How much of the market do you really own?

With 94,000 Google searches per second, search delivers very high intent traffic. By measuring your share of those intent signals, you can gain a reliable and predictive metric for brand share. 

With accurate share of search data, you can answer important questions about your overall market strategy. How does your brand performance compare to that of your competitors? How do different brands within your own portfolio stack up against one another? How much available demand are you actually capturing? 

Share of search can be used to predict demand for inventory planning purposes, for example, or to decide in which of your categories to launch a new product

Here’s what you need to know about tracking your share of search. 

A quick review of “share ofs”

Market share is the portion of a market controlled by a particular company or product. It’s usually calculated by dividing the total company sales by total industry sales. Relative market share indexes a brand’s market share against that of its leading competitor. Market concentration, a related metric, measures the degree to which a comparatively small number of firms account for a large proportion of the market. And finally, share of voice measures the percentage of advertising media spend by a company compared to the total media spend for a given product, service, or category in the market. Share of voice was once a go-to indicator for overall market share, but in digital advertising, accurately quantifying share of voice is impossible. Share of search offers a viable alternative.

To measure a brand’s performance against its competitors, however, it’s not enough to look at relative search volume. You also need to understand which terms your brand (and each of your competitors) are winning and how they stack up against one another. Done properly, share of search can give you all those insights and more.

How to calculate share of search

Although it’s possible to generate share of search for a few brand terms from Google Keyword Planner, it’s not a scalable approach. Proper measurement requires:

  • First-party data
  • The ability to capture a set of branded terms (including brand-generics) within or across categories
  • Market-level data 
  • The ability to segment by device
  • The ability to segment by region or Designated Market Area (DMA)
  • Search volume (either actual or relative) for your selected terms

With those components in hand, the ratio is straightforward

Use cases for share of search

Les Binet, who has studied share of search extensively, has identified it as a good proxy for market share (or imminent market share growth) because people generally seek information on things they already have or are about to buy. 

That simple correlation is just the beginning. The array of use cases for the share of search metric is surprisingly broad because of the variety of ways you can set up which search terms to include. For example: 

If you include brand terms only, share of search can provide:

  • A reliable indicator/predictor of market share
  • Validation that increased media spend is having a positive impact on market share
  • Understanding of brand interest or momentum vs. competitors
  • A predictor of revenue (depending on lead time)

If you measure a mix of brand and generic terms, share of search can provide: 

  1. Understanding of the branded vs. generic search space across a category  or sub-category
  • For example: are customers aware of brands in the space? What proportion of searches includes generic terms vs. specific brands? Is your marketing influencing this ratio over time?
  1. Insights into whether your strategy is impacting your brand only or the whole space
  1. Exposure of opportunities and threats
  • For example, let’s say you sell treadmills, rowing machines, elliptical trainers, and bike adapters for home gyms. You could measure generic terms across categories to assess relative search interest for those different product types and identify hot spots worthy of investment and promotion. With that benchmark in hand, you could also see over time whether your marketing activity drives an increase in search interest for your brand instead of generics or whether you have taken branded interest from other brands.

By measuring generic terms only, share of search can provide:

  • Quantification of relative interest in different product subcategories within a category over time, such as gaming laptops vs. notebooks vs. PCs or whiskey vs. gin vs. beer
  • Alerts to emerging trends in popularity, informing a wide range of decisions such as inventory management, marketing investment, or R&D 
  • A prediction of future demand by product type

The bottom line is that share of search provides a powerful tool for understanding your market, benchmarking your performance vs. competitors, and assessing if your search tactics and overall marketing strategy are having the impact you desire. Especially when you can measure your share of search by category, region, time, and location, you gain a very valuable new lever for growth. 

Learn more about the share of search metric here. 

The post How much of the market do you really own? appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Read More
Jason September 13, 2021 0 Comments

How to drive the funnel through content marketing and link building

Businesses turn to content marketing because it can be an effective method for building brand awareness and guiding customers through their sales funnel. Yet, many have been unable to capitalize on their content marketing initiatives because they haven’t covered all aspects of the customer journey, didn’t keep track of their assets and wasted resources on duplicate content, failed to create unique content or were simply unsuccessful with their outreach efforts.

