Every year, Search Engine Land is delighted to celebrate the best of search marketing by rewarding the agencies, in-house teams, and individuals worldwide for delivering exceptional results.
Today, I’m excited to announce all 18 winners of the 11th annual Search Engine Land Awards.
The 2025 Search Engine Land Awards winners
Best Use Of AI Technology In Search Marketing
15x ROAS with AI: How CAMP Digital Redefined Paid Search for Home Services
ATRA & Jason Stone Injury Lawyers – Leveraging CRM Data to Scale Case Volume
Best Commerce Search Marketing Initiative – PPC
Adwise & Azerty – 126% uplift in profit from paid advertising & 1 percent point net margin business uplift by advanced cross-channel bucketing
Best Local Search Marketing Initiative – PPC
How We Crushed Belron’s Lead Target by 238% With an AI-Powered Local Strategy (Adviso)
Best B2B Search Marketing Initiative – PPC
Blackbird PPC and Customer.io: Advanced Data Integration to Drive 239% Revenue Increase with 12% Greater Lead Efficiency, with MMM Future-Proofing 2025 Growth
Best Integration Of Search Into Omnichannel Marketing
How NBC used search to drive +2,573 accounts in a Full-Funnel Media Push (Adviso)
Best Overall SEO Initiative – Small Business
Digital Hitmen & Elite Tune: The Toyota Shift That Delivered 678% SEO ROI
Best Overall SEO Initiative – Enterprise
825 Million Clicks, Zero Content Edits: How Amsive Engineered MSN’s Technical SEO Turnaround
Best Commerce Search Marketing Initiative – SEO
Scaling Non-Branded SEO for Assouline to Drive +26% Organic Revenue Uplift (Block & Tam)
Best Local Search Marketing Initiative – SEO
Building an Unbeatable Foundation for Success: Using Hyperlocal SEO to Build Exceptional ROI (Digital Hitmen)
Best B2B Search Marketing Initiative – SEO
Page One, Pipeline Won: The B2B SEO Playbook That Turned 320 Visitors into $10.75M in Pipeline (LeadCoverage)
Agency Of The Year – PPC
Driving Growth Where Search Happens: Stella Rising’s Paid Search Transformation
Agency Of The Year – SEO
How Amsive Rescued MSN’s Global Visibility Through Enterprise Technical SEO at Scale
In-House Team Of The Year – SEO
How the American Cancer Society’s Lean SEO Team Drove Enterprise-Wide Consolidation and AI Search Visibility Gains for Cancer.org
Search Marketer Of The Year
Mike King, founder and CEO of iPullRank
Small Agency Of The Year – PPC
ATRA & Jason Stone Injury Lawyers – Leveraging CRM Data to Scale Case Volume
Small Agency Of The Year – SEO
From Zero to Top of the Leaderboard: Bloom Digital Drives Big Growth With Small SEO Budgets
“I’m going to SMX Next!”
Select winners of the 2025 Search Engine Land Awards will be invited to speak live at SMX Next during our two ask-me-anything-style sessions. Bring your burning SEO and PPC questions to ask this award-winning panel of search marketers!
Congrats again to all the winners. And huge thank yous to everyone who entered the 2025 Search Engine Land Awards, the finalists, and our fantastic panel of judges for this year’s awards.
https://i0.wp.com/dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/best-use-of-AI-in-search-marketing-search-engine-land-awards-2025-BqBNkX.webp?fit=1920%2C600&ssl=16001920http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-10-27 14:00:002025-10-27 14:00:00Search Engine Land Awards 2025: And the winners are…
What Is AI Optimization (And Why You Should Care)?
AI optimization is the process of making your website accessible and understandable to AI-powered search tools. Like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overview, and Bing Copilot.
Some call it “AI search optimization.” Others “AI content optimization.”
Terminologies vary, but they’re all about the same thing:
Make your site easy for large language models (LLMs) to find, understand, and reference in their answers.
It’s not a brand-new strategy. It’s built on the core SEO principles.
Only now, you’re optimizing for tools that pull, summarize, and use your information — not just rank.
But why is AI optimization so important now?
AI tools are expected to drive more traffic than traditional search engines by 2028.
And here’s the kicker:
This traffic pool is only getting bigger.
Over 700 million people use ChatGPT every week. Millions more use Perplexity, Gemini, and other AI platforms.
Google’s AI Mode already has more than 100 million monthly active users. And that’s just in the US and India.
As it rolls out globally, adoption will only grow.
AI search optimization helps you be visible to these users.
It ensures your site appears in AI-powered search results, increasing your chances of getting referral traffic and finding new customers.
How AI Search Works
LLMs find relevant content across the web based on users’ prompts, then combines it into one comprehensive answer with source links.
There are three broad steps:
1. Understanding Your Prompt
First, AI interprets what you’re asking.
Some platforms (and specific models) may even expand or tweak your query for better results.
For instance, if I search “best sneakers,” ChatGPT’s o3 model searches for more specific phrases like “best running shoes 2025.”
2. Retrieval
Next, the AI platform searches for information in real time.
Different platforms use different sources (Google’s index, Bing, curated databases, etc.). But they all work the same way.
They gather relevant content from across the web for your expanded query.
3. Synthesis
Finally, AI decides which sources to include.
How?
The exact criteria aren’t public. But these factors seem to matter the most:
Authority: Recognized brands (entities it knows) and established experts
Structure: Clear, scannable content with direct answers
Context: Content that covers topics semantically (related concepts, not just keyword matches)
The most relevant sources get cited. The rest get ignored.
Which means ranking well isn’t enough. Your content also needs to be properly structured for AI systems.
I Analyzed 10 Queries Across Multiple AI Search Platforms: Here’s What I Found
Before we move forward to discuss how to optimize for AI search, I wanted to understand three things:
Do different AI platforms cite different types of content?
Which domains consistently appear across platforms?
Does multi-platform presence actually matter for AI visibility?
So I ran a simple experiment.
I searched 10 queries across ChatGPT 5, Claude Sonnet 4, Perplexity (Sonar model), Gemini 2.5 Flash, and Google’s AI Mode — a mix of commercial, informational, local, and trending topics.
And I found some interesting insights.
How Each Platform Chooses Sources
Platforms
Citation Behavior
ChatGPT
Acts like a community aggregator. Mixes Reddit discussions with Wikipedia and review sites.
Claude
Prefers recent, authoritative sources. Zero Reddit citations. Focuses on 2024-2025 content
Perplexity
Most diverse. Balances buying guides, YouTube reviews, and some Reddit.
Gemini
Relies mostly on training data. And since there’s no option to turn on web search, you can’t get it to cite sources for most of your queries.
Google AI Mode
Pulls from beyond top search results. 50% of citations weren’t on page one of Google.
The “Citation Core” Effect
Certain domains have achieved what we call the “citation core” status.
Citation core (n.): A small group of sites and brands that every major AI search tool trusts, cites, and uses as default sources.
Wikipedia showed up 16 times. Mayo Clinic owned health queries. RTINGS controlled electronics reviews.
These sites have become AI’s default sources.
What This Means for Brand Sites
One pattern jumped out: Official brand websites were underrepresented.
In my test, they made up around ~10% of all citations.
But that doesn’t mean your site doesn’t matter for informational or educational queries.
It means most sites aren’t yet AI-friendly. And that’s the opportunity.
When your site is structured, detailed, and optimized, it becomes one of the few brand-owned sources AI can actually cite for product specs, features, case studies, and stats. Information third-party sites can’t provide.
Think of it like this: Your website gives you the authoritative base layer. Off-site presence just amplifies it.
These findings aren’t surprising. But they reinforce what we’ve suspected all along.
In fact, a lot of what we do here at Backlinko aligns with these patterns:
Google’s guideline says good SEO is good AI optimization.
Their official guidelines mostly rehash standard SEO practices, with a few AI-specific points. Like using preview controls and ensuring structured data matches visible content.
But the foundation to make your site AI search-ready starts with three teams working in sync:
Developers: They make your site technically accessible to AI crawlers
SEOs: They structure content so AI can extract and understand it
Content teams: They create information worth extracting
Most companies treat these as separate projects.
That’s a mistake.
Leigh McKenzie, Head of SEO at Backlinko, explains why:
“Ranking in Google doesn’t guarantee you’ll show up in AI tools. SEO is still table stakes. But generative engines don’t just lift the top results. They scan at a semantic level, fan queries out into dozens of variants, and stitch together answers from multiple sources.”
