How do I create a Citation Builder campaign? (New Platform)

Creating a Citation Builder (CB) campaign takes you through eight steps. You can edit any step before you pay, and your progress is saved automatically as you go.

After adding a new Location, you'll be taken straight into the process of setting up a new Citation Builder campaign.

Step 1: Scan your existing listings

When you start a campaign, we scan your business across thousands of directories to see where you're already listed.

This takes a few minutes, so while you wait, we'll ask a quick question: 'How does your business serve customers?'

• At a fixed address customers visit
• I travel to customers / serve an area
• Both

This tells us whether your address should be shown publicly or kept private, and helps us tailor which directories we recommend later on. You can also select 'Prefer to choose everything yourself?' or 'Skip questions' if you'd rather decide this later.

If you need to change your answer, click ‘Change my answers’ and reconfirm your choice.

Here we also show information about what you can expect following a Citation Builder campaign, important information on how a campaign is delivered, and which data aggregators you may wish to include in your campaign.

You can add an email address to be notified when this step completes. Simply add your email address and click ‘Notify me’ to be notified once you can move onto the next step.

Once the scan is complete, you'll see your Citation Health Score — a score out of 100 based on how many directories you're listed on correctly. Below this, you'll see how many directories:

• You're listed on correctly
• Are available to build
• Need fixing

When you are ready, click ‘Customize your campaign’ to move onto the next step.

Step 2: Fix your existing citations

If we find listings with incorrect details, these are shown under 'Fix existing citations'. Any listings that are already correct are shown separately; these don't need any action and aren't part of your campaign.

Click ‘Detected details’ to see more information about why each citation has been flagged to be fixed.

Select which of these citations you would like to be included in your campaign.

Click ‘Continue to build’ to move onto the next step.

Step 3: Build new citations

Next, choose your citation bundle; this is the number of new listings you'd like us to build. Bundle sizes available are 10, 15, 25, 35, 50, 75 and 100. Your bundle covers both fixes and new builds together.

The basket will update with your selection so that you can keep track of the total cost of your campaign so far as you proceed through the setup.

Adding 'Remove harmful duplicate citations' means that we’ll find and remove old or duplicate listings so search engines and customers see one accurate version of your business.

For more information on duplicate removal, please see: How does Citation Builder handle the removal of duplicate listings?

You can narrow down the directories by selecting 'Preferences'. Here you can apply the following filters:

• Hide my address: Shows only sites where you can hide your address.
• Skip phone verification: Leaves out sites that call your business to verify your number.
• Get listed instantly: Shows only sites that publish your listing right away.
• No follow-up needed from you: Leaves out sites that need you to finish a step yourself, usually a verification link or code sent to your business email.

As you apply filters, you'll see how many directories match out of the total available. To remove a single filter, deselect it. To remove all filters at once, click 'Clear'.

Select the available directories you would like to include in your campaign. Your bundle quantity determines how many you can select. By default, available new citations are sorted by domain authority.

Once you have confirmed your selection, click ‘Continue to aggregators’ to move onto the next step.

Step 4: Add Data Aggregators

Data aggregators feed your business details into the networks that AI tools, voice assistants, and in-car navigation systems draw from.

Available aggregators include Active Sync, Foursquare, Data Axle, Neustar, GPS Network, and YP Network, depending on your country. Each gives 12 months of access as a one-time payment (no auto-renewal).

Selecting 3+ aggregators applies a discount. The more you add, the more you save.

Click ‘Continue to delivery speed’ to move onto the next step.

Step 5: Choose your delivery speed

Choose how quickly you'd like your campaign submitted:

• Standard: submitted within 7 days, included in your price.
• Express: submitted within 24 hours, for an additional fee.

For more information on Citation Builder Express campaigns, please see: What is Citation Builder Express?

Click ‘Continue’ to move onto the next step.

Step 6: Review your campaign

Finally, you'll see a full summary of your campaign. If you need to go back and edit any step, click the pencil icon.

