Bol.com

The bol algorithm explained - search trends, keyword positions and improving findability (4/4)

Lars Hurkmans·Co-founder·23 November 2023·Reading time 13 minutes

A Sponsored Products campaign can measurably improve your organic findability on bol. In this case study the ultrasonic repeller climbed from position 240 to 15 in its category. By monitoring organic positions with a ranking tracker you see per keyword where advertising is still needed and where you can scale it back.This is part four of our series on selling on bol. In the previous article we discussed how Sponsored Products increased the visibility of the ultrasonic repeller. Here we measure the effect of that campaign on organic findability: the changes in category and keyword positions, and how those insights lead to more cost-effective marketing choices.

What did the Sponsored Products campaign deliver?

The campaign for the ultrasonic repeller on bol delivered 220 sales from 2,951 clicks, a conversion rate of 7.45%. That beats the category average of roughly 5%. Total revenue came to €7,469, against €2,685.83 in campaign costs, which works out to an Advertising Cost of Sale (ACoS) of 35.96%. That ACoS is slightly above our target profit margin of 35%, but fits within our long-term strategy for product launch and market penetration.

Which keywords performed best?

Of the 220 sales, 205 could be attributed directly to our targeted keyword ads. At keyword level it became clear how decisive the right keyword choice is for the success of a Sponsored Products campaign.

• Strong performers: 'kattenverjager' (cat repeller) and 'kattenschrik' (cat scarer) were the standouts, with ACoS values of 31.23% and 26.78% respectively. These keywords made a substantial contribution to sales at costs that fell well within our profit margins. That suggests that customers searching for these terms had a high purchase intent and that our product titles and ads matched their search well.
• Less profitable keywords: 'muizenverjager' (mouse repeller) and 'mollenverjager' (mole repeller) performed less well, with ACoS values of 50.2% and 50.93%. These keywords did attract relevant traffic, but the conversion rates were out of proportion to the advertising costs. That may point to a weaker match between customer expectation and product offering, or to higher competition within these search terms.

What is the next step in the analysis?

The next step is to determine what effect the campaign has had on the organic findability of the ultrasonic repeller on bol. That analysis shows not only the direct impact of our advertising efforts, but also how they contributed to a better organic position on the platform.

An essential part of that is examining the current organic positions of the keywords we advertised on. The goal is to establish whether there are keywords for which our organic visibility has improved so much that paid sponsoring becomes less efficient. If the organic ranking for certain keywords has risen considerably, we can consider lowering the advertising budget or redistributing it to keywords where the organic position still needs strengthening.

This step is crucial for optimising our profit margins and refining our approach on bol. It creates a more integrated strategy in which paid and organic visibility work together. Before we can do that, we first have to decide how we are going to monitor the keyword positions.

How do you monitor your findability on bol?

You can follow the findability of your product in two ways: manually, or with a tracking tool. Monitoring is a fixed part of your findability on bol. Checking and recording category positions manually every day is possible, but it is time-consuming and complex, because you have to search through different pages. For category positions it is still feasible, for keywords it gets more complicated: you have to search through multiple pages for different keywords and you lack completeness across all relevant terms.

A better approach is a tracking tool that automatically follows the positions of both categories and keywords. We highlight three.

What can Boloo's Ranking Checker do?

Boloo's Ranking Checker gives insight into how a product performs on specific keywords and lets you follow the market dynamics on bol. That is useful for sellers who target specific niche keywords or want to align their strategy with the most profitable keywords.

The tool has a few limitations you should weigh up:

1. Limited number of keywords: with a maximum of 10 keywords per product, you can only monitor a broad range of relevant terms to a limited extent. That is a challenge for products that fall under multiple keywords or for anyone who wants an in-depth analysis of their market position.
2. Manual input required: you have to select the keywords you follow yourself. That takes time and requires insight into which keywords are most relevant, with the risk that you miss important terms or changes in search behaviour.
3. Dependence on other users: the availability of historical data depends on whether other users have followed the same keywords. For less popular or very specific keywords that data can be limited or absent, which makes the tool less suitable for long-term analysis.
4. Focus on keywords, not on categories: the tool only focuses on keywords and gives no insight into performance within categories. For a complete picture of your market position on bol that is a considerable limitation.

In summary, Boloo's Ranking Checker is an improvement on tracking keyword positions manually. But because you can only follow 10 keywords per product and no category positions are tracked, the question is whether there are tools on the market that offer more.

What can Bollify's Rank Tracker do?

Bollify's Rank Tracker offers a more extensive approach to following your market position on bol. You can track an unlimited number of keywords and products with it, which is useful with a large range or an in-depth market analysis. Because the tool also tracks category positions, it gives a more complete overview of a product's market position.

