Digital Marketing FAQs:
Straight Answers for NZ Businesses

Digital marketing is simply how you get your business found online – and unlike a billboard or a radio ad, you can measure exactly what it's doing for you. In practice that means SEO (search engine optimisation), local SEO, Google and Meta ads, social content and email marketing, all working together rather than as separate one-offs. So when an enquiry comes in, you know which channel brought it and exactly what it cost.

For most growing businesses, yes. A great in-house marketer is worth a lot – they're just one person, and it's a big ask for anyone to be equally strong across SEO, Google Ads, Meta, email and content. An agency gives you a specialist in each of those, plus the strategy to tie them together, without adding a salary, KiwiSaver, software subscriptions and recruitment to the mix. The businesses we do our best work with are the ones ready to grow and happy to be pushed a bit.

Yes – but what you're aiming for has shifted. It used to be about ranking; now it's about getting cited. Google's AI Overviews have taken a big bite out of clicks on 'what is' and 'how to' searches, so blog content written purely to catch that traffic isn't pulling its weight anymore. The good news is that the searches that matter most haven't changed at all. Someone typing 'commercial electrician Christchurch' is ready to pick up the phone, AI summary or not – and you're getting in front of them without paying for every click. Our job is making sure your site is set up so Google and AI assistants can both find a clear answer and point people back to you.

Yes, when there's already demand for what you sell. Google Ads put you in front of people at the exact moment they're searching for it – which is why they're usually the fastest route to a first enquiry, often within days rather than months. They need enough budget behind them to gather data and optimise properly, so it's worth going in with a figure you're comfortable committing for a few months rather than testing with a small amount and switching off early. They work best when your margins can comfortably carry the cost of a click and there's genuine search volume in your category – and if there isn't yet, we'll point you somewhere your budget will work harder.

Three to five times a week on your main platform is a good target for most businesses. That's often enough to stay front of mind without content becoming a second job – and it leaves you room to actually reply to comments and messages, which matters more than people think. The specifics shift by platform: Instagram and Facebook reward a steady rhythm of a few posts a week plus regular Stories, LinkedIn works well at two or three thoughtful posts, and TikTok genuinely rewards volume if you've got video in you. But we'd rather see you post three times a week for a year than seven times a week for a month and then go quiet. Consistency beats frequency, every time.

For most Kiwi businesses it comes down to two or three platforms, not all of them. Facebook still has the broadest reach in New Zealand and it's stronger with the over-45s than most people assume – so it's rarely the one to drop. Instagram works hardest for anything visual: hospitality, retail and product brands. LinkedIn is the one people underestimate, and for professional services and B2B it's still the best channel we've got. TikTok and YouTube are worth it if you can genuinely commit to video, and not worth much if you can't. The real answer is wherever your customers already spend their time – and one platform done properly will always beat four done at half pace.

Paid ads can bring enquiries within weeks; SEO and social content typically take three to six months to build real momentum. With ads we'll usually have a reliable picture of what a lead costs you by the end of the first month, which is when the real optimising starts. SEO is slower by nature, though local search and less competitive terms often move earlier – and a site with some history behind it will get there faster than a brand new one. You won't be waiting in the dark either way: we report monthly from the start, so you can see what's building before the results arrive. And if something isn't working by month three, we'll say so and change tack.

We measure the things that affect your bottom line – enquiries, sales and revenue – rather than likes and follower counts. What that looks like depends on what you're chasing: for lead generation it's qualified enquiries and what each one costs you; for online stores it's revenue, return on ad spend (ROAS) and average order value; for brand growth it's whether more people are searching for you by name. We agree those targets before anything goes live, then report against them every month.

Weekly and monthly. A short weekly update so nothing surprises you, and a full monthly report against the targets we agreed before launch. Ask us for a sample on the call and we'll send you both.

The weekly is brief by design: what happened, what we changed, anything that needs your input. It exists so you're never a month away from knowing a campaign has gone sideways.

The monthly is the real one, and it comes with a live review meeting rather than a PDF landing in your inbox. It covers performance against the agreed targets, what we learned, and what changes next month.

Yes – we're based on Durham Street in central Christchurch, and we work with clients right across Canterbury and the rest of New Zealand, from Auckland and Wellington through to regional centres.

Most of what we do can happen over video calls and shared reporting dashboards, so where you are makes very little difference to the work. Being local does help for photo and video shoots and getting around a table for strategy sessions – but plenty of our clients we've never met in person, and their campaigns run just as well. And if you're in Christchurch and would rather meet face to face, we'd genuinely enjoy that.

Very likely, yes. We work with hospitality venues, professional and business services, product manufacturers, retailers and trades – a good number here in Canterbury, plenty more around the rest of New Zealand.

Yes, and we genuinely enjoy it.

Your marketer knows your customers and owns the relationships internally. We bring specialists in each channel plus the reporting that ties it together.

The thing that makes it work is agreeing who does what at the start — otherwise both sides wait for the other to publish the thing. We'll sort that out in the first fortnight.

Same with web developers. We work with the one you've got rather than pushing for a rebuild. If the site is genuinely holding results back we'll say so and quantify it, but a developer you trust and a working relationship is worth more than a new website.

Our Marketing Partnerships start from $2,500 per month. As every business has different goals, challenges and needs, we tailor our services and pricing to suit the scope of work.

Our focus is on delivering measurable results and clear value from your marketing investment. It all starts with a free strategy call, where we’ll understand where your business is at, where you want to go, and how we can help you get there.

Yes. Our management fee and your ad spend are separate, and your ad spend goes to Google or Meta, not to us.

You do. Where practical we build inside accounts you own, under your own Google and Meta business identities, with us granted access rather than the other way round. Ask any agency this before you sign, and be wary of one that owns the account and grants you access, because leaving then means starting from zero with no historical data.

Your Google Business Profile, GA4 property, Search Console, domain and hosting are yours throughout.

Yes - one channel done properly beats three done at half pace. We'd usually rather start where the demand already is, prove the maths works, and expand from there.

The exception is when the first channel can't succeed on its own. Sending paid traffic to a page that doesn't convert, for example, means the landing page work isn't optional, it's part of the job. We'll tell you when something is a genuine dependency rather than an upsell.

It's a conversation about where you're at and where the gaps are. No cost, no obligation, and you'll leave with something useful whether or not we work together.

Before we talk, we'll run your website through DIVE and send you the scorecard. That's your visibility across AI platforms, search, maps and reviews, scored across nine areas, with your competitors alongside. It's yours to keep either way.

On the call itself: what you sell and what a customer is worth, what you've tried, what the numbers currently look like, and where we think the biggest gap is. If we don't think we're the right fit, we'll say so on the call and point you somewhere better.

DIVE, the Digital Influence Visibility Engine, is our free audit of how your business appears across AI platforms, search, maps and reviews. It scores nine areas out of 100 with a red, amber or green rating on each check, including how you currently appear across five AI assistants, and it shows you the same picture for your competitors.

It takes your website address and nothing else. No install, no cost. It's also the fastest way to answer the question most business owners can't currently answer: when someone asks AI for the best business in your industry, do you come up?

Get your free DIVE Scorecard now