Their most popular course is Excel – Basic & Advanced, which teaches essential real-world skills you’ll need for everyday use.

This training starts with the basics and with each lesson, you can build your knowledge from beginner to intermediate and then move to advanced lessons.

By the end of this course, you will be able to handle everything from reports and charts to complex data analysis and project management.

Designed to accommodate busy learners, all lessons are bite-sized (3-7 minutes long) and come with a video tutorial, practical exercise, short quiz, transcripts, and quick reference guide.

The award-winning platform also features courses on business and software skills like Microsoft Office, project management, lean six sigma, productivity, soft skills, finance, development, and design.

Price

• 7 days free trial
• $39 per month, billed monthly
• $20.75 per month, billed yearly

What I like: When you complete this course, you stand a chance of getting a highly sought-after Excel certification that’s recognized worldwide.

15. Excel Essentials from Excel Exposure

This is a paid Excel resource that can help you unlock your inner Excel ninja, overcome your fear of Excel, reduce errors in your Excel documents, automate some tasks, gain confidence, use Excel faster. and save valuable time.

That’s a lot of benefits.

Excel Essentials from Excel Exposure is a self-paced online course with over five hours of content that covers Excel basics, up to advanced concepts like Pivot Tables and VLOOKUPs.

The course instructor, Ben Currier, has spent the last 15 years working in finance and accounting in various industries like real estate, healthcare, video games, diamond jewelry, and more.

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Price

• $197 – One-time payment; lifetime access
• $59 per month, billed monthly

What I like: Even though this is a paid course, it’s awesome that the first module is available free of charge.

16. Coursera

Partnering with 350+ leading universities and companies worldwide, Coursera is a global platform for online learning and career development.

The site offers online classes to anyone, anywhere, on a wide variety of topics, ranging from music production to Excel to coaching skills, and much more.

Here are some of the popular Excel resources that I found:

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Like many real-world classes, each course includes video lectures, interactive quizzes, peer-graded assessments, and the opportunity to connect with fellow students and instructors.

Once you finish a course, you’ll receive formal recognition along with an optional course certificate.

Price

• Learn a single topic or skill: $49-$79 per month
• Complete multiple courses with Coursera Plus Monthly: $59 per month, 7-day free trial
• Complete multiple courses with Coursera Plus Yearly: $399 per year, with a 14-day money-back guarantee

What I like: I love the various pricing options available, especially Coursera Plus monthly, that I can use to complete multiple courses within one or two months.

17. Udemy’s “Microsoft Excel – From Beginner to Expert in 6 Hours”

If you had six hours to spare, how would you use them? “Sleep,” “clean the house,” and “bake something” are some of the things that come to mind. But what if you can become an Excel expert in that amount of time?

That’s what Udemy promises in its “Microsoft Excel – From Beginner to Expert in 6 Hours” course. You will learn everything you need to know about Microsoft Excel, from the fundamentals to the most advanced features.

I also noticed that the course includes five hours of video, an article, 128 downloadable resources, access on mobile and TV, closed captions, lifetime access and a certificate of completion.

Udemy is one of the most bountiful online learning resources out there, and their Excel courses are many. In fact, typing “Excel” into the search bar yields thousands of results, each one displaying a star rating, price, length, and level.

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Price: $149.99, currently discounted to $16.99. (Check page for frequent discounts.)

What I like: It’s amazing that the course instructor, Todd McLeod, is a Microsoft Certified Master Instructor and a university professor with 20+ years of experience teaching Microsoft Excel. I get a lot of value learning from experts who are not only familiar with the tool, but how to teach it.

18. Excel Everest

The name of this resource may look intimidating, but you‘d be surprised how convenient the training is. Excel Everest is an out-of-the-box resource that teaches you Excel while you’re in Excel.

I found out that the product you buy downloads an Excel file to your computer, where you’ll open Excel and engage in walk-throughs of 41 different Excel functions right from a sample spreadsheet.

