Digital Digest
Your monthly peek behind the digital curtain.
The Digital Digest is our monthly internal update covering all things digital at IronmongeryDirect. From PPC and SEO performance to upcoming projects, platform changes, and the latest digital trends, this deck keeps you in the loop, highlights team wins, and gives a glimpse of what’s next on our digital roadmap.
Digital Performance
Data is king!
What happened in February?
February continued the strong start to the year, with performance remaining robust across paid channels and encouraging progress beginning to emerge on the SEO side. Alongside this, several key projects have now been completed that will support further growth in the months ahead. These initiatives are designed to strengthen our visibility, improve how we surface products across key channels, and create more opportunities to capture demand as it grows. With these foundations now in place, we are well positioned to build on the strong start to the year. The focus now turns to scaling activity in a controlled way, continuing to refine how we segment audiences and campaigns, and ensuring we maximise the opportunities available across both paid and organic channels as the year progresses.
February PPC Performance Overview – The Headlines
Paid search continued to build on the strong start to the year, delivering higher revenue and improved efficiency while maintaining a consistent level of investment. Performance benefited from stable demand and continued optimisation across campaigns. What stood out?
- Revenue increased 11.3% MoM while spend remained broadly flat, demonstrating stronger efficiency across the account.
- ROAS improved to 748% (+8.3% MoM) as the account continued to capture demand more effectively.
- CPCs declined 8% MoM, easing cost pressure and helping to drive improved returns.
- Year on year performance remains very strong, with revenue up 38% and ROAS up 27% compared with February last year.
What Happened across Web?
February saw continued stability in overall website performance, with revenue growth supported by steady traffic and improvements in conversion rate compared with the previous month. Key takeaways:
- Revenue increased 5.5% MoM and 12.5% YoY, continuing the positive momentum seen at the start of the year.
- Conversion rate improved to 5.08% (+4.3% MoM), indicating stronger purchasing intent from visitors.
- Sessions remained stable, with a slight MoM reduction following the stronger traffic levels seen in January.
- AOV softened slightly, though it remains broadly consistent with last year’s performance.
SEO Update – February in Focus
The Headlines:
- Domain visibility increased +26.4%, rising from 2.137 to 2.701, putting the business 90% of the way toward the June 2026 target.
- Non-brand clicks increased +64.6% YoY, driven by a +130% increase in keywords ranking in the top 3 positions.
- Product page transactions increased +13.2% PoP, with product conversion rates improving +11% vs January.
- Visibility gains were driven by both product URLs (+30%) and category URLs (+21.6%), confirming the impact of the category restructure strategy.
Wins!
- Locks, Latches and Safety category restructure launched mid-February and immediately contributed to improved keyword visibility.
- Whitelisted facet pages continued to scale, with clicks increasing +55% PoP and impressions rising +82%.
- Organic Shopping listings delivered stronger engagement, with CTR reaching 9% and clicks +37% YoY.
- Blog performance continued to grow, with sessions +12% PoP and impressions up significantly as content appears more frequently in Google AI Overview results.
Organic Visibility – The Search Landscape
- We continue to outpace our direct competitors in visibility growth, with the February increase representing one of the strongest month on month gains seen since the strategy began.
- Category optimisation and improved site structure are proving to be the primary drivers of this growth, reinforcing the long term SEO roadmap.
Key Activity February
Optimised product attributes in GMC for testing.
Resolved multiple image issue in GMC.
New PPC labelling script live with no impact on performance!
Cabinet and Shelf Hardware
Restructure produced.
Locks, Safety and Security
Categories split and now live.
Product description testing setup and live.
Development Roadmap
NERD ALERT
In February, good progress was made on our roadmap, with several being completed:
- Nav review - Locks, Latches, Signs and Safety
- Fredhopper went live
- Future backend project – Product section
- Trade Xtra - Hold orders if products purchased are on the high-risk list
- Trade Xtra - Link on basket flyout
- New CC dashboard – Add new functionality
- High order logic – Live
- Sort products by discount on PLPs - Live
- Paypal pay in 3 – Live
- LPD Doors – Make it clear delivery isn’t free
- Direct Delivery images - added in bulk
- Web vitals – changes to improve site speed
- Account Service - Forgot Password update
Looking forward to March...
- Nav – Cabinet, shelf and hardware
- Fredhopper – event firing fixes and clean-up of data
- Trade Xtra - add statements to account section live
- Trade Xtra - Add additional email address field
- Trade Xtra - Add sign up banner to post purchase page
- Trade Xtra - Add pay with Trade Xrta on PDP
- Prevent hazardous and flight-restricted items from being ordered to offshore locations
- New CC dashboard – Add new functionality
- Track and Trace – Go live
- Was, was, now pricing on clearance items go live
- Improve web vitals – for site speed, SEO, UX
- Delete old customers – to minimise stuck orders
- Delivery note – Allow Kam customers to print
- LPD Doors – Add charge to the customer for returns
Getting to know the team...
