Online Retail: 5 Strategies for Search Marketing Success, Part 2

If you didn't get a chance to read the first two tips in this series, check out Part 1 here. If you’re already up to speed, we’re going to pick up where we left off and discuss three more strategies to make your online retail search marketing programs a success.

3) Advertise your entire product catalog. Retailers that promote their complete product line and deliver relevant ads are able to differentiate their offerings and maximize their revenue outcomes.

• Dynamically manage campaigns to maximize visibility. Use a management platform with real-time automation and leverage a structured product feed. Align your paid search campaigns with your products in order to advertise your entire inventory at scale.
• Simplify PLA management and optimization. With automated PLA campaign tools, you can make additions and edits in bulk, and efficiently create PLA objects without introducing errors.
• Scale creative management. Successful online retailers use tools to quickly isolate and update creative to align with promotions. Top performing creative should be continuously identified, optimized, and deployed at scale.

4) Convert on-the-go consumers with mobile. Retailers that can successfully and engage on-the-go shoppers will be able to acquire revenue as customers move across devices.

• Segment mobile performance. Use reporting tools that provide analysis of performance by device along dimensions such as product line and geography. This will give you actionable insights for optimizing the mobile shopping experience and implementing mobile-specific bidding strategies.
• Deliver mobile-specific creative. Increase relevance with local cues such as name of a city or region, and use mobile location and call extensions.
• Implement mobile-based bidding strategies. Identify trends in mobile searches and conversion rates to inform a strategy that will allow you to engage mobile shoppers at the right time. To combat competitors, continuously adjust bids based on segmented performance.

5) Optimize for seasonal shifts. Retailers that account for seasonality will maintain an advantage and accelerate revenue outcomes during critical buying periods.

• Schedule bid adjustments based on forecasted performance. Use a bidding solution that automatically adjusts bids according to expected shifts in seasonal performance. Deploy boost schedules to proactively optimize for revenue-per-click fluctuations.
• Factor conversion latency into bid calculations. Since the time between the initial ad click and the purchase can range from the same session to several months, most online retailers can optimize bids by using an automated solution to exclude the most recent days from their bid calculations.
• Identify and exclude outlying data. Periods of irregular paid search data can wreak havoc on your bid calculations. Account for these times by excluding the specific dates and date ranges from bid calculations across campaigns and product lines.

Are you a search marketer in the online retail industry? Share your tips for success in our comments section. And make sure to download a copy of our white paper, “Revenue Acquisition Management for Online Retailers,” for more in-depth discussion of these winning strategies.