Digital Strategy in a AI world Unifying Organic and Paid Strategies for Global Impact

Carmen Dominguez_ Organic Growth Director at Welltech Shift in search behaviour Rising importance of AI User reviews & online sentiment How to put it in practice What we will cover today

Rising importance of AI

Rising Importance of AI How the SERP looks like after AIO This is already live in many countries and working well with all languages

This is AI. It is based on NLP & uses citations & sentiment These are relevant publications that mention the apps This is the work of PR (paid or natural) & brand Rising Importance of AI Analysis of that SERP

Paid ads come right after all - meaning ads are not the main thing users see anymore This is tech SEO & Link building (schema) Rising Importance of AI Analysis of that SERP

● Social media commentary about an entity ● Trustpilot commentary about Welltech & our apps ● Reviews left about our apps in App Store & Google Play ● News or articles written about Welltech or any of our apps ● Forums like Reddit or Quora Data processing scheme: Rising Importance of AI Google utilizes data from all major online sources to collect information about one single publisher

● No ads in ChatGPT yet ● Openai launched their own Search Engine Reminder: to show up, we need strong entity recognition Rising Importance of AI ChatGPT popularity in search is increasing

Shift in Search Behaviour

Shift in Search Behaviour Due to fake news & spam, online shopping has changed 1. Prolonged Decision-Making: Consumers are dedicating more time to research before purchasing. Approximately 32% are spending additional time making decisions, considering a broader range of brands 3. Influence of Online Reviews: Online reviews play a crucial role in the decision-making process. Data indicates that 95% of customers read online reviews before buying a product 2. Increased Use of Multiple Channels: During peak, 61% of shoppers utilized five or more channels—including search engines, video platforms, and social media—to inform their purchasing decisions over a two-day span

Shift in Search Behaviour Depending on age, different platforms are used Where do people search information in 2024

Shift in Search Behaviour Depending on age, different platforms are used

Reviews Online Presence Authority bias Social Proof Comparison with other brands “I need to lose weight” “I want to feel better” Creating brand loyalty Shift in Search Behaviour Google’s Messy Middle

Shift in Search Behaviour In practice, this is what Google’s funnel looks like

Shift in Search Behaviour This is how Gymshark does it

User reviews and brand sentiment

User Reviews & Brand sentiment Reviews play a decisive role also in most search platforms Impact of reviews in Meta ● News Feed Ranking ● Search Results Trust and Credibility ● Content Recommendations Impact of reviews in Google ● There is specifically a Review update ● Positive reviews impact Google ads quality ● Specific Algo updates targeting reviews ● Brand sentiment is part of core algorithm (Navboost) Impact of reviews in Google ● Brand sentiment part of NLP ● Negative reviews also appear with brand Impact of reviews in App Store ● Affect rankings & promotion ● We can be removed if do not comply with guidelines

User Reviews and Brand Sentiment Influencers reviews play a role in decision making

➔ AI is taking visibility ➔ CTR is down overall ➔ Users are pickier ➔ And they trust less what they see ➔ Brands need a presence in all platforms ➔ And need to differentiate themselves User Reviews and Brand Sentiment These changes are impacting brand marketing decisions

What can we do in such an overwhelming landscape?

Own The Funnel

Here Google Cloud API documentation on how it is done 1. Start with Brand Sentiment Using Google Cloud and NLP you can gather your brand sentiment

2. Identify where your brand is popular Using Google Trends API identify where your brand is popular

3. Identify if people search in English or other languages Using Keyword Planner Identify the language people search on If the language is not English, translate and perform Keyword research with native experts

4. Understand your audience Understand your audience and where they spend their time

4. Understand your audience Consider than depending on country, some platforms are more used

5. Map out the funnel for all channels & platforms Map out which channels & which part of the funnel you need to be in Here template for you yo use

6. Use data to identify your weak areas Check where you are in paid vs total opportunities in all areas Informational topic, missed PR/Branding opportunity Clicks are lower, intent is not purchas e

7. Case Study New EU website launched with the above process

8. Case Study Worked with paid for optimisation of Merchant Center for Ecommerce +583% more clicks, +233% more impressions, +100% improvement on CTR & ranking from 26 to 13!

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