Topics covered include conditional formatting, VLOOKUP, chart creation, and so much more.

This Excel training resource offers hundreds of exercises, along with video tutorials embedded directly in a sample Excel spreadsheet.

By applying these concepts in Excel as you learn them, you‘ll feel them stick with you long after you complete Excel Everest’s training.

Price: $159

What I like: I think it’s a good sign that top companies like Google, Eventbrite, PlayCore, and more trust Excel Everest for their employee Excel training.

Microsoft Online Excel Training – Learn Excel Formulas, Pivot Tables, Macros, VLOOKUP & more…

19. Learn iT!

Learn iT! offers Excel training in a variety of formats and breaks every lesson down by module. It’s one of the best solutions for Excel learners who want more than just a video series or a written step-by-step guide.

Here are some of their open Excel trainings:

• Excel Introduction
• Excel Intermediate
• Excel Advanced
• Excel Power User
• Excel Pivot Tables
• Excel Intro to Data Analysis
• Excel VBA

Source

With 28 years of success helping companies and careers grow, Learn iT has upskilled over one million individuals, helped 10,000+ companies upskill their workforce, and also trained people in over 15 countries.

Price

• Excel Introduction, Intermediate, Advanced: $145 – $290
• Excel Power User, Pivot Tables: $145 – $290
• Excel Intro to Data Analysis: $145
• Excel VBA: $995

What I like: I think it’s awesome that you can take your selected course four different ways: an in-person instructor-led session, live online with classmates, privately in a custom-made session, or a self-paced mix of instructor-led and interactive elearning courses.

20. LinkedIn Learning

Many of these courses include exercise files, assessments, and video transcripts.

• Excel Essential Training (Microsoft 365)
• Excel: VLOOKUP and XLOOKUP for Beginners
• Excel: Supply Chain Shipping Analysis
• Excel Quick Tips

Source

Price

• Premium LinkedIn subscriptions provide unlimited access to LinkedIn Learning.
• Premium LinkedIn subscriptions also offer a one-month free trial.

What I like: It’s wonderful that so many high-quality Excel resources are available to choose from, depending on individual needs, preferences, and priorities.

21. eLearnExcel

eLearnExcel is a Microsoft Excel eLearning company. It’s also a product of the International Academy of Computer Training (IACT) — Ireland’s largest and most experienced IT Training company.

They offer eight Excel training courses, and seven of them provide relevant Excel certifications.

Check out some of their courses below:

• 15 Time-Saving Excel Tips You’ll Use Everyday
• Understand the Basics of Excel Step-by-Step
• Discover the must-know Excel Formulas and Functions
• How to analyze data in Excel to make better decisions
• Discover How to Make Beautiful Charts in Excel

If you complete all eight courses, quizzes, and the Excel Master Project, you’ll be awarded the Excel Master Diploma.

It‘s not a bad item to put on your resume — or on your business’s website, if multiple employees enroll in eLearnExcel’s courses as part of a business subscription.

Price

You can get all courses with any of their membership plans below:

• 14-day free trial
• $24 per month, paid monthly. Cancel anytime!
• $247 for one-year access
• $297 for two-year access
• $999 for lifetime access

What I like: I think it’s lovely that their courses are not only approved by Microsoft, but are also used by them.

Start Learning Excel Online

Whether you need to brush up your Excel skills quickly, or you want to learn Excel from scratch, I’ve shared the best ways to learn Excel online free of charge. I also added some paid resources that are well worth the money.

Personally, I can’t wait to dive into my favorites — I’m planning on taking the Excel for Marketers course from GoSkills and HubSpot Academy, the Spreadsheet Page, Exceljet, Contextures, Excel in an Hour, Trump Excel, and all the HubSpot Excel resources.

Once you’re ready, start with one or more of the free courses. In no time, you’ll be able to increase your productivity, expand your knowledge, and implement the power of Excel for your projects.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in March 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

PurplePatch Surveys is a website that claims you can get rewarded by completing surveys that help businesses and organizations create and develop better services and products. , and you simply move on to the next survey available if there are any. So, this opportunity requires a bit of patience because you will not always qualify for surveys.