In her session at SMX Convert, Eve Sangenito, director at Perficient, shared her comprehensive content strategy to engage potential customers at every point in their journey and generate backlinks for greater discoverability and higher rankings.

Understanding the customer and mapping their journey

Your content should exist to serve your brand by serving your audience — that should always be at the center of your planning and execution. “It isn’t so much about what you want to tell your audience; it’s what you understand they want to learn and what’s going to be helpful for them to learn more about your solutions and/or about your industry as a whole,” Sangenito said, adding “Just knowing where they’re coming from is one of the key elements you should be focused on.”

Mapping the journey that a customer typically goes through can also help you build your audience personas while identifying opportunities to answer common questions at each phase of the journey.

“From your business’s standpoint, you want to think about how the customer lifecycle plays into the sales funnel because you’re trying to build relationships with target audiences and target buyers,” Sangenito said.

What audiences typically search for at each stage of the funnel. “We tend to see informational queries when someone is in their awareness phase,” she said, providing the following examples of questions a consumer at the top of the funnel may be asking: “What are the options available to me? What are people saying about those options? How are other people in the market feeling about the information that’s put forth by this organization?”

In the next stage of the funnel, consumers typically seek to educate themselves via how-to articles, studies and influencers. When a potential customer gets to the consideration and evaluation phases, they’re narrowing their options, reading reviews or case studies and comparing prices.

The customer lifecycle continues after the purchase as well. Teaching your customers how to make the most out of your products or services can enrich their experience and providing accessible support via FAQs or videos, for example, will also help to maximize your chances of turning a first-time buyer into a loyal customer.

An example featuring the considerations a homebuyer might have from the start to the end of their journey.

Once you’ve mapped the journey for a particular persona, you should leverage that map to develop pillar and supporting content topics. This “content topic universe” (more on that below), will help you steer clear of irrelevant topics that may end up leaving your audience with more questions rather than guiding them further down the funnel.

Developing your content topic universe

The personas you’ve created can act as the locus of the content topic universe, enabling you to brainstorm themes that are specific to that type of customer.

“What are some of the common questions based on where they are in their life stages?,” Sangenito asked, using prospective home buyers as an example, “Are they buying a home for retirement? Are they buying a home for the first time?” Marketers can create variations of those topics for different personas and branch out to answer follow-up questions that customers are likely to ask.

Cut down on wasted resources by managing your assets. Taking and maintaining an inventory of your existing content helps you understand what assets you already have at your disposal. This can minimize resources wasted on duplicate content by, for example, helping you distinguish what assets can be updated versus what needs to be created from scratch. “Also, knowing what you have allows you to see the gaps and where your editorial calendar can go in the future,” Sangenito said.

Injecting your brand and goals into the content. Brand and market insights can inform how you actually create the content and, consequently, help to shape what that content does for your business: This is where you can insert your brand’s guidelines to ensure a consistent tone across your content marketing. You can also address topical issues in your industry, differentiate your offerings or tailor your content for a specific purpose (like social sharing), for example.

Creating unique, optimized content

Validate your topic. Before you start writing or creating the content, you’ll first need to confirm that the topic is relevant and of interest to your audience. You can validate your topic while conducting keyword research by looking at the search volume associated with the keywords you’d be targeting.

Align with search intent. Understanding intent for your target keywords is also a critical step: “You can look at the SERP and you can start to understand what kinds of content are being surfaced for someone who’s searching for this topic and you can see whether or not that would fit what you’re trying to accomplish,” Sangenito said. This is also an opportunity to do some research on the competition and how they’re performing in the search results: “[If] what’s being featured [in the search results] is all coming from a single set of organizations, there might be an opportunity to diversify by having your organization produce content on that [topic],” she added.

Differentiating your content. Emulating the top-performing search result is a pitfall you’ll want to avoid. Your competitive analysis should reveal ways to go beyond what’s already out there, enabling you to differentiate your content and your brand. Getting quotes from experts, hiring writers that specialize in the topic or even formatting (an infographic might appeal to your audience more than a listicle, for example) could be meaningful ways to differentiate.

After you’ve compiled your content brief (informed by your personas, journey map, keyword research and competitive analysis), it’s time to pass it on to your content writer or creator. “Make sure that your authors have the knowledge and expertise to write about those topics because the nuances of how they write about it versus the generalist who’s just doing research on their own can really come through and affect the content,” Sangenito said.

