Steve Bell will represent Blastoff Advertising at the Brighton Search Marketing Conference in the UK April 30-May 1, 2026
The PPC Hero conference was for years, considered the “top conference” in the field of paid (PPC) side of search enginer marketing (SEM). “Brighton SEO” has long been considered the top conference on the organic (SEO) side. Two years ago, the PPC Hero conference became part of Brighton SEO conference. This conference is held twice annually — in Brighton, UK (southwest of London) in April, and in San Diego, CA in September.
,Steve attended the San Diego event in September. We’ve decided that like “Networld Interop” was for the computer networking industry for many years, “Brighton SEO” is such a great conference, we will never miss one. The quality of this event is unparalleled, and the conference organization is better than just about any conference you may attend. So we will always “be there” when there’s one going on. Right in the middle of things!
Conference Agenda
It’s impossible to attend all the great sessions at this conference, because there are so many parallel tracks going on. So we always purchase the video recordings of the sessions we can’t attend, and watch them after we return from the trip. As a result, it will be May before we’re able to pulish a full report – our take on trends and developments taken from. the event.
Here are some sessions Steve is looking forward to attending
Optimized product data: The fuel behind AI in eCommerce
Ben Riggle discussed how strong optimization of product feeds is the crucial underpinning for automated bidding-driven performance. #heroconf #paidsearch
Unlocking success in 2026 with Microsoft Advertising
Nate Burke, CEO of Diginius (London, UK), will discuss some of the differences between Microsoft’s Paid Search advertising platform and methods to exploit those differences to optimize ad campaign performance. #ppchero #paidsearch
Diginius at the Brighton SEO-PPC conference
Blastoff Labs, and now Blastoff Ads has been partnered with London superagency Diginius for three years. We were the 300th agency chosen to participate in their Microsoft Ads agency support program. There are now over 1,000 agencies participating.
It has been an excellent experience, as we now have access to outstanding quality support resources for Microsoft Ads PPC campaigns, both within Diginius and when needed, through them. We have enlisted assistance from some of Microsoft’s most experienced technical support professionals. It has been a great experience!
At the conference, we were invited to join them at a dinner celebration they hosted at Callie. At this downtown Mediterranean restaurant, the 977 5-star reviews on Google barely scratch the surface. We met and enjoyed good food and conversation with several other Diginius Partners and Agency owners. Tremendous food was served for what seemed like several hours.
Diginius dinner at Callie, downtown San Diego
This photo from the dinner in San Diego (Sept 2026).
Beyond ROAS: advanced eCommerce KPIs for profitability
Paolo Vidali discussed metrics that are equally, and even more critical than ROAS, for example, “LIFT”, which, unlike ROAS, accounts for sales volume.
Many advertisers, as well as paid search professionals, are confused about ROAS, which is understandable. That’s because ROAS stands for “RETURN ON ad spend”. And ROAS does not measure that. ROAS’s very name implies it measures something that it does not measure. This session brought that fact, along with other interesting eCommerce metrics, to light.
ROAS does not matter as much as a metric in some circumstances. For example, when an account is being turned around and is just starting to come together, before the campaign is optimized and/or on automated bidding, it’s not the most important thing to watch. Similarly, when a company has a lot of capital to put to work, and sales volume is more critical than marketing expenses, ROAS may actually be minimized on purpose – to drive up sales volume (to a point). There are numerous scenarios where ROAS is useful, but it is not a blanket indicator of success or failure for all conditions at all times, by any means. LIFT is a more important indicator, especially to the advertiser, as opposed to the PPC manager.
On 5th Avenue, old-school advertising agencies don’t even use ROAS. There, it’s referred to as “MER” — Marketing Efficiency Ratio.
Summary
The sessions at the 2026 San Diego Brighton SEO / Hero Conference ( Brighton SEO ) are bound to be fascinating. We’re looking forward to attending!
Steve Bell, Director
Blastoff Ads
https://LinkedIn.com/in/sbell22
A quick overview of the topics covered in this article.