Once you complete a survey you will receive the reward promised, which will be in the form of points. Later, I will discuss what you can do with the points you’ve earned.

From time to time, you’ll also receive additional prizes like an entry to their prize draw instead of or in addition to the points you’ve earned.

One more thing you need to know about its paid surveys is that if you fail to qualify, you’ll still receive a small compensation of 10 points. It’s not much, but at least you get something for your time. There are not a lot of surveys that offer a disqualification bonus, so this is a good thing, in my opinion.

If you are interested in more sites that offer compensation even if you get disqualified for a survey, I recommend you also check out the top sites that offer a disqualification bonus.

Option 2 – Prize Draws

As mentioned above, you can join their prize draws by answering surveys. Technically, this is not a guaranteed way to earn, but I’ve decided to include it anyway since you can potentially win a decent amount from it.

If you get chosen as the winner, you’ll win a certain number of points (5,000 points usually). Again, it’s not a guaranteed way to earn, but you can just consider the winnings as a bonus.

Option 3 – Referral Program

Lastly, you can earn additional points by inviting other people to join PurplePatch. All you have to do is share your referral link with the person you want to invite. Then, when they click the link and sign up as a member, they will become your referral.

You can also send them an invite using the referral page, and PurplePatch will send them an email with your referral link. When they click that link and sign up as a member of PurplePatch, they will become your referral.

Now, to earn from your referral, they must complete two surveys first. Once this requirement is met, you’ll receive 100 points as a reward. It’s not a very profitable opportunity, in my opinion, but it’s a way to earn additional points.

Recommended: Check Out the Top Survey Sites in Your Country

How do you get paid?

As explained above, you will earn points from the earning opportunities PurplePatch offers. Now, you can use these points to redeem a GiftPay eGift card as long as you’ve earned at least 500 points, which will be worth $5.

In case you are wondering what a GiftPay eGift card is, it is a gift card you can use to purchase goods from a wide range of retailers in Australia. It’s a very versatile gift card, which is a good thing. But if you were hoping to earn cash from PurplePatch, you will be disappointed because this is the only payout option it offers if you don’t want to donate your earnings to charity.

Overall, I would say its payout system is relatively straightforward. But if you were hoping to earn cash, I recommend you check out the top sites that pay via PayPal instead.

How much money can you make?

The amount you can earn from PurplePatch will depend on how many surveys you can complete. Unfortunately, you have no control over how many surveys will be available to answer. And from what I observed while testing it, there were not a lot of surveys available.

So, it’s quite hard to earn regularly from it. As for how much you can earn per survey, usually, surveys that take less than 5 minutes to finish will reward you with around 200 to 400 points.

For longer surveys, you can earn more. While their rates are actually quite competitive, its overall earning potential still isn’t that great because of the lack of earning opportunities available.

That being said, it can serve as a decent secondary site to earn from, in my opinion. Just don’t expect to earn regularly from it.

Can you use it on mobile?

PurplePatch Surveys doesn’t have a mobile app you can download, but you can still conveniently access the member dashboard on your phone because it is optimized for mobile use. So, you can answer surveys conveniently even when you are not in front of your computer.

This can help you maximize your earnings because you can get to surveys quickly, which is very important. After all, all surveys have a maximum number of respondents. If that number is reached, then the survey will be closed, and you will have effectively missed an opportunity to earn.

Who can join PurplePatch Surveys?

PurplePatch Surveys is only for people who live in Australia. So, if you live somewhere else, then this is not for you. If you are interested in more survey sites that are available in Australia, I recommend you also check out the top survey sites in Australia.

To sign up as a member, simply fill out the registration form. Then, PurplePatch will send you a confirmation email. Just click the link in the email to complete your registration. After you finish registering, you can log in to the member dashboard and start earning.