Optimizing and editing. Once you have your draft, SEO best practices, such as internal linking, title tag optimization and structured data, can be applied so that your audience can find more information related to your content and continue to move along the customer journey. It’s also important to conduct an editorial review before publishing to ensure that your content conveys professionalism, adheres to your brand tone and serves your business and your readers the way it should.

Building links for more traffic and better rankings

Determine what’s link-worthy. When building backlinks, it’s best to focus on promoting the most relevant and highest quality content for the audience you’re trying to tap into.

Sangenito recommends that marketers ask themselves the questions that the people they’re outreaching to are probably asking: “What’s the scope and scale? How relevant is this content that you want me to link? How many people does it potentially affect or how engaged is the base of people that it will affect and how much will they want to read it? What is that impact potential?”

Content that is able to engage audiences on an emotional level can also be an important factor in whether or not you earn the backlink.

Timing can influence how many backlinks you’re able to attract, as well. “There’s relevance to linking out to both evergreen content or seasonal content, but thinking about that in terms of when you actually publish content to generate organic links, or outreach for it, is something that you should keep top-of-mind,” she added.

Link building strategies. Link building can help you expand your discoverability, drive traffic to the most valuable assets on your site and create a sense of trustworthiness for your brand if you’re able to earn backlinks from authoritative publications. There are numerous ways to approach link building — Sangenito highlighted a few strategies, as shown below.

“You can do tactical elements, like understanding if you have broken inbound links and seeing if you can outreach to the sites that are linking to you to see if they could be updating them,” Sangenito said, adding that PR coverage may be another opportunity to turn a brand mention into a link if it isn’t one already. Reviewing your competitor’s backlinks can reveal sites that may also be open to linking to your brand as well.

Resource-based link building, which involves promoting an existing piece of content that might add value for users of other sites, can also be an effective approach depending on the quality of your content and your outreach skills.

Content marketing isn’t a “one-and-done” tactic

Once the content is created and the backlinks are earned, you’ll want to keep your momentum going by periodically auditing your content inventory and updating assets when appropriate. This will help keep the content that you’ve worked so hard to create and earn backlinks for up-to-date. That way, the content will continue to serve your audience and you can keep performing outreach for that particular asset, further strengthening your brand’s reputation, which should also mean more conversions for your business.

Want to see the whole session? Sign up to watch the entire SMX Convert learning journey on-demand.

The post How to drive the funnel through content marketing and link building appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Read More
Jason September 10, 2021 0 Comments

Second annual Search Engine Land Award for Advancing Diversity and Inclusion in Search Marketing: Nominations open

Search marketing has a diversity problem. Older data from the American Marketing Association shows that most marketing leadership is still majority white, hetero, and male. Meanwhile, the audiences we’re marketing to are more diverse and inclusive than ever. It’s a topic we’ve covered multiple times at Search Engine Land:

But it’s not one and done. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are ongoing efforts and something we need to commit to every day. This is why we’re excited to announce the second annual Search Engine Land Award for Advancing Diversity and Inclusion in Search Marketing to celebrate those individuals or organizations who are affecting real change.

We’re elated to announce that this year’s awards will include a guest judge, last year’s winner Areej AbuAli, a pillar in the SEO community and the founder of Women in Tech SEO.

You may nominate as many organizations or individuals as you feel deserve the recognition. We ask that you highlight specific initiatives conducted by the nominee and that in the nomination form you include the contact of someone who can “second” that nomination.

Nominate a person or organization now.

The post Second annual Search Engine Land Award for Advancing Diversity and Inclusion in Search Marketing: Nominations open appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Read More
Jason September 10, 2021 0 Comments

Advertisers will now get more data in Google Ads… sort of; Friday’s daily brief

Search Engine Land’s daily brief features daily insights, news, tips, and essential bits of wisdom for today’s search marketer. If you would like to read this before the rest of the internet does, sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox daily.


Good morning, Marketers, and do you remember office life?

By now you probably know I work from a coworking space. They’ve recently started construction to expand it, which is great because there will be more room! But it’s also awful because the construction noise is atrocious. To remedy this and to save the ears of the poor people I spend all day on calls with, I booked a conference room for the afternoon.