You’ll need a coordinated effort to execute.
Let’s look at exactly what each team needs to do for effective AI search optimization.
Note: Most traditional SEO practices work for AI optimization too.
I’m not covering the basics here, like using sitemaps and including metadata. You should already be doing those.
Instead, I’m focusing on factors that specifically impact AI search visibility. These are insights based on my own experience, analyzing what’s working across different sites, and comparing notes with other SEOs.
Want the complete list?
I’ve created an AI Search Engine Optimization Checklist that covers everything — the well-known tactics, the experimental ones, and the “can’t hurt to try” optimizations that might give you an edge.
Developer Tasks
Understanding how to optimize for AI search starts with your developers. Because they control whether AI can actually access and understand your content.
No access means no citations.
Here’s what they need to check:
1. Make Your Site Accessible to AI Crawlers
AI crawlers need permission to access your site through your robots.txt file.
If you block them, your content won’t appear in AI search results.
Here are the main AI crawlers:
GPTBot (OpenAI/ChatGPT)
Google-Extended (Google’s AI Overview)
Claude-Web (Anthropic/Claude)
PerplexityBot (Perplexity)
To check if you’re blocking them, go to yoursite.com/robots.txt.
Look for any lines that say “Disallow” next to these crawler names.
If you find them blocked (or want to make sure they’re allowed), add these lines to your robots.txt:
Your developers handled the technical requirements. AI can now access your site.
But access doesn’t guarantee visibility in AI results.
Your SEO team controls how AI discovers, understands, and prioritizes your content.
Here’s what they need to control in your AI SEO strategy:
7. Structure Pages for Fragment-Friendly Indexing
AI pulls specific fragments from your pages — sentences and paragraphs it can use in responses.
Your page structure affects how easily AI can extract these fragments.
Start with a clean heading hierarchy.
Proper H2s and H3s help AI (and your readers) understand where one idea ends and another begins.
Go a step further by breaking big topics into unique subsections.
Instead of one giant guide to “healthy recipes,” create separate sections for “healthy breakfast recipes,” “healthy lunch recipes,” and “healthy dinner recipes.”
That way, you match the variations people actually search for.
Pro tip: Don’t bury your best insights in long paragraphs.
Use callouts (like this one)
Add short lists and bullets
Drop quick tables for comparisons
That’s how you turn raw text into structured fragments AI can actually use.
When your content is structured this way, every section becomes a potential answer.
8. Build Topic Clusters That Signal Full Coverage
Internal linking creates topical connections across your site.
When you link related pages together, you’re building topic clusters that show comprehensive coverage.
This is standard SEO practice that also helps AI discovery.
Create pillar pages for your main topics. These are comprehensive guides that link out to all related content.
For “project management,” your pillar would link to:
Task automation guide
Team collaboration tools
Workflow optimization
Resource planning
Each supporting page links back to the pillar and to other relevant pages in the cluster.
This helps both users and AI understand page relationships.
The cluster structure accomplishes two things:
First, it improves crawl efficiency. AI finds your hub and immediately discovers all related content through the links.
Second, it demonstrates topical depth. Organized clusters show comprehensive coverage better than scattered pages.
This structural approach helps organize your site architecture to showcase expertise through strategic internal linking.
9. Add Schema Markup to Label Your Content
When AI crawls your page, it sees text.
But it doesn’t know (without natural language processing) if that text is a recipe, a review, or a how-to guide.
Schema explicitly labels each element of the page.
It makes data more structured and easier to understand.
There are several types of schema markups.
I’ve found the FAQ schema particularly effective for AI search visibility.
Here’s how it looks:
json{
"@type": "FAQPage",
"mainEntity": [{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "What is churn rate?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "Churn rate is the percentage of customers who cancel during a specific period."
}
}]
}
This markup tells AI exactly where to find questions and answers on your page.
The Q&A format matches how AI structures many of its responses, making your content easy to process.
Depending on the content management system (CMS) you’re using, you can add schema using plugins, add-ons, or manually.
For instance, WordPress has several good plugins.
After implementation, you can test it at validator.schema.org to ensure it’s working properly.
Note: Schema is just one type of metadata. Others include title tags, meta descriptions, and Open Graph tags.
Keeping them accurate and consistent may help AI platforms interpret your content correctly.
You can check your metadata using browser dev tools or SEO extensions, like SEO META in 1 CLICK.
10. Add Detailed Content to Category and Product Pages
Most category pages are just product grids. That’s a missed opportunity for AI search optimization.
The same goes for individual product pages with just specs and a buy button.
These pages get tons of commercial searches.
But they lack substantial content.
So, AI has limited information to work with when answering product queries.
You want to add buyer-focused information directly on these pages, like this:
They can cover:
Feature comparison tables
Common questions with clear answers
Use cases and industry applications
Technical specifications that matter
For product pages, go beyond basic descriptions.
Include materials, dimensions, compatibility, warranties, reviews — whatever matters to your buyers.
For example, GlassesUSA.com has several details on its product pages than just product specifications.
They include information that AI can use when answering specific questions.
Similarly, for category pages, add content that helps buyers choose.
What’s the difference between options? What should they consider? Which product fits which need?
Eyewear retailer Frames Direct does this well.
It has detailed content at the end of its category pages.
The key is putting this information directly on the page. Not hiding it behind tabs or “read more” buttons.
When someone asks AI about products in your category, you want substance it can quote. Not just a grid of images it can’t interpret.
11. Track Where AI Mentions Your Brand (and Where It Doesn’t)
You need to know where AI is mentioning your brand and where it isn’t.
Because if competitors appear in AI results and you don’t, they’re capturing the traffic you should be getting.
You can try checking this manually.
Run your target queries (e.g., “nutrition tracking app 2025”) across different AI platforms.
Scan the answers. And see if your brand shows up.
But that’s slow. And you’ll only catch a small slice of what’s happening.
It tracks how often your brand appears in AI-generated answers across various platforms like ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Google AI Overview. (In the “Visibility Overview” report.)
You can see exactly which topics and prompts your brand appears for.
And which prompts your competitors appear for, but you don’t. (In the “Competitor Research” report.)
For instance, if you find that AI cites competitors for “Cats and Feline Care” but skips your brand, that’s a clear signal to create or optimize a page targeting that exact query.
You also get strategic recommendations. So you can spot gaps, fix weak content, and double down where you’re already winning. (In the “Brand Performance” reports.)
With a tool like AI SEO Toolkit, you’re not guessing about your AI search visibility.
You’re improving based on real AI visibility data.
12. Optimize for Natural Language Prompts, Not Just Keywords
But they ask AI, “What’s the warmest jacket for Chicago winters under $300?”
Your content needs to match these natural language patterns.
Start by identifying how people actually phrase questions in your industry.
Use the AI SEO Toolkit to find high-value prompts in your industry.
Go to the “Narrative Drivers” report.
And scroll down to the “All Questions” section to see which prompts mention your brand and where competitors appear instead.
Document these prompt patterns.
Share them with your content team to create pages that answer these specific questions — not just target the base keyword.
The goal isn’t abandoning keywords.
It’s expanding from “winter jacket” pages to content that answers “warmest jacket for Chicago winters under $300.”
Content Tasks
Your site is technically ready. Your SEO is taken care of.
Now your content team needs to create valuable information and build presence across the web.
Here’s how to optimize content for AI search:
13. Publish Original Content with Data, Examples, and Insights
Generic blog posts restating common knowledge rarely perform well in AI search results.
But content with fresh angles and concrete examples does.
At Backlinko, we focus on publishing content that provides unique value through examples, original research, and exclusive insights.
Like this article:
And even if we’re talking about a common topic (e.g., organic traffic), we add fresh examples.
So how do you make your content stand out?
Run small studies or polls to produce original data. Even simple numbers can set your content apart.
Use screenshots, case studies, and workflows from real projects.
Back up your points with stats and cite credible sources.
Add expert quotes to strengthen authority.
Test tools or strategies yourself, and share the actual results.
AI systems look for concrete details they can pull into answers.
The more unique evidence, examples, and voices you add, the better.
14. Embed Your Brand Name in Context-Inclusive Copy
Context-inclusive copy means writing sentences that make sense on their own.
