Metamorphosis of Search

Search marketers who have been masters of discovery should now adapt to navigate the new digital frontier. Consumers are increasingly ‘browse and discover’. Search is no longer the most influenceable touchpoint but just one stop along the Discovery journey. The path of “Discovery” is invariably multi-dimensional and across channels. The future of search is not about algorithms; it’s about experiences.

How Search is changing in the shifting landscape of RMNs, Chatbots, Virtual assistants and Visual content

Till a few years ago, all of us would start our online shopping journey by going to the ubiquitous “search bar” and typing what we needed. Platforms evolved to correct linguistic mistakes in search and kept making “typing & searching” progressively easier.

So much so that the leading fashion apps, which were spending millions of dollars on catalog look and feel, spent another few million to make the product pages “search-optimized.” Still, for most categories, people go to the search bar in their Q-commerce or E-commerce apps.

Though text searches are becoming more sophisticated, they are losing ground to “non-text” searches. Every subsequent customer generation is less inclined to type, and more inclined to “browse”.

• 51% of GenZ users used social media for brand information, compared to 45% using search engines.
• 50% of online shoppers started their product browsing on Amazon rather than search engines.
• 30% of fashion and home decor searches daily use AR/VR experience.
• 30% of global internet users use voice assisted search once a week.

Ecommerce platforms have now massive user base and have been trying to simplify product discovery for their growing “non-english” customers. As a result, video searches, voice searches and image searches have increased. New generation smart phones have advanced camera capabilities that make image search much more intuitive. Add to this the increasing voice search capabilities and we have the perfect case of a search ecosystem outside of the search bar.

Digital platforms are also emerging to cater to this new consumer who is focused on accurate results per minute with minimum efforts.

Search has metamorphosed to Discovery. Where Search used to provide accurate information, Discovery is designed to deliver curated experiences.

Unlike search, Discovery is much more nuanced and heterogeneous. Customer journeys vary drastically across categories, in a few categories the importance of text search and relevant content quality is paramount, however in others such as fashion, visual discovery overpowers all other content results.

When it comes to discovery and making a choice, what a customer values depends on many factors. Imagine, going on a first date to an expensive restaurant, only to find the food subpar or the service abysmal. In this case 2 things are at play, 1- the service itself is non-standard and “new” or “variety” has high value. In this example, despite the best efforts from the restaurants, we often find our favourite items sometimes out of stock or out of the menu. On the other hand, we want to keep exploring new restaurants and cuisines, even when the restaurant at the corner of our street is delivering consistent quality.

In the Restaurant category, the customer has both a high need to discover and a reasonably high need to be “right” in their choice. Therefore, she can rely on other people’s experiences, i.e. reviews and ratings, to make a choice. Even if the food is cold and the service bad, you can tell your date that you have read the reviews and now you will write a review to take revenge.

Now consider another scenario, i.e. buying insurance. You don’t want variety, you don’t care for other people’s views. But you do care about trust, expertise, and to a large extent, consistency. So you will put a much higher weightage on brand name, legacy and industry reputation. At the same time, since the premium cost differs from person to person, you will also have premium prices and policy benefits of all service providers, before making the decision. Therefore, brand and comparison here is more important than experience.

Fig. 1 shows how the relative importance of discovery channels vary from one product category to another.

For Marketers solving and simplifying the puzzle of How customers discover and buy products, is even more important because they have to decide their media and marketing investments and the relative budget share.

Imagine a health insurance brand starting to spend on gathering customer reviews or a fashion clothing brand starting to spend on detailed content about the material of the clothing and not enough on new collection launches. This never happens though. All brand managers know their customers and stay true to the investments that are most relevant to their categories.

HM 3E Discovery Optimizer Model

There is a difference between “broadly right” marketing investments and “most optimised” marketing spends.

As a high tech agency in the marketing ecosystem, we want to be “most optimised”, not mostly right. To be “most optimised,” we need a method to this madness. Even though it looks like every category has its own discovery pattern, if we take a bird’s-eye view, the discovery patterns fall under three key categories.

1. Emotion
2. Education
3. Experience

For products and services that are experiential in nature, customers rely on reviews, i.e. other people’s experiences. For products that are personal and high risk, customers want to take charge and to make educated decisions. On the other hand, when the purchase is more of a “make good” and poses less risk to the customer, people rely on visual clues, like an image or a video, to make a decision.On the other hand, when the purchase is more of a “make good” and poses less risk to the customer, people rely on visual clues, like an image or a video, to make a decision.

On the other hand, when the purchase is more of a “make good” and poses less risk to the customer, people rely on visual clues, like an image or a video, to make a decision.

HM 3E Discovery Optimizer Model

How to use the model

The 3E Discovery Optimization Model follows five key steps:

1. Select: By feeding the search trends across, category, brand and competition, the model gives out a list of channels and their relative weightage for the best customer journeys.
2. Create: Adequate content and multiple adaptations to suit the requirements of each channel. Most digital platforms are now fully capable of content optimization to suit the customer they are delivering to.
3. Optimize: To supplement the platform’s distribution might, marketers also have to optimise the content to deliver maximum impact.
4. Disseminate: Share the right content, in the right format with the right platform. This will ensure not only the best distribution but also the best coverage of the target audience.
5. Measure: The most important step is to measure the increase in Share of Voice (SOV) for the brand through this optimal content distribution strategy. Brands can decide their long-term and short-term SOV goals, such as an increase in overall brand searches over six months as a good long-term plan, while a short-term SOV goal can be the share of searches in the top category keywords or complete dominance of searches in a particular geography.

The HM 3E Optimizer Model gives the right weights to each element of the discovery journey, making it easier to diversify channels and allocate the appropriate spend for each.

3E Discovery Optimization

We can’t discuss the evolving search ecosystem without talking about Retail media and the searches on platforms like Amazon and Flipkart.

Product searches have fully migrated to e-commerce and quick commerce platforms. However, these platforms are relatively cluttered with ads and sponsored content. Even a user who searches for a product with the brand name, like “Brand Wooden Bed,” can end up buying a wrought iron bed from a completely unknown brand. Once people start their click journey, they get baited by offers, new arrivals, EMI options, limited collections, and many other distractions.

Therefore, a good content strategy must ensure that every corner is covered when it comes to “content for e-commerce.” From the right images, videos, detailed catalog, and customer reviews, everything should be planned and in order.

Most importantly, brands should invest initially to increase their search velocity, which brings them to “best sellers” and improves their chances of discovery and conversion.

How to measure success for search strategy:

Search is the most powerful customer signal, and hence the right outcome is “impact.” To achieve measurable impact, we need to reach the right impression share. The impressions can come from paid, owned, or earned media. And the marketer has to keep Optimizing for Discovery Maximization.

Case Study

How 3E Discovery Optimizer Model Was Utilised To Drive Traffic & Boost Engagement In Furniture Space

The Challenge:

The brand reached a plateau in organic traffic, limiting its ability to attract high-quality users at a significantly lower cost than paid acquisition. The challenge was to uncover new, scalable opportunities for driving incremental organic traffic and sustaining growth.

Our Approach 

1. Expanded Visibility Across Discovery Channels – Leverage high-intent platforms like Google Images, Shopping, Discover, and social media to capture new organic audiences.
2. Enhanced Engagement Through Visual & Experiential Content – Optimized images, videos, and user-generated content to improve click-through rates and purchase intent.
3. Drove Educated Conversions with Search & Contextual Content – Create solution-driven content addressing user needs across search engines and marketplaces.

Impact

• 23% Improvement in CTR
• 400k+ High intent organic traffic