The headlines in 2023 for retail media have so far been dominated by all the new bells and whistles of this relatively young advertising offering. These new baubles include (but are definitely not limited to) promises of measurement and incrementality, onsite and offsite display audience expansion options, and a sprinkling of CTV partnerships that promise to reach new shoppers and spur double-digit growth.
But, as someone who has her head under the hood of retail media and has been tinkering with it since its inception, if we’re all being honest here those hopes are still in development. In the meantime, search is measurable, consistent, widely understood and accepted. And every retail site has a version of it.
In this Wild West of a retail media rodeo, search is your trusty steed that plods along and doesn’t let you down. Let’s not then forget that, and let’s definitely not make extreme cuts to the search budget and transfer the monies into other investments, even if some of our partners might be encouraging us to do so.
Harvest existing demand
Search is a powerful catalyst for brands. The shopper has transmitted a specific intent signal, whether in the research or demand phase of their customer journey. And while the quality and efficacy of each retailer’s organic search capabilities differ wildly, all have put effort into creating a flywheel effect when it comes to determining search results, be they organic or paid.
Amazon gives us the most obvious example of this. Its search results and product pages are permeated with sponsored products. Results pop up based on an algorithm that rewards sales velocity, seller metrics and reviews, and product ratings. In some cases, the result is even based on the likelihood that the product will result in a conversion. This last metric, sometimes called propensity, is particularly difficult for new brands or SKUs to achieve since they lack historical sales or review data. So they would need to make up for it by paying for visibility via sponsored products or other advertising.
All this said, the burning question in retail media remains the same as it does with Amazon, Google or any search engine results page (SERP). When it comes to branded searches of a product, should the brand simply appear? After all, that is precisely what the user queried. But just like on Amazon and Google, the branded terms still require defensive budgets to stave off competitors that would attempt to filch your name for their own advantage.