Each line should carry enough detail that an AI system understands it without needing the surrounding text.
But take that a step further.
Don’t just make your sentences self-contained.
Embed your brand name inside them so when AI reuses a fragment, your company is part of the answer.
Instead of: “Our tool helped increase conversions by 25%”
Write: “[Product] helped [client] increase checkout completions by 25%”
The second version keeps your brand attached to the insight when AI extracts it.
So how do you do this in practice?
With data: Tie your brand name directly to research findings or surveys you publish
With comparisons: Mention your brand alongside alternatives, so it’s always part of the conversation
With tutorials: Show steps using your product or service in real workflows
With results: Attach your brand name to case studies and examples
Here’s an example from Semrush, using their brand name vs. “we”:
The goal is simple:
Every quotable fragment should carry both context and your brand name.
That way, when AI pulls it into an answer, your company is mentioned too.
15. Create Pages for Every Use Case, Feature, and Integration
Specific pages are more likely to appear in AI responses than generic ones.
So, don’t bundle all features on one page.
Create dedicated pages for each major feature, use case, and integration.
Here’s an example of JustCall doing it right with unique pages for each of its main features and use cases:
The strategy is simple: match how people actually search.
For instance, someone looking for “Slack integration” wants a page about that specific integration. Not a features page where Slack is item #12 in a list.
Structure these pages to answer real questions, like:
What problem does this solve?
Who typically uses it?
How does it actually work?
What specific outcomes can they expect?
Get granular with your targeting. Instead of broad topics, focus on specific scenarios.
For example:
→ Ecommerce sites can create pages for each product application
→ Service businesses can detail each service variation
→ Publishers can target specific reader scenarios
The depth of coverage signals expertise while giving AI exact matches for detailed queries.
This specificity is what makes AI content optimization work. You’re creating exactly what AI systems need to cite
16. Expand Your Reach Through Non-Owned Channels
AI engines lean heavily on third-party sources. Which means your brand needs to show up in places you don’t fully control.
This goes beyond your on-site efforts.
But it’s still part of the bigger AI visibility play. And your content team can drive it by publishing externally and fueling PR.
Take this example: when I search “best duffel bags for men 2025” in Claude, it references an Outdoor Gear Lab roundup of top bags.
If you sell duffels, you’d want to be in that article.
There are two ways to expand your presence on non-owned channels.
One is publishing on other sites yourself — guest posts, bylined articles, or original research placed on authority blogs and industry outlets.
These extend your reach, position you as an expert, and increase your AI search visibility.
You’ll find guest post opportunities in several well-known sites. Like Fast Company here, which has an authority score of 67.
The other way to build visibility is getting featured by others.
Think reviews, roundups, and product comparisons that highlight your solution.
This usually involves working closely with your PR team.
But the content team fuels those opportunities with the data, case studies, and assets that make the pitch worth covering.
Either way, the goal of this AI content strategy is the same: substantive coverage.
A one-line mention usually isn’t enough. You need full features, detailed reviews, or exclusive insights that stand out.
Because the more credible coverage you earn (whether you wrote it or someone else did), the more evidence AI has to pull into its answers.
http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png00http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-10-22 14:05:192025-10-22 14:05:19AI Optimization: How to Rank in AI Search (+ Checklist)
The message from this month’s SEO Update is clear: AI and data accuracy are reshaping how we plan, optimize, and measure SEO. This is not just a slate of updates, but a signal to rethink impressions, content creation, and tooling so you stay effective. Chris Scott, Yoast’s Senior Marketing Manager, hosted the session. Alex Moss and Carolyn Shelby shared deep dives on AI trends, Google updates, and Yoast product news.
Data and rankings in flux
A key shift centers on data. Google removed the num=100 parameter, which changed how much ranking data shows up per page in Google Search Console. The result isn’t a sudden performance drop; it’s a correction. Impressions can look lower because the data is being cleaned up, and that matters more than the raw numbers. Paid search data stays solid, since ads rely on precise counting for financial reasons.
AI content and media: use it, don’t rely on it
Sora 2 can generate short videos from text prompts, providing handy visuals to accompany blog posts. Use AI visuals to complement your core messaging, not to replace it. In e-commerce, Walmart, WooCommerce, and Shopify are testing AI-enabled shopping features. Don’t rush a full switch before major buying events.
Local SEO and engines beyond Google
Bing’s Business Manager now has a refreshed UI focused on local listings, signaling a push into local search. Diversifying beyond Google can reveal new AI-powered opportunities. It’s about testing where AI-driven search and shopping perform best, not moving budgets blindly.
AI mode and how people behave
Research into AI-dominant sessions shows a distinct pattern: users linger 50 to 80 seconds on AI-generated text, and clicks tend to be transactional. Intent patterns shift, too. Now, comparisons lead to review sites, decisive purchases land on product pages, and local tasks point to maps and assets.
Meta descriptions and AI generation
Google tested AI-generated descriptions for threads lacking meta content, but meta descriptions aren’t obsolete. Best practice is to lean on Yoast’s default meta templates (like %excerpt%) as a reliable fallback. Write with an inverted pyramid in mind, which puts key information first, so AI can extract it cleanly. Keep a fallback description in Yoast SEO so automation stays under your control.
AI in everyday workflows
ChatGPT updates push toward more human-to-human interactions, and tools like Slack can summarize threads and search discussions by meaning, not just keywords. Growth in AI usage feels steadier now; some younger users opt for other AI tools.
Insights from Microsoft and Google
The core rules haven’t changed: concise, unique, value-packed content wins. Shorter, focused writing works best for AI synthesis; trim fluff and sharpen clarity. The message is simple because clarity beats complexity, especially as AI becomes more central to how content is consumed.
Yoast product updates to watch
The Yoast SEO AI+ bundle adds AI Brand Insights to track mentions and citations in AI outputs, and pronoun support has been added to schema markup for inclusivity. If you’re tracking AI relevance beyond traditional signals, this bundle can be a smart addition.
http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png00http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-10-22 13:11:592025-10-22 13:11:59A recap of the October 2025 SEO Update by Yoast
Yelp just unveiled its 2025 Fall Product Release, a sweeping AI-driven update that turns the local discovery platform into a more conversational, visual, and intelligent experience.
Driving the news: Yelp’s rollout includes over 35 new AI-powered features, headlined by:
Yelp Assistant, an upgraded chatbot that instantly answers customer questions about restaurants, shops, or attractions—citing reviews and photos.
Menu Vision, which lets users scan menus to see photos, reviews, and dish details in real time.
Yelp Host and Yelp Receptionist, AI-powered call solutions that handle reservations, collect leads, and answer questions with natural, customizable voices.
Natural language and voice search, allowing users to search conversationally (“best vegan sushi near me”) for smarter, more relevant results.
Popular Offerings, which highlights a business’s most-mentioned services, products, or experiences.
Why we care. Yelp’s new AI tools make it easier to capture and convert high-intent customers at the moment of discovery. With features like Yelp Assistant, AI-powered call handling, and natural language search, businesses can respond instantly, stay visible in smarter search results, and never miss a lead. The update turns Yelp from a review site into an always-on customer engagement platform—giving advertisers more efficient ways to connect, communicate, and close.
What’s next. Yelp plans to make its AI assistant the primary interface for discovery and transactions in 2026, merging instant answers, booking, and customer messaging into one seamless experience.
The bottom line. Yelp’s latest AI release gives brands smarter tools to engage customers in real time—turning everyday search and service interactions into instant connections.
https://i0.wp.com/dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-21-at-19.18.04-kjKpB5.png?fit=776%2C1386&ssl=11386776http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-10-21 18:25:342025-10-21 18:25:34Yelp’s new tools help brands connect faster and engage customers in real time
Google Merchant Center is rolling out a new Issue Details Page (IDP) to help advertisers more easily diagnose and resolve account or product-level problems.
How it works:
Located under the “Needs attention” tab, the page provides a consolidated overview of current issues.
It surfaces recommended actions, business impact metrics, and sample affected products — giving merchants a clearer sense of what to fix first.
Why we care. Until now, identifying and fixing issues in Merchant Center often required navigating multiple sections and reports. The new Issue Details Page (IDP) in Google Merchant Center gives advertisers a single place to view and fix account or product issues.
It highlights the problem’s impact, recommends actions, and shows affected products, helping advertisers resolve issues faster and keep listings active. In short, it saves time, improves visibility, and helps prevent lost sales.
