Algorithms are like a recipe for a cake.
The core ingredients may stay the same, but a great baker or chef may adjust them, change the brands, or experiment with new techniques to create the perfect dessert.
Just like how recipes change over time to create the perfect cake, G2 is committed to continually providing updates to our algorithm and improving our methodologies to provide the most accurate reflection of the market on G2.com. Technology moves at such speeds that innovation and continuous evaluation are essential to keep up.
Our goal is to make G2 Scores and Grid® Reports more accurate for buyers and sellers through ongoing, robust buyer research, and customer feedback. Let’s explore what’s changing and why they matter to everyone.
Understanding the algorithm behind G2 Scores
People don’t buy from brands they like - they buy from brands they can trust. G2 is where software buyers go to assess a diverse range of products and services, and countless software vendors use G2 to capture the attention of in-market buyers by leveraging the voice of the customer.
To build a better software buying experience, we’ve put careful consideration into our scoring methodologies. To help contextualize the changes to our algorithm, let’s recap how we calculate G2 Scores.
How we calculate G2 Scores
A profile’s G2 Score is the calculated average of two other proprietary scores: Market Satisfaction + Market Presence.
Market Satisfaction
Instead of relying solely on numeric values from reviewers, like star rating, we consider multiple indicators from review data that better reflect how reviewers feel about specific software. Market Satisfaction describes the primary factors influencing G2’s Satisfaction score.
Market Presence
Many buyers indicate that a vendor’s position in the market plays a role in their decision process. Since this is a more layered aspect to represent across different industries and public and private companies, we leverage a combination of metrics from G2’s reviews, publicly available information, and third-party partners.
Why we’re making changes
The fact is that buying software is only becoming more complex. From longer sales cycles to more companies relying on buying committees, software brands know that buyer behavior will continue to change. Much like how we recently changed the design of our review form, we must also grow and change to keep pace with buyers.
At G2, we constantly strive to improve and iterate our offerings to ensure buyers have a seamless experience – and in turn, sellers are able to achieve success and their desired outcomes. The algorithm and features of the G2 Marketplace are crucial components in facilitating this connection.
Given the ever-evolving nature of the software industry, we’ve been committed to consistently looking inward and evaluating how we can deepen the value of G2 Scores. After careful buyer research, market analysis, and vendor feedback, we’re confident these updates will provide buyers with more relevant information and yield more accurate reflections about vendors on G2.
When are these changes happening?
These new updates will go live on the Grid® on April 25, 2023 and will be reflected in Summer 2023 Grid® Reports.
Please note that updates to Satisfaction Scores for review recency, review quality, and review sources will be applied to all new and existing reviews starting April 25, 2023.
Transparency and trust go hand-in-hand, so let’s get into the changes impacting both Market Satisfaction and Market Presence.
Updates to Market Satisfaction Scores
Review recency
For software buyers, recency plays a big part in the reviews they read that influence their decision-making. Did you know that 85% of buyers don’t read reviews older than three months?
Moving forward, reviews will gradually decay for the first 90 days, and maintain a stronger weight for the first 18 months. This means that the scoring algorithm will favor recent reviews more prominently than before.
Why this matters to sellers: Changes to review decay mean that ongoing review collection will become more important than ever.
Review quality
We all use software differently, and what we look for can vary quite a bit. When evaluating software, we find the most helpful reviews are detailed and comprehensive compared to ones that are just a few sentences long.
But length is just one factor when it comes to reviews. Millions of people come to G2 every month, so it’s essential to recognize that some have different needs.
The upcoming changes will give greater weight to high-quality reviews that have a higher unique word count and also assign every review a Flesch Reading Ease score.
Why this matters to sellers: Buyers that read high-quality reviews can gain a deeper understanding of what current customers love about your offerings. Vendors with a higher number of these kinds of reviews will see this reflected in Satisfaction.
Review sources
Reviews collected from current users or users who have more experience with the product will now be weighted higher. And if the review wasn’t incentivized or segmented, that’s even better.
Why this matters to sellers: By all accounts, vendors should continue to aim to collect reviews from as many customers as possible.
While incentivizing is a great way to gather reviews – and should continue to be a part of a seller's strategy – reviews collected organically will receive a bonus in score. Setting up an in-app review strategy can ensure always-on, non-segmented collection.
And remember: per the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines, sellers should not segment customers to solicit only positive reviews.
Updates to Market Presence Scores
Market Presence utilizes multiple data sources and metrics. We have many third-party data partners to calculate these scores, and felt like the perfect time to include a new data source.
Employee count and growth
You asked, we listened. We received longstanding feedback to include a revenue input in Market Presence. To ensure we accounted for the most reliable and robust estimates, ZoomInfo was added as a data point for revenue. Additionally, we’ll be utilizing ZoomInfo’s comprehensive industry data in Employee Count and Primary Industries data.
Why this matters to sellers: This update to the Market Presence score provides a more comprehensive and robust depiction of vendors on G2 and arms buyers with the information they’re looking for when assessing you and competitors.
Please note that this update will be applied to all existing Employee Count and Primary Industries data starting April 25, 2023.
Why striving for progress never stops
The world of B2B software moves fast, and at G2 we’re constantly evolving and adapting to better reflect the market on our Marketplace.
G2 is the place you go for software, and we’re committed to creating better buyer experiences – all while helping sellers succeed.
Ready to learn more about how we calculate our scores? Check out this resource on G2’s Full Scoring and Methodology.
by Mara Calvello
by Stephen Hoops
