The Digital Marketing of Today: 5 Must-Have Ingredients for Success

Introduction

We’ve talked about AI and where it all fits in your digital strategy, but if you’re a business owner or marketer exploring the world of SEO and Google Ads, you might be asking:

What actually makes a great digital strategy in 2025?

At our digital marketing agency in Auckland and Christchurch, we operate on five proven pillars that consistently drive results:

1. A Website That Captures, Not Just Exists

The market is saturated with compelling and creative websites. Gone are the days when you simply added standard text and a logo to a page. User experience makes or breaks visitors from getting to know who you are as a brand.

User experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design play a bigger role than most people realise when it comes to how visitors connect with your brand. You might be running great campaigns, but if the website experience doesn’t hold up, it can stall your momentum.

It’s something we’ve noticed across many businesses we work with—performance issues don’t always come down to a lack of marketing spend, but rather how people feel when they land on the site.

And it makes sense. After all, 88% of users are less likely to return after a poor experience, and it only takes 0.05 seconds for people to form an opinion about your site. That first impression really matters.

So what helps? A good-performing website usually has:

• Simple, easy-to-follow navigation
• A fast, mobile-friendly design
• Clear calls-to-action (without being pushy)
• A layout that naturally guides visitors through what matters most

Your website doesn’t just represent your brand—it is your brand in many ways. It’s often the first interaction someone will have with your business, so it’s worth getting right.

Head to our recent blog for a more in-depth look at the importance of website optimisation in driving sales.

2. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) That Builds Over Time

SEO isn’t a mystery when you understand the fundamentals. Taking it as a science, you need these basic components if you want good results: copy, links, schema, and structure.

That’s what we’ve proven in one of the sites we’ve worked on:

By adding valuable and informative content to the site, adding context with schema, consistently gaining backlinks from relevant and authoritative sites, and keeping the site well-maintained, we saw a 28% improvement in sessions and 45% increase in organic clicks between January and May 2025.

Following Google’s guidelines and aligning with core algorithm updates won’t deliver overnight wins — but it’s a smart, sustainable investment in long-term growth. Beware of SEO providers who promise instant results; these claims often rely on risky, black-hat tactics that can lead to search engine penalties and harm your site’s reputation.

Instead, committing to a steady, well-planned SEO strategy focused on quality and compliance will protect your website and strengthen your brand presence over time, delivering lasting value and consistent performance.

3. Social Media That Connects

We did a quick search of Google Trends, and ‘Social Media agency’ makes up 60% of Auckland’s search interests and dominates all other regions. No doubt, everybody knows social media is a necessity for a business’s success.

Amy Schutte, Head of Social Media at Zib Digital, shares expert insights into what drives an effective social media strategy. The key, she explains, is integrating paid media, organic content, and user-generated content into a cohesive approach:

“A winning social media strategy means aligning paid and organic efforts to work together—not in silos. Organic content builds brand credibility, community, and trust over time, while paid media ensures your message reaches the right people at the right time, at scale.”

When combined strategically, Paid Social ads can amplify high-performing organic content, and organic can reinforce the brand stories introduced through paid campaigns. The ultimate goal? An engaged brand community.

Equally important is the alignment between social content—paid or organic—and your landing page or website experience. When people click through to a page that aligns visually and in tone, they’re more likely to stay longer, trust the brand, and convert. This consistency across the full journey reduces bounce rates and turns attention into action.

Amy emphasizes the growing impact of authentic, platform-native content:

“To be effective, content must also feel native to the platform—less polished, more authentic content is increasingly outperforming overly produced creatives. In fact, incorporating user-generated, organic-style content into paid ads can boost click-through rates by up to 4× across Australasia (Meta for Business, 2024).“

Thoughtfully curated user content resonates with audiences, making campaigns feel real and relatable. A campaign with a 5% click-through rate can see that increase by 20% when the content genuinely connects with viewers.

Rather than focusing on isolated tactics, think of social media marketing like appreciating a house. People don’t admire just the door or the windows—they appreciate the house as a whole.

