News and Analysis
Report: Fake Google Maps Listings Ensnare Consumers, Harm Legitimate Businesses
“Chronic” local listings fraud on Google Maps, where con artists pose as handymen and other local service providers, sometimes stealing the names of legitimate operations, is endangering consumers and sucking business away from viable local businesses, the Wall Street Journal reported.
As Google seeks to prop up its lucrative but “cresting” search business and consolidate its lead in local, the tech giant is struggling to address the fraud issue and perhaps even to care about it.Â
OOH Emerges as Strong Digital Channel for CPGs
Consumer-packaged goods shoppers trust out-of-home advertisements more than those delivered on any other channel, a new report on CPGs and advertising from Vistar Media and MFour indicates. Fifty-three percent of consumers say they trust the content in OOH ads, more than any other single medium.
B2B Video Marketing Grows Up, Getting Briefer and Garnering More Attention
The standards for B2B video marketing are rising as marketers get the hang of the hottest, no longer so new medium. Marketers are learning to keep things short and sweet, decreasing the average video length from six to four minutes from 2017 to 2018, and audiences are tuning in longer, Vidyard reports in its annual video in business report.
Commentary
Is It Time to Redefine ‘Local’ Marketing?
We’ve reached a pivot point where local market nuances and differences can create definable opportunity. I am not saying that the age of the big box retail or e-commerce portal are over, but if a brand does a better job at leveraging local marketing it can create a competitive advantage and differentiation point.
Latest Posts
Yodle Weighs in on How Google’s SERP Change Has Affected Online Ads for SMBs
With a few weeks of empirical data, we now have a much clearer sense of how or if this change has affected local AdWords campaigns. At Yodle, we have seen a negligible effect on the performance metrics of the search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns we run on behalf of our local small business clients.
Street Fight Daily: Groupon’s New Merchant App, Google Announces ‘Analytics 360’ Ad Products
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Groupon Launches New Merchant App That Puts the Daily Deal Front and Center (TechCrunch)… Google Introduces Products That Will Sharpen Its Ad Focus (New York Times)… Yelp’s Founder Once Thought No One Would Want to Post Opinions on the Internet (Chicago Tribune)…
5 Online-to-Offline Attribution Tools for Merchants
Seventy-nine percent of consumers say they research prices online before making purchases in person. Without the ability to identify which digital channels are most effective, merchants have no opportunity to optimize their strategies or understand the growth opportunities within online channels.
Street Fight Daily: The Longevity of Online Grocery Delivery, How Foursquare is Winning SXSW
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Is Online Grocery Actually the Future? (Business Insider)… The Winner of This Year’s SXSW Interactive Is… (Forbes)… You Hate Paying Instacart Delivery Fees, So Pepsi Is Footing the Bill (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Beyond Likes: Win Hearts with Emotional Marketing