TELEPRINTER:WITH SEARCH advertising retaining its dominant share of the online market, one agency capitalising on its appeal is Google AdWords specialists Wolfgang Digital.

It has increased its headcount from three to seven so far in 2012 and expects to employ a total of 12 people by the end of the year.

Changes in Google’s privacy policy, introduced on March 1st, has fuelled further growth in the search advertising market, says Wolfgang’s chief executive Alan Coleman.

“We’ve seen click-through rates increase dramatically, in some cases doubling.”

The new consolidated privacy policy means that private data collected by one Google service can be shared with its other platforms, including YouTube and Gmail, facilitating more targeted advertisements.

Developments such as Google’s Ad Preferences Manager will also help digital marketing evolve, Coleman believes, as consumers can ask Google to stop showing them advertisements for irrelevant products.

“People’s perception towards advertising will swing from seeing it as mental pollution to a useful service,” he says.

Coleman forecasts that the agency, which until recently was called OnlineAdvertising.ie, will double its staff to 25 next year. Its hiring policy reflects the greater desirability of data analytics skills in today's recruitment market.

“We actually don’t hire marketers. We hire people with very strong maths and analytical ability.

“Digital marketing platforms such as Google AdWords and Facebook are built by engineers, so it makes sense to recruit and train people who think like engineers.”