Google Badges Showing in Maps, TikTok on Pace for 1.2B Users – TWIM

Welcome to another edition of This Week in Marketing, where we bring you the “need to know” headlines from around the marketing world.

“Guaranteed badges” are starting to appear in Google Maps listings

Over the summer Google announced a new program to allow local businesses to display a green check mark next to their listing in GMB and in the Maps pack. The Google Guaranteed badge costs $50 per month or $600 per year. These trust certifications are part of a push from Google to drive more Local Service Ads (LSA) revenue.

These badges are important for SEOs and advertisers alike, as we all know the CTR impact of adding a verified widget to a profile. This ad product is still in it’s infancy, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out for marketers / advertisers.

I’d imagine a lot of marketers (SEOs) will choose to pay the monthly fee vs. the per-lead cost of LSAs. LSAs are a tricky ad product, it’s easier to pay $50 per month than it is to optimize and bid for placement in the top three LSAs.

More info:

• Google’s release on Guaranteed badges
• Google’s Guaranteed badges for $50/month

TikTok could reach 1.2 billion monthly active users next year

The controversial social media app is on pace to hit 1.2 billion monthly active users in 2021, according to mobile analytics firm App Annie. This rapid growth is coming in spite of recent threats from the White House to ban the short-form video app in the US.

To me, this is an important headline because so many established marketers try and ignore emerging platforms like this, especially when we don’t “understand” it or fully agree with the type of content created there.

Even if your demo isn’t on TikTok (the user base skews younger), history repeats itself. The same way Instagram overtook Facebook, TikTok is officially a player in the game. It’s time to start putting some effort into understanding why people use the platform and the type of content that’s best suited for the platform.

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