The Three Things to Know About Optimizing Digital Engagement
Eric Geibel · RizeX Monthly Mastermind · Eastern Idaho
Most small businesses in Eastern Idaho are still spending on traditional media — print, TV, billboards — without a strategy for what happens the moment a potential customer pulls out their phone to look them up. Eric Geibel, Google agency partner with four-plus years at Google, brought the room a framework for thinking about digital advertising not as a replacement for what’s working, but as the essential complement that makes all of it convert.
The numbers behind this shift are no longer subtle. By 2021, video was projected to account for 82% of all consumer internet traffic. Internet usage was expected to exceed time spent on TV for the first time in history. For business owners who haven’t built a digital strategy yet, the window to be an early mover is still open — but it’s closing.
What Eric covered
Media consumption has fundamentally changed — and your advertising strategy needs to catch up. People wake up and check their phones before they get out of bed. They carry screens in their pockets. They watch video constantly. Eric asked the room how many hours per day they spend consuming media on screens — between mobile devices and computers, many business owners are at 10 hours or more. That’s 10 hours of opportunity to reach your customers with a relevant message. The businesses that understand this and act on it now are building advantages their competitors won’t be able to buy back later.
Traditional media drives discovery. Google captures the action. When someone sees your billboard, your TV spot, or your magazine ad, what’s the next thing they do? They search for you. Eighty-seven percent of smartphone owners turn to search first in a moment of need — and if you’re not showing up when they do, a competitor might be. Eric’s practical minimum: if you’re running any traditional media at all, you need at minimum a Google branded search campaign to ensure that when someone looks you up after seeing your ad, they find you and not someone else. From there, you build out to keyword campaigns around the reasons someone would search for what you offer.
Google Ads give you control traditional media can’t. With a TV buy or a print ad, once it’s out the door, it’s done. You can’t update pricing, add a promotion, or change your message until the contract runs out. Digital advertising flips that entirely. You can log in, adjust your message, add a sale, or shift your targeting on the same day something changes in your business. For small businesses that need to move quickly, that flexibility is a real competitive advantage.
YouTube is not just brand awareness anymore. YouTube has 1.9 billion monthly logged-in users and is one of seven Google properties with over a billion daily active users. That scale gives Google visibility into consumer behavior across devices and channels that no other platform can match. Eric walked the room through how YouTube advertising has evolved: True View ads (you only pay when someone watches 30 full seconds, so skips before that cost you nothing), advanced audiences (pre-built targeting segments based on user behavior across Google’s ecosystem), and the then-new custom intent audiences — the ability to target users on YouTube based on what they’re actively searching for on Google. At the time, a good Google search campaign might see a 10% clickthrough rate. Custom intent lets you re-engage the other 90% with video.
Attention spans are short — build for that. Human attention spans in 2013 were clocking in at eight seconds. Video captures attention better than any other format, but only if the first five seconds give the viewer a reason to stay. Eric’s practical guidance: lead with a hook in the first five seconds, keep ads under 35 seconds (you get charged at 30, so use every second you’re paying for), and match your message to where the viewer is in their decision process. Someone who’s never heard of you needs a different message than someone who’s already visited your website.
What the room walked away with
Eric offered three free Google tools at the close of the session — resources available to any business owner to assess website speed, mobile performance, and search visibility. He also made himself available directly for anyone interested in learning more about working with Get Found First, Google’s Premier partner in Idaho, which at the time had a dedicated team of four full-time Googlers at Google headquarters supporting the account.
A moment that landed
Eric pulled up a screen time check on his own phone mid-presentation: four hours and 40 minutes on his mobile device per day, averaged over the previous week. Then he pointed out that most business owners in the room were also in front of computers most of the day. The math: if you’re a business owner, the people you’re trying to reach are likely spending upward of 10 hours a day consuming media on screens. Every one of those hours is a moment you could be present with a relevant message — or absent while a competitor is.
“87% of smartphone owners turn to search first in the moment of need. You need to be there.” — Eric Geibel
“Traditional media does a great job of helping people discover you. Google is there to help them take the next step.” — Eric Geibel
About Eric
Eric Geibel spent four-plus years at Google focused on helping small businesses that had never advertised with Google understand how to do it profitably. Most of his time there was spent working with agency partners, specifically because he found that businesses working with a good agency got better results — the agency had a vested interest in their success. He partnered with Get Found First, a Google Premier partner in Idaho, to bring that education to business owners across the region who hadn’t yet been reached by Google’s own outreach.
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The RizeX Monthly Mastermind meets every month in Eastern Idaho — an intimate gathering of local business owners, entrepreneurs, and professionals committed to real growth. Every event features a speaker who’s in the trenches alongside you, plus time for meaningful conversation and connection.