The big picture. The update is part of Google’s broader push to improve Merchant Center usability ahead of the holiday shopping season, when product accuracy and uptime are critical for advertisers.
The bottom line.Google’s new IDP could save advertisers time and guesswork by putting all issue diagnostics and solutions in one place.
First seen. The newly released help doc was spotted by PPC News Feed founder, Hana Kobzová
It’s true that YouTube Ads perform very well for ecommerce advertising aimed at consumers. But YouTube can also help drive B2B leads.
You might be scratching your head and saying, “But I’ve tried YouTube for B2B. It doesn’t convert.” And you would be right.
YouTube Ads for B2B rarely convert directly into leads. Complex products with long sales cycles are not going to sell themselves in one video.
But YouTube campaigns definitely have a positive influence on B2B lead generation – we’ve seen it across nearly all of our B2B clients.
Here are two case studies, featuring very different advertisers, that show how YouTube Ads can be used to increase B2B conversions.
Case study 1: Enterprise B2B SaaS advertiser
One of our enterprise B2B SaaS clients offers multiple business solutions.
Paid search is a strong lead source for most of them, but two struggled to convert – traffic was steady, yet the cost per lead was high.
When we dug in, we found that users weren’t aware of these solutions or how they addressed specific business needs. The landing page content wasn’t persuasive enough.
We tested YouTube video campaigns that clearly explained each solution’s value. The impact was undeniable.
Comparing search performance from the quarter before video to the quarter during, we saw key metrics – CTR, CPC, cost per lead, and conversion rate – all improve.
Here, CTR improved significantly with the video live, which indicates that users had a better understanding of the solution after seeing the video.
This led to a lower CPC, which, combined with a slightly improved conversion rate, lowered cost per lead by 30%.
With the second solution, the results were even more dramatic.
For this solution, front-end metrics actually got worse: CTR declined, and CPC increased.
Search competition in this space was stiffer during the “after” period, which pushed CPCs up.
However, the campaigns still saw a 25% decrease in cost per lead, and conversion rates more than doubled.
In this instance, the video campaigns really helped explain how the solution can benefit users, which directly translated into better conversion rates from search.
For the first five months of 2025, this advertiser ran a small YouTube video campaign intended to drive consideration.
We had hoped the video would directly drive a few leads, and ran it on a Maximize Conversions bid strategy, but it never generated a single lead.
At the same time, CPLs across the entire account were rising, so in early June, we decided to pause YouTube and use the budget on campaigns that were directly driving leads.
That turned out to be a mistake.
CPLs on brand search campaigns rose by 47% when we stopped video.
This is a business without much seasonality, and brand is usually less impacted by seasonality anyway, so at first, we were puzzled. Then we decided to relaunch video.
Voila! Brand search CPLs returned to their previous levels.
We suspected the video campaigns were contributing to the success of the brand campaigns, so we decided to try adding a Demand Gen campaign to the mix.
Brand CPLs decreased by 47%.
Not only were we able to return brand search CPLs to their original levels, but we were also able to cut them nearly in half when combined with YouTube and Demand Gen campaigns.
During the whole nine-month period, YouTube and Demand Gen campaigns only generated two conversions directly. However, the positive impact on brand search performance was indisputable.
It’s important to stress here that we made other optimizations during the test periods for both clients, so the improvements in search are probably not 100% attributable to the addition of the video campaigns.
However, in the case of the enterprise client, the improvements for the solutions that ran video outpaced performance across the rest of the account.
And the fact that two very different advertisers saw correlated improvements in search performance lends further credence to the theory that video played an important role.
Even though these two cases involved very different clients, here are the key practices that made both video campaigns successful:
Use custom segments made up of high-performing search keywords. Don’t use broad targeting or in-market audiences unless you have a very large awareness budget.
If you have first-party audiences and want to run Demand Gen, use them for a lookalike audience. Otherwise, custom segments of strong search keywords work best.
Make your geo-targeting spot-on. Don’t waste spend on irrelevant regions. For the local B2B client, we carefully selected areas of the city that best met their needs. For the enterprise client, even though they wanted to reach a global audience, we took care with which countries we targeted.
Use short videos – no more than 15-30 seconds – and include your brand name and logo in the first few seconds.
Choose a Target CPV bid strategy. We were able to get CPV below $0.01, which got our message in front of as many users in the target audience as possible.
The more videos, the better. If you have 3, 4, 5, or more videos, use them. Even slight variations help minimize video fatigue and grab attention.
You don’t need huge budgets for this to work – in both cases, we spent less than 5% of the client’s total budget on video.
With the right targeting, you can keep costs very reasonable – and the campaigns pay for themselves in lower CPLs in search.
https://i0.wp.com/dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Enterprise-B2B-SaaS-advertiser-Solution-1-yzX8m1.jpg?fit=375%2C131&ssl=1131375http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-10-21 13:00:002025-10-21 13:00:00How to use YouTube Ads to drive B2B conversions
A website redesign is essential for remaining competitive, but for multi-location businesses, the risks are much higher. Stripping away the local relevance that drives traffic to location pages can cause rankings and online visibility to plummet.
Using localized content on location pages resulted in a 107% rankings lift, something businesses risk losing if a redesign hurts these pages.
To mitigate the risk of fallen local rankings and to get the most from your website redesign, you need to maintain good multi-location local SEO and take key steps for a successful redesign.
Prioritizing SEO during a location page redesign helps multi-location businesses stay competitive.
Technical SEO pre-redesign audit checklist
Before launching a new website redesign, it’s essential to perform a comprehensive audit to ensure that your SEO foundation is retained. Thorough auditing before launch can help prevent common mistakes and preserve your rankings.
Manage inventory: Document all business locations, Google Business Profile IDs, current URLs, organic rankings, and highest-converting queries.
Identify issues: Use a site crawler to uncover duplicate/thin content, poor Core Web Vitals, slow loading, mobile responsiveness, or accessibility gaps.
Conduct a technical crawl audit: Confirm crawl budget, indexing, updated sitemaps, and hreflang configuration on multinational sites.
Audit and enhance structured data: Ensure LocalBusiness schema is present and NAP is perfectly consistent. Validate canonical tags for duplicate prevention.
Expand structured data: Consider implementing review, FAQ, and service schema types for additional SEO coverage.
Set up robust tracking: Implement UTM tagging, conversion tracking, and phone call analytics to precisely measure local and national SEO performance
PageSpeed Insights can let you know how fast your website loads and indicate potential performance issues.
How to optimize site architecture and your URL strate
Once your pre-redesign audit is complete and you’ve identified areas for improvement, it’s time to shift focus to your site architecture for SEO. A solid foundation in site architecture ensures both search engines and users can navigate your website with ease.
Common structures include:
Subfolders (/locations/city)
Subdomains (city.brand.com)
Multisite frameworks
Dedicated microsites
Subfolders generally work best for centralizing authority and scalability, with a primary website that branches out into many pages, including one for each location.
Note that it’s crucial to maintain consistency with your URL structure. If the existing site already has a URL for each location within a subfolder structure, do not change it! Ensuring that the URL structure remains identical between the existing and new website design is essential for retaining your SEO value and preventing any loss in rankings.
Here are some other key considerations:
Canonical URLs: Identify canonical URLs that help mitigate the risk of duplicate content.
Sitemap strategy: Determine whether your site should implement an XML sitemap or an HTML sitemap, with XML sitemaps being more explicitly effective for site crawlers and SEO, while HTML sitemaps could help with user navigation.
URL templates: Use static URLs, they’re cleaner and more optimization-friendly design (e.g., example.com/services/dentistry/location/).
Location page content considerations
Technical SEO components are important, but so is content. When redesigning your website, it’s crucial to prioritize the content elements that impact the SEO performance of your location pages.
A successful redesign should seamlessly integrate these elements to preserve and boost your SEO efforts.
Unique H1 on each location page with city intent that targets a relevant keyword, such as “housekeeping services in [city]”
Full name, address, and phone number that’s consistent across all directory listings
Link to each location’s corresponding GBP page.
Business hours that are up-to-date and unique to each location, further aligning with directory information
Local phone number, preferably static to maintain consistency with NAP data
Service-specific content, including details about each of your offerings, with locally optimized keywords for each
Staff and team photos showing the people behind your business, potentially at each location
Local testimonials from satisfied customers, including review and schema markup for aggregate ratings
h1 optimized for location and main keyword with custom text and clear CTAs. Source
As you incorporate these essential content elements into your location page redesign, it’s critical to ensure each page is unique and tailored to its specific location.