Just like at the office (remember those?), I arrived at the room for my booked time, and it was occupied. I waited until exactly noon (my reservation hour) and then politely knocked and waved. The squatters acted surprised but still took their sweet time to gather their things and leave.

I rushed in, late for my first call, and got settled. But once I got a chance to take a breath between calls I remembered that this is how it used to be all. the. time. when we actually went places to work around other people at our jobs. We did the conference room dance and awkward wave all the time!

Many businesses are saying they will stay remote or at least introduce hybrid options. I’m interested to see what new customs we come up with in these remote or partial in-office environments. I, personally, am a big fan of the “goodbye Zoom wave” myself.

Carolyn Lyden,
Director of Search Content


Google search terms report adds historical query data for impressions without clicks

As of yesterday, Google Ads will show advertisers historical data for queries that received impressions but no clicks in the search terms report for Search and Dynamic Search Ads campaigns, the company announced

“Historically, the report only ever showed queries that resulted in a click,” Pallavi Naresh, senior product manager at Google, told Search Engine Land. “We knew that advertisers wanted more data and we had to make investments in our tech stack to show this magnitude of data in Google Ads.”

And, on February 1, 2022, the company will remove historical query data collected before September 1, 2020 (the day before the company initially limited search terms reporting) that doesn’t meet its privacy thresholds.

Why we care. Advertisers are gaining access to some new data, but this update is not a reversal of the September 2020 change that initially limited search terms reporting. The additional data is for queries that received impressions but no clicks and the data is still only for “terms that were searched by a significant number of users.”

Nevertheless, this new information could be quite useful for many advertisers. The additional query data could reveal what’s failing to attract the right audience. Advertisers can use this information to build out their negative keyword lists to improve their campaign efficiency.

Read more here.


Why you shouldn’t overlook site search optimization

We all know that listening to the wants and needs of our customers is essential to delivering satisfying experiences that drive conversions.

Steve Zakur, CEO at SoloSegment, will explore the process of improving your onsite search, which in turn will help improve your business results, next week at MarTech.

Get your free pass


ICYMI: Missed the news this week? Don’t worry. We gotchu, fam.

Video and vertical-based product ads pilots arrive on Microsoft Audience Network. Disclaimers in ads, third-party integrations with Universal Event Tracking, flexible insertion orders and inline appeals for rejected product offers were also among Microsoft Advertising’s September announcements.

Google News app will display non-AMP content and send readers to publisher pages. Tracking and performance reports in Google Search Console won’t be affected.

Microsoft Ads announces optimization score. The availability of Optimization Score in Microsoft Ads now means advertisers have the option to ensure they understand all of the recommendations and consider options they may not have before.

Bing content submission API now available to all. Now you can push your content and HTML directly to Bing Search without the need for crawling.


Search Shorts: Movin’ on up (while in-house), ranking in Google Discover, prepping your holiday PPC strategy, and site manager role leaves GMB

Career progression within in-house SEO – the conundrum. Land of Rugs SEO expert, Billie Geena, runs through the top three issues in-house SEOs see in their day-to-day work.

What does it take to rank in Google Discover? With Google Discover, the user does not need to search for anything. The product is a form of queryless search: the feed of content is displayed based on the user’s interests alone and without any query being entered. So how do you show up? 

Yep, it’s already that time. Prepping your holiday paid media strategy. This post breaks down the steps your B2B business needs to refine your paid media strategy, stay competitive, and drive results during a holiday season typically dominated by B2C retailers.

It’s official. Google My Business is getting rid of the site manager role. That’s what Joy Hawkins tweeted yesterday along with a screenshot of the email from GMB.


Quote of the Day: Keep asking questions (even if they’re obvious to everyone else)

“I’m the most annoying person on the call. Every. Single. Time. Why? Because I can’t write about what I don’t understand,” explains Cain Lewis, Freelance Copywriter and Founder at Kraken. “I can’t be an expert in everything, so I’m always asking questions. They’re mostly stupid questions to everyone else on the call, but they’re necessary for me to do my job to the best of my ability – so I’ll never shy away from asking them.”

