Voice Search Is Overrated
There I said it.
And since I’m putting this on the internet this will probably age poorly.
But my gut is that voice search just isn’t that big a deal. Voice will continue to grow as a method of accessing various helpful applications in new endpoints. 15.7% of Canadians in 2019 will own a smart speaker[i] and Amazon is partnering with various auto manufacturers to make your vehicle an Alexa device. But I’m skeptical that voice search is a bold new frontier for marketers and brands to rally around. That or I’m strawmanning a position to write a quick article for my own amusement. Who can say for sure?
Part of my skepticism is that we simply don’t know that much about the qualitative makeup of voice searches. There are lots of stats of flying around, but most of them are along the lines of 30% of searches being screen-less by 2020[ii]. But we know nothing about what people are actually looking for with their words. And my skepticism ramps up when there is nothing released other than percentages. Though not exactly a wide sample size, my last voice search was started with the origins of the phrase “cut the mustard” and ended with me wondering what it would be like if the Google Home spoke like Gilbert Gottfried. Not the stuff of which marketing dreams are made. Best I could do was change the language setting to English (Australia) so that it now speaks in a delightful accent.
Without specifics of the type of searches that are occurring, they is no way for us to get a clear view of the types of human behaviour that voice may be enabling or creating. Is it the busy parent perfectly finding a recipe and following it hands free? Or is it the ultimate arbiter of house party arguments? What do people use their Google Home Mini for? We don’t know. But apparently 41% of smart speakers owner say it’s like talking to a friend or another person[iii]. Google’s marketing department is full of helpful tidbits like that.
Suppose it’s helpful to clarify that the amorphous nature of “voice search” lends itself to vagueness. There are the screenless voice searches that begin and end on a smart speaker or other endpoint. Then there are those on a mobile device that result in a regular SERP and functionally ends the same as a regular mobile search.
Thus when we evaluate the rise of new technology, it’s always helpful to look at the last large change. For search, that is most definitely mobile. Hindsight is 20/20, so may be easy for me to say this, but mobile access to the internet and search fundamentally changed the way we interact with the world. And I don’t think voice will have the same impact.
The Impact of Mobile
Moving from stationary, limited access to information to mobile, always on access to information is a tectonic shift. Mobile introduced a constancy in connection, an omnipresent link to a wider world. We feel naked without our phones, as that always on connection has become something of an electronic prosthetic. A limb that allows us to reach out and find the answers to our questions anytime, anywhere. From a marketing perspective, this fundamentally led to the rise of a singularly empowered consumer that can vet messaging and be constantly on the hunt for something better.
And we can see than in the data. Mobile searches that include the word “best” have risen 80% in the last 2 years.[iv] In categories that are central to a person’s well being – finance, travel, health, beauty food, it’s grown even faster.[v] Mobile access as enabled a constant drive to maximize one’s experience and not just settle for what is presented to them. Looking at the change from desktop to mobile, I remain unconvinced that a change from mobile to voice is that big a deal.
Voice Over
There has been countless thought pieces about brands need to prepare for voice and all the other potential straw mans. But to my mind fundamentally voice search and their related assistants are created to be a brand invisible environment. Well that’s not quite true – a couple of brand are very visible. Those would be the ones printed on the side of the device.
Smart speakers – namely Echo, Google Home and whatever Apple is making – are a Trojan horse to create a network dependency. A central fixture in a network of smart lights and thermostats and doorbells and eventually appliances and so on. It’s the smart home of the future, but it can only be achieved through a set of compatible products. A lot of the time the Echo or Home are sold at a loss to Amazon and Google respectively.[vi]
On the commerce side it gets even worse for other brands. Screen-less voice search creates a winner-takes-all environment where the first product suggested is likely the one the user is going to go with. And there are multiple sources that suggest that Echo is very likely to favour Amazon private label products even if there is a cheaper alternative available.[vii] A paragon of market competition voice search is not.
How I’m Probably Wrong
All this being said, there’s no denying the remarkable convenience of voice. The speed and ease you are able to perform tasks is surely to continue to grow its use. And yes, I’ve been that person in the Google Home commercial with both hands caked in whatever I’m cooking asking the Home to set a timer or some such thing. The functionality and speed will only improve – the Google Assistant’s file size is now small enough to run on-device and is purported to process requests 10 times faster.[viii]
So If I end this mild cynical rant on a positive take away – it is this: Voice is only overrated when we put it in the lens of a marketing tactic. A way to acquire new customers on mass. But probably the better way to think about Voice is how you can use it to remove friction in your owned properties. How will adding voice functionality to your site or app help the end user?
That or just lean into the data hegemony of big tech.
[i] https://content-na1.emarketer.com/canada-trends-in-2019 emarketer No 2018. Canada Trends in 2019Three Emerging Areas for Digital Marketers
[ii] https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/gartner-predicts-a-virtual-world-of-exponential-change/
[iii] https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/data-collections/voice-assistance-emerging-technologies/
[iv] https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/best-searches/
[v] Analysis of Google Ads Keyword Tool Data
[vi] https://medium.com/@florenthacq/https-medium-com-florenthacq-is-amazons-voice-assistant-alexa-a-modern-trojan-horse-f0d2df77f668
[vii] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/23/business/amazon-the-brand-buster.html and
[viii] https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/7/18535637/google-assistant-voice-new-faster-search-alarm-update-io-2019