Kenshoo Branches Out with New Local Search Management Platform

Kenshoo is known for their enterprise search marketing technology, but the company is hoping to make its mark in an emerging niche: local search. Earlier this year, Kenshoo raised money from venture capital firms to develop their new local search marketing management technology. Kenshoo Local was unveiled at the Interactive Local Media Conference last week in Los Angeles.

“The new ‘local’ solution is a natural addition to our growing enterprise search business, and is based on collective feedback from dozens of customers”, said Sivan Metzger, General Manager, KENSHOO Local.

The technology is designed to meet a growing need among agencies and retailers alike: maximizing paid search campaigns for the long tail as it relates to local search. As local search grows, the task of manually managing paid search campaigns is canceling out revenues earned through such efforts. Technology such as Kenshoo Local streamlines the process of bid management.

One such process is filtering out which keywords are profitable. Kenshoo Local will automatically determine which long tail keywords are performing best for a campaign and adjust bids accordingly.

Another key aspect of the technology is conversion attribution. Kenshoo acknowledges that there is a process to conversion. People don’t usually just search, click and buy. Instead, they research, compare, click here, click there, and then buy. They also may call or visit in-store.

Kenshoo Local offers advertisers the ability to determine what a conversion consists of – and allows attributions to various sources that contributed during the entire process.

Not only does this demonstrate an evolution of the understanding of marketing and consumer behavior within the search industry, but Kenshoo’s pursuit of local demonstrates the growing recognition of search as it pertains to the online marketing space as a whole.

“CMO’s and agencies can now manage holistic marketing strategies that span their national or global brand strategy in tight correlation with their online marketing execution plan, all the way to the single dealer, franchise or brick and mortal store, by leveraging the tight integration between Kenshoo’s enterprise and local solutions,” concluded Metzger.

With local search on the rise, driven by both mobile and increasingly web-savvy searchers, companies such as Kenshoo are smart to expand their services. Kenshoo is entering the inevitable rat race early, which should bode well for them when similar companies are jumping on the local search bandwagon in the not-too-distant future.