What is solution-based thinking in marketing?

Solution-based thinking involves proactively identifying potential problems and finding ways to resolve them before they escalate. In marketing, problem-solving is essential to minimising the negative impact of challenges and ensuring continuous growth. Instead of dwelling on what isn’t working, solution-based thinking shifts the focus toward learning from mistakes and implementing effective solutions.

This approach also contributes to a well-rounded marketing strategy. By preparing contingency plans—such as Plans A, B, and C—businesses can proactively address potential challenges before they arise, reducing risk and uncertainty.

Additionally, solution-based thinking aids in setting realistic business goals. Analytical skills and continuous evaluation play a crucial role in developing effective solutions, ensuring businesses remain adaptable and prepared.

Why is problem-solving an important facet of marketing?

As a marketing agency, our role is to anticipate, reduce, and resolve client issues across various business areas, including online performance, digital security, and return on investment. However, problem-solving isn’t just a skill reserved for agencies like ours—it’s a fundamental function of any business.

At its core, a business exists to solve customer problems, whether through products or services. In marketing, our job is to ensure businesses have the right strategies, tools, and support to effectively address challenges and meet customer needs. By embracing problem-solving, companies can adapt to changing market conditions and enhance their overall success.

What are the skills and techniques needed to problem solve in marketing?

Solution-based thinking leverages various skills and techniques to analyse data, evaluate campaign performance, and develop effective strategies.

SMART – SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevancy and Time constraints around the goals that are being set in a campaign. This technique is great for defining realistic parameters for a campaign strategy.  

This technique clearly outlines the goals a business wants to achieve. This is valuable as it can allow a business to work backwards from the goals to consider how to achieve them and what problems may occur during that process allowing for a

The Six Hats Method – This technique created by Edward De Bono, involves making considerations with six different perspectives. This technique can be particularly useful in meetings, where different team members can adopt distinct thinking roles.

The hats are assorted by colour and represent different approaches to thinking:

• The white hat focuses solely on the facts, which means every consideration is based on data, it can prevent opinions from influencing decision-making.
• The yellow hat offers an optimistic perspective, focusing on the benefits and potential positive outcomes which can be achieved.
• The green hat offers a creative opinion, they think outside of the box and offer more creative concepts to be factored into a strategy.
• The black hat considers the potential issues, consider this hat from a risk management perspective. This hat will ensure any complications are averted by considering any problems which could arise.
• The blue hat is the observer of the group, ensuring everyone is thinking as they should, in order for the technique to be upheld.
• The red hat uses ‘gut feelings’, it factors in the emotional response to a consideration, whether it’s loving, hating, liking, fearing, or disliking something.

Being able to ideate, is one of the most fundamental skills of a problem-solver. Ideation is one of the most efficient ways to problem solve. Brainstorming sessions, particularly in team settings, can help businesses think through challenges and devise innovative approaches.

Measuring and tracking success is a particularly important part of solution-based thinking. By tracking past marketing efforts and assessing their impact, businesses can refine their strategies and ensure future approaches are more effective.

Consider what solutions are most practical – it is not only going to ensure the strategy is efficient but also has efficacy. Effective resource allocation and well-planned execution help businesses maximise impact while minimising waste.

At Intelligency, we embrace a solution-driven mindset in everything we do—both internally as part of our workplace culture and in our approach with clients. We see ourselves as problem solvers, whether it’s optimising user experiences on websites through data-led insights or enhancing SEO strategies to help businesses dominate search rankings. Our expertise allows us not only to implement effective solutions but also to clearly communicate the process to our clients, ensuring transparency and measurable success.

Conversion rate optimization is the process of using digital marketing techniques to increase the percentage of users on your site who take a desired action such as making a purchase, subscribing to a newsletter etc.

How to Improve Conversion Rate

Users may not be converting on your site but sometimes it can be hard to understand why. There are a number of different factors that could be affecting why customers abandon their journey from user experience to issues with pricing. There are steps you can take to analyse conversion rate performance that will help you understand where on your site your users are abandoning their journey which will help you in increasing CRO.

Set up key event tracking in GA4

Events in Google Analytics 4 are user interactions with your site while key events are events that are specifically important to your site. For example, if you want to improve the conversion of customers coming to your site who make a product purchase you would set up all the events leading up to a purchase as a key event on your site, such as session start, view product, add to basket, purchase etc and any more events that are relevant to your customers purchase journey.

