• A migration’s biggest risk is to your SEO and most of that risk is preventable with planning. The work that protects your rankings (auditing, benchmarking, redirect mapping) happens before any technical change is made, not after launch.
• Redirects are the single most important factor. A complete, accurate set of 301 redirects mapping every old URL to its closest new equivalent is what carries your hard-won search visibility across to the new site. Get this wrong and you can lose years of accumulated value.
• Test everything on staging, then monitor closely once live. Problems are far cheaper to fix before a single visitor or search engine sees the new site, and a temporary dip afterward is normal: expect a few weeks to a couple of months of fluctuation before things stabilize.
• The smoothest migrations are a team effort. SEOs and developers working side by side from the start (not in sequence) is what prevents the classic, costly mistakes, and every migration is different, so treat best practices as a framework to adapt, not a rigid checklist.

Whether you’re rebranding, upgrading your CMS, changing domains or improving your site’s architecture, a website migration is a significant undertaking. While migrations can unlock better performance, a faster site and a stronger brand presence, they also come with real risks, especially when it comes to SEO.

Over the years, the SEO experts at Bloom have successfully completed many website migrations for clients across a variety of industries. It’s safe to say that we’ve learned a lot along the way, and now know what truly matters and what doesn’t when undertaking a migration.

In our experience, a well-executed migration can be virtually seamless. With the right planning, you can preserve your search visibility and ensure a smooth transition for both users and search engines.

It’s worth being honest up front, though: every migration is different. The right approach depends on your tech stack, the size of your website, your CMS, your page templates and countless other factors. This guide covers the website migration best practices that apply to most projects, but think of them as a framework to adapt, not a rigid checklist that fits every situation identically.

One principle runs through everything below: the more elements you change at once (CMS, design, URL structure, domain, hosting, etc.), the more performance fluctuation you should generally expect and the harder it becomes to diagnose what caused a problem if something goes wrong. You don’t necessarily have to change one thing at a time; plenty of “all-in-one” migrations recover well. But going in with that awareness helps you set expectations and plan your monitoring accordingly.

Our Clients Often Ask: What Is Website Migration?

A website migration is the process of making significant changes to a website’s structure, platform, design, content and/or domain.

Common types of migrations include:

• Moving to a new content management system (CMS)
• Changing domains
• Redesigning the website
• Restructuring URLs
• Changing hosts

Organizations typically undertake migrations to improve site performance, enhance user experience, support business growth, strengthen their brand presence or adopt more modern and scalable technologies. A migration is also a natural opportunity to improve technical foundations that affect SEO, such as page speed/Core Web Vitals, mobile responsiveness, site architecture, structured data and many more elements. It’s worth treating it as a chance to move forward, not just a box to move from A to B.

Our 3-Phase Website Migration Framework

Phase 1: Build a detailed migration plan

Successful website migrations begin long before any technical changes are made.

1. Define your goals and objectives

Start by defining the purpose of the migration and identifying your desired outcomes. Clear objectives guide decision-making throughout the project and give you a way to measure success after launch.

2. Create a content inventory

Document your current website, including pages, media assets, downloadable files and other key content. A complete inventory makes it far easier to verify that everything transferred correctly and to spot anything missing after the migration.

3. Decide what content to keep, prune or merge

A migration is a natural moment to clean house, but every change should be deliberate. Using your content inventory, give each page a disposition: keep, prune (remove low-value pages) or merge (consolidate thin pages into one stronger page). 

Whatever you prune or merge still needs a 301 redirect (more on that in section “8. Plan your redirect strategy” of this article) to its most relevant surviving page, never a silent deletion or a dump to the homepage.

4. Audit your existing website

Before the migration begins, conduct a thorough audit of your existing site. This means you should:

• Review your current SEO performance and analyze your backlink profile.
• Establish benchmarks for traffic and rankings to compare against later.
• Identify which pages generate the most traffic and earn the most external links, so you can prioritize their redirects.

If you’d like help here, see our SEO audit services.

5. Review accessibility requirements

Perform an accessibility assessment to ensure your new website remains compliant and usable for everyone. Addressing accessibility early prevents costly issues later in the migration process.

6. Prepare for the transition

Create a complete backup of your website and database before making any changes. To minimize disruption, schedule the migration during a period of lower traffic, when fewer users are likely to be affected. If possible, a slower business period is often the ideal window.

7. Prevent premature indexing

Keep search engines from crawling and indexing the new website while it’s still being built and tested. A word of caution, though: the same controls that protect a staging site (a noindex tag or a robots.txt disallow rule) can be catastrophic if they accidentally ship to the live site. Make removing them a required step at launch, not an afterthought.

8. Plan your redirect strategy

This is the single most important SEO element of any migration and it deserves real attention. A redirect tells search engines and users that a page has moved, passing along the authority the old page had earned. Get it right and your rankings largely carry over. Get it wrong and you can lose years of accumulated SEO value. Best practices:

• Use 301 (permanent) redirects, not 302 (temporary) ones. A 301 passes ranking signals to the new URL. A 302 tells search engines the change is temporary, so they may keep the old URL indexed.
• Map old URLs to new ones on a 1:1 basis. Each old URL should point to the closest equivalent page on the new site.
• Avoid redirect chains and loops. A redirect chain (old URL to URL A to URL B to final new URL) wastes crawl budget and dilutes link equity. Redirect straight to the final destination.
• Don’t redirect everything to the homepage. This is one of the most common and damaging mistakes. Search engines often treat a redirect to an unrelated homepage as a soft 404 and the page’s value is lost. Always redirect to the most relevant page.
• Keep your redirect map as a documented deliverable. It’s your reference during testing and your audit trail if something goes wrong.

Finally, remember that redirects are rarely perfect on day one. Once the site is live, monitor 404 errors closely (in Google Search Console and, where available, your server access logs). New 404s will reveal old URLs you missed, so you can add the necessary 301 redirects as they surface.

If you wish to have more information on planning your redirects correctly, Google’s official documentation (specifically section 3 “Prepare URL mapping”) is a great resource to look into.

