Catalyst Employee Spotlight: Cara deBeer

You can have the best data and most sophisticated tools, but it doesn’t mean anything without great people. Fortunately, at Catalyst, we have no shortage of great people. From Search Associates to Search Directors, and from Project Managers to Managing Partners, each member of the Catalyst team is committed to maximizing client business results and making Catalyst a world-class agency. Read our Employee Spotlight series to meet some of the team members responsible for making Catalyst an all-star agency partner and a great place to work.

Meet Cara

Name: Cara deBeer

Title: Partner, Paid Search Director

How long have you worked in digital and what type of clients have you worked on?

I’ve been in digital marketing for over a decade, mostly focusing on search. I’ve worked on just about every vertical there is, from high tech to retail to pharma. I’ve spent time agency-side and client-side, but find that the fast-paced nature of agency life suits my working style the best.

How did you get your start in search?

I was at a show to see my now-husband’s band, and started chatting with the now-wife of the guitarist. I mentioned that I was looking for a new job opportunity and wanted to get back into marketing, and she said “my company is hiring – we do digital marketing” and gave me her card. The rest is history!

What do you like most about working at Catalyst?

The people are terrific – everyone is really committed to practicing what we preach with rigorous approaches to our work, and there’s a lot of focus from upper management on making sure people are able to progress on their career track, as well as a lot of flexibility in what you do.  If you decide you want to “switch tracks” from, say, organic search to paid social, Catalyst will try to find a way to help you do that.

What has been your greatest achievement or success in search/social?

One of my proudest moments was speaking at SMX East in 2017. Catalyst has given me a ton of opportunities to become a thought-leader. From speaking engagements to webinars to blog posts, Catalyst has helped me showcase my expertise and share my opinion. Being given the leeway to develop a point-of-view on hot topics and having a platform to share my perspective has been nothing short of amazing.

In your opinion, what is the most important search/social trend or change for 2018?

For 2018, I’d say the most important change is the convergence of GDPR with a proliferation of tools based on big data and AI insights, which allow for enormously specific targeting. Advertisers have unprecedented access to so many data-driven insights about their users, allowing for extreme narrow-casting. At the same time, the rights of individuals to privacy has never been more important or more spot-lighted. We live in interesting times!

If you had to give one recommendation to an advertiser who wants to use search or social marketing to achieve business results, what would it be?

Take the time to really think through what you want the end result of your advertising to be: Do you want to drive sales? Do you want to raise awareness? Do you need to improve your ROI? Those are all going to require different tactics. And – I can’t stress this enough – align your marketing messaging and share learnings across channels. The pooling of knowledge across channels generates insights, which can immediately be applied to existing and future marketing efforts to improve results.

Share a fun fact about yourself

I lived in Scotland for 4 years and New Zealand for 3, and I can still do a (terrible) Scottish accent as a party trick.

Why Cara Makes Us Proud

“Cara brings an advanced level of creative thinking and innovation to her paid search strategies. She is always looking for out of the box ways to utilize search engine features to drive further business results for her clients. She also advances our entire agency’s capabilities when she shares her knowledge through her Beta Blitz programs and training presentations.” – Kerry Curran, Partner, Marketing Integration

“Cara is a superstar.  She’s constantly going above and beyond, raising her hand to conduct department-wide trainings and certifications, speaking at events on our behalf, and helping on-board our newest employees.  What I appreciate most is how hard she works for her clients – she’s truly passionate about their success.” – Jim Kensicki, Managing Director

Cara’s Latest Thought-Leadership

Catalyst Webinars:

• Capture & Convert During Peak Periods: Drive More Qualified Traffic When it Matters Most

Blog Posts:

• 5 Reasons to Run Paid Search When You’re Already #1 in Organic Search
• POV on Google’s Latest Changes to Exact Match
• An Overview of Google Analytics 360 Suite

Industry Speaking:

• Search Boost 2018, AI in Action: Today’s Opportunities & Tomorrow’s Possibilities 
• SMX East 2017, New Ways to Test Using GDN Traffic