Create and analyse sales funnel

Now you have set up your customer purchase journey as key events you can track which part of the customer journey your users are abandoning their purchase. This is important because it means that you can create a hypothesis about what is causing customers to abandon their purchase at said part of their journey.

A/B Test Pages

A good way to test if your hypothesis is correct is to A/B test your new page against your existing page. A/B testing is the process of comparing two different versions of a webpage to see which one performs better with users. If you see an improvement in performance with your new page then you have identified the issue and have increased your conversion rate, if not then you can A/B test new hypotheses to try and diagnose the problem.

Automation in PPC has come a long way, but traditional tools still rely on rigid rules and scripts. Enter GPT Operator—an AI-powered tool that brings adaptability to PPC automation. Unlike conventional methods, it can make dynamic decisions, reducing manual work and enhancing campaign efficiency.

What is GPT Operator?

GPT Operator is an advanced AI that can browse the web and perform tasks without requiring APIs. It offers flexibility where traditional automation tools fall short. While not yet a full replacement for human expertise, it represents a significant shift toward more intelligent automation in PPC.

How GPT Operator Enhances PPC

• Handling Complex, Unpredictable Tasks – Traditional automation struggles with changing website structures, requiring constant updates. GPT Operator adapts dynamically, making processes like competitor monitoring and keyword analysis more efficient.
• More Effective Ad Creation & Testing – GPT Operator assists in generating, refining, and testing ad copy, adapting to constraints like character limits and audience preferences—helping improve campaign performance.
• Advanced Search Term Management – Rather than just blocking keywords based on simple rules, GPT Operator can analyse sentiment and intent, providing a more strategic approach to search term optimization.
• Streamlining PPC Workflows – It helps analyse data, identify trends, and generate insights, making decision-making more data-driven while freeing up time for higher-level strategy.

The Future of PPC Automation

While GPT Operator is a powerful tool, expert management remains essential for ensuring campaigns are optimized effectively. AI enhances PPC, but human oversight is still key to strategy, decision-making, and maximizing ROI.

Automation is evolving, and with the right expertise, businesses can leverage AI without losing control over their campaigns. The future isn’t about replacing human marketers—it’s about enhancing their capabilities with smarter tools.

Google has introduced a powerful new update to its ad platform, allowing businesses to generate AI-created images of people for their ads. This means advertisers can create custom lifestyle images without expensive photo shoots, making it easier to design engaging and relevant ads.

What’s new?

Google’s latest update brings AI-generated people into ads for the first time, using its Imagen 3 technology. Advertisers can now:

✅ Generate realistic images of people based on simple text prompts.
✅ Customize features like age, gender, and ethnicity.
✅ Get AI-powered suggestions for images that connect with their audience.
✅ Test different image styles to see what works best.

How does it work?

Advertisers just describe the image they want—for example, “middle-aged man chopping carrots”—and Google’s AI will create a realistic image to match. If the first result isn’t quite right, they can refine the description or request variations until they find the perfect image.

This is particularly useful for businesses that want diverse, high-quality images without the cost and time of hiring models and photographers.

Keeping it safe and ethical

Google has set clear rules to prevent misuse. AI-generated ads cannot include:

❌ Brand-name products
❌ Celebrities or politicians
❌ Children or minors
❌ Sensitive or explicit content

All AI-generated images will also be tagged with SynthID, ensuring transparency about which images were created using AI.

What else is changing?

Alongside AI-generated images, Google is introducing new tools to help businesses improve their ads:

• Audience-based recommendations – AI will suggest image styles that are likely to connect with your target audience. For example, a travel company might find that customers respond best to “ocean” or “nature” images.
• Automated creative testing – Businesses can now compare different types of ads, including AI-generated images, to see which ones perform best.

Why this matters

This update could save businesses time and money, while allowing them to experiment with different ad visuals to find what resonates most with their audience. With more control and flexibility, advertisers can create better-performing ads while keeping their creative process simple and efficient.

Google’s AI-powered tools make it easier than ever to create high-quality, engaging ads—without the hassle of traditional photoshoots. As AI technology continues to evolve, businesses that embrace these tools can gain a competitive edge in digital advertising.

