Google Maps and Google Business Profiles are only two of many local products Google is doubling down on. If you want to maximize your Local SEO and Local Paid strategy you need to understand how Google indexes the real world and how to connect Google to your 1st-party-data on locations. It is Google's gigantic database of the physical world that will make Augmented reality a relevant experience. But how to utilise this to unlock growth for your physical stores? In this presentation, we are showcasing the tactics and tools that every search marketer with Local clients should employ today and tomorrow. If you want to increase your local visibility and grow your Store Visits, be sure to get the most out of Google's Local products, from Business Profiles to (Local) Performance Max.
Future-proof Omnichannel tactics & strategies, ready to be taken into action.
Google's Search Index of the Real World - SMX Munich - Arjan ter Huurne - Abovo Maxlead - external.pptx
1. Fueling Growth for your Local Online
Business and your Physical Stores
Google’s Search Index of the
Real World
Arjan ter Huurne
Abovo-Maxlead,
media & marketing agency
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Maxlead
Arjan ter Huurne (43)
1998 : 2006 - International Business, Marketing Master
2006 : 2011 - Relationship Manager Benelux agencies (Dublin)
2011 : 2019 - Director Business Development & Innovation
2019 : ... - Chief Growth Officer
International agency networks - Digital Leadership
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*Brandify Local Search Consumer Survey, 2019
What types of businesses have you
looked up online in the last 30 days?
Local listings - across many verticals / use-cases
Which tools do you use to find
information about business near you?
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Review site % of reviews Vertical
Google 73% General
Yelp 6%
Restaurants, Dentists,
Bars, Beauty Salons, Doctors
Facebook 3% General
Tripadvisor 3% Travel, Restaurants
Trustpilot 3% Ecommerce / business
OpenTable 2% Restaurants
Booking 1% Travel
BBB (Better Business
Bureau) 1% Business
*2021 Reviewtrackers research ‘Top Business Directory Sites’
Google is dominating the local review space
in sheer volume of reviews
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46% of new Google reviews do not
have text - just star ratings
Very low barrier to enter a review => low added value to each review
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Polar opposite? TikTok reviews
Immersive & inspiring content
“In our studies, something like almost 40% of young people, when
they’re looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or
Search. They go to TikTok or Instagram.”*
*Senior VP Prabhakar Raghavan, Google’s Knowledge & Information organization
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Who feeds the data into Google
Business Profiles?
Back to Google
Directories, scrapers, street-scanners?
UGC incl. >150 million Local Guides Business owners & SMX Visitors
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Business owners should
care about GBP
*Google says
Complete, frequently updated Business Profiles
Get 5X more views
Considered 3X more reputable
Customers 70% more likely to visit
Customers 50% more likely to purchase
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GMB -> GBP
GBP multi-location dashboard -> NMX
Google is taking away control for power users
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Who is responsible for
Online location management?
Ambiguity leads to corrupt
data & mistakes
Manual data processing
is problematic/impossible
Head office?
Regional managers?
Store Managers?
OPEN
LONG RATINGS
REVIEW
CLOSE
ADDRESS
PHOTO
VIDEO
URL
URL
VIDEO
CLOSED
OPEN
LONG
RATINGS
REVIEW
NAME
ADDRESS
PHOTO
Local Business Information - by Business Owners
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Local search term data - brand new
Download and analyse the search
terms triggering Local impressions
via the API
Upload content / create posts
Keep local listings data fresh
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Easy A/B Testing for multi location
marketeers
Speed up decision making & prove impact of optimisations
See how changes impact the relative share of impressions in test vs control groups
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Maximise your 1st party data
Your stores = your 1st party data goldmine
Your 1P
Offline inventory feed
Your 1P
Store information.
Your 1P
Store sales feed.
