Episode 15: How to Drive Revenue Through Location Marketing in 2025

Key Takeaways

• 73% of location marketers cannot connect their efforts to sales
• Rankings are just the beginning — visibility, reputation, engagement, and conversions must be measured together to show real ROI
• AI search is adding a new discovery channel, not replacing Google — Google’s search volume is still growing
• Social content is becoming a direct input to search — Google is pulling Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok posts into local discovery experiences
• The Location Performance Score (LPS) gives marketers a single health metric that connects location marketing activity to estimated revenue

For most location marketers, the biggest challenge is not strategy — it is proving that what they do drives revenue. A recent Uberall survey found that 73% of marketers at location-based businesses cannot show the impact of their location marketing on sales. That gap between effort and attribution is where budgets get cut, teams get demoralized, and marketing gets treated as a cost center rather than a revenue driver.

In this episode of the Local Marketing Beat podcast, host Christian Hustle is joined by Krystal Taing, VP of Solutions at Uberall, and Stéphanie Génin, CMO at Uberall, to explore why the way we measure location marketing performance is broken, how AI search is changing consumer behavior without replacing Google, why local social is an underutilized growth lever, and how the Location Performance Score is giving marketers the single metric they need to connect activity to revenue.

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction to the broken state of location marketing metrics

01:15 Why rankings are just the beginning — not the measure of success

03:58 73% of marketers can’t connect location marketing to revenue

07:49 How AI search is changing consumer behavior and adding new channels

09:03 TikTok Places, social search, and the rise of social SEO

12:00 ChatGPT as a consumer tool: how search behavior is evolving

16:14 The metrics that matter: visibility, reputation, engagement, and conversions

19:48 End-to-end revenue attribution and tracking real-world impact

25:04 Google Posts, Apple Showcases, and the growing importance of local social

30:40 Location Performance Score: the single metric that connects everything to revenue

35:50 Final advice: start with the basics, stay curious, and make AI your best friend

The Way We Measure Location Marketing Is Broken

“If you are only measuring the very first part of location marketing, you’re not actually seeing the return. We actually need to start at the end, which is those people showing up in your business, doing business with you, recommending their friends. That’s actually how we should be measuring the success of what you’re doing in local.” — Krystal Taing

For over a decade, local SEO success has been measured primarily by rankings. But rankings are only the beginning of the customer journey. They tell you whether your business is visible, but they say nothing about whether customers are engaging, trusting, or buying. The real measure of success is what happens after someone finds you — do they click, do they visit, do they convert?

Stéphanie reinforces this from the CMO perspective: a Uberall survey of clients and partners found that 73% of marketers at location-based businesses could not show the impact of their location marketing on sales.

For CMOs trying to protect or grow budgets, this gap is existential. If marketing cannot prove its connection to revenue, it risks being treated as a cost center rather than a growth driver.

AI Search Is Adding a New Channel, Not Replacing Google

“Google’s search volume is not going down. It’s actually increasing in the last couple of months. This is changing, this is an addition to how you’re already visible, and prioritizing your other search marketing activities.” — Krystal Taing

Both Krystal and Stéphanie share how AI search has changed their own consumer behavior. Krystal uses ChatGPT for specific, direct-answer questions but still turns to Google when she wants to browse a list of options and make a decision. Stéphanie has become a full convert, using ChatGPT for everything from creative brainstorming to personal search — though she notes it is not yet strong for local results.

The critical insight for multi-location brands: AI search is not replacing traditional search — it is an additional channel. Google’s search volume continues to grow even as ChatGPT and other LLMs gain users.

This means brands need to optimize for both, ensuring their business information is accurate and engaging across all listing platforms while also understanding how LLMs prioritize third-party references, reviews, and rich content when generating recommendations.

Social Content Is Becoming a Direct Input to Local Search

“Google is now bringing in Instagram, Facebook, Twitter posts from local businesses and adding it directly on their Google profiles and also in Discovery on Maps. There’s a section called Nearby Events and Deals — these are pulled from your Google profile but also from your social profile.” — Krystal Taing

Krystal highlights a development that many location marketers have not yet acted on: Google is actively pulling social media content into its local search experience. Instagram posts, Facebook updates, and TikTok content are appearing directly on Google Business Profiles and in Maps Discovery features like Nearby Events and Deals. This is not a test — it is a clear signal from Google that social engagement matters for local visibility.

Stéphanie adds that Google Posts and Apple Showcases remain dramatically underutilized by most businesses. For hotels and restaurants in particular, where Google limits many profile features, posts represent one of the few areas of unfettered access to communicate directly with potential customers.

For any brand managing local social media alongside search, this convergence means social and local SEO strategies should no longer be siloed — they need to be coordinated, with consistent content flowing across both.

Bring the Metrics Together: Visibility, Reputation, Engagement, Conversion

“It’s not creating a new metric. It’s actually all of the things that we all know are important — bringing them together. When you optimize each stage that a consumer is engaging with you, then you will really be able to uncover those revenue opportunities.” — Krystal Taing

Krystal outlines a practical framework for connecting location marketing to revenue.

The answer is not inventing new metrics — it is bringing together the ones that already exist across four pillars: visibility (are customers finding you?), reputation (do they trust you based on reviews and sentiment?), engagement (are they interacting with your content, photos, and posts?), and conversion (are they clicking to call, requesting directions, or completing a purchase?).

Most businesses track one or two of these pillars but rarely connect them. When they are brought together into a unified view, the correlation between activity and revenue becomes visible. This is the foundation of Uberall’s Location Performance Optimization framework — a holistic approach that ties every stage of the local customer journey to measurable business outcomes.

The Location Performance Score: One Metric to Rule Them All

“I always thought one day I can log into a platform, see one score that gives me the health of what my team is doing, and I can justify all the location marketing effort we’re doing. Well, that’s it — we’ve done it.” — Stéphanie Génin

Stéphanie introduces the Location Performance Score (LPS) as the culmination of Uberall’s vision for location marketing measurement.

LPS is a single health score for each location that combines visibility, reputation, and engagement data into one actionable number. Alongside the score, the platform provides specific recommendations — telling marketers exactly which actions will move the needle for each location.

Critically, the score is paired with a revenue estimate, giving CMOs and executives a direct line from marketing activity to estimated business impact. As Stéphanie notes, this makes location marketing accessible to boardrooms and executive teams who may not understand the individual metrics but can immediately grasp a health score paired with a revenue number. For teams that have struggled to prove the value of their work, LPS represents a shift from vanity metrics to business-level accountability.

Start with the Basics, Then Experiment

“Continue to be curious. Really optimize your experimentation, push your boundaries, but don’t forget your foundation of what works that you always tie back to revenue.” — Stéphanie Génin

In their closing advice, both guests return to fundamentals. Krystal stresses that the most important thing is getting started with the basics: accurate listings, a rich and engaging website, and a clear path for customers to complete a purchase or visit. Once the foundation is solid, brands can experiment with new channels and tactics.

Stéphanie adds a dual recommendation: Stay curious and experiment with AI tools and new platforms, but never lose sight of the foundation that drives revenue. Make your CFO your best friend — because when you can educate finance on the metrics that matter and connect them to the Location Performance Score, getting budget becomes a conversation about investment, not a request for faith.