{"id":3995,"date":"2022-12-22T16:59:30","date_gmt":"2022-12-22T16:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/2022\/12\/22\/meet-the-team-dan-cook\/"},"modified":"2025-03-17T12:14:58","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T12:14:58","slug":"meet-the-team-dan-cook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/2022\/12\/22\/meet-the-team-dan-cook\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Team: Dan Cook"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have recently welcomed Dan Cook to Coast Digital; he joined us as a PPC<\/a> specialist and brings with him a wide range of digital marketing and agency experience. As a part-time radio presenter and a sucker for the art of storytelling, Dan has a lot of feathers in his cap and has been a great addition to our PPC team. In this blog, find out more about Dan and how his experience led him to Coast Digital.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Welcome, Dan! What attracted you to Coast Digital, and what were your first impressions?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Having worked in an agency background for several years and met a couple of \u201cCoasties\u201d, I\u2019d heard so many good things about Coast Digital before joining. So, when the opportunity came up I jumped at the chance, as it was the step up in account scale and agency size I really wanted for my career.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So far, it\u2019s absolutely lived up to the billing! Everyone has been really lovely and made me feel so welcome. The organisational structure here is seriously impressive, you really get a sense of the scale of accounts and of the company itself when you\u2019re working on different projects. You get a real buzz from being involved and with the team itself, you\u2019d be hard-pushed not to find it inspiring!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What attracted you to a career in digital, more specifically paid search marketing, in the first place?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

I\u2019ve always been fascinated by storytelling and the emotions it can evoke. And in any digital advertising-related medium, you\u2019re really being asked how good a storyteller you are and how you can you empathise with the reader and their needs.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The challenge of doing this in just 30-90 characters and zeroing in on why someone would want to buy into your story really excites me \u2013 it\u2019s the \u201celevator pitch\u201d of storytelling, and I find that really fun! Plus, optimising your ads to get the best return is a wonderful exercise, you often feel as if you are mad scientist-ing your way to the right answer \u2013 I\u2019m probably a bit sad, to be honest!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tell us about your previous experience and how you will use this at Coast Digital?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

As I mentioned earlier, I\u2019ve worked in agency settings for some time now \u2013 so I\u2019ve got a pretty large variety of previous client work experience (large and small) to pull from. And that\u2019s not just in PPC, I actually started out in paid social with a small focus on SEO as well.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m hoping this overall understanding of the marketing mix and the variety of challenges I\u2019ve worked on will really help me bring something different to the team. That and I\u2019ve also presented radio (and still do), which never hurts when it comes to thinking on your feet for something to say in an ad!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the key differences between paid search and paid social?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

There are plenty of similarities on the surface of course, but for me, the key difference comes from the sort of customer you\u2019re looking to reach.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you want someone who already knows what they\u2019re looking for, or offer a specific service like a skip hire company? Then I\u2019d say you\u2019d want to look into paid search.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, if you have a business that\u2019s quite creative and interactive with customers, and can educate and show what you offer in a visual sense; then I\u2019d say you definitely want to be looking into using paid social as it\u2019ll help create buzz around your brand.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In an ideal world, they support each other brilliantly if used in tandem. You can use paid social to educate an audience and drive demand for a product, and then target the new demand for your product with an effective paid search campaign.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>If you could give us just one simple PPC tip, what would it be?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

It\u2019s a really simple one, but have you checked the networks you\u2019re spending money on in your accounts lately? I\u2019ve lost count of the number of accounts that were being quite wasteful by spending money on the Google Display Network for very little return. It\u2019s an immediate and simple improvement that seems to get missed quite a lot.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>What does the future of search marketing look like?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Search is a really exciting place to be right now, given how quickly it\u2019s developing. As Google\u2019s Artificial Intelligence (AI) gets better at detecting what a searcher’s real intent is through multiple mediums (not just the traditional search engine, but through map listings, voice search etc); you\u2019re going to see those search marketers who can get their messaging in a way that speaks to a human, and not an AI winning out.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>What’s exciting in Digital right now?\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

The exciting thing about digital is always the possibility that absolutely everything could change within the next 5 years. There\u2019s always an innovation around the corner that could blow all the old models apart \u2013 look at Facebook scrabbling to reinvent itself thanks to the rise of TikTok!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019ll be exciting to see how digital will adapt to an ever-changing world with more complex needs. For example:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n