The post Advertisers will now get more data in Google Ads… sort of; Friday’s daily brief appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Read More
Jason September 10, 2021 0 Comments

How to Leverage Your Personal Brand to Support Your Mortgage Business

The definition of a brand can be boiled down to how the public perceives you, so a personal brand isn’t necessarily built around a business or even with the goal of building a business. A personal brand is built around you -encapsulating your strengths, your expertise, and your style. Because a personal brand is essentially created from scratch and is unique to you, you can leverage this power to support your mortgage business and act as a brand ambassador to the business brand.

An example of this can be found in Richard Branson. The billionaire adventurer has a well-known personal brand and uses it to complement his business brand, Virgin. Another example can be found with Oprah as she uses her personal brand as part of her multi-channel media empire, Harpo. 

The main takeaway is that while different from business brands, personal brands are powerful, influential assets –especially to mortgage businesses.

Personal Brand: Becoming An Ambassador to Your Mortgage Business

Highlight Your Accomplishments

Make an even more compelling case for the company’s expertise in the industry by sharing your experience, certifications, associations, and education. Letting prospects know about your ten years of experience in the mortgage industry or your bachelor’s degree in business administration goes a long way in building your mortgage business’ trustworthiness and professionalism

Non-business accomplishments are also great ways to trump up your mortgage business. Items like completing an Iron Man marathon or restoring a classic car to be showroom ready hint at your perseverance and commitment to excellence –admirable characteristics that are subliminally attractive to mortgage prospects. 

Make Social Media “Follow” Worthy

Individuals will follow social media accounts for various reasons, such as for humor, inspiration, advice, news, or connection. A personally branded social media profile can add another dimension to the business’s social media presence and could often hook the viewer much more readily than a business brand might be able to.

You can expand the hero story by sharing the journey on your brand social profile. For example, let’s say that several of your mortgage team decided to do the Iron Man marathon. You might post 1-2 images of them doing the race, sharing how proud the company is of these team members.

However, the personal brand can delve deeper into the journey of getting ready for the race, unfolding a hero story that resonates with followers. Thus, the personal brand compels the audience to invest emotionally, which causes them to invest emotionally into the business brand. 

Reflect Company Culture and Values

Along the same thread, a personal brand allows prospective clients to see the business culture and values in action. Sharing involvement in social causes that matter to you, such as volunteering at a local rescue mission or literacy program, demonstrates true passion and shows that community building is more than just lip service.

A personal brand also reveals true enthusiasm in providing mortgage services. A mortgage business comprised of earnest, joyful, and savvy professionals draw positive attention from all fronts.

A personal brand also reveals true enthusiasm in providing mortgage services.

Choose Both Personal and Business Brand

Having a personal brand doesn’t mean it needs to compete with the business brand. They are complementary and extend one another’s reach. So instead of thinking you need to choose one over the other, harness the influence of both to boost your mortgage business above the competition.

Check out our new personal brand mortgage templates to co-promote your mortgage business. 

Personal Brand Templates

 

Read More
Jason September 9, 2021 0 Comments

Google search terms report adds historical query data for impressions without clicks

Beginning today, Google Ads will show advertisers historical data for queries that received impressions but no clicks in the search terms report for Search and Dynamic Search Ads campaigns, the company announced Thursday. “Historically, the report only ever showed queries that resulted in a click,” Pallavi Naresh, senior product manager at Google, told Search Engine Land, “We knew that advertisers wanted more data and we had to make investments in our tech stack to show this magnitude of data in Google Ads.”

And, on February 1, 2022, the company will remove historical query data collected before September 1, 2020 (the day before the company initially limited search terms reporting) that doesn’t meet its privacy thresholds.

“Still only providing reporting for terms that a significant number of users have searched.” Last year, Google used the following message to notify advertisers that it would limit search terms reporting: “We are updating the search terms report to only include terms that were searched by a significant number of users. As a result you may see fewer terms in your report going forward.” The new query data still only includes “terms that were searched by a significant number of users.”

“It’s important to note there have been no changes to policy definitions or privacy thresholds that have contributed to making this change possible,” Naresh said, “We are still only providing reporting for terms that a significant number of users have searched for across all Google searches.”

Additional data from February 1, 2021. The additional data shown in reports will be for queries advertisers received starting on February 1, 2021.

“We started saving queries that received impressions but no clicks starting on February 1 while we were simultaneously upgrading our tech stack,” Naresh said when asked why the data starts on that particular date.

