Here is today’s roundup of news related to local marketing and advertising, local media, technology, local commerce, consumer behavior and more.

Why Businesses Will Benefit from the Location Marketing Roll-Up (May 7, 2018)
LSA Insider: “The location marketing roll-up is more than a story of vendors increasing scale. It’s a sign of the location-marketing sector becoming more valuable to businesses.”

End of an Era: BIA Drops ‘Kelsey’ from Its Name (May 7, 2018)
LSA Insider: “For some the change will mean the end of an era. It’s also something of a metaphor for change in the entire ‘local search industry’ itself.”

The Bifurcation of the Local SEO Services Market (May 7, 2018)
Street Fight: “The changing nature of search and the increasing localization are making “traditional SEO” harder, more expensive, and less productive of ROI, and that should lead every agency to assess what they are delivering and to whom.”

3 in 4 People Say Customer Experience is A Competitive Differentiator (May 7, 2018)
Marketing Charts: “Some 73% of people in 12 countries around the world – including 75% in the US – believe that the customer experience is an important factor in their purchasing decisions, finds PwC in a recent study.”

7 Hard Truths About Social Media Marketing (May 4, 2018)
Forbes: “Social media marketing has become more competitive and commercially-saturated. Organic reach is declining precipitously.”

Mobile Fuels Online Traffic, But Consumers Spend Much Less Time On Sites (May 4, 2018)
MediaPost: “Websites are gaining more traffic from devices, from voice-activated hubs to smartphones and personal computers, but consumers are spending less time once they are there.”

Study: Facebook’s focus on ‘meaningful interactions’ doesn’t slow video’s explosive growth (May 4, 2018)
Mobile Marketer: “The Likeable study suggests, unsurprisingly, that Facebook’s tweaking of its News Feed algorithm has only continued to reward video.”