Marketing, specifically how search is conducted online, is changing rapidly, and modern marketing departments need to adapt to stay best in class. Let me introduce to you a new role that all companies need to explore – Vice President of Finding.
Let’s explore why organizations need to create a VP of Finding role and who they’ll manage.
Why Your Company Needs a VP of Finding
With voice search, GenAI, image search, and new ways to find your brand popping up quarterly, the VP of Finding is going to be a critical role within orgs that want to stay ahead of their competition.
Are you going to have an SEO take these on? Social Media? What about the brand team? The skill set needed to be great at these fast-growing disciplines is drastically different than any role most companies currently have on staff.
And who is going to lead them when VP’s must focus on Budgeting and Forecasting, Affiliates, Partnerships, Content Marketing, Brand, PR, Social, Display, Video/Audio channels, and more. Creating a VP of Finding will allow an executive to put all their efforts into existing and emerging search technologies to ensure you’re first to market and found everywhere.
Your New Org Structure
The current environment has ten “finding” areas that need to be addressed in a meaningful way. Each of these areas would need a Director or Manager level employee with some supporting staff depending on the needs of your organization.
- Paid Search – Manages all traditional paid search from Google and Bing to potential future opportunities with Apple Search, Yahoo Search, and others.
- Search Engine Optimization – Handles all things traditional SEO. Google isn’t going away, and Bing, DuckDuckGo, and others are always hanging around as solid alternatives.
- Generative AI / GenAI Search – While optimizing for GenAI is similar to SEO, there are enough differences to have someone focus on it full time. Your Director of GenAI will need to focus on taxonomies, ontology development, and knowledge management that your SEO team doesn’t do as much today. ChatGPT hogs the news in this space but Google Bard, Claude, Jasper, and others all need to be watched closely.
- Voice Search – Voice shopping hasn’t taken off, yet, but voice search is nearly 20% of all searches online. Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple Siri are the dominant players but don’t sleep on Samsung’s Bixby and Microsoft’s Cortana or international options like AliGenie and DuerOS.
- Image Search – This channel is getting very interesting. Companies want to optimize for Google Image Search along with Bing and others. However, the area to really watch is Google Lens, Apple Visual Intelligence, and others. Does your company sell replacement parts? Your customers are now circling a picture of a part, no keywords needed, to find a replacement online – if you aren’t optimized for “circle a picture” type searches, you’re going to miss out.
- Video Search – The focus for this role isn’t creating video, paid video ads, etc. It’s solely to be found via video searches relevant to your company and products. Optimizing for YouTube is different than optimizing for Google Video Search or Vimeo for that matter. While a video version of Google Lens or Apple Visual Lookup doesn’t exist, expect one soon enough. Your Director of Video Search could have videos of your products optimized and ready for launch using similar tactics as image search.
- Social Search – Keep your paid and organic social media team but have them work closely with a Director of Social Search. Why do you need this role? It’s been reported that Gen Alpha and Gen Z use TikTok more frequently than Google to get product recommendations. Throw in changes at Meta, Pinterest, and emerging social platforms, and you need to focus on “finding” as much as the social and brand elements. While your social team is creating amazing content that people love and share, your social search folks make sure you’re front and center for #YourProductGiftIdeas, “where to buy my product”, and new ways to find things in social media.
- App Store Optimization / ASO – Having worked with numerous companies with a mobile app, ASO is frequently an afterthought. About 70% of app discoveries happen through searches in the app store. Keywords play a vital role of course but there is a big difference between how you rank well in Google Play Store vs. how you rank in Google Search.
- Site Search – Many companies leave site search to their IT team or sometimes UX/CX. Don’t – get a site search specialist to help optimize your customer journey. Working closely with paid search, SEO, and other team members, the site search specialist can make a big difference in conversion rates by aligning off site finding with on site finding.
- Local Search – Obviously, if you have a retail or local service, showing up in Google Maps and other local searches is critical to your existence. Spending a big part of your time optimizing for local is a must have position. But, even if you don’t have a local presence, finding creative ways to show up in local search can be a huge advantage against your competition. Studies show 30-40% of local search results end up in a purchase from a national or ecommerce pure play. Grow your brands presence outside your footprint with a local search strategy.
An advanced company might include an eleventh role to test into emerging technologies. Some areas that are in their infancy include Augmented Reality Search, Blockchain-based Search, Contextual and Predictive Search, Quantum Computing Search, and more. Will any of these go mainstream like ChatGPT? Nobody knows but cutting-edge marketing leaders are already paying attention.
My Small/Mid-Size Business Can’t Hire That Many People
Let’s be realistic, only an Enterprise or near Enterprise level company is creating the above org structure. How can startups, small, and mid-size businesses stay ahead of the game when finding things online is becoming more fractured?
First, evaluate your current staff to see where you can group areas. If you have an SEO expert, have them manage GenAI which is about 80% like SEO currently. Have someone who is great at video, set them off to become a video and image search expert. There are many creative ways to fill in all areas of finding – while not perfect, you’ll still be a step ahead of your competition.
Outside support is another good option. Find an agency or consultant who can fill in your gaps in finding. Make sure you have a clearly defined scope and goals/metrics.
How to Measure Success of a Vice President of Finding
The VP of Finding oversees a wide variety of channels, from easy to track to more difficult top of funnel channels. Some metrics you should use to make sure your Vice President of Finding is successful include –
- Total Impressions Across All Channels
- Share of Voice
- Total Traffic and New Users
- Multi-Touch Attribution and Cross-Channel Conversion Rate
- Traditional metrics like CPA, Time on Site, etc.
- Blended CPA is king – mostly ignore your high CPA on Social Search (obviously optimize to the best of your ability) because it’s helping to drive down CPA from Image Search which is contributing to higher conversion volume and a very healthy CPA for the overall “Finding/Discovery Department”
Every organization is different so get creative with success metrics. Add in a “New Search Technology Adoption Rate” metric or something specific to your brand or industry. Innovation is the name of the game with your new VP of Finding so test into metrics and KPI’s that help define the category.
Search is Now Finding and Discovery
Search is changing and finding your brand is more difficult, and expensive, than ever. Unleash your best chance of success with a Vice President of Finding. Not only will you see cost reductions, but you create a unified search strategy across all channels, develop enhanced customer experience and engagement – introduce your brand to new markets like Gen Alpha and Gen Z who use new to market finding channels more frequently, and build a competitive advantage through innovation in finding and discovery channels.