9. Preserve your internal linking and URL structure

Migrations are a common point where internal links silently break, leaving important pages orphaned (no longer linked from anywhere) and harder for both users and search engines to find. Two things to protect:

• Internal links: make sure every page you want indexed stays easy to find through internal links, whether that’s the navigation menu, breadcrumbs or in-content links.
• URLs: keep them clean and logical, but don’t change them without a reason. Every URL you change is another redirect to manage and another small risk to your rankings, so change them only where there’s a clear benefit.

10. Handle canonical tags and hreflang

These two tags both tell search engines how to interpret your pages and migrations are a common point where they break. Take a moment to check each one applies correctly on the new site.

• Canonical tags: tells search engines which version of a page is the primary one, which helps prevent the duplicate-content issues that often crop up during a migration. Make sure yours point to the correct new URLs.
• Hreflang: only applies if your site serves multiple languages or regions (for example, French and English versions of the same pages). If that’s your situation, confirm the tags still point to the correct new URLs for each language version, since they break easily during a migration. If your site is single-language, you can safely skip this.

Phase 2: Test before launch

Thorough testing is what separates a smooth migration from a stressful one. The goal is simple: find and fix problems while you still can, before a single visitor or search engine sees the new site.

1. Use a staging environment

Test the new website thoroughly in a staging environment before sending any real visitors to it. Staging lets you catch and resolve issues in private, without affecting your live site or your rankings.

2. Compare the old and new sites side by side

Confirm that nothing was lost or altered unintentionally in the move. Check that the following carried over correctly:

• Page content, headings and images
• Page titles and meta descriptions
• Downloadable files and media assets
• URLs (and that they match your redirect map)

If you’re intentionally pruning or merging content, the new site won’t match the old one page-for-page and that’s fine. Check those pages against your keep/prune/merge decisions so deliberate changes aren’t mistaken for content lost by accident. Then, make sure each pruned or merged page still gets a 301 redirect to its most relevant surviving page.

3. Crawl the staging site

Run a full crawl of the staging environment with a tool such as Screaming Frog. A crawl surfaces problems that are easy to miss by clicking around manually, including broken links, missing or duplicate metadata, incorrect canonical tags and orphaned pages. Fixing them now is far cheaper and has far less impact on SEO performance than fixing them after launch.

4. Validate your redirects before go-live

Don’t wait until launch day to find out your redirect map has gaps. Test a representative sample of old URLs against the map to confirm each one lands on the right new page with a 301, with no chains or loops. The more redirects you’re managing, the more this pre-launch check matters.

5. Test core functionalities

Verify that every essential feature works correctly, including:

• Buttons, forms and other interactive elements
• On-site search
• Checkout and payment flows (for ecommerce)
• Navigation menus and internal links

6. Check mobile and cross-device performance 

Users access websites from a wide range of devices, so make sure the new site is fully responsive and displays correctly across desktop, tablet and mobile.

7. Identify remaining technical issues

Lean on your staging crawl, along with tools like Google’s Lighthouse or PageSpeed Insights, to catch any remaining broken links, redirect problems, metadata issues or slow pages before the site goes live.

Phase 3: Monitor and optimize after launch

1. Submit your XML sitemap

Once the migration is complete, submit your updated XML sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. This helps search engines discover and index your new URLs more efficiently.

2. Review crawling and indexing settings

Check your robots.txt file and remove any temporary restrictions used during development or staging. Confirm that search engines can access the pages you want indexed and that no lingering noindex tags or authentication barriers remain.

3. Run a post-migration site crawl

Conduct a full crawl of the new live site to catch broken links, error pages and other technical SEO problems that may have emerged within it.

4. Verify your redirects are live

Separately, crawl your list of old URLs (your redirect map) to confirm each one returns a 301 to the right new page, with no chains, loops or 404s. This is a different crawl from the one above: the site crawl follows links within the new site, while this one checks that the old URLs still resolve correctly. Keep watching for new 404s in the weeks after launch, as they’ll reveal any old URLs you missed.

5. Verify your analytics and tracking continuity

A migration shouldn’t cost you your measurement. Two checks matter most:

• GA4: confirm your tags are present and firing on the new site so you don’t lose data.
• Google Search Console: the main goal is to verify that data is still populating. Depending on how your property was set up and whether your domain has changed, you may or may not need to reconfigure it, so don’t assume it carried over automatically. If you’ve changed domains, use the Change of Address tool to help Google process the move.

6. Update external links and listings

Point the references you control at your new URLs:

• Update links on your social media profiles, partner websites and other external sources.
• Reclaim or redirect important backlinks where possible.
• If you have a Google Business Profile or other local listings, update those too, especially if your domain has changed, so your business information stays accurate and consistent.

7. Monitor performance metrics

Compare post-migration results against the benchmarks you established before launch. Keep an eye on site speed, organic traffic, page views, conversions and search rankings, using tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console. 

Just keep in mind that not every shift after launch can be confidently attributed to the migration process: seasonality, increased competition, algorithm updates, paid-media changes or wider market trends can all move these numbers too. Factor that context in before concluding the migration itself is responsible for a change.

8. Expect (and plan for) a temporary dip

Even a flawless migration often sees some fluctuation in traffic and rankings, typically for a few weeks and sometimes up to a couple of months, as search engines recrawl and reprocess the new site. This is normal.

• What’s normal: a dip that starts recovering within that window.
• What’s a red flag: a decline that keeps going with no sign of recovery or pages dropping out of the index entirely. Both point to a technical problem worth investigating.

Because some short-term softness in organic traffic is common, this can also be a sensible time, on a case-by-case basis, to lean a little harder on other channels such as paid search or email to help bridge the gap. And as noted earlier, scheduling the migration during a slower business period is the best way to keep any dip from stinging.

9. Keep optimizing

The weeks following a migration are critical. Ongoing monitoring lets you catch issues quickly, measure the success of the migration and make adjustments that improve performance over time.

