All Script And Tols For Free: 🔍 Marketing juggernaut Google Maps turns 15

🔍 Marketing juggernaut Google Maps turns 15

Feb 07, 2020

Good morning, search marketers. Google Maps is now old enough to drive, at least in a few states.

Once considered an underdog to Mapquest (RIP), Google Maps is now the most important local search tool in the market and the top traffic/impression source for real-world businesses. The platform even drives more local impressions than Google Search, by a nearly 3-to-1 ratio, according to data from GatherUp and ThriveHive.

To celebrate Maps' 15th anniversary, Google has swapped out the old For You tab of its mobile app and added Saved, Contribute (photos, reviews, content) and Updates (a feed of recommended places) tabs. It's also adding more public transit details such as temperature, accessibility, security information and whether a women's section is available. Live View, Maps' AR walking directions feature, is also slated to gain new capabilities in the future.

In commerce news, standard Shopping ads, including Showcase, are coming to Gmail. They'll be eligible to run in Gmail automatically when campaigns have opted into the Display Network. Until now, Gmail inventory was only available for Smart Shopping campaigns.

Keep on reading for a Pro Tip on how Amazon advertisers are using its demand-side platform, as well as your daily Search Shorts and more.

George Nguyen,
Associate Editor

Pro Tip

Amazon advertisers increasingly focused on awareness and consideration

"The Amazon demand-side platform allows marketers to target display inventory both on and off Amazon. Across a sample of dozens of Amazon DSP advertisers, we found that the share of spend allocated to campaigns focused on building awareness and consideration grew from 26% in Q1 2019 to 60% in Q4," explains Andy Taylor of Tinuiti. "Advertisers began 2019 allocating nearly three-quarters of all DSP spend to purchase-focused campaigns, but that share slipped to 40% by the end of the year. This increased willingness to invest in campaigns focused on more upper-funnel goals has enabled marketers to rapidly expand investment in the platform. Investing in brand awareness campaigns also has the trickle-down effect of producing more customers that have not purchased from the brand previously or who are infrequent purchasers."

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5 critical elements for local marketing success

This guide from MarTech Today examines the market for local marketing solutions and the 5 critical elements for local marketing success: Listing Management, Local SEO, Local Landing Pages, Reputation Management, and Paid Search and Social Media. Also included are profiles of 17 leading local marketing solution vendors and capabilities comparisons.

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Search Shorts

Rich results Google Search Console training

Rich results in Google Search Console. Google has released a new training video on how to monitor and manage rich results in Google search through Google Search Console. You can watch the video over here.

Googlebot name status. Martin Splitt from Google now explains that the new name for the evergreen GoogleBot is only 100% live for when the page is being rendered, not being fetched the first time.

Google Search Console confusion. Google had a bug with Google Tag Manager verification with Search Console, so they auto-reverified a bunch of properties, which lead to security confusion for some.

Score a free ticket to SMX!

Become a Search Engine Land MVP, refer your friends, and you could win a cool MVP prize pack, including a Search Engine Land t-shirt, sweatshirt — even a FREE ticket to SMX!

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