Years ago, consumer “product research” was very limited. People asked their friends and family what to buy or just went to the store and asked the clerks what they thought. Today, in the Data Age, consumers are armed with more information than ever before and 85% of consumers conduct online research before making a purchase.
As the way people buy continues to change, brands are rethinking legacy business practices in order to attract and retain customers. Whether that’s selling to them directly, offering a new breadth of products or services, or simply exploiting gaps in the market that have never been filled, manufacturers are becoming more active participants in the market than they ever have before.
And one of the things that is evolving is retail partner marketing.
Microsoft Shopping Campaigns for Brands
For decades, brands have invested with retailers to help encourage sales of their products within brick-and-mortar stores. Microsoft Shopping Campaigns for Brands help expand this relationship in the digital space.
Today, as more marketing budgets migrate online, Microsoft Shopping Campaigns for Brands, now allows manufacturers to create and fund Shopping Campaigns that will take the consumer directly to their products on the retailer’s website. While Shopping Campaigns are not new for retail partners to Microsoft, this is a new, innovative way for brands to get involved by applying their marketing dollars to search-triggered Product Ads in order to help drive traffic to their products online.
And for brands, Product Ads are one of the best ways to reach consumers who are conducting research and are ready to purchase on a retailer’s website. According to Forrester Consulting, more than 90% of consumers say they use search engines when discovering, exploring, and engaging during their purchase decision making:
- 95% of respondents use at least one search channel for discovery (top-funnel)
- 94% of respondents use at last one search channel for consideration/purchase (mid-funnel)
- 93% of respondents use at least one search channel for engagement (bottom-funnel)
Skai now integrates with Microsoft Shopping Campaigns for Brands
Brands have a streamlined way to get involved. Once they create a Microsoft Advertising account, there are three steps:
Step #1 – Enter your Brands.
Advertisers need to provide their brands and Microsoft Advertising will automatically match their products to all participating retailers.
Step #2 – View Matched Retailers and Products.
Brands can then view the list of their products and the retailers that they can partner with
Step #3 – Create Shopping Campaign for Brands
Brands can then create Shopping Campaigns to reach shoppers across the Microsoft Search Network in partnership with the retailers. Brands have an option to work with specific retailers or create a unified campaign to partner with all matching retailers
Brands will have full transparency into their advertising campaign by getting access to spend and performance data in their account on the Product Ads they paid for.
“Manufacturers have been providing co-op marketing dollars for retailers to fund search ads for years,” says Skai’s Senior Product Marketing Manager, Sabina Warren. “Now, Microsoft makes it extremely easy for manufacturers to boost their partners’ existing Microsoft Shopping Campaign Product Ads without all of the red tape.”
Skai Search continues to innovate
As a market leader in Search for over 14 years, Skai continues to bring best-in-class workflow, automation, and optimization features to marketers. Our new support for Microsoft Shopping Campaigns for Brands is just another example of how we are focused on helping search advertisers make the most of their investments.
For more information, go to Kenshoo.com or set up a brief demo so you can see everything that Skai Search has to offer your SEM program. If you are interested in joining Microsoft Shopping Campaigns for Brands, please contact your Skai account team.
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