Banners in the results

Putting content inside the search, in the five slots of the search panel, and the occasions when it's really worth it.

A banner is your content inside the search results. It's created like any other rule, in Search → Merchandising, with the same conditions, dates and position as the rest.

The slots

There are five places where it can sit in the search panel:

• Top of the search panel: above everything, including the filters. The most visible and the most intrusive.
• Above the results: over the first row of products, already inside the results area.
• Sidebar: in the filters column.
• Between results: in the middle of the grid, as if it were a card.
• Bottom of the search panel: after the results, for whoever got to the end without deciding.

When a banner is the right answer

• A condition that changes the buying decision: free shipping over X, next day delivery if ordered by a certain time, a promotion about to end.
• A search that is a question: "returns", "shipping", "warranty". A banner with the answer and the link is worth more than ten products.
• A search with no results: the no results condition with a banner is the difference between a dead end and a way out. See searches with no results.
• A campaign with its own image, for the length of the campaign, with the dates filled in.

When it isn't

A permanent banner in "top of the search panel", with an "always" condition, pushes the products down on every search in the shop. Whoever opened the search was on their way to buying; the first thing they see is no longer a product.

If what you have to say applies to everybody and doesn't change the decision, its place is the shop, not the search.

Measuring

A banner has no metric of its own, and the honest way to judge it is by the search it lives in: the CTR and the conversion of those terms, before and after, in analytics. If the search where you put it got worse, the banner is taking space away from products that were selling.