Pre-launch migration checklist

Use this as a high-level checklist before you go live:

• Migration goals and success metrics defined
• Full content inventory completed
• Keep, prune or merge decision made for every page
• Pre-migration SEO benchmarks captured (traffic, rankings, backlinks)
• Complete site and database backup taken
• 301 redirect map built (1:1, no chains, no homepage dumping)
• Redirects validated on staging
• Internal links are functioning properly (no orphaned pages)
• Canonical tags (and hreflang, if applicable) verified
• Staging site fully tested and crawled
• Indexing controls ready to remove at launch (no stray noindex or robots.txt disallow shipping live)
• Analytics (GA4) and Search Console ready for the new site
• XML sitemap updated and ready to submit
• Rollback plan agreed in case something goes wrong (website backup could be very helpful here)

Why SEO And Developers Need To Work Together

We’ve been doing this for over 20 years, so you can trust us when we say that the smoothest migrations all have one thing in common: SEOs and web developers need to work side by side from the very start, not in sequence. The two roles own different pieces of the project:

• Developers own the technical build, the staging environment and the launch itself.
• SEOs own the redirect map, the URL and metadata decisions, the crawl and indexing checks and the post-launch monitoring.

When those two tracks run in isolation, the classic problems appear: redirects get forgotten, a staging noindex ships to production or URLs change without anyone mapping them.

In practice, good collaboration looks like:

• Reviewing the redirect map together before launch
• Agreeing on URL structure early
• Testing the staging site as a team
• And many other decisions

It also means looping in the wider group (content, marketing and leadership) so everyone is aligned on timing and on what happens if something goes wrong.

That last point is worth its own line: agree on a rollback plan before you launch, so you know how you’d revert to the old site if a serious issue surfaces. You’ll almost certainly never use it, but having it removes the pressure from launch day.

Migrate With Confidence, Not Crossed Fingers

A website migration touches your platform, your content and your hard-won search visibility all at once, which is exactly why a disciplined approach matters. Plan thoroughly, test everything before launch and monitor closely afterward and you turn a high-risk project into a controlled, predictable one. Every site is different, but those three phases hold true across them all.

A website migration is a significant investment of time and resources, but with the right partner, it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Our team can help you plan, execute and optimize your migration to minimize risk and maximize results.

Contact us to get started.

The post Our Take On Website Migration Best Practices (Complete Guide) first appeared on Bloom.

The new ad format gives brands a unique opportunity to appear directly within AI-powered conversations, reaching users at the exact moment they’re researching products, services, or solutions.

We’ve had the opportunity to explore the platform and its capabilities. Here’s everything marketers need to know about ChatGPT Ads.

What Are ChatGPT Ads?

ChatGPT Ads are sponsored placements that can appear alongside AI conversations . These advertisements are separate from ChatGPT’s organic responses and are clearly labeled as sponsored content.

Depending on the campaign format, ads may appear as:

• Sponsored recommendations
• Product suggestions
• Sponsored cards displayed beneath a user’s query
• Contextually relevant promotional placements

Different from traditional search advertising, ChatGPT Ads are designed to match the intent as well as context of a conversation as opposed to relying solely on keywords.

How Does ChatGPT Determine Which Ads to Show?

OpenAI’s advertising system analyzes several signals to determine ad relevance, including:

• The user’s query and conversational context/intent
• The advertiser’s ad copy and headline
• The destination landing page
• Context hints provided by advertisers

Context hints are especially important. These are descriptive signals that help ChatGPT understand the topics, industries, and conversations most relevant to your business.

Rather than functioning as exact-match keywords, context hints help the platform identify when your ad may be useful to a user based on the wider discussion taking place.

Who Can See ChatGPT Ads?

Currently, advertising is limited to specific user groups.

ChatGPT Ads may be shown to:

• Users on the Free plan
• Users on the Go plan (where available)

Ads are not displayed to:

• ChatGPT Plus subscribers
• ChatGPT Pro subscribers
• Enterprise customers
• Educational accounts
• Minors

Why Should Brands Pay Attention?

For marketers, ChatGPT Ads represent one of the earliest opportunities to advertise within conversational AI.

Historically, businesses that adopt emerging advertising platforms early frequently benefit from:

• Lower competition
• Reduced acquisition costs
• Higher visibility
• Faster learning curves
• Stronger market positioning

We’ve seen this pattern with Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram, TikTok, and more recently with retail media networks.

As AI-powered search continues to grow, brands that establish a presence now could gain a significant advantage before the channel becomes saturated.

But, perhaps the biggest opportunity lies in the user’s intent.

When users interact with ChatGPT, they often ask highly specific questions and seek personalized recommendations. This creates an environment where advertising can be highly relevant and potentially more effective than traditional display advertising.

How Much Do ChatGPT Ads Cost?

ChatGPT Ads currently support two primary pricing models:

Cost Per Click (CPC)

With CPC campaigns, advertisers only pay when a user clicks on their ad.

OpenAI currently recommends starting with a maximum bid between $3 and $5 per click.

This model is best suited for businesses focused on driving website traffic, lead generation, or conversions.

Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM)

With CPM campaigns, advertisers pay based on the number of times their ads are displayed.

The recommended starting bid is approximately $60 CPM.

This option is typically used for brand awareness campaigns and broader reach objectives.

Campaign Objectives

Advertisers can select objectives based on their goals:

• Reach Objective: Uses CPM bidding to maximize visibility and impressions.
• Clicks Objective: Uses CPC bidding to drive traffic and engagement.

As the platform evolves, additional optimization objectives may become available.

Is It Worth Testing ChatGPT Ads?

For many businesses, the answer is yes.

While the platform is still in its early stages, ChatGPT represents one of the fastest-growing consumer AI products in the world. Millions of users now rely on conversational AI for research, recommendations, and purchase decisions.

Early adopters have the opportunity to learn how conversational advertising works before competition increases and costs rise.

For brands looking to stay innovative, ChatGPT Ads may become an important part of the digital marketing mix over the next few years.