Each location page should include a designated content block section where you can add customized details about that individual location. This will additionally help reduce duplicate content across your location pages.
Location page with h1 and copy optimization Source
Top design elements to consider for a multi-location website
Redesigning location pages can be challenging because it requires balancing brand consistency with the unique identity of each location. Achieving this balance involves the strategic use of design elements that appeal to both local audiences and the overarching brand.
Top design elements include:
Location-specific imagery: For brick-and-mortar locations, use high-quality images of the storefronts. For service-based locations, showcase custom visuals that reflect the areas they serve.
Interactive maps or location finders: Adding Google Maps or a custom location finder helps users easily find the nearest store or service center. This feature not only enhances usability but also provides a tailored experience for visitors.
Social media feed integration: Integrating a live social media feed on location pages adds dynamic content and more localized imagery. It also provides a space to showcase promotions, events, and local engagement, keeping the page fresh and relevant.
Team photos: Featuring photos of local team members helps humanize the brand and create a personal connection with your audience. It’s a great way to reinforce the idea that your business is part of the local community, building trust and authenticity.
Example of an optimized H1 with custom images on the team page. Source
Complete multi-location redesign audit checklist
Website redesigns often require several months of planning and execution. However, before you push the new site live, it’s essential to ensure it passes the following key tests if you want to retain your traffic:
Brand consistency: Ensure that branding elements, such as colors, typography, logos, and tone, are consistent across all pages and location-specific content.
URL mapping: Double-check that all important URLs are correctly mapped to the new design and are still functional, preserving the SEO value of your existing pages.
No URL structure changes: If you’re maintaining a subfolder structure, confirm that no URL structures are altered to prevent any loss of SEO rankings or broken links.
Site performance: Test the website’s speed to ensure it meets performance standards, passes Core Web Vitals, is mobile-responsive, and is free of any accessibility issues.
Clear CTAs: Ensure that each page features clear, concise calls to action (CTAs) above the fold to encourage user engagement and conversions from the moment visitors land on the page.
Analytics setup: Verify that all necessary analytics and tracking codes (e.g., Google Analytics, conversion goals, UTM parameters) are properly implemented to monitor site performance and user behavior across all locations.
Mobile optimization: Check that the site is fully optimized for mobile users, with responsive design elements that scale and display well on all devices.
SEO-friendly content: Review content for SEO optimization, ensuring that each location page is targeted with local keywords, meta descriptions, and proper header tag hierarchy.
Structured data implementation: Verify that all relevant schema markup (e.g., LocalBusiness, Service, Review) is correctly applied to each location page to support search engines in indexing your content.
Internal linking: Ensure that all location pages have strong internal linking, guiding users through the site, and boosting SEO by connecting related content.
User testing and feedback: Conduct user testing or gather feedback from stakeholders to ensure the new design is intuitive, user-friendly, and aligns with business goals.
Content uniqueness: Confirm that all location pages have unique, location-specific content to avoid any potential issues with duplicate content.
Legal and compliance checks: Ensure that the website complies with any industry-specific regulations (e.g., ADA compliance, GDPR, HIPAA) before launch.
Cross-browser compatibility: Test the website across various browsers to ensure it functions smoothly for all users, regardless of their preferred browser.
Backup and contingency plans: Create a backup of the current website before launching the redesign, and have a contingency plan in place in case issues arise post-launch.
By ensuring that these elements are in place, you can launch a multi-location website redesign that performs well across all locations and provides a seamless, user-friendly experience for your visitors.
Example of before website redesign and after a website redesign
The business case: search and revenue impact at scale
Partnering with a web design and development agency that truly understands the complexities of multi-location businesses, technical SEO, and CRO is essential.
Ignite Visibility is a prime example of this expertise. We implemented a performance-driven SEO strategy to help a home services franchise with over 60 locations across the U.S.
The team optimized city-specific landing pages, standardized keyword-rich updates across Google Business Profiles, and strategically matched high-intent keywords to local markets to maximize visibility.
The results speak for themselves. The Ignite Visibility approach doesn’t just maintain rankings – it creates massive growth opportunities.
If you’re ready to maximize the impact of your next website redesign and achieve measurable, scalable growth, reach out to Ignite Visibility. With our proven track record, we’ll help you stay ahead of the competition and deliver results that matter.
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Heads up! Black Friday is almost here, and if you still haven’t prepared, it’s time to act fast. The clock is ticking, but you can still make meaningful updates that count. This article covers practical and straightforward last minute Black Friday tips to help you make quick, effective changes to your eCommerce store. Even with just a few days left, there’s still room to attract customers and make the most of the biggest shopping event of the year.
Act quickly to implement last minute Black Friday tips for maximizing eCommerce sales
Focus on essentials such as clear offers, optimized checkout processes, and engaging email campaigns to boost conversions
Leverage social media to build anticipation, share customer stories, and create urgency with time-sensitive posts
Consider quick SEO fixes to enhance visibility, like updating meta titles and refreshing content for Black Friday
Utilize tools like Yoast SEO for enhanced performance and structured data to ensure your deals stand out in search results
Did you know?
Numbers show that Black Friday 2024 broke all records, as U.S. shoppers spent a staggering $ 10.8 billion online, representing a 10.2 percent increase from 2023. These numbers prove one thing: it is never too late to take action and grab your share of the Black Friday rush.
The must-dos (essentials you can’t miss)
The fastest way to put your Black Friday campaign on pilot mode is by focusing on a few essentials that make an immediate difference. These must-do, last minute Black Friday tips are your quick wins, helping you cover the basics, build momentum, and set up the foundation for a successful marketing campaign.
Make your offers crystal clear
When shoppers land on your website, your Black Friday deals should be impossible to miss. Highlight your best offers right on the homepage or add a static banner so visitors see them immediately. The clearer your offers are, the easier it is for customers to take action.
One of the most innovative ways to increase engagement is by using countdown timers. They build urgency, encourage faster decisions, and make shoppers feel like they’re part of something time-sensitive. The Diamond Store saw this in action when they added a live countdown clock to their 24-hour Black Friday email campaign. The result? A 400% higher conversion rate compared to their previous emails.
Forever 21 shows all the offers clearly on the homepage
For WordPress users, OptinMonster is a quick way to get started. It lets you create dynamic floating bars and banners with countdowns, all through a simple drag-and-drop builder.
If you’re using Shopify, the Essential Countdown Timer Bar app works perfectly for creating announcement bars or cart countdowns to drive urgency and prevent cart abandonment.
Check your checkout
Did you know a long or confusing checkout process is one of the biggest reasons shoppers abandon their carts, especially during high-traffic days like Black Friday? That’s the last thing you want when every second counts.
Before the rush begins, take a few minutes to go through your own checkout process on both desktop and mobile. Place a test order just like a customer would. Verify that your discount codes are applied correctly, your payment options load smoothly, and the overall flow feels quick and effortless.
Ask a few friends, family members, or even teammates to try it too. Fresh eyes often spot friction points you might miss, such as unclear buttons, confusing forms, or slow-loading pages.
Trust also plays a huge role. Ensure your checkout page displays secure payment badges and recognizable gateways, such as PayPal, Apple Pay, or Stripe. When shoppers feel confident their payment is safe, they’re far more likely to hit “Buy now.”
And one last tip: keep it simple. The fewer distractions and clicks, the smoother the path to purchase. That’s precisely what drives conversions during a last minute Black Friday rush.
Send a simple email to your list
Black Friday emails have been shown to generate 33 percent higher conversion rates than regular marketing messages. That alone makes it one of the smartest last minute Black Friday tips to focus on. When time is short, your existing customer base is your best asset. They already trust your brand and are far more likely to act quickly on your offers.
Keep your email focused and straightforward. Start with a subject line that clearly highlights your best deal or most significant discount. For example, in the screenshot below, you can see how the key offer or discount is prominently displayed in the subject line, while the body reinforces the offer with a clear call to action.
Inside the email, make your main offer impossible to miss. Emphasize the key benefits of your product or service, and include a direct call to action that takes users straight to your Black Friday sale page. Make it visually engaging by adding a countdown timer or a short GIF that brings energy and urgency to the message.