Better customer
experience
Local search traffic
Local campaigns,
dynamic at scale
Insights in ROPO
effect
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Maxlead More and more local SERP features
Additional vertical sources
(pos. 1)
Google
local box
(pos. 2)
first 2 text results (pos. 5
and 6)
Google
People also
ask (pos. 7)
3rd text
result
(pos. 8)
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Multisearch - visual search
Snap a picture and find the product near me
GBP Product Editor + Popular Dishes (for SMB)
Local Inventory Ads /
Local Product Inventory feed in Google Merchant
Centre
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Two core strategies to connect
consumers with businesses nearby
Grow traffic to stores and sales (offline only)
Grow total sales (online + offline)
to meet customers where they feel
comfortable shopping as online and
offline conversions fluctuate
Omnichannel approach
to provide customers with the information
that they need to help them decide when
and how to visit the stores
Store-centric approach
Grow offline sales with key Google solutions
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2 key campaign formats
Two core strategies to connect consumers with businesses nearby
Grow traffic to stores and sales (offline only)
Grow total sales (online + offline)
Online-conversion Local Ads (OLA)
PMax with Store & Online Goals
Omnichannel approach
Performance Max for Store Goals
Local Inventory Ads
Store-centric approach
Grow offline sales with key Google solutions
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Store visits measurement - common knowledge?
Visits
store
Signed-in and
opted into
location history
Interacts with
a Google ad
Your Store
Store visits extrapolated
to the population,
aggregated and
anonymized
Store Visits
Mapping
Technology
Deep
Learning
Survey
Verification
Location
History Opt-ins
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Optimize towards the full value of
online and offline sales
Online Sales
Digital Budget
Online
Conv. Value
Online
ROI
Omnichannel ROAS
Store Visits Store Sales Offline
ROI
Ad
Omnichannel Strategy
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Right person + time + message + platform
Automatic optimisation towards bringing
incremental Store Visits
Performance Max for
store goals objectives
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Ad Creative Placements (Location Assets)
Performance Max for Store Goals
Ad · Phil’s Furniture
In-store shopping・ Curbside pickup
Search
Ad creative labels Headline Description
Gmail
Shop the big summer sale in-store and
get your dream furniture.
Get 25% Off
Call to action URL Brand logo Image Video
Maps Business Profile
Ad · Phil’s Furniture - Get 25% Off
Ad · Phil’s Furniture - Get 25% Off
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Ad Creative Placements (Location Assets)
Performance Max for Store Goals
Youtube YT Home Feed Display
Phil’s Furniture | Order Online Today & Pick up
Curbside At Local Store
Phil’s Furniture
Phil’s Furniture - 2 stores near Mountain View
VISIT STORE
Phil’s Furniture
Get 25% Off
Shop the big summer sale in-storeand
get your dream furniture
Phil’s Furniture OPEN 11AM-9PM
Ad creative labels Headline Description Call to action URL Brand logo Image Video
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New to PMax: Audience Signals
A new innovative and more efficient way to reach your most valuable audiences
Audience Signals is built to help
advertisers speed up the campaign
learning period while also steering
automation with the best of Google's
automated targeting technology.
The power of
Google automated
targeting
Your own
Audience Signals*
As advertisers build Performance Max campaigns, Audience Signals allow them to influence
automation by directly indicating the audiences that are most relevant to their business and
that have the highest likelihood of conversion.
*Google might expand beyond audiences that are selected if we predict that will help you reach your campaign's marketing objectives
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Smart Bidding offers unparalleled
auction-time optimization
Google says…
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8
Ad
click
Online
order
Store
visit or
Store
sale
Optimizes for the unique
value of each opportunity
Incorporates both online
and offline conversions
Predicting probability %
Predicting probability %
A Nexus tablet, at 4:36pm in
Wrigleyville, using Firefox,
misspelling a word in the query
A desktop at 7pm in Phoenix
Lower
Higher
BID
Even better, build your own predictive model for Offline Conversions in Google Cloud!
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Online-conversion Local Ads (OLA)
Most exciting local campaign tactic!
Build ads relevant to thousands of locations with
customized creatives at scale using feeds (i.e.
Business Data)
Why not target all of your competitors? Just gotta
scrape their GBP names…
31% of users leaving reviews are Local Guides
60-70% of reviews come from Local Guides
Google prioritizes their reviews
Local Guides added 8m places in a year + updated business attributes on 17m