Reporting for historical query data will be limited after February 1, 2022. After February 1, 2022, historical query data collected prior to September 1, 2020, and that doesn’t meet Google’s “current privacy threshold,” will be removed from search terms reports.

“Most advertisers will continue to see most of their queries prior to Sept 1, 2020,” Naresh said, reiterating, “We are only removing historical queries that did not meet the new thresholds for search query reporting that we established in September 2020. We are removing this data as part of our ongoing effort to make our privacy thresholds consistent across Google.”

Why we care. Advertisers are gaining access to some new data, but this update is not a reversal of the September 2020 change that initially limited search terms reporting. The additional data is for queries that received impressions but no clicks and the data is still only for “terms that were searched by a significant number of users.”

Nevertheless, this new information could be quite useful for many advertisers. The additional query data could reveal what’s failing to attract the right audience. Advertisers can use this information to build out their negative keyword lists to improve their campaign efficiency.

With regards to historical query data, the company is giving us nearly five months to export all data collected before September 1, 2020. Advertisers should grab this data while they still can so they can continue to reference it — after the February 1 cutoff date, Google will be removing the portion of that data that doesn’t meet its privacy thresholds.

And, Google is saying these changes are a result of feedback from the community. While it’s certainly not a return to the level of data transparency that paid search marketers had prior to September 2020, it is an improvement. For the foreseeable future, it looks like Google is not backing down on reporting only for “terms that were searched by a significant number of users.”

More on limited search terms reporting:

The post Google search terms report adds historical query data for impressions without clicks appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Read More
Jason September 9, 2021 0 Comments

Incorrect business listings deter 63% of consumers; Thursday’s daily brief

Search Engine Land’s daily brief features daily insights, news, tips, and essential bits of wisdom for today’s search marketer. If you would like to read this before the rest of the internet does, sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox daily.


Good morning, Marketers, I spent last week in a cabin near the woods in New York.

The lack of distraction gave me time to think about some of the things that are holding me back, so I thought I’d share one with you: While on a hike, I found myself frustrated because we had been lost for some time. Apparently, that’s a given when you go hiking in a new area, but that wasn’t of much comfort to me. I couldn’t shake the need for progress, even though “progress” wasn’t the point of the hike.

The next day, I wrote “permission to change” in my notepad (read: diary). It’s to remind me that the next decision doesn’t have to be related to the previous circumstance or emotion. I didn’t need to continue to be frustrated just because I was already frustrated. Likewise, the way you do your job, teach your kids, communicate with your partner and so on doesn’t have to be dictated by your history — especially the negative patterns that may pepper that history.

It’s a cliché to say you can change whenever you want. I think you have to give yourself that permission to change and tell yourself it’s okay to try something new, which can be scary and may require some vulnerability.

Now, back to all the search marketing news you need to get your day started.

George Nguyen,
Editor


Google News app will display non-AMP content and send readers to publisher pages

As part of the page experience update, Google News will be displaying both AMP and non-AMP web content, the company announced in an email to publishers. The platform will no longer render article text from RSS feeds in the Google News app; instead, it will send readers directly to publishers’ webpages.

Why we care. We’ve known for some time that the Top Stories carousel would be open to non-AMP content, but now we know the same will go for the Google News app. The AMP requirement for Google News may have been a barrier for some publishers, but now that it’s going by the wayside, those publishers may want to get their content onto the platform to attract more readers potentially.

And, as Google stated in the announcement, the Google News performance reports in Search Console are unaffected, and your ability to track and measure traffic from Google News remains unchanged.

Read more here.


SEO tools among those marketers replaced last year

In a year when digital engagement became paramount, can you believe some marketers ripped and replaced search marketing tools? It’s true. About 16% of respondents to this year’s MarTech Replacement Survey said they replaced SEO Tools in the past year. While that’s a smaller proportion than those that said they replaced their marketing automation tools (24%), it sat right in the middle in the range of tools replaced. Get the full report here and grab your free pass to next week’s MarTech, when we’ll talk more about the results in detail.

See you at MarTech.


Microsoft Ads announces optimization score in Recommendations tab

Optimization Score is now available on the Recommendations tab in Microsoft Ads, according to the latest announcement from the company. The new scoring system helps improve advertisers’ account optimization status and potential, help advertisers spend their time more efficiently and to prioritize the optimization actions with higher impact, and track their optimization efforts over time. 

