How To Leverage Site Search Data To Fuel Your Marketing Strategy
By Dana Naim, Twiggle
On-site search data is a gold mine for retailers that want to keep their finger on the pulse, meet customers’ changing demands, and stay top of mind.
Purchase data will tell you which products are selling. But search data is your way of predictively assessing which are about to sell, before they actually do. It offers a wide-ranging view of shopper behavior and their interest level across products, brands and categories. For example, if you notice that a growing number of customers are searching for a ‘tie-dye maxi dress,’ you’ll know which product deserves more of your attention.
That knowledge will give you the best possible chance of reacting to emerging trends before your competitors do, while ensuring that you can deliver strong customer experiences and capture sales at the right moment.
It’s for this reason that search data isn’t just important for optimizing your web site; it’s a way of shaping and optimizing your entire marketing strategy.
Here are five ways of using your site search data to build more effective marketing campaigns that drive bottom-line results for your e-Commerce site:
- Getting your timing right
Seasons don’t really start and end on a calendar date — when it comes to seasonal shopping, consumers dictate what will sell when. Search data allows you to tap into your customers’ mindset to examine what they’re thinking at a precise moment.
This enables you to roll out seasonal campaigns when people are actively searching for products associated with that time of the year. However, it also teaches you to rely on data, rather than guesswork, when planning your marketing activity.
Let’s take the example of products that don’t come with an obvious label. We know that swimsuits, sandals and garden furniture all see big rises in sales when the temperature increases, while hoodies, boots and lip-care products enjoy more popularity when the temperature drops. By examining your search data to spot shifts in demand for specific products during specific times of year, you can plan your campaigns with the right timing in mind.
2. Developing your paid-ad calendar
Search data allows you to react to trends as and when they happen, but it’s not all about suddenly shifting your priorities. By analyzing queries from a previous year, you can lay out the framework for 12 months’ worth of display and search activity, based on what is likely to happen.
For instance, if a sporting goods retailer sees a lift in searches for tennis equipment in the first week of the U.S. Open, they’ll know when to start pushing pay-per-click (PPC) and display campaigns for these items. We’ve heard of 25% rises in page views for dresses during late April — a period when high schoolers are thinking about their prom and graduation parties. These recurring events are huge for retailers that want to drive results in key periods.
Search data allows you to react quicker to the micro moments that happen on a day-to-day basis. But given that many trends are influenced by seasons and events, you should always look to plan ahead where possible.
3. Promoting your trending products
In a market that is subject to fast-changing preferences, driven by influencers and celebrities, a product can become popular overnight. It’s why trends in search volume for a very specific item should be acted upon immediately.
Through email campaigns, newsletters and homepage banners, it’s possible to alert customers to items before they’ve searched for them. You can even create dedicated landing pages for popular lines — ideal for capturing all results for a trending category.
These reactions have a crucial role in closing the gap between the homepage and the checkout. If you can see that an item is unanimously popular, you should offer a fast, efficient way of buying it.
4. Intent-driven retargeting
Retargeting has emerged as an ideal way of capturing lost sales. And if we’re talking about signs of user intent, you can’t get a more obvious signal than data from people landing on your site and completing a search.
Retailers almost have to take a step back to really understand how important their search traffic is. By typing in the name of a product, the user is offering a very deliberate sign of their interest in that item — and their intent to purchase it.
Promotional activities like retargeting can use this extra layer of insight to become more personalized and impactful. It’s easy to take a safe, generic route with your campaigns, but you’d be wrong in thinking that every person is interested in a popular brand, ‘what’s new’ or ‘on sale’.
Retailers should be quick to funnel their search data back into retargeting campaigns that drive results via a product-led approach.
5. Maximizing your PPC efforts
Keep in mind that site visitors use your search box in a similar way to Google, serving as a strong indicator of what products are in high demand. Use your search data to decide where you should invest your marketing dollars when targeting customers via PPC.
Bid higher on the terms that attract more searches and consider the impact of long-tail searches. The big products and brands (e.g. ‘Nike running shoes, ‘North Face’) are always going to attract huge amounts of search volume. However, if you can spot where people are drilling down into their features (e.g. ‘Bose latest home theater’), you can drive more ROI through longer-tail and historically cheaper terms.
Search data is a key source of insight for marketers on the quest for greater ROI, providing vital clues into the customer’s mindset and decision-making process. Use this data to better understand your customers, guide your marketing strategy and create a faster pathway to checkout.
Dana Naim is the Head of Marketing and Content at Twiggle. A former teacher and journalist with a passion for words and tech, Naim strives to educate, inform, and delight her readers on subjects including retail technology, AI, and search.