It’s been an inordinately prodigious summer, thus far, in the world of search (and arguably the internet at large). From a Google leak which delivered the intricacies of the Google Ranking Algorithm to the public, to staggering advancements in AI, the pace of the digital world has done nothing other than intensify. I would be remiss to tell you the marketing industry, and the technology which supports it, are pacing as they always have – steadily onwards to more productive, efficient, and practical solutions for engaging audiences of all varieties. But that would be far from the truth. The tide is churning more furiously than ever before in the world of search, and now that Google has formally been declared a “monopolist”, having violated the Sherman Act – we are entering a whole new era.
So what does that mean for digital marketers who rely on search technology such as Google Business Profile and Google Ads? How are small businesses expected to react when their niche marketplaces are becoming inherently more competitive? What are we to do with the increasingly complex analytics and attribution systems which now limit the ability to glean actionable insights from conversion tracking data that is a barometer, at best?
The answer is simple: Adapt.
And that’s just what we’ve always done in the internet marketing industry. Whether it was adopting open source products such as Open Office or WordPress or leaning more heavily into advertising solutions that enabled specific audience targeting – there was always a solution to navigate the increasingly intricate digital landscape.
But there’s a larger problem at hand, now, as we take notice of how buying trends are evolving. Everything from how people plan vacations to south east Asia to buying jewelry online is shifting. The anatomy of commercial search results has become impossibly saturated with too many options, and if you’re a publisher – AI overviews are decimating the available volume of traffic. Without delving too deep into the nuances of consumer behavior in a “mobile first” marketplace, I think it’s important to take a step back and marvel at the convolution of the technology which empowers our lives. Even simple tasks are becoming more difficult – requiring apps, logins, encrypted registrations, two factor authentication (for even basic access for trivial accounts). For all intents and purposes, we are bound to the technology we created and almost incapable of conducting our lives without it. And that compounds the complexity of a marketers job almost exponentially – to keep pace with an audience whose research, vetting, and buying behavior is more influenced by external factors than ever before.
The unequivocally broad spectrum of the eCommerce industry provides an exceptional example of this phenomenon. Should you dare to add one, or even two products to a cart and NOT proceed to checkout – prepare for bombardment! As a quintessential example of what I consider “over aggressive” remarketing – I recently explored a men’s apparel website (manlytshirt.com) to replace a few shirts that were stolen from me. According to BuiltWith.com, this is a Shopify website which has been tricked out with all the bells and whistles an ecommerce retailer could ever aspire to employ. I causally browsed a few categories, selected two products which more or less seemed appealing, and added them to cart – proceeding to do what most consumers do – navigate all the way to the checkout process to get a sense of the final price (inclusive of any pending discounts).
Within minutes of not completing the checkout process – the emails began. Each more compelling and aggressive than the last.
Within two days, I received 10 emails from this company utilizing every possible call to action to further the sales process – from classic lines such as “time is running out!” or “your selection is almost sold out!” to “sale ending soon!” and “don’t miss out on these savings”. As I waited to see how far this brand would go to earn a sale (of less than $100) – i couldn’t help but consider the scale of remarketing which plays out every minute of every day across the United States.
Consider, just for a second or two, the volume of emails, text messages, and seemingly endless follow up that assails consumers with offers and incentives to complete transactions. It is absolutely staggering.
Is that what we’ve come to as a digital economy? Incessantly bombarding and begging consumers to complete transactions? I think about how we arrived at such an ecosystem, where there are so many choices, and as marketers, we observe so many online shopping behaviors which simply don’t make sense. And then I found another example (powered by a technology called Medallia) which directly attempts to understand the mind of the consumer even more:
That’s effectively the treasure trove of information that marketers want to share with their teams – concrete data which confirms why a consumer didn’t complete a transaction – after an extensive shopping, research, and “near miss” buying process. If only it were that easy to collect data from consumers at scale – so there was no doubt as to why they proceeded with a transaction, or didn’t. If only it were that simple to understand why a group of prospects spent so much time reviewing a potential booking for an extended stay at a resort (on the resort website itself), only to peel off and book via an OTA.
Imagine a scenario in which every user behavior was clearly interpretable – defined in meticulously ordered silos of behavioral data segments that confirmed attrition rates in booking or checkout process.
What would that do? Invariably – it would lead to even more aggressive follow up, more inarguable incentives to purchase, and potentially even more invasive forms of remarketing.
I don’t particularly care for that to become reality. Any more than it already has. As a consumer, I tend to feel assaulted with options and incentives when i’m shopping online – and in the few instances where I have direct intent to buy something – it takes a great deal of effort to move through the noise and acquire what I want. But i’m different – I use these technologies every day to enhance shopping experiences and drive ROAS and ROI for clients in a myriad of industries. How must regular consumers feel? Or do they not even know their phones are listening? That the level of tracking is so sophisticated that any purchase intent immediately triggers a cascade of follow up that is pervasive and relentless.
The tide will turn soon enough. I think. In favor of consumers developing resistance to the technology which makes online shopping so overwhelming. But that’s only at the expense of marketing efficacy. Which for better or worse, will require marketers to find new technologies that provide even deeper data about online shopping behaviors.
Where do we go from here?
