What are micro-moments and how do they generate traffic via Google My Business?

In digital marketing, micro-moments are defined, by Google among others, as the short specific periods that consumers spend on mobile or tablets during the day.

In summary, these are micro-conversions made by consumers during their buying journey to a point of sale. The main micro-moments used in Google Business Profile are:

• The route request.
• The possibility to call a point of sale.
• The possibility to visit the website of the point of sale.

How are micro-moments useful?

Micro-moments should be understood as the steps consumers take in their buying journey. Each micro-moment corresponds to a micro-conversion. That is to say, when a consumer makes a route request (micro-moment), they get closer to your point of sale (micro-conversion). From their point of view, this brings them closer to a place of purchase.

For a brand, these micro-moments and micro-conversions make it possible to identify the relevance of web-to-store activation via Google Business Profile. Indeed, they correspond to metrics that brands can track and analyze over time. By using the right conversion algorithms, tracking micro-conversions will allow them to identify the traffic that Google Business Profile allows them to attract to the store.

What place in the consumer journey?

It's not new, today we want everything, right now. Consumers make snap decisions either out of impatience or in an emergency situation, and they also expect to get satisfaction almost instantly.

How can this behavioral evolution affect local digital marketing specialists?

Over the past 2 years, the number of searches with the criteria “open now” has tripled on Google.

Source: Google Trends Jan 2004 - June 2017. United States 

By analyzing the query “open now” in more detail, two main explanations emerge:

• The internet user/mobile user has free time ahead of him.
• He is in an emergency situation.

In these moments, the consumer's priority is to satisfy an immediate need. They will not try to be loyal to a store or brand, it's immediacy that takes precedence over everything. What will they do? They will go to the store that:

• Will be quite close to him.
• Will be open.
• Will have the best popularity score (reviews).
• It will make their life easier by offering them different ways to interact:
  • Call to the point of sale.
  • Route request.
  • Possibility to check stock/reserve a product.

How to transpose these micro-conversions into your other Web-to-Store activities?

The principle of micro-moments and micro-conversions can easily be applied on the websites of brands and points of sale. Indeed, their Store Locator and the sales point pages linked to it must offer the same type of approach as Google Business Profile:

• Facilitate the call to the point of sale.
• Simplify the route request.
• Provide information on opening hours.

This will allow them to use the same micro-conversion metrics as those offered by Google and will be the first step in building their Web-to-Store dashboard.