You want to look at social media marketing the same way. All your paid media, organic content, and user-generated content need to come together to tell an impactful story for anyone discovering your brand.

4. Google Ads That Don’t Burn Your Budget

Over the past 2 years, there has been a steady increase in search interest for “Google Ads” in New Zealand, signifying that more and more companies are looking to advertise through Google.

Unlike SEO, with a slower turnaround time or a social media campaign that builds your brand awareness, a Google Ads campaign is meant to get users who search for your products or services. They’re deeper in the buyer journey at this point, and being first on search results makes a ton of difference.

Amanda Hawke, Head of Google Ads at Zib, talks about what it takes to have a successful Google Ads campaign:

“When you’re running Google Ads, it’s all about working smarter, not harder.”

And she’s no gatekeeper. Our PPC team follows these four principles to ensure their Google Ad campaigns perform at their best without burning through the budget:

• Complete & Verified Google Profile
  Google notes that businesses with a complete and verified profile experience 7x higher click-through rates (CTR) compared to those that are incomplete.
• Landing Pages That Match Your Ads
  Neil Patel explains that aligning your landing pages with your ads can improve your Quality Score by 50%, which results in lower cost-per-click (CPC) and higher ad positions.
• Strong, Keyword-Optimised Ad Copy
  Using keyword insertion helps your ads stand out and increases click-through rates by 10-15%. This tactic makes your ads more relevant to user searches, increasing your chances of attracting the right clicks.
• Negative Keywords Are Your Friend
  Google advises advertisers to use negative keywords to filter out irrelevant traffic. This strategy can reduce wasted spend by 30-40%, ensuring that your budget is focused on high-intent users who are more likely to convert.

As Amanda likes to point out,

The devil’s in the details. By implementing these strategies, you can expect to see an overall improvement in your Google Ads performance of 20-30%.

At Zib, we believe results speak louder than words. As a digital marketing agency, we take pride in the measurable impact of a well-optimised Google Ads campaign:

• 7x higher click-through rates from a complete and verified Google profile.
• 50% improvement in Quality Score and up to 2x higher conversion rates with aligned landing pages.
• 10-15% higher click-through rates from strong, keyword-optimised ad copy.
• 30-40% reduction in irrelevant traffic by leveraging negative keywords, making your budget go further.

These numbers show that Google Ads can deliver real value. But the question on everyone’s mind is: “How much do Google Ads cost?”
The quick answer is that there is no fixed budget, but you need guidance from ad experts to figure out the right one for you. Need it now? Learn more about how we approach Google Ads at Zib.

5. A Campaign Manager Who Brings It All Together

The final—and often most crucial—piece of the puzzle is a dedicated campaign manager. While not every client requires all three channels (SEO, PPC, and social media), those who do benefit immensely from a holistic, coordinated approach that maximises overall impact.

For instance, we’ve discussed how SEO positively impacts a PPC campaign by enhancing your collective visibility on search engine results and optimising landing pages. Meanwhile, an active social media presencebuilds brand awareness, which directly shapes how potential customers search for your products and services online. For example, someone inspired by a spa visit they saw on Instagram Reels might later search for that spa on Google Maps.

When combined thoughtfully, these three channels form a powerful strategy—one that generates valuable data. This is where a skilled campaign manager becomes essential. They oversee each campaign’s launch and ongoing optimisation, freeing you up to focus on other areas of your business.

Reports, data interpretation, and forward planning will be valuable for minimising waste and scaling brand growth. To drive our point across, here’s a testimonial from one of our clients:

Is it worth it to hire a digital marketing agency?

If you’ve read this far, you already know where we stand—and we don’t just say it; we’ve shown you the results. Each pillar in your digital strategy matters. But more importantly, it’s how these parts come together that really unlock long-term success.

That’s what a good digital marketing agency does. It sees the full picture, brings in the right expertise, and continuously optimises your campaigns so you don’t just get clicks—you get customers.

So, is it worth it? If you’re serious about growing your brand, getting found online, and turning browsers into buyers—absolutely.

Want to talk strategy? Let’s chat.