During your first login, you’ll be asked to complete your profile by answering a profile survey. When you complete this survey, you’ll receive 200 points as a reward, which is a nice bonus for doing what you are supposed to do on a survey site.

Can you get support?

If you have questions about the site, you can check out the FAQ section. It discusses some of the basic topics you need to know about PurplePatch.

Now, if you still need help, you can contact their support team instead. To do so, just click the Contact link on the website, and it will take you to the page where you can fill out a contact form.

Overall, I would say it does provide the minimum required support to its members since it offers a convenient way for you to ask for help.

Final Verdict

PurplePatch Surveys is a legit survey site that will let you earn by answering surveys. It has a couple of decent features, but it also has some limitations you need to know.

Let me summarize its pros and cons to wrap up this review so you can see a clear overview of what it offers. Then, you can decide if joining this site is in your best interest or not.

In my opinion, PurplePatch Surveys is not a bad survey site. It pays well per survey, and it has a disqualification bonus, which not a lot of survey sites offer. However, it can only serve as a secondary site to earn from because of the limited earning opportunities it offers. It’s not something you can regularly earn from.

So, if you are looking for an additional site to earn from and you live in Australia, this can be a decent option. Just remember that it doesn’t offer cash rewards.

But if you are looking for a primary site to earn from or if you are looking for survey sites that offer cash rewards, I suggest you check out the top survey and GPT sites in your country instead. The sites and apps on this list all have good earning potential, so you can earn a decent amount quickly.

Most (if not all) of the sites and apps on this list offer cash rewards as well. Plus, you will definitely find a site you can join regardless of where you live.

If you have any comments, questions, or experience with PurplePatch Surveys, I would love to hear from you in a comment below.

This year brought a steady stream of updates in Google Ads that spanned across campaign types and creative, media activation, and measurement solutions – many informed directly by advertiser feedback.

I won’t cover every big update here, but building on a talk I gave at Hero Conf in San Diego recently, I’ll highlight some of the key themes in this year’s launches and the technological and consumer trends driving product innovation in Google Ads. (It was wonderful to catch up with old marketing friends and meet so many new ones!)

Let’s dig into some of the top trends and launches of what’s possible now to help you engage audiences and drive better results – and get a sense of where we’re headed.

Search Is Evolving & Bringing New Opportunities For Advertisers

Google Search is undergoing significant changes – both in the types of questions people ask, how they’re asking them, and in the results Google provides.

For many years, people largely searched with short two- to three-word queries. For advertisers, that meant we could simply target a list of keywords matching those short queries to reach the right audience.

This has been changing.

We are seeing people asking longer, more complex questions.

Queries of five or more words are growing 1.5 times faster than shorter queries (Source: Google Internal Data, Global-EN, November 2022 – April 2023 vs. November 2023 – April 2024). You may notice this in your own search behavior.

This shift is why we continue to invest so heavily in broad match to help ensure your Search strategy can keep up with the complexity and diversity of searches.

AI Overviews in Search combines large language models (LLMs) with Google’s core search systems to provide responses and resources for more complex queries.

AI Overviews is now available in more than 100 countries and territories, reaching more than 1 billion users monthly in six languages (Source: Alphabet Q3 2024 Earnings).

Additionally, visual searches on Google are growing, thanks to huge leaps in multi-modal visual search capabilities with Lens.

Overall, we’re now seeing 20 billion visual searches a month on Lens, and 1 in 4 visual searches has commercial intent (Source: Google Internal Data, Global. Lens, August-September 2024).

To help advertisers connect with consumers in these new experiences when relevant, we’ve introduced Shopping ads in Lens results globally and text and Shopping ads in AI Overviews on mobile in the U.S.

More Personalized Shopping Discovery

Another new experience to highlight is the completely reimagined Shopping tab.

Currently live on mobile in the U.S., the new Shopping tab experience features a personalized feed for signed-in users and a dedicated deals page. It also incorporates features like Virtual Try-On.

