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“There's this perception that it's all pay to play, but all that media proliferation doesn't minimize the need for that organic work. It just changes it.”— Amanda Wolff, Head of Marketing, Flywheel Digital
Paid search, organic search, and product detail page (PDP) content are all separate initiatives handled by separate teams — but they shouldn’t be, according to Amanda Wolff, head of marketing at Flywheel Digital.
The success of one initiative, Wolff argues, informs the success of the others, so teams need to align strategies for all three if they want them to succeed. Otherwise, brands risk wasting resources or failing to optimize conversions.
Cross-team collaboration on all forms of ecommerce content is a key ingredient of “retail readiness,” says Wolff in a recent episode of the Unpacking the Digital Shelf podcast, “Retail Readiness To Drive Max Performance Across Paid, Organic, and Product Page Conversion.”
Wolff explores how brand manufacturers can bring these teams together to drive more conversions. Here are some of the highlights from that conversation.
Brand teams often consider PDP content — including the organic search engine optimization (SEO) initiatives deployed on it — as a separate strategy from retail media and ad spend, with each measured by separate digital metrics. But, according to Wolff, all of these factors impact each other in an intertwined cycle.
“Retail media and the digital shelf are intrinsically linked in most of the retailer algorithms,” she explains. “We think about retail media like it's a standalone thing, or … [that] content on a PDP is driving that organic ranking independently. But in reality, all of it matters, and all of it works together to fuel the ‘flywheel,’” that powers success in a retailer algorithm.
Wolff explains that investing in PDP content and organic search can create opportunities for brands to save money on paid search or divert ad spend to the SKUs that need it more. Despite the increased focus on retail media in recent years, content and organic rankings matter even in today’s pay-to-play retail environment. Why? Because “the more relevant you are on those retailers, the less you pay per click,” says Wolff.
The content environment has changed quite dramatically, Wolff argues, requiring brands to keep up with shifting needs. “There's this perception that it's all pay to play, but all that media proliferation doesn't minimize the need for that organic work. It just changes it,” she says. “Where you used to create really rich keyword-focused and conversion-focused content, those spots may not be getting nearly as much visibility as in the past. However, those placements still matter because that's how you win those top-paid positions … at the lowest cost.”
It’s all a cycle: Strong organic search and content optimization mark PDPs as high-quality in retailer algorithms, which, in turn, gives brands priority among paid positions. And ad spend that’s supported by engaging retail media sends shoppers to your PDPs, where the quality of your content influences conversions.
Each form of ecommerce content or retail media influences the others. So investing in all of them can drive profitability while breaking down silos between them can produce a cohesive, impactful strategy.
If brands are going to integrate their strategies for ad spend, organic search, and PDP content, they need to integrate the teams behind those initiatives, as well. To break down silos, Wolff recommends starting with small steps like sharing keywords and facilitating collaboration through inter-agency teams (IATs) that meet regularly.
When teams solidify those basic steps, Wolff suggests introducing what she calls “triggers” to IAT meetings. A “trigger” is simply any issue or concern that can activate an intervention or strategy change. “Those are really good opportunities to surface shared action plans,” she says. "Your IAT [members] can then say, ‘When we hear in the IAT that this is happening, this is what we should do as a response,’” facilitating the creation of collaborative solutions.
Once brands reduce silos and develop paid, organic, and content strategies in sync, they become more empowered to achieve the kind of success that matters most: better sales.
Sharing key performance indicators (KPIs) across teams is another critical component of breaking down silos, Wolff says. The KPIs that teams should prioritize across paid, organic, and content initiatives are those related to sales and market share.
“I think there's still a lot of people holding onto ‘legacy KPIs,’” Wolff says. “Brand teams are always going to be looking for impressions and how they can drive awareness and engagement.”
“But in the end, when you see an investor relations report, they're not necessarily talking about how many clicks they got on social … They're talking about sales, and they're talking about share.”— Amanda Wolff, Head of Marketing, Flywheel Digital
Similarly, if retail media creators are only focused on return on ad spend (ROAS), they may not be considering the full picture. ROAS is helpful, says Wolff, but “it can also mislead people into taking credit for the sun rising [because] … If I'm Tylenol and I'm bidding on Tylenol, I'm probably going to have really great ROAS for Tylenol … So, looking at your sales and share is really the best way to know if what you're doing is working.”
Of course, there are many instances when bidding on your own branded terms is genuinely helpful. There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy, Wolff argues. Rather, brands need to carefully consider their competitive landscape and category before making strategic determinations, she says. But as long as brand teams focus on relevant KPIs around sales and share, they’ll be more likely to develop strategies that produce market success.
Focusing on the big picture, however, doesn’t mean brands can stop measuring the effectiveness of discrete strategies. To ensure different types of content or media are genuinely effective in the ways that matter, Wolff advises that brands should analyze whether they’re “just checking the box” or actually growing conversions.
Wolff describes a hypothetical chocolate company that used the same video on all its product pages as one example. Video has been shown to increase conversions, but repetition can muddy consumers’ perceptions: “If there's a lot of chocolate chips that are in that video and … you included that same video on chocolate bar SKUs, what is that going to do from a shopability standpoint? Is it going to confuse the consumer?”
It’s not enough to simply use a certain type of content element and leave it at that. Brands need to think carefully about how they can optimize each element so it creates the desired consumer experience and drives conversions.
This is a challenging task, Wolff admits. She notes that it might even require a data scientist, and “unless you dig deeper into those metrics, looking SKU by SKU, brand by brand at conversion … it does become very hard.” It’s still essential, though, and Wolff has written an ebook to help you navigate the challenge, available from the Digital Shelf Institute.
It’s easy for brands and their agencies to slip into silos and follow a “ticking the box” approach to their paid, organic, and product content strategies. But doing so ultimately harms profitability.
To be truly “retail ready” in a competitive ecommerce landscape, brands need to work across teams to ensure all aspects of both retail media and product page content are working together to grow conversions.
Listen to the full episodes for more on how brands can integrate paid, organic, and content to achieve a new level of ecommerce sophistication.