Once you're ready, you can choose to pay using a card or Citation Builder credits. 

You'll need to agree to the terms and conditions before paying.

Select ‘Pay by card/ Use credits & create campaign’ to proceed.

Step 7: Payment

If you selected to pay by card, you will be taken to the billing page. Complete the steps using your preferred payment method.

If you selected to use credits, the required number of credits will automatically be deducted from your existing balance.

Step 8: Confirm business details

Once your payment is confirmed, you'll be asked to confirm your business details.

At the very top, you'll see the Location and campaign name.

a. Business Details

This section contains business information.

Business Location Info: This will be automatically pre-populated with the Location’s data entered. You just need to check the existing information and add any details that might be missing.

Business Location Contact Info: Here, you need to add the information that potential customers can use to contact the business directly. While most of this data is optional, it will still be published on the citations that were selected for the campaign.

• Contact email: This may appear as a required field if a contact email is required for one or more of the directories you selected to submit to. Some directories may also require the contact email to match the same domain as the website URL provided.
   
• Mobile telephone number: Only enter a mobile number in this section if it is different from the 'Business telephone number' in the section above.

b. About the Business

This section contains additional content published across your chosen directories. Business category and description are mandatory fields.

'Extra business categories' and a 'List of services / products' can also be added if applicable.

c. Opening Hours

The opening hours supplied for the business can be entered here.

For each day, you can select:

• Open: Input the opening hours.
• Closed: The business does not open on that day.
• 24hrs: The business is open the whole day.
• Split: There is a gap in the opening hours that day.

If the opening hours for the business are the same every day, you can select ‘Apply to all’.

d.  Payment Methods Accepted

Here, you can select the payment methods the business accepts.

e. Social Media Links

You can also provide links to your social media pages, which we can publish on the listings for you, enabling potential customers to see more content about your business.

f. Additional Data

Some directories may require additional data such as a reference number. This generally only applies to ‘niche directories’ that are specific to a business category.

If you do not have this additional data, please input a placeholder such as ‘ABCD12345’ and leave a note for our team in the ‘Campaign Notes’ (see section 8h) letting us know that you don’t have these details. Our team will then replace any citations that require the missing additional data with a different directory of closest value.

g.  Business Images

A logo and selection of images can be added here, which will then be published on citation sites. We recommend taking advantage of this option, as it will make your listing look more complete.

Images can either be uploaded as files (maximum size: 2MB) or in URL format. Please ensure that any files added are not too small.

Images can only be added through the Location Manager. To add them, click on 'Edit in Location Manager' and follow these instructions. 

h. Campaign Notes

This field allows you to leave a comment or instruction about the campaign to our submissions team. For example, you can use this section to provide login details for your existing listings, any special instructions, or additional information that is relevant to this campaign and can be helpful. Rest assured that we will closely follow your instructions here.

As this is a required field, simply enter 'NA' if you don't have any special instructions for us.

i. Receive Email Alerts

In this section, you can add your email address so that we can send you a reminder when the campaign has been completed. If you don’t want to receive email notifications, simply select ‘No.’

Once you have completed this page, select 'confirm' to complete your campaign set up.

j. Order Confirmation

You’ll see an order confirmation, and information regarding the timeline of the campaign.

If you’d like to start a new campaign right away, just click “start another campaign”. Or you can click “view report” where you can track the progress of your order.

If you agree to receive email notifications, we will send you an email to keep you updated about:

• When the submission stage has been completed
• When the whole campaign has finished

That's it! You're ready to create Citation Builder campaigns.

Your campaign will then begin processing according to the delivery speed you chose, and you’ll be able to access your Citation Builder campaign report at any time.

You can find your campaign at any time on your Citation Builder overview page, or when viewing your Location and selecting ‘Citation Builder’ from the left-side menu.

For more information on understanding a Citation Builder campaign report, please see: How do I understand a Citation Builder Campaign report?