Powered by Gemini models, Virtual Try-On lets potential customers see how an item of clothing drapes, clings, and stretches on real models of different sizes and shapes rig by combining the images of real, diverse human models with photos of your garments from Merchant Center.

All apparel brands with a shopping feed and high-quality imagery are automatically opted into Apparel Try-On and can show in both free listings and Shopping ads.

And while we’re on the topic of Shopping, Merchant Center Next (now simply called Merchant Center) rolled out globally this year.

The new interface has feature parity with the previous version, plus more features such as generated performance insights, tailored recommendations, and visual reporting that you generate with plain language prompts.

Launch, Iterate, And Scale Engaging Creatives

Creative generation solutions make it easier for businesses to create and launch higher-performing, on-brand ads.

The conversational experience for Search campaigns expanded to more languages and is available in English, Spanish, French, and German. It’s also now powered by Gemini models.

This feature is particularly helpful for new and small business advertisers.

We’ve seen that advertisers that use the conversational experience in Google Ads are 63% more likely to publish Search campaigns with “Good” or “Excellent” Ad Strength (Source: Google Internal Data. US, English campaigns published after using asset generation vs. published without using asset generation. January 1-31, 2024).

In short, that means they’re launching campaigns that are more likely to perform better from the start.

We also made continued improvements in our generative AI models and capabilities to make it a whole lot easier to create varieties of high-quality, on-brand image and video assets at scale.

The asset enhancements feature for responsive display ads uses AI to automatically modify your ad with smart cropping to highlight focal points, text assets, and logo overlays on relevant image areas, and improve image resolution and sharpness. It can even animate your static images for more engaging ads.

We also expanded generative creative capabilities beyond Performance Max to other campaign types this year.

Image asset generation is available in Performance Max, Demand Gen, Display, and App campaigns. It is now powered by Imagen 3, Google’s latest text-to-image model that generates crisper, more lifelike images for your ads.

To generate on-brand image assets, you can upload image references to help generate multiple image assets that better match your brand’s visual style.

Image editing got more capabilities this year as well and is now available in Performance Max, Demand Gen, Search, Display, and App campaigns.

During campaign construction, you can remove, add, modify elements, and extend backgrounds in your image assets, as well as adjust images to fit any size, aspect ratio, or orientation.

Pro tip: Image editing can be great for moments like seasonal campaigns to make sure your assets are on-trend with different holidays and moments during the year so they resonate strongly with audiences.

Note that image editing is different from Product Studio, which is where you can edit your product assets in Google Merchant Center and the Google and YouTube app on Shopify.

Product Studio also now supports reference images to create assets that reflect your brand’s visual style. And with image-to-video animation, it can quickly generate videos from your existing product images.

Speaking Of Video . . .

Creating great video assets for all the inventory options on YouTube can be challenging for businesses of all sizes.

This fall, we introduced video enhancements, which use Google AI to automatically create additional flipped and shortened versions of your existing videos.

These new ads go through extensive quality review before going live. You can remove generated assets you don’t want or opt-out (if desired) at the campaign level.

Voice-over is a new self-service feature available globally in the asset library in Google Ads. Simply add your script, choose the voice option you want, and then click to generate a voice-over for any YouTube video ad in more than 12 languages.

Long-form content is still extremely popular on YouTube, of course, but Shorts now see 70 billion daily views and an audience of 2 billion signed-in users monthly. And Shorts views on connected TVs more than doubled last year.

This year, we launched branded QR codes on YouTube connected TV. Viewers can scan the code on their phone to visit your website, make a purchase, or learn more about your product or service.

In Video View Campaigns, we introduced new format buying controls with the option to run ads on Shorts inventory only.

And if you’re interested in tapping the power of YouTube creators, Partnership ads powered by BrandConnect are now available in Google Ads globally.

You can use videos made by a creator and promote them as ads, then create new audience segments based on viewers of those videos.

A new video-linking API is also available to link creator videos to your Google Ads account at scale.

