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Nate Barad, VP of Product Marketing at Algolia shares more on how search tactics need to evolve in today’s complex online marketing environment in this MarTech Interview by MarTechSeries:
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Hi Nate, tell us about yourself and your role at Algolia?
My passion for technology innovation within the commerce industry spans more than two decades. With an extensive background in product marketing, I have gained invaluable experience leading product teams through implementations, product builds, sales engineering, and more.
I currently serve as Vice President of Product Marketing at Algolia, the world’s only end-to-end AI Search and Discovery solution, empowering over 18,000 customers. In this role, I have the pleasure of overseeing the strategic positioning of our products, including go-to-market plans, customer and market insights, and helping our product and teams shine. Most recently, I led the launch of our Fashion Solution, AI-Powered Collections and the groundbreaking AI Ranking capabilities.
Take us through some of Algolia’s latest AI powered ranking features and enhancements?
Algolia recently announced a dynamic trio of AI-powered ranking capabilities – all of which will enable businesses to seamlessly integrate multiple unique data signals and optimize search results for multiple goals simultaneously. For retailers and consumers, great search is non-negotiable. What does great search look like? Personalization is the name of the game. It’s critical to provide consumers with tailored search experiences while also prioritizing business impact. To achieve this, we must capitalize on the rich data available to us.
Ranking is key to conversion, engagement, and growth, but the days of traditional ranking, where the “most popular” results appear first after a search, are long gone. With this new era of search, consumers will be shown relevant results based on the vast amounts of consumer, product, and business data that exist. For retailers curious about Algolia’s ranking technology specifically, our competitive differentiators lie in how we empower merchandisers to optimize for multiple goals simultaneously. While competitors focus on one data signal at a time (e.g., revenue, margin, and forecasts), Algolia can integrate all these data signals and optimize for all these factors simultaneously, giving retailers unmatched control over their goals.
More specifically, these enhancements include:
Advanced Dynamic Re-Ranking: Retailers can increase relevance with a larger reach, hourly score refreshes, enhanced re-ranking for relaxed queries, multi-browsing facet support, and improved handling of empty queries, delivering the most precise results to date.
Multi-Signal Ranking: Powered by AI and driven by data, retailers can now optimize search results using a multitude of data signals, tailoring searches to key business objectives.
Dynamic Re-Ranking for Revenue: Offers flexibility to optimize search for conversions or revenue, enabling retailers to align both business and search objectives.
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What top myths around search marketing would you like to bust in this Q&A?
There’s a myth that retailers can simply deploy AI-powered search strategies with business objectives in mind and expect to see instant improvements in key business metrics, such as conversions. When implementing these strategies, it is critical to prioritize the customer’s needs and wants. For instance, a grocery retailer should not use an AI search engine’s AI ranking capabilities to boost their generic products only when a consumer searches for a brand-name product – and may want that specific brand-name product only. This makes the search experience frustrating for the shopper and prioritizes the retailer’s needs. Instead, retailers should deliver results that not only align with their business goals but also prioritize helping customers find exactly what they’re looking for—quickly and intuitively. Doing so will enable genuine retail experiences, resulting in loyal and satisfied customers.
How can modern marketers and eComm search marketing teams boost their search ranking and end-to-end search tactics in 2025?
The key to boosting search rankings and modernizing end-to-end search tactics is simple: focus on impact and results. With the evolution of AI and other innovative technologies, the competition among industry players continues to intensify, and those that provide top-tier experiences to their customers will emerge as leaders.
There’s endless opportunities to enhance conversion, engagement and growth – but it requires an understanding that traditional ranking systems, ones that focused solely on popularity of products, just won’t be enough moving forward. With enhanced ranking technology – these results, for example, can highlight items with faster shipping times – something that we, as consumers, have gotten accustomed to. Additionally, it can help achieve goals by strengthening brand loyalty through showcasing preferred brands and sellers, and by highlighting overstocked items to help move inventory faster while still delivering relevant results. Not only will consumers experience better and more relevant searches during their shopping journey, but key business goals will also be met, allowing retailers to remain competitive.
When using new age AI powered martech to drive this goal, what deployment and optimization tips should these teams keep in mind?
The most important thing to consider is the partner you’re choosing to embark on this journey with. When looking for a technology partner to help you boost search ranking and end-to-end search tactics, you should keep the following in mind:
Scalability: The platform you choose must be able to handle scaling, while still maintaining other important traits, such as speed and accuracy.
Integrations: The ability to provide integrations with complimentary technologies is a great value. It provides retailers with the necessary tools to build scalable search experiences.
Commitment to Collaboration and Innovation: It can be easy to become stagnant especially when you’re already seeing good results. However, it’s important to choose a partner that’s always thinking about what can improve – a partner that’s committed to continued innovation, and one that’s willing to collaborate and personalize its tech stack directly to your needs.
Five technology brands and marketers you’d like to shout out to who have gotten ”search right” over the years?
PetSmart – I used their BOPIS this weekend, shopped online with my Treat loyalty points, and added a few treats at the counter. Lisa was very happy with the new burrow toy and crunch treats.
Harry Rosen – combining the digital, and then empowering the in-store fashion associates with search and relevancy for their app as they help customers with the perfect fit.
Zenni – Making the most of search, images, cameras and AI to help people see themselves in the ideal eyewear.
Walgreens – Connecting thousands of locations to millions of customers, improving the experience for shoppers and pharmacists for daily critical needs.
Breville – Discovering the ideal blend of taste and premium appliances, an engaging experience was required..
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About AlgoliaAbout NateAbout Algolia
Algolia, is an end-to-end AI Search solution, helps businesses and developers understand their online users and show them exactly what they need.
About Nate
Nate Barad, is VP of Product Marketing at Algolia
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