If you checked the schedule for SMX Advanced, June 13-14, you probably noticed this trend:
“AI” appears in the titles of 11 sessions, including “How Generative AI Will Change SEO as a Profession.”
And that’s not including four more session titles on related topics like “Revolutionize Your PPC Game with GPT.”
Hey, I get it. Marketers and executives attended their industry’s most important events to:
Stay up to date with industry trends. See new products and services. Maintain and build relationships.
In short, attending leading conferences and trade shows keeps you informed and competitive.
And there is no doubt that generative AI will change SEO as a profession and revolutionize your PPC game.
But whether you attended SMX Advanced or not, it’s time to ask yourself a different question: “Do your SEO and PPC teams need to improve or retrain?”
Improvement and retraining, defined
In accordance with LinkedIn Learning:
“When an employee commits to learning to expand their existing skill set, that learning is known as skill enhancement. These additional skills improve the worker’s performance in their current role, potentially advancing them over the his career.”
“Employee reskilling involves learning new skills outside of the worker’s existing skills. These skills are usually very adjacent to their current role, but sometimes they can be oriented in a completely different direction.”
Why do 80% of PPC specialists need to upgrade their qualifications?
Based on my experience, about 80% of brand or agency PPC specialists will likely need an upgrade this summer, and about 20% will need a requalification.
Because?
When Google announced that it was “Supercharge search with generative AI,” said Elizabeth Reid, vice president and general manager of Search, “In this new generative experience, search ads will continue to appear in dedicated ad slots across the page.”
And Google’s main source of revenue is advertising, which accounts for about 80% of the company’s total revenue.
Therefore, approximately 80% of PPC specialists will need some improvement to take advantage of the arrival of Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE).
Let’s say brands and agencies want to stay two steps ahead of the competition.
In this case, they should also offer their PPC specialists some workshops or refresher courses to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the migration to Google Analytics 4 (GA4).
For example, if you link your GA4 property to Google Ads, Display & Video 360, or Search Ads 360, you can re-engage GA4 predictive audiences such as “7-Day Likely Buyers” and “28 Top Spending Predictors” days”. – with a remarketing campaign.
These additional skills enhance the worker’s performance in their current role.
So why will roughly 20% of your PPC team need retraining?
Well, you already know that AI can scale asset production to deliver the most relevant version of an ad across all channels through top-performing action, app, and video campaigns.
But AI-based solutions will soon play a critical role in creative development, from campaign planning to creative testing and media planning.
And that will involve learning new skills outside of a PPC manager’s existing skill set.
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Why do 80% of SEO specialists need retraining?
In my experience, about 20% of brand or agency SEOs will likely need to brush up this summer, but about 80% will need retraining. And it’s probably time for a reorganization, too.
Yes, I realize Reid said, “As we introduce generative AI into search, we are committed to continuing to deliver valuable traffic to sites on the web.”
So SEO is still alive. And it has survived several major Google algorithm updates since the Panda update in 2011. So it should survive the arrival of SGE in 2023.
But SEO should be part of a Venn diagram that includes the very adjacent disciplines of content marketing and social media marketing to maintain or improve search rankings, drive website traffic, and drive conversions.
Because?
Because the continued existence of Google in this new era of search does not depend on the success or even the survival of SEO. Therefore, many SEOs will need to learn new skills outside of their existing skill set.
In a post titled “Learn from the experiences of other people with more perspectives on SearchLauren Clark, Google Search Product Manager said:
“In the coming weeks, when you search for something that could benefit from other people’s experiences, you may see an Insights filter appear at the top of your search results. Tap the filter and you’ll see exclusively videos, images and long and short written posts that people have shared on discussion boards, Q&A sites, and social media platforms.”
Fortunately, GA4 has some new default channels that allow SEOs to monitor the performance of organic social media, organic video and organic shopping, as well as organic search. And the referral channel still lets you see which users are coming to your site through non-advertising links to other sites or apps (eg blogs, news sites).
Month, new research Rand Fishkin of SparkToro found, “A substantial portion of social referral traffic arrives without adequate and accurate referral data and is misclassified as ‘direct’.” Fishkin adds, “For those investing in proactive social media marketing, we recommend using unique URLs to track activity on social promotions.”
And many brands and agencies should consider adopting new organizational structures.
For example, SEO, content marketing, and social media marketing teams must integrate to survive or even thrive when long- and short-form videos, images, and written posts start appearing in the Prospects filter .
Also, it makes sense to create at least a dotted line reporting structure with the digital PR team.
In June 2023, Think with Google published “Does your marketing have the building blocks to succeed with AI?” which included this line:
“Silos can be kryptonite for AI, limiting its ability to optimize and maximize performance.”
He also quotes Alex Clemente, managing director of Harvard Business Review Analytic Services, who explained:
“Cross-functional teams will need to foster a test-and-learn culture where leaders can quickly adjust the plan when results don’t come as expected, or duplicate what works.”
Hey, this reorganization is long overdue. Google has combined videos, news, images, maps and web pages since it announced universal search in 2007.
Brands and agencies have had 16 years to get everyone involved in content creation on the same team.
So if it took the advent of generative AI to get marketers and executives to restructure their teams, now is the time.
As Benjamin Franklin said at the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, “We must all hang together, or we shall all be hanged separately.”
What should marketers and executives do next?
So what should you do next?
Well, after learning as much as you can about generative AI and other related topics, you should also take some time to think about the difference between upskilling and retraining your employees.
Find out if most of your PPC specialists need the former, while many of your SEO specialists need the latter.
Now, brands and agencies may want to encourage their existing employees to check out the free online courses available at Google Digital Garage. Some courses are offered by Google and others by its partner universities or institutions.
Marketers and executives may also want to reimburse their employees for certification from a reputable institution.
The views expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.
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