Comprehensive SERP Volatility Insights to Better Comprehend CTR Dynamics

GrowByData
Comprehensive SERP Volatility Insights to Better Comprehend CTR Dynamics
Ramesh Karki | November 11, 2022
|READ 10 MIN
GBD-serp-volatility-insights

Typically, marketers only track rank fluctuations as a measure of SERP volatility. They believe SERP changes due to search algorithm updates and competition are reflected in rank fluctuations and help answer the reasons behind rising and declining clicks.

This limiting measure worked when the SERP landscape used to have few SERP features – mostly organic listings with a few paid ads. However, there are lot more SERP features available in the current SERP. Therefore, monitoring only traditional ranking fluctuations will not give you the complete picture of SERP volatilities impacting your search performances. You might find yourself in a situation where despite seeing consistent improvement in your rankings, the clicks and conversions are declining.

The tools currently available in the marketplace are insufficient in providing this complete visibility into SERP fluctuations. Our tool’s True Ad Rank capability gives you insights on your and your competitors’ exact position of the listing considering the entire SERP page as well as what SERP features that listing is getting visibility on.

The GrowByData Search Intelligence tool provides a granular and comprehensive measure of SERP volatilities impacting performance and helps marketers stay on top of SERP fluctuations.

What is SERP Volatility?

SERP (Search Engine Result Page) Volatility measures the overall amount of SERP widget, order, and contents (advertisers, ad contents, etc.) change happening on the search engine results. The hierarchy and popularity of a SERP feature may differ with the location, category, or device.

High SERP volatility can be an obstacle to maintaining consistent visibility and performance on the SERP. It also makes it challenging to stay on top of emerging SERP features and jump off of declining SERP features. Having granular SERP volatility insights helps you get a better sense of the market pulse to make the best strategic decisions for your business.

What is the importance of tracking and monitoring SERP volatility?

There are many external factors impacting your marketing performance in channels like Google, Amazon, Walmart, etc. Tracking and monitoring the SERP is crucial to maintaining and improving your visibility on the SERP. The importance of a SERP feature can change depending on the category, location, device, etc. Our report allows you to see which SERP features are popular for what category in precise locations on specific devices. Insights into such details can give you a competitive advantage over your competition as you can target the most important SERP feature and quickly increase and improve your visibility across the SERP.

What do we provide?

GrowByData SERP Volatility provides a detailed view of the SERP feature changes over a specified period. The view can be based on a single keyword, category of products, geolocation, and devices.

You can use GrowByData SERP Volatility to:

1. Get a better understanding of the makeup of your current SERP landscape

Analyze SERP components available in your keyword landscape. Also, get visibility into the SERP landscape and features by different geographies and categories to empower your holistic search marketing campaigns, content, and advertising strategies.

SERP-Presence

Look at our overall SERP Features Trend Report for Apparel & Accessories Marketing Category.

2. Measure the overall SERP volatility in each category, location, or device.

Which components are emerging and contracting in SERP? Get alerts on a new component, significant changes increase or decrease in current components real estate in SERP impacting advertisers’ performance.

serp trends in each category, location, or device

Compare the trend of each SERP feature to itself in the previous month to decide whether or not to invest more resources in that feature. Below is an example of a comparison of the People Also Ask SERP feature. It shows that the feature has been more popular this month compared to the previous month.

avg listings per search

3. Understand which components are getting above the fold visibilities on the SERP

Just knowing which SERP features are popular is not enough to make the best strategic decisions. You need to know which SERP features are above the fold so that you can target and plan to show up under those features to improve your total performance on the SERP.

serp features visibility

4. Get detailed insights and analysis on specific SERP features and the competition within each SERP features

Analyze and monitor various popular SERP features and find out who is leading based on the share of voice. You can also analyze and Monitor Organic Vs Paid Advertising density in SERP. Get visibility into Organic and Paid Feature leaders in your competitive landscape.

leaders by serp features

You can use the historical trends graph to see who has been increasing their advertising efforts over a given period. Monitor big and emerging players’ advertising shifts across SERP features impacting your performance. And keep track of aggressive advertising pushes and pauses by giants like Amazon and Walmart. This allows you to strategize your campaigns, shift budgets, and save advertising costs due to these external threats.

historical trends

5. Track the SERP volatility of groups of keywords most important to your marketing campaigns

Dive deeper into the SERP analytics with insights into what SERP features are being dominated by which competitor to find opportunities in the SERP. We can help you see who you are competing with for each SERP feature and design targeted tactics to outperform competitors.

competitive tactics

6. Better understand your competitors in the Market

Understanding who you are competing with and who the biggest players are within a specific category gives you a clearer sense of how you can plan for overtaking them.

category mix trends

7. Optimize your SERP performance with Striking distance keywords

There are now more SERP features than ever including PLAs, SERP product refinements, featured snippets, PAA, Local Map Pack, Popular Products, etc. You can be ranked in position 5 but it might take 3 or even 5 full scrolls to see it with all these SERP features. Having a list of keywords that are within a striking distance of above-the-fold visibility lets you create targeted marketing efforts to quickly improve your performance on the SERP.

striking distance keywords

Benefits of GrowByData SERP Volatility

Merely having a detailed report is not enough if you are not making decisions based on the analysis and insights of the report. Here are a few things that can be extracted to maximize the benefits of your marketing campaigns.

  • Where do your competitors stand? You can track your competitors and their SERP volatility. See which SERP features are being targeted by your competitors over time. And also see if your competitors are being affected by any algorithm changes by Google.
  • Analyze the SERP competition – Our report allows you to see which competitors are winning per SERP feature, and which ones are losing. It also shows you which competitors are quickly climbing up the ranks or which have been increasing their share of voice over time.
  • Stay one step ahead of the competition and don’t get caught off guard by the constant updates by quickly reacting to the Google algorithm updates.

Conclusion

With the constant change in the SERP landscape and insufficient analytics and insights provided by the respective platforms/marketplaces, it has become more challenging to stay on top of the fluctuations and maximize your ROI from your marketing efforts.

With GrowByData Marketing Intelligence, track all the changes happening in your keyword landscape due to changes in the search landscape and competitors’ marketing tactics threatening your ROAS.

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