Remember, this isn’t about crafting a perfect campaign. It’s about getting the right message to the right people at the right time. A simple, well-timed email can make a real difference in your Black Friday sales.
Promote on social media channels
Social media continues to play a significant role in Black Friday success. It has seen a 7 percent year-over-year increase in traffic, now driving around 10 percent of all global mobile traffic referrals during the holiday season. Your audience is already scrolling, searching, and shopping, so this is your opportunity to be where they are.
In these last few days, your social media strategy should focus on building anticipation and trust. If you have customer review videos, testimonials, or any user-generated content, start sharing them now. Boosting these posts or running quick ad campaigns featuring real customer stories can help you build credibility fast. People are far more likely to buy when they see genuine experiences from others.
You can also collaborate with a micro-influencer or a brand advocate who already has a connection with your target audience. Even a brief post, story, or reel from them can draw attention to your sale and help you gain visibility.
If you are short on time, focus only on your most active platform, whether that is Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, or LinkedIn. Post your best offer as a pinned post or a story highlight and use countdown stickers or short video snippets to create a sense of urgency.
Lastly, remember to engage. Reply to comments, answer questions, and reshare posts from happy customers. Small interactions can make your brand feel more approachable and help you stand out during the Black Friday rush.
If you haven’t touched your SEO yet, don’t worry. There’s still time to make a few quick updates that can help your store appear in the search results. These last minute Black Friday SEO tweaks can enhance visibility, attract the right audience, and might give your deals a competitive edge.
Start with your meta titles and meta descriptions. Add words like Black Friday 2025, sale, or deal to your titles so searchers know what to expect. For example, instead of ‘Women’s handbags – Classic collection,’ you can try ‘Black Friday 2025 deals on women’s handbags.’ Keep it relevant, natural, and clear.
Next, check your product and landing pages. Make sure they’re up to date with current pricing, stock status, and offers. Highlight the discounts in your product descriptions, and, if possible, include keywords that shoppers might search for, such as ‘best Black Friday deals’ or ‘holiday gift offers.’
Another smart move is to reuse your existing content. If you already have an older Black Friday or holiday gift guide, simply refresh it for 2025 by updating the year, offers, and internal links. It’s a fast way to keep your content relevant without having to start from scratch.
Lastly, take a minute to review your page experience. A fast, mobile-friendly site can make or break your Black Friday sales. Run a quick check using Google’s PageSpeed Insights and fix anything that’s slowing your pages down. Even minor improvements can help increase conversions.
These quick wins may not replace a comprehensive Black Friday SEO strategy. However, they can still make your website more discoverable and help you capture traffic from shoppers actively seeking deals.
The nice-to-dos (if you have a little more time)
Okay, so the must-dos can help you frame a solid last minute marketing campaign. But if you’ve managed to check those off quickly and still have a little time on your hands, don’t stop there. The following few ideas may seem optional, but they can give your campaign the extra boost it needs to capture more attention, convert hesitant shoppers, and capitalize on the Black Friday rush.
Run simple retargeting ads
Don’t let potential buyers slip away after visiting your store. Retargeting ads help remind them of products they viewed or added to their carts, increasing the chances of conversion. Even a short, time-bound campaign with strong visuals and clear CTAs can make a difference during the Black Friday rush.
Bundle products or create quick gift sets
Shoppers love convenience, especially during the holidays. Bundling complementary products or creating quick gift sets can simplify decision-making and increase your average order value. Highlight these as limited-time deals to develop a sense of urgency and drive faster sales.
Add live chat or quick support options
Many customers abandon their carts when questions go unanswered. Adding a live chat feature helps resolve last minute queries instantly and keeps buyers engaged throughout the checkout process. Tools like Tidio and LiveChat integrate seamlessly with both WordPress and Shopify, making setup quick and easy.
Make your Black Friday deals shine with Yoast SEO for free!
Getting your offers in front of the right people starts with how your website appears and performs in search results. That’s where Yoast SEO can be a real game-changer during the Black Friday rush.
Here’s how:
Write SEO-friendly content
With Yoast SEO, you can create content that both readers and search engines understand. With Yoast SEO’s real-time feedback:
Get instant insights on keyword use, density, and placement
Optimize your product titles and descriptions to highlight key offers
Ensure your content maintains the right balance between keywords and readability
Improve readability
Shoppers move fast during Black Friday. Keep them engaged with content that is easy to read and skim. Yoast helps you:
Simplify long sentences and paragraphs
Use better transitions for a smoother flow
Maintain a consistent tone and structure throughout your content
Help search engines crawl your site efficiently
Visibility depends on how easily search engines can crawl and index your site. With Yoast SEO, you can:
Automatically generate XML sitemaps to guide crawlers
Use SEO-friendly breadcrumbs to create a clear site structure
Ensure your most important Black Friday pages are indexed correctly
Prepare your website for the future of search
AI-powered search is transforming the way people discover brands and deals online. The llms.txt feature in Yoast SEO helps you:
Communicate directly with AI systems, such as ChatGPT
Control how your content is accessed and cited by large language models
Enhance the likelihood of your offers being accurately represented in AI-driven summaries and recommendations
Want your Black Friday products to stand out in search with details like price, stock status, and ratings? That’s where structured data comes in. It helps search engines understand your products better and display them as rich results.
With the Yoast WooCommerce SEO plugin, this process becomes effortless. It automatically adds product-specific structured data to your pages, so your deals are clearer and more clickable in search results. This gives your listings the best chance to shine when shoppers are scanning for quick, trustworthy deals during the Black Friday rush.
Buy WooCommerce SEO now!
Unlock powerful features and much more for your online store with Yoast WooCommerce SEO!
As the countdown begins, remember that success isn’t about doing more but doing what matters most. It’s easy to get caught up in ambitious plans, such as redesigning your website, launching new products, or building influencer partnerships, but those time-intensive ideas rarely deliver quick results when the clock is ticking.
Instead, focus on achievable actions that create immediate impact. Refresh your existing content, refine your offers, and utilize tools like Yoast SEO to optimize your pages efficiently. A few smart tweaks to your product descriptions, meta titles, or site speed can often drive better conversions than a full-scale overhaul.
The key to winning Black Friday isn’t scale, it’s strategy. Work with what you already have, double down on proven tactics, and use every minute wisely. That’s how you turn last minute prep into lasting results.
http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png00http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-10-15 13:20:492025-10-15 13:20:49Still not ready for Black Friday 2025? Here is your last minute rescue plan
OpenAI is turning ChatGPT into more than a chatbot. The company’s latest update lets users access third-party apps (e.g., Spotify, Canva, Zillow, Expedia) directly inside conversations.
Why we care. This shift could make ChatGPT a high-intent marketing channel, reaching 800 million users where they’re already engaging – in chat.
How it works. Users can call apps by name (“Figma, turn this sketch into a diagram”) or ChatGPT can suggest them automatically based on context – like surfacing Booking.com when discussing travel.
Apps act like actions, not separate tools, within ChatGPT’s conversational flow.
OpenAI calls this a step toward a “conversational operating system” – one interface where users access software and services.
What they’re saying. Nick Turley, ChatGPT’s product lead, described the goal:
“If we can evolve ChatGPT the right way… maybe you’ll be spending a lot of time in ChatGPT. But it won’t feel like you’re in a chatbot.”
The marketing angle. This platform play could turn ChatGPT into a valuable discovery and conversion engine for brands. Some potential upsides for marketers:
Massive reach: 800 million users. Apps appear at the moment of intent.
Contextual discovery: Brands show up naturally as users describe needs — not through search.
Interactive experiences: The Apps SDK supports visuals and dynamic UIs. Zillow can show listings with maps; Canva can design in chat.
What’s next. More brand integrations are coming – including Target, Uber, Peloton, and Instacart. Developers can start building now; OpenAI plans an app store and publishing reviews later this year. Apps meeting high design and functionality standards will get higher visibility.
OpenAI also hinted at “agentic commerce” – one-click transactions powered by AI. It already tested in-chat Etsy shopping for U.S. users and is hiring for ad tech and attribution tools.
The big picture. This evolution opens new paths to brand interaction, contextual engagement and possibly commerce – all within a single, AI-mediated interface. This gives marketers a chance to meet consumers where they act, not just where they search.
