How is a Citation Builder campaign delivered?

In this overview, we’ll explain each of the four stages that take place in the processing of a Citation Builder campaign. You can watch the video or read the content below. 

On average, the whole campaign usually lasts between six and seven weeks. 

Phase 1: Preliminary data checks (Days 0-2)

Once you have purchased the campaign, it is added to our workflow and we start running our preliminary data checks within the first two days.

We take the client or business data that you have provided, and cross-check the information on both the website and Google Business Profile — this is to ensure that the name, address, and phone number are consistent with the data provided in the campaign setup process.

We do this before anything is submitted, as it's easier to spot any potential inconsistencies before we start submitting. Therefore, we run this check first to ensure that all data is consistent and we are publishing accurate business data.

If we find any inconsistencies during these checks, a member of our Citation Builder team will be in touch to flag the discrepancy and confirm with you which data should be submitted.

By reaching out to you directly before submissions have started, we prevent any inconsistency issues.

Please note that the campaign may be placed on hold if important information is missing, or if substantial data discrepancies are found during this stage. In this case, we will not move on to Phase 2 until we have received instructions on how to proceed.

Phase 2: Submission (Days 3-7)

Once we're happy that the data is consistent, we then enter our submission phase. Here, we update the existing citations or create new ones from the list of sites that you have selected.

One agent will handle all submissions for a campaign, which tends to work very well in terms of delivering certain nuances around a campaign — this provides added reassurance about who is submitting the data.

Phase 3: Quality assurance and live listing review (Days 8-38)

The next stage is our first round of quality assurance, which typically happens between days 8-14.

During this stage, one of our Senior Submission Managers will access the campaign to individually check each citation that we have either updated or created for you. Having an expert set of eyes to check the submissions really makes sure there are no consistency issues. 

In the unlikely event of any potential issues being found, they are quickly corrected, which is an important backup step to ensure that the data we publish for you is 100% consistent.

At this stage, we also check and complete all of the email verification links on your behalf, so that you don't need to worry about managing these.

The next phase that your campaign enters is the live listing review check.

Certain sites will produce an instant live listing when you submit data to them. Therefore, in some cases, they may even go live on day 14.

Other directories have a longer and more stringent vetting process, where they need to check the data manually. However, they may have a backlog to work through before they can publish the listing.

Because of this, the 'live listing review' stage happens two weeks after we initially submit the data, and then once again two weeks after that. This happens twice because some sites will do it within two weeks of the initial submission, and other sites may take four weeks or longer.

After four weeks, we will have a complete campaign report letting you see all of the live links and the updated citations that we've built for you.