automotive
TikTok Revs Up Local Automotive Ads
As its operational fate in the U.S. wallows in uncertainty, TikTok continues to roll out new features. The latest is a set of ad formats for promoting and selling cars.
MULO
Tiger Pistol’s Latest Playbook Tackles Franchise Field Support
Tiger Pistol is back at it. After a string of marketing playbooks it released last year, it kicks off 2025 with the next in the series: optimizing field support for multi-location businesses. This follows playbooks on subjects ranging from multi-location campaign management to QSR loyalty programs.
Pro Features
Can Caller ID Tell You Why an SMB is Calling?
Caller ID just got smarter – at least for AT&T mobile subscribers. Due to a new collaboration with TransUnion (yes, that TransUnion), AT&T customers will see not only the business calling but the reason for the call on their smartphone screen. Think of this like an email subject line for phone calls.
Pro Features
Local Services Propel Yelp to Record Net Revenue
Yelp yesterday announced Q4 and full-year 2024 earnings, including record net revenue and healthy income growth. Specifically, 2024 net revenue reached a record high of $1.41 billion. 2024 Net Income grew 34 percent to $133 million 2024, while adjusted EBITDA increased 8% to a record $358 million
Pro Features
vcita Lessens SMB Lost Revenue with AI Scheduling Tool
vcita this week released a new AI-powered scheduling tool that’s meant to help SMBs manage their calendars and optimize workflow. The goal here is to offer tangible value in addressing real SMB pain points. It does this by automating a time-consuming function and lessening lost revenue.
local seo
Yext Acquires Places Scout to Elevate its Location Intelligence
Yext this week announced that it has acquired Places Scout. For those unfamiliar, Places Scout is a local SEO and location intelligence platform. Used throughout the local search universe, it can uncover insights about SEO and presence strategies, based on how and where businesses show up online.
Local Radar
Local Radar: Tracking Shipments, SMB Loans, and DIY AI Agents
In this edition of Localogy’s Local Radar, we examine newly funded companies Tive, Rounded & Karmen
AI
Chatmeter Uncovers Consumers’ Food-Delivery Gripes
Just in time for the Superbowl – one of America’s preeminent eating holidays – Chatmeter has released a new report that uncovers consumer sentiments around food delivery.
AI
Google Offers to Call Local Businesses For You (Again)
Google has returned to the idea of automatically calling local businesses on your behalf. Its new “Ask for Me” feature uses AI to call local businesses to inquire about simple questions
Pro Features
Yelp’s Trust & Safety Report Brings New Meaning in the Age of AI
Yelp’s annual Trust & Safety report is out today. Every year, it reveals how Yelp’s local search and reviews engine works, including reliance on machine learning and human moderation to police deceptive reviews. As part of this exercise, it also quantifies its policy enforcement efforts around bad actors.
Local Radar
Local Radar: Coffee Shops, Payments & Agentic Healthcare
In this edition of Localogy’s Local Radar, we examine newly funded companies Pickpad, Hyperline, and Hippocratic AI
Pro Features
Retail Media: Coming to a Grocery Store Near You
The lates retail media subset to come to our attention is grocery. Retail media revenue within the category is estimated at $8.5 billion.
Local Search
Weather Report: Local SEO Guide Releases SERP Summary
Local SEO Guide’s SERP Summary, released this week, makes sense of a key component of Google Search: the results page itself.
Meta
Meta Threads Takes the Next Logical Step: Ads
You can now add another player to the social media marketing landscape: Threads. The company made it known this week that it’s starting to roll
Aiwyn
Local Radar: Waste Management, Accounting & HR
In this edition of Localogy’s Local Radar series, we examine newly funded companies Hauler Hero, Aiwyn & OnPay
Meta
Meta’s Elevates its Visual Search Aspirations
This week saw the latest clues in Meta’s beleaguered but potentially-promising spatial computing roadmap. Otherwise known as extended reality, we’re talking about the spectrum of AR, VR, and MR. These are often lumped into the gaming realm but have other endpoints, such as local commerce.
Pro Features
What’s Behind T-Mobile’s Vistar Media Acquisition?
T-Mobile has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Vistar Media. For those unfamiliar, Vistar is a formidable ad network and adtech play in the digital out of home (DOOH) realm. This diversifies T-Mobile’s revenue mix and achieves some synergies with its core business.
Data Scout
Sphere of Influence: Word-of-Mouth Aint What it Used to Be
Based on a survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers conducted in September, a GoDaddy report signals that recommendations from family, friends, and colleagues are losing their potency, given the greater trust that’s now put in the influencer economy.
Pro Features
What Does a Post-TikTok World Look Like?
Though there are orbiting variables that could change the fate of TikTok in the coming days, the current reality is that its “divest or die” congressional act is in effect. What will this mean for SMBs that rely on the platform?
Pro Features
Specialization and AI: Hiring Trends to Define 2025
Where are we now in the world of hiring? Skills marketplace Upwork has ample first-party data to answer that question… and insights to make sense of it all. We recently gathered some of those insights.