To check Optimization Score in Microsoft Ads, visit the Recommendations page in Microsoft Advertising. “You’ll see a percentage score in blue (see below). Each category of recommendations is shown with an aggregated score uplift from the recommendations belonging to it, and each recommendation is indicated with a score uplift in an ellipse on the top right of the card with a value from 0.1% to 100%, representing its estimated impact on your account or campaign performance,” wrote Cui and Ventura. If you apply or dismiss a recommendation, your score will adjust accordingly.

Read more here.


63% of consumers say incorrect information on a business listing would stop them from choosing that business

Image: BrightLocal.

A BrightLocal study of 1,141 US-based consumers found that, over the last 12 months, 76% of consumers said they have arrived at a business too early or too late because its opening hours were wrong online. An even greater proportion (77%) said that they found conflicting information on business information sites.

Why we care. Inaccurate business information has become alarmingly common since the pandemic began, and the newly established prevalence only adds to the frustration for customers. The study also found that 63% of consumers would be deterred from using a business if their listing contained inaccurate information. That’s a huge proportion of potential customers that your local business could be opening itself up to by simply maintaining accurate details across the platforms that audiences use to find them. 


I’m not crying…someone must be cutting some Brand Onions…

Your “Brand Onion.” “The Brand Onion rarely passes the ‘Factory Floor Test’ — could you share it outside of the Marketing Ivory Tower without being laughed out of the room?” said Marketoonist creator Tom Fishburne, “The strongest business communication is just plain English.” 

20% of Bing results offer direct answers.  A Financial Times article (that was mainly about Google’s MUM) from a few weeks ago reads: “The ability to extract answers from text has already enabled Bing to offer direct answers to 20% of the queries it gets, according to Ribas.” Jordi Ribas is the CVP of search and AI at Microsoft Bing, and it sounds like he’s saying that Bing serves direct answers for 20% of all queries conducted on Bing. Tip of the hat to Glenn Gabe for bringing this to our attention.

Start is Microsoft’s answer to Apple News, Google News. Microsoft Start is the company’s new, personalized news portal. It’s available as both a website and mobile app. Readers can provide feedback on the personalization algorithm via a thumbs up/down or manually add/remove interests. It’s ad-supported and began rolling out on Tuesday. Now, the questions are: Will Microsoft be able to attract users? And, will it provide value for publishers?


Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” tech is coming to Whole Foods

Amazon is testing technology that enables shoppers to walk right out of some Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores in two Whole Foods locations: Washington DC and Sherman Oaks, California.

This is the first time a major grocery chain is implementing this type of solution. Although it’s a long way away from getting adopted in most convenience stores, this trial will likely provide some critical takeaways for local businesses.

For example, how will consumers react to the new workflow, which requires them to sign in with an app? Chances are it’ll go well for Whole Foods, which has a cashback app integrated with its parent company. But, other grocery store chains may not have a customer base that’s used to opening an app every time they walk in. Also, how will employee count be affected? Will employees need to be re-trained for other duties?

Amazon has licensed its “Just Walk Out” technology to third-party retailers. If the company can demonstrate that it improves the customer experience, it might compel local businesses to give it a try. Perhaps that will afford local business owners more time to provide better customer service or simply find other ways to improve their business.

The post Incorrect business listings deter 63% of consumers; Thursday’s daily brief appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Read More
Jason September 9, 2021 0 Comments

What You Should Expect from Your Mortgage CRM Software

In recent years, mortgage CRM software has advanced by leaps and bounds. Modern CRM includes built-in tools and workflows that are changing the way that mortgages are processed. An award-winning CRM can help you grow your business and streamline the mortgage experience.

However, we understand that implementing new technologies can be a challenging process. Below, BNTouch has outlined what you should expect from your mortgage CRM software. This list should help you find the right software for your organization.

Scalability

The best mortgage CRMs will be able to grow with your business. You should expect your software to be flexible and scalable. You should also have the freedom to upgrade your service package as your needs evolve. Be wary of any software that appears inflexible or offers minimal scalability.

User-Friendly Design

 

You should also expect your CRM to be user-friendly. This is especially important if you are managing a team of loan officers. If you want your staff to be responsive to the new technology, it must be easy to use.

