Why Your Merchandising Team’s Effort is Lost on Your SEM Team, Part 2: Breaking Down Silos Between Merchandising and Marketing

Promotional calendar: Merchandising teams shouldn't only share a promotional calendar with the SEM team, but also the specific dates when promotions begin and end. This knowledge will allow search marketers to mention promotions in ads and place higher bids on keywords that are linked to products covered by the promotion. As soon as the promotion ends, the SEM team can reduce bids to original levels.

Data formats from different vendors: When vendors provide a merchandising team with product data, it can come in multiple formats. Some vendors may assign descriptions to a set of products while others assign a completely different description to the same products (once again, think sweatshirt vs. hoody). If your merchandising team doesn't streamline and/or normalize these descriptions, it must inform your SEM team of the various formats so it can categorize and mine data accordingly.

Breaking down existing silos through the strategies discussed in this article will not only lead to higher clicks and conversions, but also a more holistic and unified customer experience. With the holiday and back-to-school seasons quickly approaching, now is the perfect time to take action.

Thi Thumasathit is the vice president of new business at Adchemy, a provider of advertising technology for large brands and retailers.