One suggestion from my recent survey was the idea of getting to know the team better. As such this is the second of our new series where you will get some insights into the team and what gets us all out of bed in the morning :)
Digital News
Things we think are interesting right now :)
Each month, we want to share some broader digital marketing news, things we think are interesting, and things we want to be looking at as our strategy evolves. If there are any specifc topics you would like us to cover, please feel free to drop us a note :) Click the next arrow by each story to reveal the next!
Meta introduces click and engage-through attribution updates
AI assistants now equal 56% of global search
3 AI Search Changes Every Marketer Needs A Plan For In Q2
Shoutouts!
Let’s Google review the situation...
"Great products, good price and outstanding service! Our package went missing during delivery, and the company had a replacement one out to us within 24 hours (our first package eventually turned up at a neighbouring shop, so not Ironmongery’s error). Would recommend and will use again!" Steve R
FIN
Now, did you find this useful, informative? We are always happy to see feedback and ways we can communicate our activity across the business. Feel free to email us with any thoughts.
PPC Glossary Impressions – The number of times your ad is shown on a search engine results page. CTR (Click-Through Rate) – The percentage of people who clicked your ad after seeing it. Calculated as clicks ÷ impressions. CPC (Cost per Click) – The average amount paid for each click on your ad. Spend – The total amount spent on PPC advertising.. Conversion Rate (CVR) – The percentage of clicks that turned into conversions. Calculated as conversions ÷ clicks. ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) – Revenue generated for every £1 spent on PPC. A ROAS of 5 means £5 revenue for every £1 spent.
Impression Share (IS) – The percentage of times your ad was shown out of the total available impressions. Negative Keywords – Keywords you exclude to stop ads showing on irrelevant searches. Attribution – The method of crediting conversions to clicks or channels (e.g. first click, last click, data-driven).
Meta introduces click and engage-through attribution updates
Meta’s new attribution updates clarify click-driven and social interaction conversions, giving advertisers better insights for smarter campaign.
Meta is updating its ad measurement framework, aiming to simplify attribution in what it calls a “social-first” advertising world.
Full Article
AI assistants now equal 56% of global search engine volume: Study
Mobile apps drive most activity as ChatGPT, Gemini and others push AI discovery to 45 billion monthly sessions, new analysis finds.
AI tools now generate 45 billion monthly sessions worldwide — about 56% of search engine volume, according to a study by Graphite.io CEO Ethan Smith.
Full Article
3 AI Search Changes Every Marketer Needs A Plan For In Q2
The way people find your content, click on it, and convert from it changed this quarter. AI search went from a visibility question to a measurement and budget question, and most marketing teams haven’t caught up yet.
That’s why we built SEJ Live. It’s a free, half-day virtual event on March 11 from 12 to 3pm ET with three sessions designed to help you walk away with a plan for Q2.
Full Article
Organic Glossary? 1. Algorithm The system search engines use to rank web pages in search results. 2. Backlink A link from another website to your site. High-quality backlinks help improve rankings. 3. Bounce Rate The percentage of users who leave a site after viewing only one page. 4. Canonical Tag A bit of code that tells search engines which version of a page is the "main" one to avoid duplicate content issues. 5. Crawling When search engines scan a website’s content.
Lisa Cambridge Search Marketing Executive Lisa joined the team towards the end of last year and has made a massive impact! Keen to challenge the norm, Lisa is never shy to come forward with ideas on how to push to the next level!
As well as our ongoing projects such as the Aurora Dashboard, Next.js 14 Upgrade and SEO Improvements.
And other smaller non-roadmap items!
Digital Digest - February
David Ward
Created on March 10, 2026
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Transcript
Digital Digest
Your monthly peek behind the digital curtain.
The Digital Digest is our monthly internal update covering all things digital at IronmongeryDirect. From PPC and SEO performance to upcoming projects, platform changes, and the latest digital trends, this deck keeps you in the loop, highlights team wins, and gives a glimpse of what’s next on our digital roadmap.
Digital Performance
Data is king!
What happened in February?
February continued the strong start to the year, with performance remaining robust across paid channels and encouraging progress beginning to emerge on the SEO side. Alongside this, several key projects have now been completed that will support further growth in the months ahead. These initiatives are designed to strengthen our visibility, improve how we surface products across key channels, and create more opportunities to capture demand as it grows. With these foundations now in place, we are well positioned to build on the strong start to the year. The focus now turns to scaling activity in a controlled way, continuing to refine how we segment audiences and campaigns, and ensuring we maximise the opportunities available across both paid and organic channels as the year progresses.
