When Siri was released in the later part of 2010, alongside the release of the iPhone 4S, it brought with it the start of the voice command revolution. Not too long after we were saying things like “Hey Siri”, “Ok Google” and even “Alexa…”.

Notice how all the commands have three syllables?

The reason for the rise in these 3 syllabled commands for voice search is part of a much larger technological revolution in voice search, and its happening right before our very eyes.

Voice search works a little bit differently to traditional search.

In traditional search, people start by mapping out the intentions behind peoples phrasing of words compared to how close they are to buying a certain product. Because traditional search is visual, the relative positioning of your search term to the top of the page is the primary driver for search engine optimisation and advertisements.

In voice search, you can’t exactly see the results. So how do you use voice search to run campaigns?

There are two big factors that voice search can capitalise on, that traditional search was never able to. Voice search can capture intentions in the home, and by extension, cater to a completely different audience for selling products.

There is something lurking in these “smart home” solutions that nobody is talking about. Have you ever noticed that generally, when you buy a smart home device, that it asks you to nominate what room the smart home device is in? Why do you think it asks you to do that?

The reason that Google, Apple, or Amazon asks you to name the room that the device sits in is because, on a long enough timeline, audiences will start to be split into categories of what room the device is residing in.

Imagine going into your fridge and seeing a distinct lack of food. You can make a decision in a split second that you are hungry (biologically speaking), and without thinking can say “Ok Google, order me a pizza”. A large pizza chain has now bid for the location audience “kitchen”, and google says “Ok, howbout pizza hut?”.

Micro-location intention mapping gives marketers the ability to “break in” to the home, which is something that marketers were previously only able to do with television or radio. In times gone by, radio was the dominating force behind advertising. Families would sit on the couch and listen to the “wireless”.

With Voice Search, we might just be heading back to those times. With the rise in e-commerce in the home, it’s only a matter of time before our “smart home” systems start to advertise directly to us. We will have to wait and see, but Google and Amazon may be set for a titanic war.