Oh look! There’s a deal on televisions this week. Let’s see what models are available!

Promotions are used to highlight a specific product or group of products on the search engine results page (SERP). When shoppers are faced with a long list of results, it may be difficult to make specific products or groups of products stand out. Promotions help to draw shoppers’ attention to a specific product, product category, promotion, or even a blog post when searching.

You can promote products or product categories on the SERP using promotion banners (A) or promoted results (B). Banners and promoted results appear within the results grid.

Promotion types - (A) Promotion banners and (B) Promoted results

Promotions can be associated with specific search queries or can be shown for all searches performed in your commerce store. You can determine the position in which the different promotions appear on the results grid, schedule when they should be listed as part of the search results, and configure when the promotion should no longer appear.

note

Remember that there are other ways for shoppers to discover specific products within the SERP by boosting a product’s organic search position with Attribute Ranking or Product Ranking.

Promotion banners

Promotion banners are advertisement images that are usually displayed across a full row of the results grid at the top after performing a specific search query. When shoppers click on the image, they are redirected to the specified URL.

You can use promotion banners to highlight advertising campaigns for specific product categories or to redirect shoppers to a custom landing page inspired by the initial query. For example, if shoppers search for “gifts” and click on the defined promotion banner, they are redirected to a list of gift ideas or to a blog post with the latest fashion trends.

Banners occupy the full width of the default results grid, but maintain the height ratio of the original image. By default, they appear in the first row, but they can be configured to display in any row of the results grid by using the Promotion configuration tool in the Empathy Platform Playboard.

Promoted results

Promoted results are advertisement images that usually occupy the same space as other product results; in other words, a single results grid cell.

Promoted results are displayed when shoppers perform the associated search query. When shoppers click on the promoted result, they are redirected to the specified URL.

You can use promoted results, for example, to feature a key product with a link to its product detail page (PDP), encourage shoppers to explore the accessories category by linking to the category page when they search for “bracelet”, or even provide shoppers with a link to a blog post with tips on how find the best smartphone when they search for “smartphone”.

Promoted results appear by default in the first position of the results grid, but they can be configured to display in any cell of the grid by using the Promotion configuration tool in the Empathy Platform Playboard.

interact

For more information on how to configure and display promotion banners and promoted results using Empathy Platform Playboard, see Feature promotions on the SERP.

design tip

If you're using Empathy Platform Interface X in your commerce search, you can customize the display options for promotion banners and promoted results. See SERP UI for more information on how to style and tailor the promotions experience in your commerce search UI.

Spot the difference

Promoted Results, Promotion Banners, and Redirections all are links that point shoppers to a specific page URL. However, the point in the shopper journey where you’d use each one is different. Redirections are used to redirect shoppers from the search box during pre-search, skipping the search results engine page. On the other hand, Promoted Results and Promotion Banners are displayed at the next stage in the shopper’s journey through your commerce store, after they have completed the search query and have received a set of results on the SERP. Shoppers have to click the promotion on the SERP to be directed to the defined URL.

Try Promotions to…

• Improve findability. Guide shoppers to products in your catalogue they’re unaware of.
• Feature special product offers and promoted products.
• Redirect shoppers to special product listing pages that contain specific product groupings by brand or any other product attribute.
• Control the order in which the promotions appear to shoppers.