February PPC Performance Overview – The Headlines
Paid search continued to build on the strong start to the year, delivering higher revenue and improved efficiency while maintaining a consistent level of investment. Performance benefited from stable demand and continued optimisation across campaigns. What stood out?
What Happened across Web?
February saw continued stability in overall website performance, with revenue growth supported by steady traffic and improvements in conversion rate compared with the previous month. Key takeaways:
SEO Update – February in Focus
The Headlines:
- Domain visibility increased +26.4%, rising from 2.137 to 2.701, putting the business 90% of the way toward the June 2026 target.
- Non-brand clicks increased +64.6% YoY, driven by a +130% increase in keywords ranking in the top 3 positions.
- Product page transactions increased +13.2% PoP, with product conversion rates improving +11% vs January.
- Visibility gains were driven by both product URLs (+30%) and category URLs (+21.6%), confirming the impact of the category restructure strategy.
Wins!Organic Visibility – The Search Landscape
Key Activity February
Optimised product attributes in GMC for testing.
Resolved multiple image issue in GMC.
New PPC labelling script live with no impact on performance!
Cabinet and Shelf Hardware Restructure produced.
Locks, Safety and Security Categories split and now live.
Product description testing setup and live.
Development Roadmap
NERD ALERT
In February, good progress was made on our roadmap, with several being completed:
Looking forward to March...
Getting to know the team...
One suggestion from my recent survey was the idea of getting to know the team better. As such this is the second of our new series where you will get some insights into the team and what gets us all out of bed in the morning :)
Digital News
Things we think are interesting right now :)
Each month, we want to share some broader digital marketing news, things we think are interesting, and things we want to be looking at as our strategy evolves. If there are any specifc topics you would like us to cover, please feel free to drop us a note :) Click the next arrow by each story to reveal the next!
Meta introduces click and engage-through attribution updates
AI assistants now equal 56% of global search
3 AI Search Changes Every Marketer Needs A Plan For In Q2
Shoutouts!
Let’s Google review the situation...
"Great products, good price and outstanding service! Our package went missing during delivery, and the company had a replacement one out to us within 24 hours (our first package eventually turned up at a neighbouring shop, so not Ironmongery’s error). Would recommend and will use again!" Steve R
FIN
Now, did you find this useful, informative? We are always happy to see feedback and ways we can communicate our activity across the business. Feel free to email us with any thoughts.
PPC Glossary Impressions – The number of times your ad is shown on a search engine results page. CTR (Click-Through Rate) – The percentage of people who clicked your ad after seeing it. Calculated as clicks ÷ impressions. CPC (Cost per Click) – The average amount paid for each click on your ad. Spend – The total amount spent on PPC advertising.. Conversion Rate (CVR) – The percentage of clicks that turned into conversions. Calculated as conversions ÷ clicks. ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) – Revenue generated for every £1 spent on PPC. A ROAS of 5 means £5 revenue for every £1 spent.
Impression Share (IS) – The percentage of times your ad was shown out of the total available impressions. Negative Keywords – Keywords you exclude to stop ads showing on irrelevant searches. Attribution – The method of crediting conversions to clicks or channels (e.g. first click, last click, data-driven).
Meta introduces click and engage-through attribution updates
Meta’s new attribution updates clarify click-driven and social interaction conversions, giving advertisers better insights for smarter campaign. Meta is updating its ad measurement framework, aiming to simplify attribution in what it calls a “social-first” advertising world.
Full Article
AI assistants now equal 56% of global search engine volume: Study
Mobile apps drive most activity as ChatGPT, Gemini and others push AI discovery to 45 billion monthly sessions, new analysis finds. AI tools now generate 45 billion monthly sessions worldwide — about 56% of search engine volume, according to a study by Graphite.io CEO Ethan Smith.
Full Article
3 AI Search Changes Every Marketer Needs A Plan For In Q2
The way people find your content, click on it, and convert from it changed this quarter. AI search went from a visibility question to a measurement and budget question, and most marketing teams haven’t caught up yet. That’s why we built SEJ Live. It’s a free, half-day virtual event on March 11 from 12 to 3pm ET with three sessions designed to help you walk away with a plan for Q2.
Full Article
Organic Glossary? 1. Algorithm The system search engines use to rank web pages in search results. 2. Backlink A link from another website to your site. High-quality backlinks help improve rankings. 3. Bounce Rate The percentage of users who leave a site after viewing only one page. 4. Canonical Tag A bit of code that tells search engines which version of a page is the "main" one to avoid duplicate content issues. 5. Crawling When search engines scan a website’s content.
Lisa Cambridge Search Marketing Executive Lisa joined the team towards the end of last year and has made a massive impact! Keen to challenge the norm, Lisa is never shy to come forward with ideas on how to push to the next level!
As well as our ongoing projects such as the Aurora Dashboard, Next.js 14 Upgrade and SEO Improvements. And other smaller non-roadmap items!