New Controls. More Transparency.

We all know that when using AI, better inputs lead to better outputs – and outcomes for your business.

Google AI doesn’t automatically know the definition of better results for your business – only you do. That’s why we’ve continued to add more ways to tell Google what’s important to your business.

In Search campaigns, brand inclusions allow you to use broad match, while still constraining your brand campaigns to serving on specific brand or related product queries.

Brand exclusions are now available for all match types and Dynamic Search Ads to prevent your ads from serving on certain brand queries, including misspellings and variants.

We also rolled out these highly requested updates for Search campaigns:

• Negative keywords now take misspellings into account. Just add one negative keyword to exclude traffic from all misspelling variations.
• The search term report shows 9% more search terms on average by reporting misspelled queries with the correctly spelled query.

You can also see this focus on controls and transparency emphasized in many of the Performance Max updates this year, such as:

• With Brand guidelines, you get to tell Google about your brand colors and font to generate on-brand visuals.
• Campaign-level negative keywords – a top ask – are in beta and will be rolling out soon.
• IP exclusions are supported, and account-level placement exclusions now also apply to the Search partner network.
• A new experiment allows you to test the impact of final URL expansion to let Google AI select the most relevant landing pages and help you match to additional relevant search queries.
• To give you more flexibility when managing both Performance Max and Standard Shopping together, Ad Rank is now used to determine which campaign serves when you have product overlap between them.

In addition to controls, we’ve also added more insights for Performance Max, including:

• Asset-level conversion reporting.
• Impression share reporting.
• Demographics in audience insights.
• New target pacing insights.

This is an area we are actively focused on. Stay tuned for more in 2025!

More Bidding Options Tailored To Specific Goals

Another area I want to call out is the continued focus on expanding and improving bidding capabilities tailored to advertisers’ specific goals.

Here’s a look at some of the work happening in this area:

For retailers with both online and physical stores, omnichannel shoppers tend to spend more.

In Demand Gen campaigns, Omnichannel Goals is now in beta to give those retailers the ability to optimize towards both online conversions and Store Visits.

For lead gen advertisers, the customer journey can be complex. And, of course, not every customer has the same value to your business.

I’ve talked a lot about value-based bidding for lead gen advertisers this year, including a series of short videos followed by deeper dives here in Search Engine Journal.

Continuing to make value-based bidding easier to understand and execute will continue to be a focus area because we’ve seen the positive results it can drive for advertisers.

Lifecycle goals offer additional options to optimize toward your most valuable customers:

• Last month, we added the ability to use custom experiments in PMax (in beta) and Search to test new customer acquisition.
• The new retention goal is currently in beta for Performance Max. It allows you to optimize your campaign to win back lapsed customers to reduce churn rates.

And lastly, bidding to profit has also been a top ask from customers.

The new gross profit goal is in beta in Performance Max and Standard Shopping campaigns. It pulls in profit data from sources you already have, like Merchant Center, enabling you to bid to profit with Smart Bidding.

You can also easily switch between revenue and profit goals without disrupting performance.

Data, Measurement & Privacy

While advancements like image generation may capture attention, the solutions that provide Google AI with the necessary data are equally vital.

Your first-party data is the foundation for better performance and measurement. It helps drive better results and safeguard your campaigns against the impact of privacy changes and signal loss.

We’ve developed a number of privacy-centric solutions that enable durable measurement and allow you to make the most of your first-party data.

Google Ads Data Manager is a big step forward in simplifying the process of connecting your first-party data sources to your account and keeping your audience lists and conversion data complete and accurate.

This fall, we introduced confidential matching for Customer Match in Google Ads Data Manager. It securely processes first-party data for use in Google Ads.

This happens automatically in the background so you don’t have to think about it other than knowing your data remains encrypted and unseen by anyone – including Google.

We’ve also launched the option to encrypt the data yourself and receive proof that your data is processed as intended. And, we are currently running a closed beta to enable confidential matching for enhanced conversions for web.