If you’re interested in testing ChatGPT Ads and exploring how conversational advertising could fit into your marketing strategy, our team can help you test this emerging channel and build campaigns that deliver results. 

Contact us now.

The post ChatGPT Ads Are Now Available in Canada: Here’s What Marketers Need to Know first appeared on Bloom.

Yet, despite delivering one of the highest returns on investment (ROI) across all digital marketing channels, many brands still underestimate its potential.

If you want to build stronger customer relationships, increase conversions, and create sustainable revenue growth, email marketing should be a core part of your marketing strategy.

Why Email Marketing Still Matters in 2026

Social media platforms come and go. Algorithms change overnight. Paid advertising becomes more competitive every year.

But your email list? That’s an audience you own.

Unlike social platforms, where visibility depends on unpredictable algorithms, email gives you direct access to your customers at any time. It allows brands to communicate directly with their clients and build trust over time.

Key Benefits of Email Marketing

• Direct communication with your audience
• Higher conversion rates than social media
• Stronger customer loyalty and retention
• Personalized customer experiences
• Predictable and scalable revenue growth
• Full ownership of your audience and data

With the right strategy, email marketing becomes a long-term revenue engine that nurtures leads, increases lifetime value, and drives repeat purchases.

It supports every stage of the customer journey, from the first interaction to long-term loyalty.

Unlike ads or social media posts that often focus on quick conversions, email helps brands build ongoing relationships with customers through tactical touchpoints.

3 Best Practices to Take Your Email Marketing to the Next Level

A successful email marketing strategy goes beyond simply sending newsletters. The brands seeing the best results in 2026 are using smarter systems, personalized experiences, and multi-channel communication to build stronger customer relationships and drive consistent revenue.

1. Use Automations to Generate Revenue 24/7

Email automations are one of the most effective ways to increase conversions while saving time. Once set up, they continuously nurture customers and recover missed opportunities automatically.

Essential automations include:

• Welcome email series
• Cart and browse abandonment emails
• Post-purchase follow-ups
• Win-back campaigns for inactive customers

These automated flows help guide customers through the buying journey while creating a more seamless brand experience.​

2. Combine Email and SMS Marketing

Email and SMS work so much better together. While email is ideal for storytelling and detailed content, SMS creates instant engagement and urgency.​

Using both channels allows brands to:

• Increase click-through and conversion rates
• Deliver timely promotions and updates
• Reach customers more effectively
• Create a more personalized customer experience

Together, email and SMS help brands stay connected to customers at every stage of the journey.

3. Personalize Your Strategy

Consumers expect brands to deliver relevant and tailored communication. Generic messaging no longer performs the way it used to.

By using segmentation and customer data, brands can send more targeted content based on:

• Purchase history
• Browsing behavior
• Customer preferences
• Engagement levels

Personalized email marketing helps customers feel understood, improves engagement, and increases long-term loyalty.​

A strong email marketing strategy builds relationships, increases conversions, and creates long-term customer loyalty.

Whether you’re starting from scratch or looking to optimize your existing strategy, investing in email and SMS marketing can transform the way your business connects with customers.

From automations and campaigns to segmentation and SMS integration, we help brands create high-performing email marketing systems that drive real results.

Contact us to learn how we can help grow your revenue through email marketing.

The post Why Email Marketing Should Be Part of Every Brand’s Strategy  first appeared on Bloom.

Affiliate marketing stands out because it’s performance-driven, scalable, and adaptable across the entire customer journey. Here’s how your brand can use affiliate marketing more strategically to drive real conversions.

What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based model where individuals or partners (affiliates) promote a company’s products or services and earn a commission for each sale, click, or lead generated through their unique referral link.

Unlike traditional advertising, brands only pay for actual results, making affiliate marketing one of the most efficient and low-risk growth channels. It’s a mutually beneficial partnership: brands gain cost-effective exposure, while affiliates monetize their audience, content, or platforms.

The 3 Best Affiliate Marketing Strategies You Can Use

1. Partner Diversification

One of the biggest advantages of affiliate marketing is the ability to reach audiences in places your brand might not naturally access.
To unlock this potential, brands should build a diverse partner mix rather than rely on a handful of affiliates.

This includes:

• Audience size (micro vs. macro influencers)
• Partner types (loyalty, content publishers, creators, tech partners, etc.)
• Geographic reach (especially for global brands)

Diversification reduces risk. If your performance depends on just a few publishers, any disruption, such as algorithm changes, platform shifts, or partner inactivity, can significantly affect your results. A larger partner base creates stability and lasting growth.

2. Commerce Content

Sometimes, the line between content and shopping is almost invisible. You might start reading an article for inspiration and end up discovering products along the way; that’s commerce content in action.
Commerce content blends editorial storytelling with embedded shopping opportunities, creating a natural path from discovery to purchase.

In simple terms, it’s publisher-created content that includes e-commerce links.
Instead of interrupting the user experience like traditional ads, commerce content integrates product recommendations where they actually make sense, adding value rather than distraction.

Common formats include:

• Listicles (awareness) → “10 Best Outdoor Products for Summer.”
• How-to guides (education) → “How to Dress Like a 2000s Rom-Com Character.”
• Buyer’s guides (consideration) → “Mother’s Day Gift Guide.”
• Comparison articles → “Why You Should Choose X Over Y.”
• Product reviews (validation)

3. Cross-Channel Synergies

Affiliate marketing performs best when integrated into your wider marketing ecosystem.
By layering affiliate efforts over various touchpoints, brands can reinforce messaging, increase visibility, and drive stronger overall performance.
This approach, often called channel amplification, involves leveraging affiliate content and partners to support and enhance other channels such as paid media, email, and SEO.

Pro tip: Always look for ways to reuse and repurpose content across channels to maximize efficiency.

Examples:

• Turn an affiliate blog review into website testimonials
• Repurpose influencer affiliate videos for paid social campaigns
• Align messaging throughout paid search, email, and affiliate creatives
• Match visual branding between programmatic ads and affiliate placements

Such consistency improves performance but also strengthens brand recognition across the entire customer journey.
​
Affiliate marketing can be a central growth engine when used strategically. By diversifying partners, investing in commerce content, and integrating efforts across channels, brands can build a stronger and high-performing marketing strategy.