This more extensive functionality brings its own points of attention:

1. Manual input needed: although the tool is more flexible in the number of keywords and products, you still have to enter the keywords and products you follow yourself. That takes time and requires market knowledge, with the risk that important keywords are overlooked.
2. Limited historical data: just like Boloo's Ranking Checker, Bollify's Rank Tracker starts collecting from the moment you enter a keyword or product. Historical data is therefore not always available, which makes trends over a longer period harder to analyse.
3. Possible extra costs: the tool works on a subscription basis, with a fixed amount per month. That can be attractive with many products and keywords, but it can lead to extra costs if your needs exceed the standard limits.
4. No automatic keyword detection: despite the broader approach, the tool lacks automatic keyword detection. You still decide yourself which keywords you follow, which can lead to missed opportunities.

In summary, Bollify's Rank Tracker is a versatile tool for sellers who want an extensive and detailed analysis of their market position on bol. It offers more flexibility than Boloo's Ranking Checker, but still requires active involvement and knowledge from the user for maximum effectiveness.

What does MarktMentor's My Rankings offer?

MarktMentor's My Rankings tool monitors the visibility of your range on bol and shows both category and keyword positions. Three features set the tool apart:

1. Automatic linking of keywords to products: unlike the tools discussed earlier, My Rankings approaches tracking from a different perspective. MarktMentor proactively identifies which keywords a product is found on and follows those positions automatically. So you do not have to enter keywords manually per product, which saves time. This approach also gives insight into keywords you may have overlooked, which can reveal new opportunities for visibility. You deactivate keywords manually or in bulk for the analysis.
2. Immediate availability of historical data: historical data is available straight away. That gives you a clear picture of how the findability of your products has developed over time, which is essential for analysing trends and making well-founded decisions.
3. No extra costs for extra tracking: My Rankings uses a fixed monthly rate, with no additional costs for following more keywords or products. That makes it a cost-effective option, certainly with a large range or many keywords.

In summary, MarktMentor's My Rankings tool offers a time-saving and cost-effective way to follow and analyse the visibility of products on bol, with automatic keyword linking, immediately available historical data and a fixed rate model.

Which ranking tracker do we choose for this analysis?

For our analysis we choose MarktMentor's My Rankings tool, for four reasons:

1. No manual input needed: we do not have to enter all relevant keywords manually. That saves a lot of time, certainly given the number of products and the diversity of keywords we want to monitor.
2. Automatic insights and time savings: by linking keywords to products automatically, we may gain insight into keywords we would otherwise miss. That makes for a more thorough analysis of our product visibility on bol.
3. Direct access to historical data: the historical data is available straight away, so we can follow the trends and developments in our positions over time. That is important for understanding the impact of our Sponsored Products campaign on organic findability.
4. Cost efficiency: the fixed rate model means we do not pay extra for tracking more products or keywords, which makes it a cost-effective option for our extensive analysis needs.

Through this combination, MarktMentor's My Rankings is the right choice for analysing the impact of the Sponsored Products campaign on the organic findability of products on bol.

How did the category positions develop?

We start the evaluation with the category in which we sell the product, the ultrasonic repeller. During the campaign the product climbed from 240th to 15th position in that category. The chart below from MarktMentor's My Rankings tool shows that development.

We see a steady upward trend in the ranking over time. That rise looks linear, but that does not tell the whole story, certainly when we factor in the sales performance. The closer we get to the top, the more challenging it becomes to climb further, especially around the top 25.

In the first week of the campaign (23 to 29 October) our organic positions did not improve considerably yet. That has two causes. First, it took a while before the bids resulted in sales. Second, the ranking is determined by a weighted moving average, in which earlier performance counts too. It took several days before the lower performance from before the campaign was compensated by the better performance during the campaign. From 30 October we therefore see an improvement in the organic ranking.

That upward trend lasts about a week (until 6 November), where we end up around the 100th position. There the position stabilises briefly, after which we see a rise again from 11 November. From that point the recent sales from the campaign are almost fully reflected in the position, with a greater weight for the performance of the last seven days.

From 11 November the positions keep improving, with a relatively sharp increase around 18 November. That brings us to the 15th position, after which we experience some fluctuation.

Across the full trend line it is clear that we climbed from 240th to 15th position during the campaign. That indicates that the Sponsored Products campaign has had a considerable influence on our organic visibility.

Explanations for this outcome include:

1. Strong foundation of the listing: our listing contained striking images and a video, which gave the customer a clear picture of the product. The extensive description contributed to a better understanding of the offering.
2. Competitive pricing: our product was priced lower than comparable products, and the prominent presence in sponsored positions probably contributed to more sales than many competitors achieved.

How do you link positions back to your Sponsored Products strategy?

