Listen to your search results clearly
🔎 Organic-looking grids, review snippets and "Recommended by" labels are filling product results with words you didn't write, and more!
Hello! You've arrived at What Actually Works 🤓
We break down the real strategies, decisions, and plays that actually move the needle in your marketing, and here it for today.
🔎 The new product result, zone by zone
In three days, search engines showed where the product result is heading:
- October 2: Google tested a sponsored product grid styled like the organic one, and sponsored carousels were spotted without product images.
- October 2: Bing tested a "Recommended by" section that names a review site over product thumbnails.
- October 3: Bing began showing one-line review snippets from sites such as Trustpilot under ads.
- October 4: Bing tested a new design for shopping ads.
Your listing is becoming a tile assembled from your feed and other people's words. Here's each zone, and how to control it.
Zone 1: The image
In a grid, the image does the persuading because every tile looks the same.
- Show the product large on a plain background.
- Add one scale cue, such as a hand or a familiar object.
- Test one image change at a time against your current main image.
Zone 2: The title's first words
When images fail to load, as they did on October 2, only the title is left to sell.
Before: "BrandName Classic Collection Men's Everyday Sneaker"
After: "Washable Wool Sneaker, Men's, Wide Fit Available"
Put the product type and the attribute shoppers filter on first. Your brand name can come later, since the tile already shows the seller.
Zone 3: The price line
A struck-through price is easy to read at a glance in a crowded grid. Use your feed's sale price field for real sales so the discount shows on the tile, and keep the price your feed reports matched to your site.
Zone 4: The review line
Bing is now quoting single lines from review sites. You can shape what those lines say.
In your post-purchase review request, ask one specific question, such as "What surprised you most?" Specific prompts tend to produce specific, quotable sentences.
Reply to critical reviews publicly and briefly with the fix. A snippet next to your ad reads very differently when a calm answer sits below the complaint.
Zone 5: Other people's labels
A "Recommended by" badge comes from someone else's roundup. Find the five review sites that rank products in your category. Make sure they have your current specs, pricing and images, and offer samples to the ones that don't list you.Search your top three products on Google and Bing today, screenshot each result, and fix the weakest zone first.
Partnership with Modash
Your BFCM Plan Is Still Waiting on Better Prompts
How much time goes into pulling last year’s reports and explaining them to AI? If every useful answer takes another round of clarification, your BFCM prep barely moves forward.
Omnisend’s BFCM AI playbook gives you detailed prompts for the work you need to get done, so you can spend less time figuring out what to ask.
Use last year’s results to decide which campaigns deserve another run and check deliverability before increasing send volume.
Then turn those findings into a campaign calendar your team can work from.
Better yet, Omnisend connects with Claude or ChatGPT, so you can analyze performance and create editable email templates without leaving the chat.
New to Omnisend? Its email and SMS platform serves 150,000+ ecommerce brands, reporting an average $79 for every $1 spent. Migration is free and takes up to five business days.
Start now, with time to put the answers to work.
🐥 Tweet Worth Saving
🥳 Events
🔥 What Bain’s Marketing Leaders Reality Index Says About Measuring AI Search
October 15 | Virtual Event
AirOps COO Matt Hammel and Bain & Company’s Zak Prauer use findings from the Marketing Leaders Reality Index to show where traditional attribution falls short. Learn what to measure beyond clicks, why recommendations matter more than mentions, and what evidence should guide your next AI search investment.
Can't attend the session live? Register anyway, and you’ll get the recordings in 24 hours.
Thanks for being part of the WAW team 💃 We’d love to know if this was helpful so we can continue playing it smart with the right strategies.