Tag diagnostics for the Google Tag is available in Google Tag Manager, Google Ads, and Google Analytics to help you quickly identify and troubleshoot potential issues.

Measurement diagnostics for Enhanced Conversions for Leads is also fully rolled out in Google Ads. Use it to monitor your setup and ensure you can take action against the offline data you share with Google.

While we’re on lead generation, new lead funnel reporting for lead gen gives you added visibility into offline conversions when you share qualified and converted leads with Google.

Lastly, advanced consent mode includes two new parameters for sending consent signals needed for ad personalization and remarketing purposes to Google.

The easiest way to enable and maintain advanced consent mode is to work with a Google CMP partner.

The new integrated CMP setup in the Google Tag UI makes this even easier with select partners. Just connect your CMP and configure consent settings right within the Google Tag UI – no code editing needed.

Looking Ahead

AI’s power comes in helping you dynamically adapt to market shifts and create better experiences – and ultimately better outcomes – for your customers and your business.

When you put AI to work with good data and inputs about what you know about your business and goals, you can spend more time focused on, well, the joy of marketing.

In the year ahead, you can expect us to continue building on these capabilities to help you create and measure engaging experiences that drive incremental value for your business.

Keep the feedback coming, and be sure to check out the full recap of top launches across each campaign type in Google Ads this year!

More Resources:

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Featured Image: Ginny Marvin/Google

Ok, this has to be one of the most meta projects I’ve worked on: a piece of digital content about digital content — but, hey, it’s an important one. (more…)

AI has emerged as one of the most transformative and disruptive forces in marketing as an industry in a long time, probably the most impactful since the mass adoption of the internet.

It will continue to evolve and change search as a practice for years to come.

While brands are working on AI adoption at an organizational level, the benefits and applications to most departments within the business are clear to the C-level.

When it comes to SEO, the opportunities and threats are less clear.

As an industry, we’re still deliberating how we classify ChatGPT (and other large language model tools). Are they search engines or discovery engines?

If we don’t have clear definitions of what is happening in the industry, we can’t expect our C-level stakeholders to understand – and this can breed uncertainty.

There are enough headlines surrounding AI from various mainstream publications that the perception of, and application capabilities of AI can vary greatly depending on your field of view.

To best explain and communicate how worried – or excited – your C-suite stakeholders need to be with the impact of AI on your SEO program, you need to be able to make it relatable.

This often comes down to the potential impact on website traffic (all channels), and the measurable impact on conversions (and the ROI/CPA stemming from specific channels). But also includes how it affects your audience.

AI Adoption In Your Audience

Before, we look at how to assess your SEO opportunities and threats with AI. A key part of this is understanding how your target markets perceive AI, their planning on adopting AI in their daily lives, and what opportunities AI has to enter their lives seamlessly.

Depending on your target markets, you’ll find active AI adoption rates differ.

Adopting any new technology relies on its ability to provide value by either enhancing user experience or solving a disutility. To do this, it has to achieve ARC:

• Accessibility.
• Reliability.
• Cost.

Only by achieving these three things while providing value can a new technology gain mass market adoption.

Different demographics are adopting AI at different rates.

Looking at consumer surveys and reports, we see Gen Z and Gen Alpha embracing AI and actively utilizing platforms other than Google as the first port of call to discover information and content.

This is supported by a recent data release by Ofcom (Online Nation 2024 Report), which identified that those aged 18-24 are the highest adopters of AI technologies.

It is reported that 1 in 4 (27%) uses ChatGPT at least monthly, with 1 in 3 of this age segment using it.

Another notable data point from this report is that men are more likely to adopt AI, with 50% reporting using AI tools, compared to only 33% of women.

Adoption rates don’t tell the full story.

Threads reached 100 million users in less than a week, but quality issues have seen demand and daily active users (DAU) drop substantially.

A key part factor in this has been Threads’ algorithm capabilities to return satisfying and relevant content to users, and this same challenge is facing LLM tools such as ChatGPT.