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Omnichannel marketing is a way to make your brand feel the same everywhere: website, email, ads, social, SMS, app, and in-store. People can start on their phone, switch to a laptop, and buy later without friction.
Why is this important?
Your customer doesn’t think in channels. They see one brand. If your ads, emails, site, app, and store don’t match, money slips through the cracks. Omnichannel marketing closes those gaps and moves more people to buy.
But how many more people are buying from omnichannel campaigns versus single-channel campaigns?
A lot, actually.
An Omnisend study found the purchase rate of omnichannel marketing campaigns to be 287% higher than single-channel campaigns.
Creating a seamless experience for your customers means better brand perception and higher revenue. It’s a real win-win.
This guide walks you through omnichannel marketing strategy benefits, best practices, and examples. By the end of it, you’ll understand what goes into creating an omnichannel campaign that drives results.
Key Takeaways
Omnichannel marketing creates a seamless customer experience across every touchpoint, including website, email, ads, SMS, social, app, and in-store.
Brands using an omnichannel strategy saw purchase rates 287 percent higher than single-channel campaigns in one study.
Unlike multichannel marketing, omnichannel connects your data and messaging across platforms so everything works together, not in silos.
Benefits include better customer experiences, stronger brand recognition, more personalization, higher loyalty, and increased revenue.
To get started, map your customer journey, centralize data, integrate your channels, and follow clear brand guidelines for a consistent feel.
What Is Omnichannel Marketing?
Omnichannel marketing is a marketing strategy that seamlessly integrates all of a business’s marketing channels to create a cohesive shopping experience for each customer.
As customers move through the sales funnel, an omnichannel strategy ensures all touchpoints seamlessly speak to each other so that no matter where a potential customer makes contact with your business, it feels like the same channel.
Here’s how it looks in practice.
A customer might check out a product on a brand’s website. They decide they’re not yet ready to make a purchase, but then they’re met with ads for that product across different social media channels. They can easily click through and buy the product, even though it’s not the same channel they initially used to shop.
This is what omnichannel looks like on a small scale. At enterprise scale, the same idea gets bigger. Your teams share a single customer profile, so service reps, store staff, and ads all see the same context. POS and ecommerce pull from the same inventory. Loyalty rewards apply online and in-store. Buy online, pick up in store just works.
That’s an omnichannel marketing strategy: connect data and creative across channels so customers move forward, and your revenue does too.
Omnichannel Marketing vs. Multichannel Marketing
Before we dive deeper into what omnichannel looks like, let’s talk about how it differs from a similar tactic called multichannel marketing. Both obviously occur across different channels. But they work slightly differently.
Omnichannel marketing uses multiple channels, but it ensures that all channels are integrated seamlessly, creating a connected experience. Meanwhile, multichannel marketing just occurs across different channels, treating them more as separate entities than trying to build an interconnected ecosystem.
Multichannel is useful for quick reach and simple campaigns. Think one-off promos, early tests, short cycles, or when tools and data are basic.
Omnichannel is best for cross-device shoppers, syncing online and in-store experiences, and longer, more complex customer journeys.
Bottom line: start with multichannel, then shift to an omnichannel marketing strategy when you’re ready to connect data and deliver one continuous experience.
Why Omnichannel Marketing Is Important
Your buyers don’t stick to one platform. They search on Google, watch a review on YouTube, see a Reel, ask ChatGPT for a product comparison, click an email, price-check on Amazon, and walk into a store. If you only optimize for organic search, you miss the moments that push customers to act.
Omnichannel marketing lets you show up at key points in the customer journey and connects those touchpoints so the experience feels cohesive. Your ad matches the email. The site matches the app. The cart follows the customer across devices. Service and store teams see the same history. That consistency builds trust and cuts friction, which leads to more sales.
An omnichannel marketing strategy also spreads risk. If one channel slows down, you still have paid social, SMS, marketplaces, and retail working together.
It improves measurement, too. Shared data tells you which mix drives first purchases, repeat orders, and higher order values.
People discover, compare, and buy across many platforms. Brands that coordinate messages and data across those platforms win more often. If you’re serious about growth in today’s digital world, build an omnichannel marketing strategy so your brand is clear, consistent, and present at every step.
Benefits of Omnichannel Marketing
Omnichannel marketing has a number of benefits. These advantages can provide your business with better results and happier customers.
Think of omnichannel marketing as the glue that holds your entire shopping experience together.
Improved Customer Experience
Omnichannel marketing focuses on creating an interconnected experience no matter where your customers are interacting with your business. Because of this, it creates a seamless customer experience that’s vastly better than if the different channels couldn’t speak to each other.
Here’s what that means for customers: progress carries over (carts, wish lists, support tickets), and context follows them from device to device. If they ask a question on chat, your email workflow resurfaces it. If they browse a size in the app, your site remembers.
Abandon cart emails are great examples of omnichannel marketing in action. A customer visits your website and adds an item to their cart. They leave your site without completing the purchase. That action is sent to and triggers an ‘Abandon cart’ workflow in your email marketing platform.
They receive an automated email with the item in their cart and some encouraging words and/or a discount to get them to complete the purchase.
An omnichannel marketing strategy reduces repeats, dead ends, and mixed messages so buyers feel understood and move forward faster.
Better Brand Awareness
Creating a consistent experience across platforms (including in-store) makes it easier for customers to recognize your brand. Plus, as more people have positive omnichannel experiences with your brand, they’re more likely to share it with their friends and family, boosting word-of-mouth referrals and awareness.
Consistency is a key component of a strong brand strategy. When people see the same appearance, messaging, and offers across channels, recall and trust in your brand grows. Pair that with targeted campaigns across search, social, and marketplaces, and your brand shows up more often for relevant terms with the same look and promise.
Personalization
When your marketing channels speak to each other, you’re presented with even more opportunities for gathering customer data that can be used to personalize experiences across all channels, and not just the ones they’ve used before. This personalization is just another way to improve the overall experience with your business, making it easier for customers to work with you.
Use customer actions, like product views, cart adds, and website searches to customize messaging. Recommend items that fit past behavior, pause promos after a purchase, and nudge at the right time (not just more often). Keep consent and preferences front and center.
Done well, omnichannel personalization feels like help, not hype.
Customer Loyalty
As customers discover how easy it is to work with your business, they’re more likely to stick around and continue to buy from you again and again. Why bother finding a competitor if your business has created such a seamless shopping experience?
Loyalty grows when every interaction feels smooth and familiar. Connect rewards across store and online, recognize returning customers, and close the loop on issues fast.
Use lifecycle triggers, like welcome, re-engagement, and win-back, to stay relevant without spamming. The easier you make repeat buying, the less tempted people are to price-shop elsewhere.
Competitive Advantage
Just like we mentioned, there’s no need for customers to shop around and test out your competitors if you’ve provided such a great shopping experience. Omnichannel marketing gives you a major competitive advantage, fueling more of your target audience to head straight to you rather than others in your industry.
Most teams still run channels in silos. You’ll move faster because your data, inventory, and messaging are already in sync. Creative can be reused, offers are consistent, and measurement is clearer. That speed compounds into lower costs and better customer outcomes, an edge that’s hard to copy without a true omnichannel strategy.
Higher Revenue and Conversion Rates
Naturally, if people are sharing their positive experiences, sticking around longer, and ultimately having a great relationship with your brand, you’re going to reap those benefits in the form of higher revenue and conversion rates. Which is the ultimate goal, right?
More relevance and less friction mean more adds to cart, more checkouts, and bigger orders. Omnichannel marketing also improves attribution, so you can double down on the mix that actually drives purchases and repeat business.
Over time, the flywheel kicks in: Better data leads to sharper targeting, which leads to stronger retention, which leads to higher revenue.
Best Practices for an Effective Omnichannel Marketing Strategy
Your goal is simple: build an omnichannel marketing strategy that feels consistent everywhere and moves people forward. Start with what customers do today, not what you wish they did. Then connect the channels and tools you already use, fill the gaps, and measure what actually changes behavior.
Follow along with these steps to learn more about creating an effective omnichannel marketing strategy that will boost your customer satisfaction.
Collect & Analyze Customer Data
Start by centralizing truth. Pull website analytics, email metrics, ad performance, POS data, support logs, and audience sentiment into one view so you can spot insights like:
The channels your customers prefer to use when interacting with businesses
Which devices your customers spend the most time on
The types of messaging that seem to resonate most with them
How your customers feel about your current shopping experience
Then, pick an attribution model that fits your business. Each model is tailored to different types of customer journeys and campaign goals.