The key is to treat affiliate marketing as a connected, scalable system that amplifies everything else you’re doing.

Need help with your online strategies? Turn to Bloom’s experts to take things to the next level.
​

The post Best Affiliate Marketing Strategies (With Examples!) first appeared on Bloom.

In an era where everyone is competing for increasingly limited user attention, outsourcing the management of your social media becomes an essential consideration.

Here are 5 reasons to entrust your social media management to an agency.

1. Lack Of Time

Consistency on social media is crucial. When posts become less frequent and the rhythm slows down, results suffer. This is often one of the first arguments in favor of outsourcing.

However, an agency is not just a time-saver, it is also an expert resource that improves day-to-day efficiency.

Note: Hiring an agency does not mean complete disengagement. You will still need to dedicate time to approvals, briefings, and communication with the team.

2. Lack Of Strategy

You post regularly, but your content lacks consistency. Without a clear strategy, it’s difficult to achieve tangible results.

Working with an agency allows you to benefit from a well-thought-out strategy developed by experts. It can help you stand out from competitors and improve your performance.

3. Lack Of Results

You’re doing things right, your posts seem relevant and engaging, but the results aren’t there.

An agency, especially one specialized in performance marketing, has a wide range of tools and expertise to help you reach your goals and optimize your efforts.

4. A Need For Analysis

To achieve results, it’s essential to optimize, test, and challenge what you think you know. On social media, what worked three months ago may no longer perform today.

Rigorous data analysis and continuous optimization are therefore essential. An agency can support you in analyzing your performance and provide the right tools to maximize your results.

5. A Need For Responsiveness

If you need to manage a crisis quickly, keep up with constant platform updates, or stay on top of trends, an agency becomes a valuable ally.

Bloom’s experts closely monitor market developments and are able to position your brand at the right time. They are also trained to react quickly and handle delicate situations effectively.

Entrusting your social media management to an agency is not an obligation, but it can become a key strategic lever as your needs evolve.

Short on time, structure, results, or specialized resources? Turn to Bloom’s experts to take things to the next level.

The post DIY or Agency: When Should You Outsource Social Media? first appeared on Bloom.

GEO or Generative engine optimization, does just that. GEO prepares your content to increase the odds AI chatbots like Gemini, ChatGPT or Google AI Summaries cite you in their response. 

What Is The difference Between GEO And SEO? 

Many consider GEO as the natural evolution of SEO, but what really differentiates them?  

In SEO, the primary goal is to rank the highest in a specific search result. Search visibility across Google and other engines is determined by factors such as content quality, site architecture, backlinks, technical optimizations, and many more.

As for GEO, the goal is essentially to become the primary source cited in AI answers and increase visibility in chatbot responses. There is no “ranking” in AI. What matters is whether the AI mentions and recommends you consistently, and that comes from authority, consistency across trusted sources, and content that actually answers questions.

SEO and GEO both want to connect your content with users; what differs is how they deliver it. 

What Does It Mean For Your Strategy? 

SEO isn’t dead, it just has a new teammate.

Visibility is no longer tied to a single touchpoint. A user might first encounter a recommendation through an AI tool, then validate it on Google, and only afterward visit a website. In many cases, the initial trigger, the moment where interest is created, is invisible in traditional analytics.

This shift means we’re no longer only optimizing for clicks, we’re also optimizing for inclusion. Being cited, summarized, or recommended by AI systems becomes a key driver of awareness and consideration. Because these systems largely rely on existing content ecosystems to generate answers, our digital presence must be strong, consistent, and easy to interpret across multiple sources.

GEO also introduces a new layer of brand influence. The way your brand is described across the web directly shapes how AI represents you. In other words, we’re not just managing what we publish, but also how our brand is understood and repeated by machines.

Ultimately, GEO pushes us to think more holistically: not just about traffic, but about perception, discoverability, and trust at the very top of the funnel.

6 GEO Best Practices 

The good news is that GEO doesn’t require starting from scratch; it builds on strong SEO foundations. But it does require a shift in execution and priorities.

1. Create Content That Answers Real, Specific Questions

AI-driven discovery is fueled by detailed, intent-rich queries. Users are asking for curated recommendations based on context, constraints, and preferences. Your content should reflect this by addressing concrete use cases, scenarios, and needs. And, in a GEO context, having a deep understanding of your audience is becoming more essential than ever.

2. Prioritize Clarity And Structure

AI systems favour content that is easy to parse and summarize. Clear headings, logical organization, concise explanations, and well-formatted elements (like lists or tables) all increase the likelihood of being reused in generated answers.

3. Strengthen Credibility And Consistency

Reliable, accurate, and up-to-date information is essential. But beyond that, consistency across channels matters. Repeating key messages, maintaining alignment between sources, and reinforcing the same positioning helps AI systems associate your brand with specific attributes and increases your chances of being cited.

4. Manage Your Broader Content Ecosystem

Your visibility in GEO is not limited to your website. Media mentions, reviews, social content, and third-party platforms all contribute to how your brand is perceived and described. Monitoring and shaping this ecosystem helps reduce the risk of misrepresentation and strengthens your overall presence.

5. Think Beyond Last-click Attribution

Because AI often plays a role earlier in the journey, its impact may not be visible in traditional analytics. This requires a shift in how we evaluate performance, looking beyond direct traffic and considering influence on awareness, preference, and demand generation.

6. Technical Foundations Matter

Technical elements are essential in GEO because they allow AI systems to access and properly understand your content. In simple terms, your website needs to be fast, easy to read, and accessible; otherwise, it may simply be ignored. Clear structure, consistent information, and basic technical optimizations help AI recognize your site as a reliable source. In short, even great content won’t perform well without strong technical foundations. 

Need a partner to bring it all together? Contact us. 

The post What Is GEO? first appeared on Bloom.