The Ofcom Online Nation 2024 Report found that only 1 in 5 (18%) of adults found the information on ChatGPT to be reliable, but this rose to 33% among young adults.

Passive AI Adoption

ChatGPT and the other LLM tools fall under the banner of active AI adoption. Using these tools is a conscious adoption of AI, as you don’t accidentally log in to Claude or Perplexity.

In my opinion, the greater “softening” of the mass market and normalization of LLM tools and AI in the mainstream will come from the passive AI touchpoints that our target audiences are subjected to.

These include things like:

• The appearance of Google AI Overviews and Bing Generative Search frequently appearing as part of routine internet usage.
• Additional prompts to use AI tools such as virtual try-ons.
• Phone manufacturers promoting AI-driven features such as Gemini and Circle Search as product unique selling points (USPs).
• Apple’s integration of Intelligence.
• Spotify’s AI DJ.
• Meta AI’s integration into their suite of products.

These non-invasive touchpoints will, over time, soften attitudes towards AI and build trust, leading to increased adoption elsewhere.

This means that we need to understand where our users spend their time, and the potential exposure to passive AI interactions.

To do this, we need to understand which channels have higher than average term usage, and this helps us identify which platforms our audience over-indexes on.

Understanding which channels your audience is actively engaging with also aids buy-in from other internal marketers and agencies handling the non-SEO channels, and reaches closer to a collaborative integrated communications strategy.

This is a great opportunity to get buy-in from other marketing stakeholders, but if your success metrics are bound to metrics such as directly attributable organic traffic – this is a threat.

Adapting To AI-Origin Users

AI introduces opportunities, but also raises the bar for channel performance.

As mentioned earlier in the article, this means a better understanding of your product and which channels are the right fit, in addition to visibility in organic search.

One way we can do this, in addition to data from third-party tools, is to utilize the Kano Model. The Kano model is a framework traditionally used to categorize and prioritize customer needs and can be effectively applied to assess and enhance product-channel fit in marketing.

For marketing product-channel fit, think of the channel (e.g., email, social media, SEO, paid ads) as a “feature” and map how well it satisfies user expectations.

To adapt and reach our target audiences as they adopt AI tools, or AI product features in existing tools, we as marketers need to:

• Shift from Broad Channels to Intent-Driven Channels: Focus on channels that align with customer intent, as AI improves its ability to match consumer needs in real-time.
• Embrace AI-Native Platforms: Platforms like ChatGPT or AI-powered discovery engines require new strategies for delivering benefit-focused, concise, and conversational content.

Monitoring AI Traffic

Another key part of communicating your exposure to LLMs and AI chatbots is the accurate tracking of AI traffic to your website.

This also informs your marketing strategies and adaptation to cater to shifting user behaviors within your target audience.

Traffic from LLMs can be easily monitored through Google Analytics 4 Explore reports, or through Google Looker Studio.

The method for segmenting data depends on the objective, who needs data access, and to what depth.

GA4 Explore Reports are effective for routine updates, such as monthly reporting, and provide clients with direct access to data through their Google Analytics accounts.

Looker Studio offers two distinct approaches. The first focuses on detailed, client-specific reports that track granular data, such as landing pages and events triggered by LLM traffic, tailored to individual needs.

The second is a quick overview dashboard, which is less customized but allows easy navigation through GA4 accounts, making it useful for ad hoc analysis and monitoring.

Marketers Must Adapt And Align

AI is transforming marketing, offering new opportunities and challenges across all marketing channels. To adapt, marketers must align strategies with evolving user behaviors and clearly communicate AI’s impact on traffic, conversions, and audience engagement to the C-suite and wider business stakeholders.

By focusing on clear communication, measurement and simple visualizations, and strategic adaptation of AI technologies into existing processes, brands can successfully navigate and take advantage of opportunities presented by AI while transforming and future-proofing the marketing function.

More Resources:

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Featured Image: wenich_mit/Shutterstock