🔍 Waze gets Google Assistant-enabled

Plus, mobile-indexing, valuing search intent and more. Jun 11, 2019 Good morning search marketers, have you advertised on Waze? Since Google purchased Waze in 2013, it has been slowly integrating features from Google Maps to Waze and vice versa. Now, a [Google Assistant integration will enable Waze users]( (only on Android for now) to make calls, play music and initiate Waze commands hands-free. Wazers will also be able to report traffic, avoid tolls, report police, access alternative routing and so on via Assistant. The social navigation app may have a smaller audience than Google Maps — 100 million versus 1 billion — but Waze users are engaged and loyal. [Waze ads for local businesses]( launched out of beta a little over a year ago and include a number of different map-based ad units that offer both search and display inventory: branded pins, promoted search and “zero speed [screen] takeovers” that display when a car is at a complete stop. Waze is also doing interesting things with OOH coordination. With McDonald’s, it tested [a campaign that connected OOH with in-car ads]( last fall. Waze geofenced roughly 300 billboards in Southern California. Drivers along routes passing McDonald’s billboards were shown “zero-speed takeover” ad units with a “drive there” call-to-action that routed drivers to a nearby McDonald’s location. Ads could be shown at any point along the driver’s route, but were not shown if drivers had gone out of range of McDonald’s locations. According to the companies, the initial campaign received more than six million impressions and 8,400 “navigations” to nearby McDonald’s locations. “Google will likely continue to use Waze as a kind of ads sandbox and testing ground before importing them into the flagship product, as the company seeks to drive more revenue from more Google products,” Greg Sterling, contributing editor, concluded. Read on for a Pro Tip on the significance of a search click, Search Shorts and more. Ginny Marvin Editor-In-Chief Pro Tip Every relevant search is a potential sale “Marketers cannot lose sight of just how important a relevant search on a search engine is to their business. But, it’s not about any value, when it comes to marketing investments, it’s about the most value. Remember, ‘clicks are no longer clicks; they represent individual consumers on specific journeys,’” reminds Josh Dreller of Kenshoo. “The full funnel search approach argues that every relevant search has the most value because it is being initiated by a consumer researching on the other side of the screen which, by default, can be assumed to be interested in that topic and ready and willing to pause their day and engage. Can anyone argue what is a better ad impression – online or offline – than a paid search ad served to someone who has just searched on one of your most relevant keywords?” [Read More »]( Webinar TODAY: 4 Steps to Operationalize Modern Marketing Work Sponsored by [Workfront]( Last chance to register! Figuring out the right balance between work to be done, when it should be prioritized and which limited resources to use, can be one of marketing’s biggest challenges. Join our experts as they discuss proven methods and strategies to help your team manage digital work processes with greater speed and efficiency. [Read More »]( Search Shorts Mobile first indexing is by root domain. Mobile-first indexing is by root domain. When your site moves over to mobile-first indexing, [the whole root domain moves over, including all your subdomains](, says John Mueller of Google. Timing out. [Do not let your pages time out when Google wants to access them](, that includes when you’re using dynamic rendering. Crawl changes before the update. John Mueller from Google said [Google didn’t plan crawl spikes or declines before the Google core update]( but he will look into some complaints about this. What we're reading We've curated our picks from across the web so you can retire your feed reader [At airBaltic, evidence-based marketing takes flight with Google Data Studio]( – Google [Break Up Big Tech? Some Say Not So Fast | WIRED]( – Wired [Five ways Google could be vulnerable to a Justice Department probe]( – The Verge [Google: Keep Your Site Up To Date; No One Drinks Sarsaparilla]( – Search Engine Roundtable [Hands on with iOS 13 ‘Look Around’ in Apple Maps]( – Apple Insider [Managing PPC for Franchise Businesses]( – Metric Theory [New views of beauty and fragility in underwater Street View]( – Google Blog Join Us Unlock actionable SEO & SEM tactics to accelerate your campaign's success. Attend SMX East in NYC! Attend the only conference in the East Coast entirely devoted to search marketing: Search Engine Land's [SMX East](, November 13-14, 2019. Join us for a deep dive into SEO and SEM tactics, networking, and top amenities including WiFi, delicious meals, and snacks. You'll come away with at least one tactic that you can immediately put to use… [we guarantee it](. [View rates and register today](! [Search Engine Land] [( [Want to advertise?]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. 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