Most local businesses measure success by website traffic and contact form submissions. But the data from 500 marketers reveals that the majority of customer decisions happen before a website visit ever occurs. Google Search and Maps, word of mouth, and review sites together account for 63 percent of local decision influence, meaning the channels most local businesses underinvest in are doing the heaviest lifting in the customer journey.

Essential Statistics

• Google Search and Maps account for 24 percent of decision influence before a local business contact, the largest single channel in the dataset.
• Word of mouth represents 23 percent of decision influence, nearly matching Google Search and Maps as a driver of pre-contact decisions.
• Review sites account for 16 percent of decision influence, the third largest channel.
• Social media contributes 14 percent of decision influence, followed by paid ads at 13 percent and the business website itself at 10 percent.
• Combined, Google Search and Maps, word of mouth, and review sites account for 63 percent of pre-contact decision influence, while the business website ranks last at only 10 percent.

Key Takeaways

• The business website ranking last at 10 percent is the most counterintuitive finding in this data. For most local businesses, the website is the primary marketing investment, yet it accounts for the smallest share of pre-contact decision influence among the six channels measured.
• Google Search and Maps at 24 percent confirms that local SEO and Google Business Profile optimization are the single highest-leverage investments for influencing customer decisions before contact. A business that does not appear prominently in local search and map results is invisible during the most influential stage of the customer journey.
• Word of mouth at 23 percent, nearly equal to Google Search and Maps, confirms that referral and reputation signals carry decision weight comparable to the largest search engine. Businesses that do not actively cultivate referral networks are leaving nearly a quarter of their decision influence potential unaddressed.
• Review sites at 16 percent make the combined Google, word of mouth, and review influence total 63 percent. All three of these channels are reputation-dependent rather than traffic-dependent, which means visibility and credibility matter as much as ad spend in local marketing.
• Paid ads at 13 percent rank fifth despite typically consuming a disproportionate share of local marketing budgets. The gap between paid ad influence and the combined influence of organic reputation channels suggests a significant misallocation of local marketing investment across most businesses.

Actionable Insights

• Audit your Google Business Profile before any other local marketing investment. Google Search and Maps is the highest-impact channel in this dataset. A complete, accurate, and actively managed Google Business Profile with photos, updated hours, and regular posts is the prerequisite for capturing that influence. If your profile is incomplete or unmanaged, fixing it produces the highest return per hour of any local marketing activity available.
• Build a structured referral program to systematically capture the 23 percent of decision influence that word of mouth represents. Most local businesses benefit from word of mouth passively rather than actively generating it.
• Treat review acquisition as a primary marketing activity rather than a reputation management task. With review sites accounting for 16 percent of pre-contact decision influence, the volume and quality of your reviews directly affects how much of that influence your business captures. Automate review requests via post-service email or SMS and respond to all existing reviews.
• Reduce the share of local marketing budget allocated to paid ads relative to the influence share they represent. Paid ads at 13 percent rank fifth among six channels, yet many local businesses allocate the majority of their marketing spend there. Rebalancing toward local SEO, review generation, and referral programs addresses the channels with the highest combined pre-contact decision influence at lower ongoing cost.
• Reframe your website as a conversion tool rather than a discovery tool for local customers. Your website is where customers who have already decided to consider you come to confirm that decision, not where most discovery happens. Optimize your website for conversion, clear contact information, trust signals, and service clarity, rather than treating it as your primary visibility channel in local markets.

“The website ranks last in local pre-contact decision influence at 10 percent. Most local businesses have that exactly backwards. They invest heavily in the website and lightly in Google Business Profile, reviews, and referrals, which together account for 63 percent of the decision. Fix that allocation and you fix the acquisition funnel.” – Neil Patel