Weekly News: Free Local SEO Tips, Online + Offline Media ROI, Search Potential of Smart Speakers

Here is this week’s roundup of the top news items related to local marketing and advertising, local media, technology, local commerce, consumer behavior and more.

Insight & Commentary

Waze and McDonald’s Connect OOH, In-Car Ads with Geofencing (March 11, 2019) LSA Insider: “Google’s Waze and McDonald’s teamed up last October to coordinate out-of-home (OOH) billboards and in-car advertising. The two geofenced roughly 300 billboards in Southern California and served Waze “zero-speed takeover” ads to drivers within proximity of the OOH placements.” Human Judgment, Automation, and the Future of Ad Tech (March 12, 2019) Street Fight: “Can ads be targeted and content recommended in such a way that respects consumer privacy and avoids surfacing hateful and fraudulent content on the Internet? What role will artificial intelligence play in these practices, and what are its limitations vis-à-vis human judgment?” How retailers can survive Amazon’s stronghold in Google search (March 8, 2019) Search Engine Land: “Retail marketers can’t out-Amazon on the paid Google SERP, but they can find white space. Among the metrics that can help is impression share. It’s in the Google Auction Insights report for shopping and paid search campaigns.”

Strategy & Tactics

5 Free Local SEO Tips for Marketers of Multi-Location Startups and SMBs (March 11, 2019) LSA Insider: “Every business has its limitations — but for brand new business startups, those limitations can be especially stringent. This is something that marketers often hear when working with young companies: They want to make a big splash, but have limited means with which to make it happen.” Replay: Getting Local Businesses Voice Search Ready (March 8, 2019) LSA Insider: “During a recent LSA webinar, Bernadette Coleman, CEO of Advice Local presented an introduction to voice search, why it’s so important for local businesses and best practices for optimizing for it in 2019.” Four Keys to Ensure Your Brand Has Local Authenticity Online (March 14, 2019) Street Fight: “Brands must be perceived as reliable, respectful, and real to be considered authentic. Authenticity not only drives sales, but it also instills brand loyalty. In fact, 63% of consumers deliberately buy from authentic brands over ones they perceive as inauthentic.”

Stats & Studies

Study: As SMBs Grow Online Sales, Amazon the Top Third-Party Channel (March 14, 2019) LSA Insider: “Data show that 62% of consumers with internet access shop online at least once per month. A new survey from Insureon and Manta shows that many SMBs are starting to understand the importance of having an e-commerce presence to reach these online buyers.” Study: Online + Offline Media Delivers Better ROI than Either Alone (March 13, 2019) LSA Insider: “For brands, retailers and small businesses that fulfill offline or through stores, traditional media is often more trusted but digital marketing offers more precision and “accountability.” However, there’s also fraud and waste in digital.” Assessing the Commercial Search Potential of Smart Speakers (March 12, 2019) LSA Insider: “There are more than 130 million smart speakers (and displays) in US homes, according to a new survey from Voicebot.ai. But search and e-commerce are not common use cases. The potential remains, however.”

Industry News

New Tech Adoption Index Podcast: “Think Like an App,” Featuring Neal Polachek (March 13, 2019) LSA Insider: “A while back LocaliQ asked my colleague Neal Polachek to develop a talk for small businesses that would fit into its Growth Lab initiative. Something to help small businesses stay ahead of the curve.” Facebook to replace relevance score with 3 new metrics in April (March 12, 2019) Marketing Land: “Facebook announced Wednesday it is replacing its ad relevance score with three new “more granular” metrics. It will also be removing six additional ad metrics, replacing them with what it calls “more actionable” measurements.” Google took down 2.3 billion bad ads, 1 million ad accounts in 2018 (March 14, 2019) Search Engine Land: “Google took down 2.3 billion “bad ads” in 2018, according to its annual report on actions it took to address policy violations on its ad platforms. That’s about a million fewer ads than it removed in 2017. However, the ad giant said the number of advertiser accounts it terminated last year nearly doubled from the previous year to nearly one million.”

Member News

Yext Collaborates with Adobe to Drive Website Discovery (March 13, 2019) Cision: “Yext has launched four integrations with the Adobe Experience Cloud to easily connect Yext knowledge to properties and assets created and managed with Adobe. These integrations will enable businesses to use their brand data stored in Yext across websites, mobile apps, email systems, and the Internet of Things.” PlaceIQ Wins Two 2019 LSA Ad-to-Action Awards for Top Location Intelligence Platform and Attribution and Analytics (March 7, 2019) PlaceIQ: “This is the second year in a row PlaceIQ has won these two awards focused on recognizing companies who demonstrate excellence in delivering solutions focused on local commerce.”

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