In my October Search Engine Land column, I discussed the rise of data amplifiers — or data aggregators (such as Neustar) and publishers (such as Google) that share a business’s location data across the digital world, where people conduct “near me” searches.
I believe data amplifiers will become even more important in 2017 because of the impact of the on-demand, omnichannel consumer. To be effective with location marketing in 2017, any brand that operates multiple locations needs to make it a high priority to share their location data with amplifiers.
Data amplifiers wield an inordinate amount of influence because of their reach, size and ability to innovate. At SIM Partners, we identify the main data amplifiers this way:
Data publishers: The heavy hitters of the search world, such as Google and Apple, which have either built their own search ecosystems or actively shape search. Our short list of the most influential publishers consists of Apple, Bing, Facebook, Foursquare, Google and Yelp. If you want your data shared on crucial discovery platforms such as Google Maps, you had better make sure your location data is shared with publishers.
Data aggregators: A bit less-known outside the realm of location marketing, but they’re important because they share a brand’s data to the publishers. We tend to count Acxiom, Factual, Infogroup and Neustar as the principal aggregators.
Although both aggregators and publishers act as sources of local business information for discovery platforms such as apps, data services and Web directories, we make the distinction between data aggregators and data publishers to clarify how they relate to each other.
In a multichannel world, amplifiers are becoming more important because they are the most efficient, cost-effective way for any business to keep pace with omnichannel consumers.
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