This long-standing collaboration is one of our proudest achievements and one of the most important drivers of the value we bring to our clients.

What Is the Google Premier Partner Certification?

The Google Premier Partner 2026 certification is an exclusive, top-tier status awarded annually to only the top 3% of participating agencies in each country.

This badge is awarded to agencies that demonstrate advanced expertise in Google Ads, a strong track record of helping brands grow, and sustained performance.

“This badge is a direct result of a team committed to delivering impactful results for our clients every day. Being in the top 3% reinforces our dedication to excellence and advanced strategic support—proud is an understatement.”
— Alexandrine Pigeon, Director of Paid Media

This continued recognition reflects our ability to evolve alongside an ever-changing digital landscape. As platforms, tools, and consumer behaviours shift, our team remains focused on staying ahead of the curve, leveraging the latest innovations in Google Ads to help our clients unlock new opportunities for growth and stay competitive in their markets.

What Does Being a Google Premier Partner Mean?

Because only a select number of agencies earn this distinction, it comes with exclusive advantages that directly benefit our clients.

As a Google Premier Partner, Bloom’s clients benefit from access to tailored insights, advanced platform recommendations, early visibility into industry trends and evolving consumer behaviours, and dedicated support from Google. This also includes participation in Google-led executive sessions and thought leadership forums.

These advantages allow our team to stay ahead of platform changes, test new capabilities sooner, and bring forward-thinking strategies to market faster. The result is more informed decision-making, stronger campaign performance, and greater opportunities for sustainable growth.

About Bloom

With over 19 years of experience, Bloom is a performance-driven digital marketing agency obsessed with results. What started as a bootstrapped operation, two laptops, a makeshift desk, and a lot of ambition, has grown into a team of 75+ digital experts across Montreal and Toronto.

Today, Bloom partners with ambitious brands to drive measurable growth through data-led strategies and cutting-edge performance marketing. Behind the scenes, our work is powered by a proprietary blend of technology, creativity, and deep platform expertise, making complex digital ecosystems feel simple and delivering impact where it matters most.

Need help with your online strategy? Work with an agency that’s ahead of the curve.

The post Bloom Has Been Named a 2026 Google Premier Partner for the 10th Consecutive Year first appeared on Bloom.

What Are Responsive Search Ads?

Responsive search ads (RSAs) are a Google Ads format that automatically tests multiple combinations of headlines and descriptions to display the most relevant ad to each user.

Advertisers provide several headlines and descriptions. Google Ads then dynamically mixes and matches these assets to identify the combinations that generate the best performance.

Google Ads continuously tests these combinations and displays the version that is most relevant to a user’s search query, device, and intent.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to write effective Responsive Search Ads that stay coherent, maximize relevance, and improve performance.

How Do Responsive Search Ads Work?

Responsive search ads rely on Google Ads’ machine learning technology to combine the headlines and descriptions you provide. The system evaluates the context of each search query and determines which ad combination is most likely to drive engagement or conversions.

The goal is simple: deliver the most relevant message to the right user at the right moment.

According to Google Ads documentation, the process typically works as follows:

• The system analyzes the user’s search query along with the keywords in your ad group.
• It assembles different combinations from your pool of headlines and descriptions, prioritizing relevance and predicted performance.
• Duplicate or very similar combinations are filtered out, and the remaining ones are evaluated and scored.
• The highest-performing combinations move forward to the ad auction, where they compete for placement based on factors such as quality score, ad relevance, and bidding strategy.

While this automation increases testing opportunities, it also introduces a challenge: not all combinations will make sense if the assets are poorly written.

Well-structured RSAs help ensure that every combination still delivers a clear message to the user.

5 Best Practices for Writing High-Performing Responsive Search Ads 

1. Define a Central Theme

The central theme should guide every headline and description you create. When every asset reinforces the same idea, all combinations remain relevant and clear making your ads more cohesive. 

The theme can focus on:

• A key benefit
• A main value proposition
• A promotion or offer
• A specific audience
  

Example of a theme for a software company: “Easy online appointment scheduling”

Possible headlines could include: 

• Book Appointments Online
• Simple Scheduling 
• Easy Online Booking Software
  

Descriptions:

• Let clients schedule appointments anytime with our easy-to-use booking system.
• Save time and reduce no-shows with automated appointment scheduling.
  

2. Use Keywords Strategically

Keywords remain essential for relevance and Quality Score. Make sure your Responsive Search Ads:

• Include core keywords in multiple headlines
• Use variations and synonyms
• Match the intent of the ad group
  

Example:

Ad group keyword: project management software

Headlines:

• Project Management software
• Best Project Management Tool 
• Manage Projects Easily Online
  

Keyword variations:

• Team management software
• Task management platform
• Online project tracker
  

This helps Google understand the relevance of your ad while also improving ad strength and CTR potential.

Important tip: Your ad should clearly promote the keywords included in the ad group.

If someone searches for project management software, the user should see that phrase or something very close to it in the ad.

3. Write Versatile Headlines

Because Google combines headlines dynamically, they must work in multiple combinations. Avoid headlines that only make sense when paired with one specific description and try creating flexible headlines that can stand on their own.

Use a mix of:

Action-driven headlines

• Discover our CRM for Startups
• Start Managing Projects Today
• Try Our Free Marketing Tool
  

Benefit-focused headlines

• Save Time with Easy Automation
• Boost Your Team Productivity
• Simplify Your Workflow
  

Question-based headlines

• Trouble Managing Projects?
• Looking for an Easy CRM Tool?
  

Urgency-based headlines

• Start Your Free Trial Today
• Limited Time Offer
• Book a Demo Now

A variety of angles increases the number of effective combinations Google can test.

4. Write Clear and Complementary Descriptions

Descriptions should expand on the message introduced in the headlines.

Each description should be concise and easy to read, highlight a clear benefit and complement multiple possible headlines.

Example:

Headline combination:

• Project Management Software
• Simplify Your Team Workflow
  

Description:

• Organize tasks, collaborate with your team, and track progress in one powerful platform.
• Manage projects faster and keep your team aligned with our easy-to-use software.
  

