Recent journal entries

Our blog will cover a wide range of topics such as the latest SEO or PPC updates and strategies, email marketing automation, web design trends, new web development technology and various other tips and tricks to help you broaden your knowledge in this ever-changing digital world.

Zach Mettra

WordPress Developer

Why we’re hiring We’ve been fortunate over the last several years to find and retain client partnerships across the US, Canada and Switzerland that have allowed us the opportunity to grow dramatically. So this really just boils down to a simple cause and effect — be fiercely committed to producing high quality work and exceptional … Continued

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Zach Mettra

Bright Oak is now Embrk: A new marketing, branding, and software development agency.

To our dear clients and friends, We’ve got some exciting news to share with you!  While the world came to a crashing halt a couple months ago, and like many of you, we had the opportunity to pause for a brief moment, take a deep breath, and then analyze every part of our existing business … Continued

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Zach Mettra

Bright Oak Senior PHP Developer Overview

Why we’re hiring We’ve been fortunate over the last several years to find and retain client partnerships across the US, Canada and Switzerland that have allowed us the opportunity to grow dramatically. So this really just boils down to a simple cause and effect — be fiercely committed to producing high quality work and exceptional … Continued

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Robert Brady
  • PPC
  • 02.04.2019

Is Google’s “Smart” Bidding Smart For You?

Big tech companies are talking a lot about machine learning and AI right now. And if you believe the hype it seems like everything from curing cancer to world peace will be solved once we get enough computing power and the right algorithm. While most of that is still in the distant future, for advertisers … Continued

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Robert Brady
  • PPC
  • 01.15.2019

Testing Responsive Search Ads in Google Ads

Google Ads is always testing new formats for ads that appear on search results pages. In the beginning all the ads were on the right rail and text was very minimal. You were allowed up to 25 characters for the headline (which would be bolded), up to 35 characters each for two lines of description … Continued

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Zach Mettra

Pagely vs. Kinsta: 3 Reasons Why We Switched To Kinsta For Managed WordPress Hosting

Choosing a managed WordPress host is hard. We review how Kinsta beat Pagely & others on support, speed, and costs & why we migrated all of our WordPress sites to Kinsta.

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Robert Brady
  • PPC
  • 11.12.2018

Facebook Drops 5000 Targeting Options

Facebook has been facing immense pressure concerning their advertising platform. The Cambridge Analytica scandal really moved the discussion into the mainstream and Facebook has been making several changes throughout 2018. A Facebook post from April discussed how Facebook included additional messages in the platform to help advertisers understand policies. However, the recent announcement on August … Continued

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Robert Brady
  • PPC
  • 08.24.2018

Big Changes Coming To Google Display Network Campaigns

Over the years Google has built a massive network of websites that display advertising. These ads can be seen on blogs, news sites, mobile apps, etc. and when clicked they connect the user to an advertiser’s website. This Google Display Network (GDN) is available to Google Ads advertisers for running ads and Google claims it … Continued

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Robert Brady
  • PPC
  • 06.22.2018

Old AdWords Interface Will Be Retired on July 10th

Ever since the announcement of the new AdWords interface at Google Summit in 2016, there has been an uneasiness among experienced advertisers. The old interface has become so familiar and so comfortable. I know where everything is to the point where it’s muscle memory to know how far to move my mouse to exactly hit … Continued

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Zach Mettra

Bright Oak Laravel / PHP Developer Position

We've been fortunate over the last several years to find and retain client partnerships across the US, Canada and Switzerland that have allowed us the opportunity to grow dramatically.

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Robert Brady
  • PPC
  • 05.31.2018

What is AdWords Quality Score?

The AdWords Auction System To understand how Quality Score (QS) is used, you first need to understand a little about Google and their advertising platform AdWords. Whenever someone searches on Google there are two processes that happen at the same time. First, Google must go to their index of internet sites and find the top … Continued

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Robert Brady
  • PPC
  • 05.01.2018

Google Testing New AdWords Format

SERPs Are Always Changing Initially the ads on AdWords all appeared on the right side of search results. Later AdWords introduced a 3-pack of ads that appeared above the organic results. Then, in February of 2016 AdWords did away with the right side text ads entirely while adding a fourth ad above the organic listings. … Continued

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