Online reviews continue to be one of the tentpoles of localized marketing and search. They’re also the bain of many SMBs’ existence – a necessary evil as they see it. But regardless of how you feel about reviews, they’re a necessary piece of the local marketing playbook and an optimization imperative.
To help local businesses, and the agencies that serve them, put this all into perspective, Birdeye recently released its annual State of Online Reviews report. Based on its first-party data from 150,000 local businesses it uncovers key trends in how reviews work, and how businesses should align strategies.
So what were the findings? A more detailed list of takeaways is below but the TL:DR version is that online review volume and customer engagement levels (e.g., review length) are up. This reflects a more savvy and communicative local consumer, and therefore the need for local businesses to meet them half way.
That includes things like review responses. Not only is responsiveness – in both time and substance – critical for engaging with customers but it also appeals to the algorithm gods. It’s a point of emphasis in Google’s ranking factors. The good news is that AI comes to the rescue for SMBs to automate the work.
Deep Dive
Going deeper into the data, here are some report highlights and top findings that we extracted for Localogy Insider readers…
- Online reviews are on the rise: Total review volume grew by 13% in 2024, indicating that more consumers than ever are sharing feedback and influencing purchase decisions.
- Google reinforces its dominance: Google’s share of total reviews increased from in 2023 to 79% to 81% in 2024, highlighting its continued dominance as the go-to review platform.
- Businesses are ramping up review requests: From 2023 to 2024, the number of review requests jumped by 25%, demonstrating heightened focus on gathering customer feedback.
- Review request engagement stays robust—but SMS CTR dips: Although SMS remains effective, its click-through rate dropped from 8% to 6%, suggesting message fatigue. Meanwhile, email open rates held steady, proving their enduring value.
- Businesses are more active in responding: The review response rate grew by 15 %, climbing from 63% in 2023 to 73% in 2024. Manual responses also rose from 58% to 61%, reflecting a stronger commitment to customer engagement.
- Customers need more nudges to leave reviews: The average number of reminders sent increased by 9% in 2024, underscoring the need for consistent follow-ups and automation.
- Quality of feedback is improving: Reviews featuring comments grew from 79% to 81%. This trend not only underscores the value of in-depth commentary but also makes customer insights more actionable.
Wisdom of the Crowds
Stepping back, another way to think about reviews is that they’re the digital manifestation of a timeless and long-impactful flavor of local marketing: word of mouth. It has extended beyond personal influence to the broader reaches of the interweb, but there’s still inferred value in the scaled wisdom of the crowds.
Coming full circle to the “necessary evil” concept for SMBs, the good news is that the modern digital manifestation of digital reviews allows them to have some level of control. That wasn’t the case in the age of analog word of mouth. SMBs with the right commitment levels can influence their reputations.
The other good news comes with the age of AI, as noted. It brings automation that lessens the rote work around review management that SMBs rightly dread. This is one of the handful of AI endpoints that will resonate with SMBs and local marketers, as it saves them time and headaches.
Birdeye for example has built its own generative AI tool that’s baked into its platform. This is becoming a competitive necessity in SMB SaaS. Though local businesses will have varying adoption cycles for AI, all or most will come on board eventually when they feel the pain relief of automation kick in.
Check out the full Birdeye report here…
