mbretous@hubspot.com (Martina Bretous)
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Remember, the need to create new campaigns, leverage new channels, improve targeting, etc., means you are going to add more technology to your stack. That’s okay, as long as you keep the CAC impact in mind.
Is smaller better?
There’s an idea going around that we should all make our stacks smaller via consolidation. The argument is that a smaller stack will be easier to manage and less costly – but will it? Replacing five products with one product doesn’t guarantee easier stack management and lower costs. A new product could add a new level of complexity and require a long implementation and onboarding period and extensive training. It could also cost significantly more than the products that are being replaced.
Consolidation is a favorite theme of vendors with large multi-function systems that want you to use their product over everything else. There are times when this makes sense, particularly when integrations are involved, but there are plenty of times when it doesn’t. As yet there is no single platform that can deliver the functionality needed across the stack so don’t waste any time thinking about that.
Consolidation can be needed when a stack gets out of control due to lack of centralized oversight and purchasing. Then bloat becomes obvious through skyrocketing expenses without the ability to demonstrate return on investment. We’ve worked through this process with a number of customers and in every situation it’s because of redundant contracts, products and functionality. If you have processes in place to prevent this, your only risk of bloat is keeping products that didn’t live up to expectations or no longer serve your marketing objectives. This is easily avoided by establishing performance benchmarks and conducting regular stack reviews.
If we can’t define the optimum size of a tech stack then we certainly can’t look at a stack and say “that needs to be consolidated.” Stop worrying about stack size, the perfect size for your stack is one that ensures you meet your marketing objectives in a cost-effective way.
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Knowledge panels are not to be confused with business boxes. These are not based on the Knowledge Graph, but on an entry on Google Business. To what extent the data from Google Business is also taken into account in the Knowledge Graph is not clear, but it is not unlikely.
Google uses different templates for the knowledge panel. The placeholders for the content in the knowledge panel vary depending on the entity or entity type that is searched for. The placeholders are based on the standard attributes of the respective entity type.
How does Google determine the relevance of an entity to serve a knowledge panel?
The criteria by which Google evaluates this relevance are not clearly documented or there are no concrete statements from Google.
Wikipedia plays a special role for the proof entity. The surest way to be recognized as an entity is to have an entry on Wikipedia.
But other platforms that provide semi-structured data, such as Soundcloud, can also be used by Google to identify entities, as the hack for the keyword “SEO services India” has shown.

There it becomes clear that SoundCloud was used as the source for the entity detection. Websites such as SoundCloud or Wikipedia always present information in a consistent structure. This means that the information can be easily extracted from the websites without mark-ups.
How does Google create a knowledge panel?
The knowledge panels were first presented in the SERPs with the introduction of the Knowledge Graph in 2012.
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