Today in Digital Marketing - Marketing Podcasts Near Me

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Tuesday, October 31st. Today, the Google hack taking over restaurants and local businesses. But does the near-me name trick actually work? Also, Instagram product tagging gets third-party support. Being too detailed in your product descriptions might be hurting your sales. And LinkedIn finally comes clean on just how many real users they have. I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead today in digital marketing.

Starting point is 00:00:30 I'm sure you've seen them. Restaurants usually with ridiculous names, all using the same pattern. Thai food near me or barbecue chicken near me. Often those are the real names of the restaurants, right down to the business license. You probably don't need to be told why. It's a common Google search term, and Google prioritizes brand names in ranking decisions. But does this trick actually work? To answer this question, Joy Hawkins is back.

Starting point is 00:00:59 Joy owns the Sterling Sky local SEO agency. There is no better source on local SEO than Joy and her team. So Joy, does it work? Yeah. So I've definitely seen this. We actually have a couple of local businesses too, like in the cannabis space that are doing it. It's like, you're a local cannabis. I'm like, what a name. So the problem is, is if your business name is just a keyword and you have repeat customers, that's where you run into big problems. So I always use this one as an example. We had a company named Raleigh Tree Service. And this was the issue is when you search Raleigh Tree Service,

Starting point is 00:01:34 you get a three pack with them in it, but also a bunch of competitors. And I also had a lawyer that I was consulting with, which they basically renamed their law firm, just like imagine it was Los Angeles personal injury lawyers. And the problem again, is they basically renamed their law firm, just like imagine it was Los Angeles personal injury lawyers. And the problem again, is that you get their competitors when you search their business name. So there's no way for your clients or customers to be able to find you, which is a big problem. So it kind of works in the sense that adding words into your business name is a good effective way to rank better on Google. So for new businesses, absolutely, you'd want to have like, if you're a dentist, put the word dentist in your business name.

Starting point is 00:02:09 But if that's your only name and you have no unique qualifiers, this could be a big problem for customers. So there you go. Short term gains, maybe not a good long term strategy. You can learn more about Joyce Agency at sterlingsky.ca. Instagram has updated its marketing API, allowing third-party tools to integrate product tags directly. This applies to feed photos, carousel, and existing feed videos. Previously, businesses had to manually tag products on Instagram, a process that was time-consuming. Instagram has been bulking up its APIs lately. It added the search ads placement in March and stories scheduling in May.

Starting point is 00:02:52 Of course, this functionality is in the API. It may not have yet made it over to your third-party tool of choice. If you don't see it after a couple of weeks, you could always check in with your provider to see if they plan to support it. Marketers often face the challenge of communicating the features of a product, but a recent study suggests that diving too deep into technical details might not be the best approach. When ads use complex jargon, the study found potential customers are less likely to buy the product. The paper was published last month in the Journal of Consumer Behavior. It's called When Consumers Have Difficulty Understanding Ads, How Technical Language Lowers Purchase Intention. less interested in buying a quilt described with technical language, and almost 12% less inclined to purchase laundry detergent when its ad was filled with technical terms. The reason, of course,

Starting point is 00:03:52 technical language makes products harder to understand, leading to decreased trust. Instead of focusing on the intricate details, the researchers suggest marketers highlight the benefits of a product using simple and relatable language. For instance, instead of mentioning the chemical compounds of a shampoo like biological enzymes, it's more effective to say leaves hair silky and shiny. This doesn't mean technical details should be entirely omitted, especially if they differentiate a product in a competitive market. But as with so much in our work, the primary focus should be on the benefits to the consumer. We finally know how many people really use LinkedIn. Thanks to the European Union's Digital Services Act, social media platforms operating in the EU are now required

Starting point is 00:04:42 to disclose their monthly active user numbers. This means a significant shift for LinkedIn, which previously only shared total member counts, claiming nearly a billion people. But they never did specify how many of those members were actually using the platform regularly. So anyone who opened an account 10 years ago and never went back were counted. For context, while platforms like Twitter have more than 2 billion profiles, only a fraction of those are active. Twitter's official count, 250 million. Similarly, LinkedIn's recent disclosure of its EU user counts provides insights into its actual active user base. By comparing these numbers with LinkedIn's reported member counts for each region, it's estimated that about 40% of members in each EU region are active users. Using this data, we can infer that LinkedIn might have around

Starting point is 00:05:36 397 million monthly active users globally. Another estimate, about 215 million daily active users. A recent study shows that over $100 billion will be lost this year because of acquisition efforts that result in fake leads. Check Essentials detects and blocks fake and fraudulent users in real time using thousands of cybersecurity tests on every user. Malicious bots, competitors, and spam, Check blocks them all, ensuring that every cent you spend reaches valid users who can convert and provide you with pure, clean data to rely on for your decision-making. Join over 15,000 companies that secure their ads and websites with Check. For today and digital marketing listeners, an exclusive 10% discount and a one-month free trial is yours. Tap the link in the show notes or go to b.link slash go check. That's b.link slash G-O-C-H-E-Q. Some numbers from Pinterest's Q3 report

Starting point is 00:06:55 showcases its growing relevance in the social media landscape. The platform added 17 million monthly active users, bringing its total to 482 million. This surpasses its previous peak during the 2021 pandemic spike, where it reached 478 million. As with most social platforms these days, the growth is most pronounced in the rest of world market, with Brazil and Mexico highlighted as significant growth areas. But there are challenges. While its user base grows, revenue generation remains concentrated in North America. European and US market growth has been inconsistent, and Pinterest still derives the majority of its revenue from North American users.

Starting point is 00:07:37 The company says the deeper integration of its conversions API with various commerce partners has helped grow interest in their ad products, and its recent partnership with Amazon is also working well for those brands in the test group. It looks like Google is loosening the reins on local service ads. Historically, dominant advertisers would frequently appear in the LSA spots on Google search results. This meant that advertisers with a strong account history could dominate a market, making it challenging for newer advertisers to gain visibility. But a small study has now validated that Google is rotating many more advertisers into the top LSA positions. Sterling Sky, that's Joy Hawkins' company who heard from Joy earlier,

Starting point is 00:08:23 logged LSA data every hour for four days. They looked at 124 repeated queries and noticed that Google is now rotating 10 different advertisers in the LSA top spots. This was first reported by SEO consultant Crystal Horton. You can learn more about her at crystalhorton.com. And finally, the Google Domain Registry is getting ready to usher in a playful twist to domain names with the introduction of the ING top-level domain. You know, like think.ing or listen.ing. The official opening of public registration is December 5th, but buyers can get ahead of that line by buying their way there with a one-time fee.

Starting point is 00:09:12 Even if you manage to get one, will it be worth it? The domain buy.ing is currently listed for $130,000 per year. Gotta get ready for the trick-or-treaters. I do it like a kind of a game show with a big spinny wheel every year, so gotta set that up. See you tomorrow. It's Halloween. It's Halloween. It's Halloween. It's Halloween. It's Halloween.

Starting point is 00:09:49 It's Halloween. It's Halloween.

Today in Digital Marketing - Marketing Podcasts Near Me

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