Both descriptions work with multiple headline combinations.

5. Test, Learn, and Optimize (The Art of A/B Testing)

Responsive Search Ads automatically test combinations, but optimization is still essential. Regularly analyze performance metrics such a CTR, CPC, Conversion rate and Cost per acquisition. 

Continuous testing helps you improve performance over time.

Strong Responsive Search Ad Example for a CRM software company: 

Headlines

• CRM Software for Businesses
• Better Manage Customers 
• Start Your Free CRM Trial
• Improve Your Sales Pipeline 

Descriptions

• Track leads, manage deals, and grow your sales with our easy-to-use CRM platform.
• Designed for small teams that want better customer management and faster growth.
• Every asset reinforces the same central value: simple CRM for small businesses.

Additional Tips to Improve RSA Performance: 

• Use as many assets as possible: Google allows Up to 15 headlines and Up to 4 descriptions, use them. Providing more assets gives the algorithm more combinations to test.
• Avoid repetition: Repeating the same message too often reduces testing opportunities.
• Pin assets carefully: Pinning ensures certain headlines always appear in specific positions, but too much pinning limits Google’s optimization capabilities.

And, it doesn’t have to be boring

Tell a Story, Even in a Text Ad. Don’t just list features, craft a narrative that resonates with your audience. Make the most out of each headline and description as standalone pieces of the narrative. Focus on clear, compelling messages that connect, no matter which combination appears to users. You can use casual, conversational language to break the mold of typical performance ads. A small, unexpected detail can humanize your brand and make your ads more memorable.

Looking to improve your Google Ads strategy?
Bloom’s paid media experts help brands build high-performing campaigns using advanced search advertising strategies and data-driven optimization.

Contact us to learn more.

The post How to Write Great Responsive Search Ads (With Examples) first appeared on Bloom.

Today, successful influencer partnerships are built on far more than follower counts alone. Brands must evaluate content values, brand alignment, engagement quality, content style, and audience relevance, not just reach.

What Is The Influencer Vetting Process?

An influencer vetting process is a structured set of criteria and evaluation steps used to determine whether a potential creator is the right fit for a partnership. Beyond selection, it also serves as a centralized source of information and a repeatable system to follow for every collaboration. 

In this article, you’ll find a step-by-step guide to building your own influencer vetting framework and implementing a process that works for your brand.

Why Is It Important?

A solid vetting process ensures that every collaboration aligns with your brand’s values, goals, and messaging, while also protecting brand safety. Over time, it streamlines decision-making, creates consistency across campaigns, and helps teams work more efficiently and cohesively.

Choosing an influencer should never be a shot in the dark. It should be a deliberate, data-informed decision backed by research and clear criteria. That’s why having a documented influencer vetting process is essential to maximizing results while minimizing potential risks.

5 Steps To Ensure Alignment And Maximize The Results Of Your Influence Campaigns

1. Define Your Objectives

Before reaching out to creators, clearly define your campaign goals. Influencer marketing can support everything from awareness and engagement to conversion and loyalty, but each stage of the funnel requires different creator strengths.

For awareness, you may prioritize:

• reach;
• storytelling ability; and 
• audience relevance. 

For engagement and conversion objectives, focus on creators with 

• strong engagement quality; and
• proven performance in driving results.

Without clear success metrics, even the best collaborations can fall short.

2. Leverage Campaign Themes To Strategically Narrow Your Talent Pool

Identifying key campaign themes helps refine your creator search and ensures cohesion between the brand message and the influencer’s niche. 

For example, a campaign promoting a new line of outdoor shoes should prioritize creators who are genuinely passionate about outdoor activities and whose audiences share that interest. This increases relevance, authenticity, and resonance.

3. Assess Brand Fit

Follower count isn’t everything. Strong alignment between the brand, the creator, and their audience matters far more. Evaluate shared values, tone of voice, visual identity, and overall aesthetic to ensure the partnership feels natural and credible. It’s also important to review past collaborations and assess potential red flags. A brand safety check helps ensure your brand won’t be associated with content that could undermine your message.

4. Review Engagement Metrics And Content Quality

Look beyond surface-level metrics. Analyze engagement rates, comment quality, and how audiences respond to previous brand partnerships. Pay attention to whether the creator actively engages with their community. Often, micro and smaller creators have deeper, more loyal connections than larger accounts.

5. Reach Out And Start The Conversation

Once you’ve identified the right creators, approach them with a personalized brief. Clear communication from the start sets expectations, builds trust, and lays the foundation for a successful collaboration.

Which Tools Can Support Your Research Process?

To vet influencers effectively, here are two tools that we recommend to solidify your research.

• Grin Chrome extension:  Useful to analyze critical performance metrics such as engagement rates, average likes, and overall reach. 
• Meta’s Creator Marketplace: To audit a creator’s past brand partnerships, which allows for an evaluation of their content execution and their audience’s response to paid posts. It’s a great tool to ensure the influencer’s audience demographics, such as age, location, and gender, align with the brand’s target market to guarantee a high-impact campaign.
  • How to access: Log into your Meta Business Suite > Creator Marketplace (Left-hand navigation bar)

A thoughtful influencer vetting process turns influencer marketing from a risk into a strategic advantage. By combining clear objectives, strong alignment, and structured evaluation, brands can build authentic partnerships that drive meaningful results.

Need a partner to bring it all together? Contact us.

The post A Step-by-Step Guide to the Influencer Vetting Process first appeared on Bloom.

In this guide, we’ll break down geofencing in simple terms: what it is, how it works, common use cases, and what you need to know before launching your first campaign.

What is geofencing?

Geofencing is a location-based technology that creates a virtual boundary around a real-world area, like a neighbourhood, store, landmark, or event venue.

When someone enters (or exits) that zone, a geofencing system can trigger an action such as:

• Delivering an ad to their phone
• Sending a push notification (if using an app)
• Logging a visit for reporting and attribution
  

Think of it like drawing a digital circle on a map and saying:
“When people are inside this area, show them my message.”