On Friday, the 12th, Intelligency had the pleasure of welcoming a specialist trainer into the office for an in-depth session on producing high-quality content for social media. The training provided hands-on experience, covering everything from selecting the right equipment to understanding the technical aspects that can make or break content quality.

In today’s digital landscape, staying ahead of trends and mastering the art of content creation is essential. At Intelligency, we continuously seek opportunities to expand our knowledge and refine our skills, ensuring that both our in-house and client projects benefit from the best practices in social media marketing. This session was another step towards that goal—helping us to better understand the nuances of video and photo production to create compelling, high-impact content.

Key learnings

Whilst I won’t give away all of the secrets shared by the expert trainer Cameron, I can say that the session reinforced and enhanced my understanding of several crucial elements of content creation, including:

• Content planning
• Kit selection (specifically tailored to the business’s needs)
• Familiarisation with kit
• Learning about camera settings
• The shooting process
• The editing process

Here are 5 new things I took away from the course:

📸 Understanding resolution and compression – Social platforms like Instagram are unable to process high-resolution content, i.e. videos shot in 4K. As a result, content can be compressed, lessening the overall quality of the content.

📸 Balancing settings -Shutter speed, aperture and ISO all interplay with each other. There is no one-size-fits-all with photography and videography; it’s about achieving the balance between each setting to capture the desired shot.  

📸 The Power of the First 3 Seconds – The first 3 seconds of video content are critical to hooking the viewer, so make every second count. Aim to grab the viewers’ attention and keep them invested in order for them to stick around for the content that follows those first few seconds.

📸The media quality toggle – Instagram, one of many apps, allows you to upload higher-quality content by utilising its media quality toggle. This will tell Instagram to upload the content at its highest resolution, rather than automatically compressing it.

📸Lense correction in editing – Lens correction ensures that regardless of what make and model of the camera a video or image is shot on, the quality will remain consistent despite what lens it has been captured with.  This is because each lens will have its own unique distortions, which can create inconsistencies if shooting across multiple cameras.

Why third-party training is invaluable

At Intelligency, we firmly believe that ongoing education and professional development are key to staying ahead in an ever-evolving digital landscape. Investing in expert-led training isn’t just about refining our technical skills—it’s about ensuring our team has the knowledge and confidence to deliver exceptional work for our clients.

“Bringing in external experts allows us to gain fresh perspectives, access the latest industry insights, and refine our approach with cutting-edge techniques. Not only does this enhance the quality of our work, but it also supports the career growth of our team. We want our staff to feel empowered, upskilled, and equipped to take on new challenges—because when they grow, so does our business.”

– Sean Walsh, Director, Intelligency

By learning from specialists in their field, we are able to integrate best practices into our strategies, ensuring that our content remains engaging, impactful, and ahead of the curve. This commitment to continuous learning benefits not only our internal team but also the clients we work with, as we bring a more informed and innovative approach to every project.

If you’re looking to refine your approach to content creation, investing in professional training can be a game-changer. Have you ever attended a similar session?

If you’ve noticed that your Google Business Profile has fewer reviews than usual, you’re not alone. Since Friday, February 7th, businesses have reported missing reviews in Google Search and Google Maps.

At first, it was unclear whether this was a new feature or a technical issue. However, Google has since confirmed that it’s a bug affecting review counts, and they are actively working on a fix. The good news? The reviews themselves haven’t been deleted—it’s just a display error.

Why Google Reviews matter for your business

Google Reviews are critical for building trust, increasing visibility, and driving sales. Here’s why:

✅ Boosts Credibility – A strong collection of reviews helps establish trust with potential customers. 84% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

✅ Improves Local SEO – More positive reviews can help your business rank higher in local search results, increasing your chances of being discovered.

✅ Drives Conversions – Businesses with higher ratings and more reviews see higher click-through rates and more bookings or sales.

✅ Customer Insights & Feedback – Reviews provide direct feedback, helping businesses improve their services and understand customer expectations.

Missing reviews, even temporarily, can impact your reputation and visibility, so this bug is a major concern for affected businesses.

What’s happening?

• Some businesses have lost a handful of reviews, while others report losing dozens.
• In some cases, the total review count doesn’t match the number of visible reviews.
• Google has now acknowledged the issue and is rolling out a fix.

What should you do?

If your reviews have disappeared, don’t panic—they should be restored soon. Google has reassured businesses that this is temporary and not due to policy violations. However, if you believe a review was removed unfairly, you can check Google’s review policies before taking further action.

