Driving Incremental Organic Sales through Elevated Media Planning & Activation

Increasing and sustaining page one organic visibility is ultimately the main driver of growth across retailer platforms.  We know that on Amazon, for example, 70% of shoppers never click past the first page of search results.  This means most organic product performance on page 2 and beyond will suffer from a lack of discoverability and thus conversion.  While this certainly highlights the incrementality of supporting page 2 organic products with paid media, it also emphasizes the need for a deeper, more connected approach to on-site search planning.

Historically, selecting keywords to target based on search volume, product relevance, or past performance was a common approach.  While these considerations are still important today, as competition and the cost of advertising continues to rise, Transact believes the media planning process must be elevated to further maximize the value of every dollar invested and strike the correct balance between profitability and long-term growth.

There are a variety of metrics to consider that help us make smarter decisions on where and how much to invest at any given time.  One of the most impactful data points to leverage is organic rank at a product and keyword level.  For example, you might identify 35 total relevant keywords where your hero product ranks organically on page 2.  You can segment this list by above or below the fold positioning and aggressively target these 2 new keyword sets with the goal of boosting your product to a page 1 organic position over time.

Additional keyword-level metrics oftentimes overlooked that can unlock a new perspective on media planning are conversion share, page 1 organic ASPs, and the average unit velocity required to rank on page 1.  While all these data points help drive smarter retail media investment allocations, they can also inform growth multiplying content and SEO optimizations.

By infusing a wide-range of organic data into the media keyword research process, Transact plans and activates granular campaign strategies built to train retailer algorithms and reduce organic cannibalization.  While our approach is rooted in driving incremental growth for brands, it also unlocks the ability to measure holistic media success – moving away from traditional ROAS and gaining a real-time understanding of iROAS, as well as the relationship between topline revenue growth and a brands ever-evolving organic position across retailer platforms.