How does geofencing work?

At a high level, geofencing follows a simple process:

1) Define custom target zones

You select a geographic area to target, for example:

• A retail location
• A competitor’s store
• A stadium during game day
• A festival venue
• A group of neighborhoods
  

These zones can be as broad as a city block or as specific as a single building.

2) Identify devices in that zone

When people move through the area, geofencing tools detect eligible mobile devices using location signals such as:

• GPS
• Wi-Fi networks
• Cell tower data
• Bluetooth (in some setups)
  

This allows marketers to build an audience of people who were physically present in the zone.

3) Deliver ads to identified customers

Once devices are captured, campaigns can deliver ads through mobile apps, websites, and programmatic ad networks, often in real time or shortly after the visit.

This means your message reaches people based on real-world intent, not just online browsing behaviour.

4) Measure results

Geofencing platforms typically report on outcomes such as:

• Impressions served
• Clicks and engagement
• Store visits (footfall attribution)
• Cost per visit (CPV)
• Conversion lift compared to non-exposed audiences
  

This closes the loop between marketing spend and real-world impact.

What makes geofencing so effective?

Most advertising targets people based on interests or demographics. Geofencing adds a missing piece: context.

Someone standing near (and even inside!) a car dealership, shopping mall, or event venue is often showing real intent, and that makes your marketing more timely and relevant.

Geofencing is especially powerful because it can help you:

• Reach people at the right moment
• Improve local campaign efficiency
• Target high-intent audiences
• Reduce wasted impressions
• Connect ads to in-store behaviour
  

Common geofencing marketing use cases

Geofencing can support many types of campaigns. Here are some of the most popular and effective ones:

1) Retail foot traffic campaigns

Target people near your store (or inside it) with promotions, limited-time offers, or reminders.

Example:
A coffee shop targets people within 200 meters during morning commute hours.

2) Competitor conquesting

Target people who visit competitor locations and present an alternative.

Example:
A gym targets people who visited another fitness center in the last 7 days with a “first month free” offer.

3) Events and stadium targeting

Events create dense (high-intent audiences) perfect for location-based campaigns.

Example:
A restaurant runs ads to attendees at a concert venue before and after the show.

4) Real estate and home services

Target specific neighbourhoods with messages that match local needs.

Example:
A roofing company targets areas impacted by storms with inspection offers.

5) Automotive campaigns

Car buyers often visit multiple dealerships before making a decision.

Example:
A dealership targets people who visited competing lots and retargets them with a test-drive incentive.

Geofencing vs. geotargeting: what’s the difference?

These terms get confused a lot, but they’re not the same.

Geotargeting

Targets people in a general area (city, ZIP code, radius) based on where they currently are.

Example: Target everyone in downtown Montreal.

Geofencing

Creates a precise boundary and allows you to trigger actions when people enter/exit, or to build audiences based on visits.

Example: Target people who visited a specific mall entrance or event venue.

In short:
Geotargeting = broad location targeting
Geofencing = precise location-based behaviour targeting

How accurate is geofencing?

Accuracy depends on the technology used and the environment.

In open areas, GPS can be very precise. In dense downtown areas or indoor environments, signals can be less reliable. Many platforms combine multiple signals to improve accuracy.

In practical terms, geofencing can often target locations with accuracy down to a few meters. Enough to reliably capture visits to buildings, venues, and specific points of interest.

What you need to launch a geofencing campaign

Getting started is easier than most people think. Here’s what you typically need:

1) A goal

Examples:

• Drive store visits
• Increase brand awareness locally
• Promote a limited-time offer
• Win customers from competitors

2) Target zones

Start with a focused set of zones:

• Your own locations
• A few competitor locations
• A specific neighborhood cluster
• A venue or event footprint

3) Creative assets

Ads should be short, local, and action-oriented:

• “2 minutes away — stop in today”
• “Special offer this weekend only”
• “Visit us nearby”

4) Measurement plan

Decide what success looks like:

• Visits
• Cost per visit
• Lift vs. control group
• Engagement rate
  

Best practices for geofencing campaigns

If you want results, avoid the most common mistakes by following these principles:

Keep zones tight and intentional

Overly large zones capture too many low-intent users. Smaller zones usually mean higher relevance.

Match your message to the moment

People near a location want simple, immediate value:

• Clear offer
• Strong CTA
• Local context

Test multiple zones and creatives

Start with a few variations and optimize quickly:

• Zone A vs. Zone B
• Offer vs. no offer
• “Visit today” vs. “Book now”

Don’t skip attribution

Geofencing works best when you can connect ad exposure to visits. It’s what makes the channel measurable and scalable.

Is geofencing privacy-safe?

Location-based advertising must follow privacy standards and regulations, which vary by region. Most reputable platforms use privacy-safe approaches such as:

• Aggregated reporting
• Consent-based data collection
• Non-personally identifiable device data
• Compliance with applicable laws and policies
  

If you’re running geofencing campaigns, always make sure your vendor and strategy align with current privacy requirements.

Why geofencing belongs in your marketing mix

Geofencing bridges the gap between online advertising and offline behaviour. It helps you reach people when location matters most (near your business, near competitors, or at key events) and measure real-world results.

If you’re running local campaigns and want better targeting, smarter spend, and clearer ROI, geofencing is one of the most practical tools you can add today. Need expert help? Contact us.

FAQ: Geofencing basics

1. What is geofencing used for?
   To target audiences based on physical location, drive foot traffic, and measure visit-based results.
2. Does geofencing require an app?
   Not always. Some strategies use apps, but many geofencing ad campaigns run through mobile advertising networks.
3. How much does geofencing cost?
   It varies by platform (we recommend Propulso!), targeting, and market, often based on impressions, clicks, or visits.
4. Is geofencing only for big brands?
   No. It can be highly effective for local businesses, franchises, and multi-location brands.

The post Geofencing 101: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It Matters first appeared on Bloom.