With an average position of 15th place in the ultrasonic repellers category we face a choice: continue or pause our Sponsored Products campaign in this category. We judge that on the basis of the performance per category:

1. Insects & Pests: a conversion rate of 7.63% with an ACoS of 20.68%, an efficient use of our advertising budget compared with our profit margin.
2. Soil, Fertiliser & Pest Control: a conversion rate of 7.32% and an ACoS of 27.78%, also with costs below our profit margin.
3. Ultrasonic repellers: our strongest category in terms of visibility, with a conversion rate of 8.86% and an ACoS of 22.26%.

These figures suggest it can be valuable to stay present in these categories, because of the favourable ACoS and to maintain and strengthen our position. Our organic ranking is already strong, but in a competitive market with many ultrasonic repellers, continuous advertising can help hold on to that spot.

That is why we keep the sponsored ads in these categories active. That is partly defensive, to defend our position, and partly an offensive choice to potentially generate more profit, since the ACoS lies well within our profit margins. We keep evaluating this decision based on changing market conditions and campaign performance.

How did the keyword positions develop?

With the progress in category positions, the keyword positions have probably improved as well, especially for keywords closely related to our category. The basis for organic keyword positions consists of the category positions, reinforced by a relevance score that is unique per keyword. For the explanation of that we refer to our article on the bol algorithm.

What does the general keyword analysis show?

The screenshot below from MarktMentor's My Rankings feature shows the keywords on which our product is found organically. We score on 20 relevant keywords, after deactivating 15 non-relevant keywords. Our average position is 42, lower than our category position. A week earlier we averaged 29, a drop of 13 places. At first sight a sizeable drop, but seen over a month there is an average rise of 64 places, which points to a substantial improvement since the start of our campaign. Why you should look at that organic position separately from your sponsored position, you can read in organic versus combined rankings.

What does the specific keyword analysis show?

Type of keywords. Through the sales funnel we see which specific keywords our product is found on. We did not add those manually; MarktMentor's system follows them automatically. The keywords are ranked by search volume in the past 30 days. The keywords found closely match our optimised title, such as the base terms and more specific terms with a specification word ('ultrasone kattenverjager', 'ultrasone muizenverjager'). That suggests our title strategy has been successful.

Measured positions. The 'Latest ranking' column shows large differences per keyword. For the base terms 'muizenverjager', 'kattenverjager' and 'kattenschrik', which are in our title, the organic positions are strong: 13th, 8th and 9th place respectively. 'marterverjager' (marten repeller) is much lower, at 85. That difference is because our product falls under the ultrasonic repellers category, in which we have grown strongly organically. Our product is not found in the 'marten repellers' category, which follows a different path, so many other products probably perform better and also score on this keyword, which results in a lower organic position.

Improvements in organic position. Compared with 30 days ago we have risen on all keywords, a clear signal that the Sponsored Products campaign has influenced our visibility favourably. Over the past 7 days most positions remained relatively stable, with a few exceptions such as 'marterverjager' and 'ultrasoon'.

Implications for Sponsored Products. Based on these findings we conclude the following:

1. Keywords we may no longer need to sponsor: given the strong organic findability, we can stop the sponsored campaigns for 'kattenverjager', 'kattenschrik' and 'muizenverjager' and their specific combinations (such as 'ultrasone'). Our campaign results already showed that sponsoring on 'muizenverjager' was not profitable, so stopping is the logical choice. For 'kattenverjager' and 'kattenschrik' it is more complex because of their lower ACoS. Still, because of the high click costs on 'kattenverjager', we are considering ending the sponsored campaign there too, which could save €300. We test the impact on sales by temporarily not sponsoring this keyword. We keep sponsoring 'kattenschrik' because of the lower total click costs and a more favourable ACoS.
2. Keywords we keep sponsoring: for 'marterverjager' and related keywords we keep sponsoring, because of the lower organic findability and an ACoS that lies below our profit margin.

Evaluating our organic positions in relation to keyword performance gives valuable insight into the effectiveness of the Sponsored Products campaign. We can fine-tune our strategy and potentially save costs without strongly affecting visibility and sales. While we stop sponsoring on certain keywords, we keep following the impact on the sales figures to confirm whether that choice was the right one. It remains a dynamic process in which we keep adjusting our approach based on the data obtained, with the goal of maintaining profitability and holding on to our market position.

What do you take away from this series?

With this article we close the series on the bol algorithm. In four parts we looked at how findability on bol works and how you improve it: from the influence of product titles on organic findability to using Sponsored Products and monitoring your positions with a ranking tracker.

We started with the basic principles of the bol algorithm. Then we covered optimising product titles, followed by the role of Sponsored Products and their domino effect on your organic ranking. In this part we used MarktMentor's My Rankings tool to measure the impact of that campaign on organic positions.

The core: paid and organic visibility work together. By continuing to follow your category and keyword positions, you see where advertising is still needed and where you are organically strong enough to spend your budget elsewhere. Thank you for following this series.