Update: A fix is rolling out

As of Tuesday, February 12th, Google has started implementing a fix. If your reviews haven’t reappeared yet, they should soon.

In the meantime, keep encouraging happy customers to leave reviews, as fresh positive feedback is always beneficial!

Organic traffic is users coming to your site due to natural visibility, by ranking on search engines due to the quality of content you have created. Other ways users could come to your site is by directly typing in your URL, through social media channels or through paid advertising. For Search Engine Optimisation it is important to be able to monitor organic traffic levels as it is a good indicator of how your SEO is performing.

What is Google Analytics 4?

Google Analytics 4 is a free tool from Google that allows users to monitor and analyse website data to make informed decisions. You can set up GA4 in different ways to monitor metrics on your website such as e-commerce tracking, organic performance, device type and more.

It is important to note that businesses should make sure their GA4 accounts are set up correctly, because if not, you could be receiving inaccurate traffic measurements. One way to do this is by cross referencing the data with other data sources. For example, Google also offers another free platform, Google Search Console, GSC is a platform that allows users to monitor and improve their websites performance in Google Search. You can also monitor organic performance in GSC and check your analytics account syncs up.

How to monitor Organic traffic in GA4

By accessing the reports tab in Google Analytics 4 a number of customisable website reports will become available to you including the real time reports, acquisition reports and engagement reports. There are two main traffic acquisition reports that help us analyse data in GA4.

• User Acquisition Report – This report tells us how different users were acquired including total users, new users and returning users and where they came from e.g. organic search, direct, paid search etc.

• Traffic Acquisition Report – The traffic acquisition report is similar to the user acquisition report as it tells us how much traffic has been coming through the site. This isn’t necessarily individual users but it could be one user having multiple sessions.

There is also more information available on the acquisition overview page such as including the source that users are coming from such e.g. Google, Bing etc.

Why its important

Organic performance is important for driving long-term growth that is sustainable for business. Therefore knowing how to track, monitor and analyse organic performance is important for making informed strategic marketing decisions.

In 2025, we’ve already seen campaigns of all varieties, with clever product positioning and playful ways to engage with audiences. Brands are setting the bar high with creative and innovative marketing campaigns. Some of this year’s noteworthy campaigns include Burger King’s witty AI banner to Cadbury’s Made to Share campaign.

Cadbury’s: Made to share

Cadburys have started 2025 off strong with a new and clever campaign, combining innovation with consumer participation to bring the Made to Share campaign. The campaign was developed with Cadbury’s global creative agency VCCP and crafted by Bulletproof. The concept of the piece plays on the nature of how the product is consumed, more particularly, our sharing habits with others.

The creative execution showcases a humorous take on scenarios and the gestures three individuals would make in scenarios to make a joke about how we should share a Cadbury’s chocolate bar.

 One design from the campaign features a chocolate bar split into different portions with the labelling:

• ‘Who cooked’ has the largest section of the bar.
• ‘Who cleaned’ has the mid-sized chunk of chocolate
• ‘Who ate’ has the smallest section of the bar.

 The idea emphasises Cadbury’s core value of generosity, with the chocolate being positioned not just as a treat but a social connector, creatively and playfully reinforcing the brand values.

Surreal: The OG

Surreal, the newcomer in the cereal industry continues to deliver witty yet effortless campaigns that blend ingenuity with immaculate product placement. Their latest ad spotted on a bus stop advert spot is a zoomed-in part of Kellogg’s logo to frame the letters O and G.

 This clever twist subtly compares Surreal to established brands by using recognisable visual cues to highlight their nutritional advantages. By borrowing elements from well-known competitors, surreal challenges customer perceptions and redefines the narrative, positioning themselves as a healthier brand to go toward in the cereal aisle.

Heinz Dropping the Logo: It Has to Be, Trigger the Taste.  

Following Tesco’s lead, Heinz has embraced dropping their logo from billboard ads. Proving how established brands like Heinz and Tesco can simply be recognised by their products. Created by Wieden+Kennedy London, this campaign capitalizes on Heinz’s unmistakable products, reinforcing the power of brand recognition through association.

The campaign replaces the traditional Heinz logo with a simple yet effective copy strategy:

• For an image of soup, the tagline reads: “It has to be bread.”
• For beans, it states: “It has to be toast.”

