Everyone's talking about voice search right now. It's Google Home this, Amazon Echo that, Siri here, Cortana there. 

‘Hacking’ Voice Search

Ever since the arrival of virtual assistants into our phones and our homes, we've probably all done at least one voice search; the stats show that over half of young people utilise voice search every day. 

From an advertiser's perspective, long-tail keywords are the best way to 'hack' voice search for our purposes. The explanation is quite simple: people are, by nature, empathetic beings and when they hear an AI system speaking to them in a human-like manner, we respond in kind. So, when they encounter a highly intelligent machine who says 'Hi, what can I do for you today?', most people will ask full questions rather than use keywords as they might do in a traditional search format. 

For example, someone is much more likely to ask Siri ‘what’s the weather like today?’ than ‘weather forecast’. As the popularity of these virtual assistants increases, so does searching for long-tail keywords. So, why should we be using long-tail keywords in our digital strategies?

Successful Conversion

Long-tail keywords are more likely to convert successfully. As they are more specific than short keywords, the users searching for them will be more knowledgeable about their desires, and consequently more likely to make a purchase if they find what they want.

Lower Costs

Short keywords tend to form a saturated market and therefore have higher CPCs, whereas long-tail keyword bidding is less likely to attract plenty of competitors, keeping the costs low.

Better Average Positions

Your ad will show up higher on the page, with more chances to gain traffic and conversions from users who already know they are looking for you!

Long story short, virtual assistants and voice search are getting bigger every day. It’s our duty as advertisers to embrace them and tailor our strategy based on them, so buckle up and let the long-tail keywords take over the world!

Adriana Badea is a Digital Advertising Executive at Engage