eCommerce MasterPlan

  • eCommerce MasterPlan Podcast
    • About The Podcast
    • Top 10 Episodes
    • Reviews
    • Interesting Stuff
    • 2021 eCommerce Growth Series sponsored by Klaviyo
    • Audience Offers
    • Full list of eCommerce MasterPlan Podcast Episodes
  • Keep Optimising Podcast
    • About the Podcast
    • Monthly Q&A Webinar
    • Full list of Keep Optimising Podcast Episodes
  • Books
    • eCommerce Marketing – NEW
    • eCommerce MasterPlan 1.8
    • eCommerce Delivery
    • Customer Persuasion
    • B2B eCommerce MasterPlan
  • eCommerce Help
    • Consulting, Coaching, Mentoring
    • Great Deals on Useful Things
    • 2021 Planning Webinar
  • Contact
    • About Us
    • Email sign up
    • Be a podcast guest
    • Speaking

209: Exploring the Secret Life of Search with Adrian Rowe. Find out how customers use Google

April 1, 2019 By Chloë Thomas 1 Comment

Today’s guest expert is Adrian Rowe from RedC Marketing, Adrian is a lifelong passionate direct marketer – he cut his teeth in the world of big catalogue marketing (think Great Universal), and for more than 2 decades has been leading the team at Full Service marketing agency Red C, where he and his team have worked with many a high street and home shopping retailer to create more effective communications by getting under the skin of customers and prospects.

And if that doesn’t convince you of his expertise – here’s the social proof bit – he’s been made an honorary life fellow of the Institute of Direct & Digital marketing (the IDM here in the UK)!

Without the sponsors the podcast wouldn’t be possible – please do check them out:

pitney bowes

This episode is brought to you by SendPro Online from Pitney Bowes.
SendPro Online makes it easy to save time and money–no matter what you send or ship–and you’ll always get the best rates and never overpay!
With SendPro, you can compare shipping rates between carriers, plus save 5 cents a letter and up to 40 percent off USPS Priority Mail shipping.
As a listener you can get a FREE 30-day trial and a FREE 10 pound scale, but only when you visit pb.com/masterplan

Subscribe on your Favourite Podcast App

Apple podcasts badge

Listen on Spotify

Listen on Google Podcasts

How Adrian Started in eCommerce

secret life of search podcast

In a way, Adrian has always been in eCommerce.

His career started pre-internet in the world of home shopping companies. At that time, catalogues were the most prevalent and direct line of communication between home shopping companies and their clients.

Adrian makes the point in fact that a lot of the ‘cataloguers’ were the early adopters of eCommerce. He points out that many of the principles of relationship marketing are the same offline as they are on. When the tide of digital started rising as early as 1998, Red C launched digital services as a stand alone division.

The company soon reintegrated the digital team into their overall company because they were finding that the relevance was widespread and only growing. Today, digital makes up nearly 70% of Red C’s accounts.

The Secret Life of Search

Red C recently published a ground-breaking report about how consumers actually use search report pages. As a fulls service marketing agency, Red C spends a significant amount of time and resources on search marketing. PPC campaigns, SEO and content marketing produce a lot of data for the company.

Adrian says that this data tells the story of what people do on search pages, but not why they do it. The team wanted to really understand why people were doing what they were doing on search pages, but they couldn’t find any good, objective answers to that question. Seeing this lack of research, Adrian’s team decided to do the study themselves–an effort that would eventually be released as The Secret Life of Search.

The team used the eye tracking interface to interview more than sixty people which they then combined with pre and post questionnaires. Combining those two inputs, the team was able to get a much better sense of how, what and why people were doing on Google search.

The Report’s Surprising Finds

The report shed light on a range of behavior. Adrian shares the ones he found most surprising.

Listen to Learn Chloe and Adrian’s Bonus Tip about bidding on your own brand

1.) Brand Trust

The overwhelming click choice was given to trusted, familiar, credible brands. More than 80% of clicks across all sectors were trusted or familiar brands.

The takeaway: Building your brand will support you when it comes to search page marketing.

2.) Google Shopping

For eCommerce brands, the influential impact of Google Shopping is massive. The degree to which it influences other clicks is enormous. Google Shopping clearly influences the level of attention given to a product or style.

The takeaway: Using Google Shopping is helpful for more than sales. Consider it as a way to convert clicks and gather impressions.

3.) Visual Aids as a Discovery Tool

The degree to which people use visual aids as a discovery tool within the search results was very high. Featured snippets, the midway image pack and shopping from Google are heavily used as a discovery tool by shoppers. Female respondents looking for a party dress would use the images or shopping tab as a discovery tool, find a style that suited them then go back to the search interface to actually search more with a refined search term. Across 90% eCommerce searches, 14% of searchers chose either the shopping or the images tab.

The takeaway:  If you’re not optimizing your Google shopping feeds, alt tagging and optimizing your images, your missing out on a source of highly qualified traffic.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Signing up will add you to the eCommerce MasterPlan email marketing list, so you’ll get regular updates packed with ways to improve your eCommerce business. You can unsubscribe at any time, and see our Privacy Policy here.

eCommerce Book Top Tip

  • Perfect Pitch by John Steel

eCommerce Traffic Top Tip

  • Google Shopping. Really powerful if you optimize your data feeds. Don’t just measure the direct conversions, measure the click assisted conversions, the impression assisted conversions and you’ll soon get an idea that Google Shopping punches above its weight

Tool Top Tip

  • A3 Layout Pad and a Sharpie Pen. Great tools for mapping out ideas.

Growth Top Tip

  • Walk a mile in the customer’s shoes. Often the customer experience is vastly different than what the marketing team thinks it is.

Interview Links

  • The Secret Life of Search
  • Red C
  • Adrian on LinkedIn

Filed Under: 2019 Episodes, eCommerce MasterPlan Podcast

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

eCommerce MasterPlan Podcast

  • B2B eCommerce Podcasts
  • One Person eCommerce Businesses
  • Shopify Businesses
  • Subscription eCommerce Podcasts
  • Top 10 Episodes
  • £1m+ Businesses

eCommerce Books

  • B2B eCommerce MasterPlan
  • Customer Persuasion
  • eCommerce Delivery
  • eCommerce Marketing
  • eCommerce MasterPlan 1.8

Keep Optimising Podcast

  • Keep Optimising Podcast
  • Monthly Q&A Webinar

Products & Services

  • Audience Offers
  • eCommerce & Marketing Speaker
  • eCommerce Marketing Advice
  • Join our Email List
  • Writing Services

Social Media

  • Facebook Group
  • Instagram @eComMasterPlan
  • LinkedIn Page
  • LinkedIn: Chloë
  • Twitter @eComMasterPlan

Search the site

Social proof places we've been featured

Copyright © 2021 · Privacy Policy · Website Terms · Find us on Google+

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience, for advertising and to analyse our traffic. You consent to our cookies if you continue to use this website.Got it! Reject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.