The best way to gauge a CRM’s user-friendliness is to schedule a demo. If you can easily complete basic tasks during a demonstration, then the software is probably a good fit. 

You should also bring a few experienced mortgage brokers to the demo. The more feedback you can gather, the better.

Marketing Automation Tools

Marketing is one of the most time-consuming tasks that your loan officers engage in. Mortgage CRM software reduces wasted time by allowing you to automate these processes. You should be able to set up automated email and text responses.

When you do this, your loan officers will be free to focus on other tasks. Consumer engagement will improve, as well, because potential clients will receive timely responses to any inquiries they might make.

Digital Document Management

The biggest appeal of upgrading your CRM is digital document management. This feature will allow your team to review documents and keep buyers in the loop. Buyers will also be able to actively participate in the mortgage process.

Follow-Up Capabilities

When you choose a great CRM platform, you should also expect it to include follow-up capabilities. The software must include tools that allow you to automatically reach out to buyers after closing.

By setting up an automated email stream, you can nourish the consumer relationship. The goal is that they will share their experiences with others and refer new clients.

Client Retention Tools

CRM software should also incorporate client retention tools. The automation software will allow you to send birthday alerts and refinance notifications. This can open the door to repeat business for your loan officers. 

Thanks to modern CRM software, you will never miss an opportunity to connect with past clients.

A World-Class Mortgage CRM from BNTouch

BNTouch’s innovative mortgage CRM software has all of these capabilities and more. We offer custom solutions to help loan officers provide an enjoyable mortgage experience. Our tools are effective, user-friendly, and affordable.

At BNTouch, we don’t want you to just take our word for it. Contact us today and request a demo. Once you have seen our mortgage CRM firsthand, you won’t want to process loans without it. 

 

Request a free demo

 

The post What You Should Expect from Your Mortgage CRM Software appeared first on .

Read More
Jason September 9, 2021 0 Comments

Microsoft Ads announces optimization score

Optimization Score is now available on the Recommendations tab in Microsoft Ads, according to the latest announcement from the company. The new scoring system is meant to help improve advertisers’ account optimization status and potential, help advertisers spend their time more efficiently and to prioritize the optimization actions with higher impact, and track their optimization efforts over time.

“Along with the overall Optimization Score, you’ll see a list of recommendations tailored specifically for your account, to help you optimize each campaign. Each recommendation displays a score uplift percentage, showing how much your optimization score will be impacted when you apply or dismiss that recommendation. Optimization Score is available at Account and Campaign level, and is shown for active Search, Shopping and Audience campaigns,” said Jessica Cui, Principal Program Manager and Cristiano Ventura Sr. Product Marketing Manager.

How to check Optimization Score in Microsoft Ads. Visit the Recommendations page in Microsoft Advertising. “You’ll see a percentage score in blue (see below). Each category of recommendations is shown with an aggregated score uplift from the recommendations belonging to it, and each recommendation is indicated with a score uplift in an ellipse on the top right of the card with a value from 0.1% to 100%, representing its estimated impact on your account or campaign performance,” wrote Cui and Ventura. If you apply or dismiss a recommendation, your score will adjust accordingly.

How is Optimization Score calculated? Microsoft Advertising looks at multiple aspects of a campaign: bidding and budgets, keywords and targeting, and ads and extensions. From there it determines if these features are fully optimized and displays recommendations for full optimization. “The recommendation is evaluated by its impact to your performance: the more performance impact from the recommendation, the greater effect on your overall score,” according to the announcement.

How to improve your scores. Any recommendation can be applied or dismissed. “You can see the total score achieved from the dismissed recommendations, showing as the light blue portion of the percentage bar. For example, if you apply or dismiss a recommendation that has a score uplift of 10%, your account’s optimization score increases by 10%. Applying or dismissing all recommendations can get you to 100% for your account,” said Microsoft Ads.

Why we care. Google has had optimization scores and the ability to apply or dismiss for a while now. This means Microsoft Advertisers will have a similar experience in the competitor platform. The availability of Optimization Score in Microsoft Ads now means advertisers have the option to ensure they understand all of the recommendations and consider options they may not have before.

The post Microsoft Ads announces optimization score appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Read More
Jason September 8, 2021 0 Comments