{"id":102321,"date":"2016-07-01T18:33:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-01T23:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/will-voice-search-mean-big-brands-have-to-get-even-more-local\/"},"modified":"2024-12-19T16:40:38","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T21:40:38","slug":"will-voice-search-mean-big-brands-have-to-get-even-more-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/en-gb\/insights\/blog\/strategy\/will-voice-search-mean-big-brands-have-to-get-even-more-local\/","title":{"rendered":"Will voice search mean big brands have to get even more local?"},"content":{"rendered":"

[This post originally featured on Linkdex<\/a>]<\/em> The growing adoption of voice search is fundamentally changing the consumer journey. For many brands, responding to this shift in behaviour is going to demand a far more mobile and local strategy to engage customers.\u00a0So what do you need to know?<\/p>\n

What is voice search?<\/h2>\n

\"voice\" Voice search is when users utilise voice recognition software to conduct their search queries, either via smartphones and desktop computers which provide a digital personal assistant, or via an entry point (or hub) that uses voice such as Google\u2019s microphone or Amazon\u2019s Echo. In most cases, if you\u2019re using a personal assistant and activating these devices with your voice, you\u2019re doing some kind of voice search.<\/p>\n

Who is using it and what for?<\/h2>\n

Google commissioned a\u00a0study in 2014<\/a>, conducted by Northstar Research, to understand who, when, and where people use voice search. The study surveyed 1,400 Americans across all ages. \"Local As you can see, as early as eighteen months ago both teens and adults were already using voice search in a wide range of their daily activities. So as the technology develops, dramatically improving accuracy and we all begin to feel less awkward using voice commands, it appears that we are rushing to embrace the convenience of these digital personal assistants. And according to a\u00a0survey conducted in October 2015 by MindMeld<\/a>, adoption rates are moving fast, with 41.6% of us starting to use voice search and voice commands within the last 6 months. \"Local<\/p>\n

So what?<\/h2>\n

So, a lot! Combine these statistics with the overall forecast for mobile phone search (eMarketer estimates that in 2015 there will be\u00a081.8 billion annual mobile phone search queries<\/a>\u00a0in the US) and the size of the prize \u2013 or the penalty for missing out \u2013 becomes clear.<\/p>\n

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But Text? Voice? Isn\u2019t it all \u2018just\u2019 search?<\/h2>\n

No.\u00a0We unconsciously change our behaviour when using voice search. When we are searching for a restaurant a desktop or phone, we might type in \u201cbest lunch in Highgate.\u201d But when we use voice search we change your behaviour and ask a question, like \u201cWhat restaurant has the best Sunday lunch in Highgate?\u201d or \u201cWhat restaurants are open for lunch right now?\u201d As a result, voice search queries are longer than their text counterparts \u2013 they tend to be three-to-five keywords in length, and they tend to explicitly ask a question, characterized by words like who, how, what, where, why and when, with the expectation that the search engines will provide an answer back. \"Local<\/p>\n

Voice search shows true intent<\/h2>\n

But that is great news for businesses, as this \u2018natural language\u2019 shows you the real intent of the consumer.\u00a0If I were to search for \u201cdigital camera,\u201d a brand would have no idea whether I wanted to buy one, have one repaired, or was simply looking for stock images of cameras. Here\u2019s where the natural language usage within conversational search changes everything.The type of voice search question asked can reveal the degree of intent: \"Local Of course this has real consequences on bidding strategy. I can bid higher for question phrases with the highest likelihood of action, e.g. \u201cWhere\u2019s my nearest Shuh store?\u201d vs. \u201cWhat brands does the Shuh store sell?\u201d By understanding and designing bid strategies around this intent, voice search will allows brands with more limited budgets to compete with larger, heavy spending brands because they can choose when to compete for custom, and focus their more limited budgets at exactly this moment when the user shows their specific intent.<\/p>\n

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