Displaying marketing content on the search result page

In this task, you display targeted promotional content on your search results page by creating a web activity.

Web activities schedule and control custom information that display in e-Marketing Spots on your store pages, without needing to involve site developers. Web activities can be used to display the following types of marketing information:

  • Content, such advertisements for promotions
  • Category recommendations
  • Catalog entry recommendations, including merchandising associations

For this example, imagine you want to include a promotional advertisement for a jeans sale to any customer who searches for jeans.

Procedure

  1. Identify the e-Marketing Spot you want to use:
    1. Open your store with Store Preview Store Preview.
    2. Type any query into Quick Search and hit enter.
      For example, search for jean.
      The results page is displayed.
    3. In the upper left corner of the page, select:
      • Show Page Information

        E-Marketing Spots and other customizable content types are displayed, highlighted in blue. By clicking Show Information, select the e-Marketing Spot below the search result header, and note the name SearchResults_Content.

  2. Create a web activity to fill the identified e-Marketing Spot on the search results page:
    1. Open the Marketing tool.
    2. In the explorer view, right click Activities and select New Web Activity.
      The New Activity From Template window is displayed.
    3. Select Blank Web Activity and click OK.
      A new web activity is created, and its general properties are displayed.
    4. Enter a name to identify your new web activity.

      For example, name your new web activity Jeans promotional advertisement.

  3. Assign the web activity to the identified e-Marketing Spot:
    1. Click the e-Marketing Spot icon.
      The General Properties tab is displayed.
    2. Find and add the e-Marketing Spot you want to use by typing SearchResults_Content into the Find and Add text box.
    3. Click Find and Add.
      The e-Marketing Spot is added.
  4. Create a target to indicate you want to display your ad only to those customers who entered a search query for your specific search term jean:
    1. Click and drag the Current Page Current Page Target onto the line to the right of the E-Marketing Spot e-Marketing Spot.
    2. Select the Current Page icon.
      The Current Page target settings are displayed.
    3. Set the Customer behavior to be Customer is viewing search results.
    4. Set the Search term matching rule to be Search term contains one of the following values.
    5. Click New New to create a new search term.
    6. Enter jean as the search term.
  5. Create an action to display the advertisement granted the search target is satisfied:
    1. Click and drag the Recommend Content Recommend Content Action to the right of the Current Page target.
    2. Select the Recommend Content icon.
      The Recommend Content action settings are displayed.
    3. Enter GirlsPants_Atct_1 and hit Find and Add. Repeat with WPants_Atct_1.
      Note:
      These examples are stock advertising assets that can be found under Content in the explorer view. It is from here where you can upload and manage your own marketing content.
  6. Click Save; then click Close.
  7. Activate the web activity:
    1. In the explorer view, click Activities.
      A list of activities is displayed.
    2. Right click your activity and select Activate.
      The activity is now active, as indicated by the green circle in the status column.

Results

Test your activity by using Store Preview Store Preview.

Enter jeans into the Quick Search and observe the results. With the example activity active, an advertisement for deals on jeans is displayed above the search results. With the activity disabled this ad is not displayed.