CheezeDMG Blog

Online continues to demonstrate consumer fashion demand. Whilst some style mags are claiming it is the end of the leggings trend, the popularity of Lohan’s line and year on year increases in Google search volumes seem to tell a different story. Search volumes for the term ‘leggings’ have increased by 22% from 2007 to 2008 according to Google Insights, with volumes more than doubling from Nov 2007 to Nov 2008; an indication that they are actually becoming more popular.

Fashion is seeing a movement away from traditional lycra blends into slightly more outrageous wet look, sequin and (my personal favourite); leopard print leggings. Wet look leggings have seen a 1,400% increase in searches on Google (2007 to 2008), rocketing it to the second highest related search term after ‘black leggings’, impressive as Google only started to record searches for this term in August.

What was once seen as a low cost, low quality commodity has now become an integral part of any fashionista’s wardrobe. This has meant that retailers have to ensure that they stay ahead of the game, both in terms of what they stock and how they advertise their products online to their customers. Price messaging is key, alongside using the correct fashion terms for each item, wet look leggings to one person are shiny leggings to another.

So what is the future of the once feared 1980s classic? Will they die out with next season’s influx of ‘must haves’ or have they become a wardrobe staple?

With regular campaign and trend monitoring we can succesfully spot the changing trends and act accordingly.

Paid Search: Next season’s fashion must have!

As a dedicated follower of fashion and search engine marketing, possibly not an obvious combination, it is disappointing to see that the search market for fashion retailers is anything but fashionable.

With the rise of online clothing retailers such as ASOS and Oli, digital media is more important than ever for retailers to embrace. Paid search is still however being used in its purest direct response form, ignoring customer search evolution and the rise of celebrity fuelled inspiration.

Fashion retailers are not ignoring online as an advertising medium, the eCRM market is fierce with retailers sending at least two ‘on trend’ emails a week, John Lewis and Littlewoods Direct run strong display campaigns and ASOS has a fan page on Facebook with over 52,000 fans, and Top Shop has it’s own ‘fashion fix’ application.

Why then, when fashion retailers are updating content so regularly on their sites and emails are their search campaigns not seeing the same evolution?

The same golden rules apply for paid search marketing as they do to fashion. Ultimately great fashion is a number of well designed pieces combined to create an outfit. You may own this seasons to die for handbag, but teamed up with a shell suit and cowboy boots you will be appearing in Heat’s next worst dressed column! Similarly, your keyword list may be perfect but unless you have your paid search campaigns structured well with ‘on trend’ creative you will not be getting the best out of your digital marketing.

So here are Cheeze’s Top Ten Paid Search fashion commandments:

1. Ensure that vocabulary is reflecting the target audience and their purpose for searching. Arguably, someone looking for ‘little black dress’ should be spoken to in a different tone to someone looking for a dress for work. A well structured search campaign will enable different messages to be delivered to these differing terms.

2. One of Victoria Beckham’s fashion rules is to ‘invest in timeless classics’. It is essential to include more generic terms that are higher up the research chain in your campaigns. Exposure to conversion tracking has confirmed that more often than not users will start researching with a generic terms such as ‘dress’ but convert on more niche terms such as ‘little black dress’. It is crucial that these more generic terms are used as a branding tool to ensure that you are part of your consumers consideration set right from the beginning of product search.

3. However, it is also important to expand your keyword list to include style specific terms and to refresh ‘fashionable’ terms on a weekly basis, referring to top fashion channels for up to date inspiration. The term ‘skirt’ has 45 pages of sponsored listings (this could equate to over 500 advertisers), whereas ‘puffball skirt’ has just 8 advertisers appearing! The term ‘maxi dress’ has seen a 70% increase in searches in the last year yet only 11 advertisers are advertising on this term.

4. Keep up with celebrity fashion; it is where most of your target audience will get inspiration, and where ASOS found their niche. Despite ASOS building a brand based on ‘imitating’ celeb style their SEM activity currently does not reflect this. They have 25 Girls Aloud inspired items, but no search advertising under these relevant terms.

5. Bid on terms that relate to recent celeb clothing / trends / TV performances where relevant. Diana Vickers of X Factor fame wore a Top Shop (or very similar) dress for one of her performances, six people wrote about this on Yahoo Answers, however no advertisers are bidding under Diana Vickers terms.

6. Make sure that the copy is relevant to the term you are bidding on. Oli.co.uk have just launched a range of Peaches Geldof dresses, they are at number one on Google under ‘peaches geldof dresses’, however there is no mention in the ad copy of their new range.

7. Don’t be scared to stand out from the crowd. You do not need to have a large budget and be positioned at number one to attract the user – be as creative with your copy as you are with the fashion you sell.

8. Don’t forget your brand identity in your paid search advertising. Copy should reflect the messages you deliver to your audience through offline media, your site and your overall brand essence.

9. Perhaps most importantly, support PR gained from other sites and offline magazines. Today Look Magazine’s website is telling me to buy a Miss Selfridge fake fur leopard print coat, however when I search for this on Google, they are number one on organic search, however in the premier paid search positions Next are number one, followed by the lesser known fakefurfashion. Miss Selfridge isn’t appearing at all on page one of results. They should be number one with an ‘as seen on Look’ message. Every item that has been highlighted / showcased in a fashion segment should be pushed to number one on search engines for this term with copy reflecting this link.

10. Fashion moves fast, so does online advertising.  Style is timeless, and so is a good agency.  I am biased here but if you want to stay on top in the fashion SEM market, you could do well by talking to Cheeze. You should talk to Tom Griffiths - just don’t ask about his fashion sense!

Paid search should be as fashionable as the items you are selling. As Coco Chanel, my fashion idol, once said ‘Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening’ why not extend fashion into your search campaigns?

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Nina is the agency Fashionista and one of our wonderful Senior Media Account Managers.