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Every retail marketer has experienced it: a well-tuned search engine marketing campaign is producing excellent results.

Then, everything changes.

The cost of keywords skyrockets. A suddenly popular item sells out, rendering other keywords useless. Marketers scramble to catch up, while profit margins begin to slide and costs creep upward.

Fortunately, new advances in search engine marketing are putting some retailers well ahead of the game. Rather than reacting to shifts in market demand, these companies are using real-time analytics technology and sophisticated modeling to anticipate buyer behavior. To put it simply, retailers can now predict, with reasonable certainty, what’s going to be hot and what’s not.

THE KEYS TO REAL-TIME SEM SUCCESS

Michael Griffin, founder and CTO of Adlucent, a search engine marketing firm based in Austin, Texas, says the new advances can help retailers better focus their merchandising efforts on their most profitable products. “The vast majority of revenue comes from only 10-25% of the products in a retailer’s inventory,” says Griffin. “Retailers need the ability to predict which of their products will be those best sellers, and have the inventory in place when the customer is ready to buy.”

Facing a tough economy, strong competition, and aggressive margins, Buy.com sought a partner with a fresh strategy and strong, retail-centric technology. They turned to Adlucent, intrigued by the company’s Deep Search™ technology, geared specifically for retail search marketing. Buy.com was also impressed with Adlucent’s unique performance-based compensation model. After a highly successful 3-month pilot, Adlucent became the agency of record for the entire Buy.com account.

To compete in this online world, where change is measured in seconds, retailers are embracing the latest advances in real-time SEM analytics to make the following moves:

LINK ONLINE CAMPAIGNS TO INVENTORY — by linking automated keyword bidding to their inventory systems, retailers can monitor demand and availability of top-selling products. Keyword campaigns can then be automatically paused and reactivated according to changing inventory levels, so that merchandising dollars aren’t squandered on out-of-stock product, and purchasers can shift their budgets to the products that are likely to be the most profitable.

PREDICT TOP SELLERS — automated keyword bidding systems let retailers constantly monitor, and even accurately predict keyword performance. In a world where change is measured in seconds, this gives retailers the agility and control they need to make instant adjustments to sudden changes. In addition, new predictive technology lets retailers know in advance which items will be top sellers during key seasonal periods, and adjust their campaigns accordingly to reduce wasted advertising spend.

LEVERAGE SOCIAL MEDIA AND CUSTOMER COMMUNITIES — leading retailers have proven time and again that using social media to engage customers in their marketing campaigns can make the difference between an average product and a top seller. Retailers that have taken this step are now taking social media strategies to the next level by linking customer ratings and reviews directly into their SEM campaigns.

ADLUCENT REAL-TIME DASHBOARD

Today’s top online retailers leverage real-time SEM analytics from Adlucent to automatically adjust search advertising campaigns based on real-time inventory levels, product popularity, social and search query trends.

Powered by the company's Deep Search™ technology, retailers have a powerful dashboard to accurately monitor and predict how keywords will behave, thereby maximizing revenue growth while minimizing advertising costs.

Adlucent's Deep Search™ Dashboard