Broadening Local: Expert Roundup
A trio of local search experts expound on the latest in the industry. Claire Carlile proposes Google My Business as a CMS and covers how businesses should approach the channel; Miriam Ellis explores the increasingly blurred lines between different categories of sites and businesses; and Damian Rollison delineates the major trends shaping the trajectory of local search, especially on Google.
Google Local Search Trends II: Verticalization
This is the second in a series of four articles covering the themes behind many of Google’s recent local search feature releases and interface updates. In the first installment, I discussed Google’s increasingly personalized or customized search results, marked by content pulled from GMB profiles, the business website, and Google users, and matched to specific queries so that each SERP is unique. In this second installment, I’ll be talking too about interfaces that differ according to what you’re searching for, but in this case the differences are verticalized.
Google Local Search Trends I: Personalization
Though it’s not always easy to find the common threads in Google’s complex evolution of the local search consumer experience, some themes do stand out, such as the drive toward increasingly personalized search results, which I’ll be covering in this initial entry in the series. Fortunately for marketers, personalization, along with the other themes I’ll cover, offers numerous opportunities to outpace the competition and convert more searchers into buyers. A better understanding of these emerging trends will help marketers prioritize their efforts.
LBMA: Can FLoCs Replace the Third-Party Cookie?
In this episode of Location Weekly, the Location-Based Marketing Association covers Google’s FLoCs as an alternative to the disappearing third-party cookie, the AR platform Beerscans turning beer labels into augmented reality experiences, Krispy Kreme offering free donuts to encourage vaccination, and GroundTruth acquiring Addy.
Google’s Ad Changes: The King Just Built a Moat Around His Castle
The initial frenzy over Google’s news regarding its latest privacy updates has abated, and now it’s time to really think about what it means – for Google, for brands, and for the industry as a whole.
As governments have lit a fire under brands and consumers have become more data-conscious, the future of marketing and advertising is unfolding before us. Let’s take a dive into what it all really signifies.
Not Every Agency and Ad Tech Firm is Decrying Google’s Privacy Moves
The big question is what Google’s shift portends for users and advertisers. Is it actually a boon to user privacy? Will it undermine digital advertising? Or will models like Google’s Federated Learning of Cohorts, which will allow targeting of groups of users with similar interests instead of targeting of individuals per se, fill the gaps?
What is Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoCs)?
Federated Learning of Cohorts is a method Google has devised to track Internet users’ interests and serve them ads relevant to those interests. The method aims to be attentive to privacy by grouping thousands of users into these interest-based cohorts. Therefore, the thinking goes, users still see ads relevant to them, but ads less finely […]
3 Big Tech Predictions for 2021
Welcome to 2021: another year where everything will change faster than ever. Speed will define the year, as it did in 2020. Consumer behavior is rapidly shifting, and the big tech firms that define the e-commerce landscape are becoming more agile as a result. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google aren’t going to slow down even […]
Google’s Ads Data Hub Should Be on Every Marketer’s Radar
Ads Data Hub incorporates privacy by design and is first-party data-driven, which is crucial in today’s environment. It is built on a future-proof cloud architecture, meaning as technology continues to evolve, ADH will stay relevant. With all of its capabilities, ADH should be on every marketer’s radar.
Covid is Changing Search. Here’s How to Respond
Advertisers, brands, and agencies are scrambling to deliver the highly tailored, localized search experiences that Covid-era consumers are increasingly looking for. In fact, 61% of marketers in a recent Forrester study said that improving the efficacy of their local marketing is a high priority for 2021.
So, how can advertisers and marketers navigate this evolving, more localized search landscape and get it right? Here are a few key items to keep in mind.
AWS Launches a Google Maps Rival
In this episode of Location Weekly, the Location-Based Marketing Association covers AWS launching Location Service, a Google Maps competitor, Mood Media being acquired by Vector Capital, Starbucks partnering with Pokemon Go in Asia, Bayern Munich using AR to connect with fans, and Gimbal being sued for patent infringement.
Google Local Search Trends III: Socialization
In this third of four installments in my series on recent and ongoing trends in local search, I want to focus on signs that Google’s local platform — comprising Google My Business, Google Maps, and the local component of Google Search — has become, under our noses, a massive social network. Google has achieved this status not through traditional methods of connecting users to each other, but by allowing and encouraging users to share their experiences, questions, and opinions about local businesses in a variety of forms and at a massive scale.