For example, position-based tracking is better for businesses with longer sales cycles, like B2B and lead gen. And data-based attribution is great for omnichannel e–commerce strategies, marketplaces, subscription apps, and retailers with steady traffic.
Check out the graphic below for a full breakdown of attribution models you can use to measure the success of your omnichannel marketing efforts.
Map Out the Customer Journey
Your next step is to map out your current customer journey. Outline each step that a Your next step is to map out your current customer journey. Outline each step that a customer would have to take from first discovering your business all the way to becoming a repeat customer.
As Matthew Santos, SVP of Products and Strategy at NP Accel, explains, “Customer journey mapping involves visualizing a customer’s various touchpoints with your brand, from initial awareness to purchase and beyond. By understanding these touchpoints, you can identify which channels are most important at different stages of the journey.”
To create your map:
Identify your customers: Identify your customers’ names, addresses, and other demographic information. Look in your CRM or use a current buyer persona.
Understand their pain points: What drives your customers to make a purchase? What challenges do they want to solve?
Find out where they hang out: What platforms do your customers use during the purchase process?
Track the conversion path: How do most of your customers convert? Their path is unlikely to be straight. They might visit your website, view your Instagram reels, and then purchase in-person, in your store. Aim to define the most common paths.
In the end, your customer journey map might look something like this:
Now it’s time to identify and integrate your different sales and marketing channels, which could include:
Social media
SMS marketing
Email marketing
Your website and online store
A physical store
A mobile app
Make sure to include all channels that you’re currently using to reach your target audience plus any channels you’ve discovered your customers prefer.
For example, you might not have previously incorporated SMS messaging into your overarching marketing strategy, but your customer data analysis showed you that your target audience prefers that method of communication.
Once you’ve selected the different channels you’ll use to communicate, market, and sell to your customers, it’s time to get them to work together.
To properly integrate your marketing avenues and create a successful omnichannel strategy, you’ll need the right technology. Some tools to consider include:
CRM: A CRM can help you store customer information so that it’s accessible across channels. It can also help you segment out your audience to create even more tailored and personalized experiences. Omnisend is a great option for building out specific segmentations.
Marketing Automation Software: To build an effective omnichannel marketing strategy, you need marketing automation tools to engage more on social media, send scheduled emails, or move users through the conversion process. Many tools you already use, like email marketing, CRMs, and social media management, have built-in automation features. You can also use a tool like Zapier to build custom triggers.
Social Media Management Tools: This type of tool can make it easy to communicate with your audience across various platforms. Get access to a social inbox that puts all conversations across all platforms in one single messaging dashboard. Use auto-replies or canned responses that ensure communication is consistent across the board. Hootsuite and Sprout Social are both great options to consider for your social media management.
Customer Data Platforms (CDPs): A CDP pulls data from all your touchpoints—site, app, ads, email, POS—into a single customer profile. That unified view makes it easier to segment audiences, personalize campaigns, and keep experiences consistent across channels. Tools like Segment or mParticle help you clean, connect, and activate data without needing a dev team for every change.
Once you’ve set up the right tools and integrated all your channels, it’s time to make sure your teams are all on the same page. If your customer support team is using different messaging than your social media team, your overall strategy is going to feel disjointed.
By creating documented brand guidelines that cover how your customer-facing teams should be communicating with customers and talking about your products, you can ensure your channels feel connected.
Your brand guidelines should include things like:
Guidance for brand visuals, like logos, imagery, colors, and graphics
How to handle customer support issues or questions to create positive and consistent experiences
Tone and voice guidelines with “do’s and don’t’s” examples
Copy guidance with channel-specific examples (e.g. email subject lines vs. educational blog content)
Legal guidelines on what you can and cannot discuss, if applicable
Share your brand guidelines with your entire team and make sure everyone is familiar with them. Give constructive feedback when you see people straying.
Brand consistency is the glue that holds an omnichannel marketing strategy together.
Test & Measure Your Efforts
After sharing your brand guidelines across your company and implementing your omnichannel approach, it’s time to test everything out. Run through each of your marketing channels the way you might if you were a new customer to make sure the experience feels seamless from discovery to purchase.
Then, think about how you’ll measure success.
In omnichannel marketing, you need to consider metrics that touch every part of the funnel. For example:
Discovery: Impressions, educational blog traffic, mentions in the media
Consideration: Engagement on social media, product views, visits to company pages
Conversion: Orders, checkout rate, CPA
Loyalty: Repeat rate, time between orders, customer reviews
Use clean UTM rules, consistent naming, and dashboards that show both channel and journey views. Review the data weekly for anomalies, monthly for trends, and quarterly for bigger bets.
3 Examples of Omnichannel Marketing
Let’s look at a few examples of omnichannel marketing in practice so you can get an idea of what this could look like for your own business.
1. Sephora
Sephora offers an amazing omnichannel experience for its customers. First-time customers are able to sign up for a Sephora account using their phone number, and then keep track of all purchases there.
Customers can figure out what they’ve purchased before and when, which makes it easier for them to restock on the products they love. It also makes it easier for the marketing team to tailor messaging and special offers to each customer’s unique shopping preferences.
Sephora accounts also track customer rewards points, as well as when their birthday month is. Whether they make a purchase online or in the store, Sephora sends the customer a little sample-size product as a birthday gift.
This omnichannel strategy makes shopping with Sephora feel easy and personal, no matter where someone is making a purchase.
2. Starbucks
The Starbucks app makes for an amazing omnichannel experience that the coffee brand’s customers love. Not only can customers order through the app then pick up in a nearby store, they can also reload gift cards, pay in-store, earn and redeem rewards, and more.
The app also makes it extremely easy to find stores near you and personalizes its offerings based on the local weather. Starbucks is already a wildly popular coffee chain, but their omnichannel marketing strategy helps boost sales even more.
3. Target
Target is another great example of what omnichannel should look like. Again, customers can create an account and easily track past purchases so they can reorder products again and again with ease.
Target also has its own rewards program called Target Circle that allows users to rack up rewards they can put towards future purchases.
But one of the best things about Target’s omnichannel strategy is that customers can check online if a product is in stock at stores near them. And it’s wildly accurate, even during huge sales events like Black Friday.
The Future of Omnichannel
Omnichannel isn’t standing still. AI, automation, and privacy changes are reshaping how brands connect with customers. Search engines and social platforms now answer questions directly, sometimes before a click. In fact, nearly 60% of searches result in zero clicks.
So how does this apply to an omnichannel marketing strategy?
For marketers, it means two things.
First, you’ll need stronger first-party data—think email lists, purchase history, loyalty programs—to fuel your targeting as third-party cookies fade. Second, you’ll need systems that can use that data in real time, adjusting offers and content across every channel without manual work.
Expect channels themselves to keep expanding. Voice assistants, connected TV, chat apps, and even in-car systems are becoming part of the customer journey. The brands that win will be the ones that stay consistent across all of them.
The future of omnichannel marketing is smarter, faster, and more connected. Get your data house in order now so you can adapt as AI and new platforms evolve.
FAQs
What is omnichannel marketing?
Omnichannel marketing is the practice of connecting all your marketing and sales channels so customers get one seamless experience. Instead of each channel running in isolation, they work together. For example, a shopper might browse on mobile, add to cart on desktop, and finish in-store, with their data and offers synced across all steps. This consistency builds trust, reduces friction, and increases conversions by making every touchpoint feel like part of the same journey.
What is the difference between multichannel and omnichannel marketing?
Multichannel means using multiple platforms, but each runs separately. Omnichannel connects those platforms so the experience is unified, not siloed.
How to implement omnichannel marketing?
Start by collecting customer data, mapping the journey, and picking channels your audience uses most. Then integrate tools like CRM, automation, and analytics to sync messaging and measure results.
Create Your Omnichannel Marketing Strategy Today
Your customers want an omnichannel experience, so it’s your job to give it to them. Figure out how to make your channels work together so your customers get a personalized, consistent, and seamless experience every time they shop with your business.
Sounds like a lot, but if you follow the steps above, you can start to build a more cohesive journey for your customers. And if you’re looking for additional help, an omnichannel marketing agency like NP Digital can bring your strategy to life.