This approach subtly nudges the audience, allowing them to mentally fill in the blanks, making the brand instantly recognizable without explicit branding. It’s a testament to Heinz’s legacy and an invitation for consumers to engage with the ad rather than just observe it.

Burger King versus McDonald’s: Battle of AI ads

In the ongoing rivalry between McDonald’s and Burger King, the latest battleground is AI-generated marketing. McDonald’s Japan initiated the campaign by using AI to ask: “What is the most iconic burger in the world?” Predictably, AI responded with McDonald’s Big Mac—a response that reinforced their brand dominance.

Burger King, however, saw an opportunity. Their ad followed up by asking AI:

“And which one is the biggest?” The response? A Burger King burger.

This campaign is a masterclass in reactive advertising—Burger King didn’t need to claim superiority outright. Instead, they cleverly highlighted a factual advantage (burger size) in a way that undermined McDonald’s claim without confrontation.

This playful yet strategic use of AI-generated marketing exemplifies how brands can use technology to engage audiences in creative ways while maintaining a competitive edge.

Google is making changes to how businesses present themselves in Google Ads. Starting in March, all advertisers must officially document their business name and logo, or Google will automatically select them based on performance data from past campaigns. This new policy is part of Google’s effort to create a more consistent brand experience across its advertising platforms and give businesses more control over how they’re represented online.

Why This is Important?

Google Ads is one of the most powerful tools for businesses to get noticed, offering immediate visibility to potential customers searching for specific products or services. The platform allows businesses to target users based on factors such as search intent, location, and even behavior. However, how your brand appears in ads is just as important as the message. Clear and consistent brand guidelines help create trust, build recognition, and increase the effectiveness of your ads. Without defined brand guidelines, businesses risk losing control over their image, which could impact customer perceptions and ad performance.

What Businesses Need to Do?

To ensure their brand is represented correctly, businesses must update their brand guidelines by March. This includes ensuring that their business name and logo are clearly defined. If no action is taken, Google will automatically choose the “top-performing” business name and logo based on campaign data, which could lead to branding that doesn’t align with the business’s identity. Taking the time to review and update brand guidelines will ensure that your business maintains control over how it is seen across Google’s advertising network.

In summary, the new policy gives businesses the chance to define their brand identity more clearly while maintaining control. Advertisers should take action now to avoid any automatic changes and ensure their branding stays consistent across Google Ads platforms.

Instagram is about to roll out a highly anticipated feature that lets you rearrange your profile grid, giving you complete control over how your posts appear. Instead of being stuck with chronological order, you’ll soon be able to curate your content for a more strategic and visually appealing layout. 

Instagram chief Adam Mosseri confirmed the update, saying: “We’re building a tool so you can re-order your entire grid and make it whatever you want.” The feature is already appearing in the app’s back-end code, meaning its launch is likely just around the corner. 

Key Changes Coming to the Grid 

Post Reordering – You’ll soon be able to drag and rearrange posts in your profile grid, rather than being stuck with the default chronological order. This means you can organize your content however you want without deleting or reposting. 

Larger Thumbnails – Instagram has already updated the grid to feature bigger post previews, making it more optimized for vertical content. This change was implemented before bringing back the “Edit Grid” feature. 

More Creative Control – Users will be able to curate their grid layout to highlight key posts, create visual themes, and make their profile look more appealing to visitors. 

Why This Matters for Marketers? 

This update is a game-changer for brands, creators, and businesses looking to optimize their Instagram presence. With the ability to reorder posts, you can highlight key content, improve brand storytelling, and align your grid with marketing campaigns. This means you can keep your best-performing posts at the top, arrange content in a way that guides visitors through your brand message, and adjust your grid for promotions, seasonal updates, or product launches. 

Previously, Instagram tested this feature in 2022 but paused it to focus on larger thumbnail displays. Now that those updates are live, the Edit Grid option is back on the roadmap. 

How to Prepare for the Update? 

With the rollout expected soon, now is the perfect time to plan your ideal grid layout. Consider which posts should be featured at the top, refresh outdated content to align with your current brand strategy, and stay updated on Instagram’s settings for the official launch of the “Edit Grid” option. 

This update gives marketers a powerful new way to craft a stronger first impression—get ready to make the most of it!