Why marketers need to stay in tune with search trends
Ruth De Luchi, founder and managing director at Status Agency, discusses how marketers can stay on top of search trends to realign strategies and better manage campaigns.
Search habits change constantly. They change due to world events, social movements, shifts in our vocabulary, seasonality, and new cultural trends. Is it any surprise that searches including Rihanna, WorldPride, housing, and interest rates skyrocketed last month?
Think With Google recently released its Year in Search 2022 report which highlighted how search habits were influenced by social trends. For example, there was a 30% year-on-year increase in search interest for “time to” in 2022. As inflation set in and interest rates went up, people were making searches like, “is now a good time to buy a house?” more frequently.
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Economic uncertainty has also made people more selective about where, when, and how they choose to spend their money and there was a +20% bump in Google Search interest for terms containing “compare” in Australia last year. Savings and sustainability also started to go hand in hand as search interest in “cheap electric cars” also increased by 75% year-on-year.
The art of observation
Marketers can observe these changes when they are running paid search campaigns. In fact, they are impacted by them. When campaigns stop working or suddenly take off, it can be because people’s search habits have changed.
A decline in impressions, click-through, or conversion rate can be one of the fastest indicators of a shift in demand. Google Trends can also be used to monitor seasonal patterns. For example, searches for “home gym equipment” soared during the outbreak of the pandemic and the fastest-rising gym-related search term in the last five years was “when will gyms reopen”. Search interest for “home gym equipment” also increases in winter when people are reluctant to work out outside. However, as soon as the temperature starts rising in the summertime, search queries for “gyms with air conditioning” increase.
Changing with the times
However, many marketers aren’t ready to capture these shifts in demand. They might be letting AI run their paid search campaigns and don’t see the changes, or have a set-and-forget strategy.
Automated bidding strategies can be set up to proactively bid on the most likely-to-purchase consumer or breakaway keywords. However, relying too heavily on AI can result in missed insights. When marketers aren’t actively monitoring conversion rates or search term reports across their campaigns, they are less likely to see changes in demand and successfully realign their strategy with the market.
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Machines also can’t recreate human connection. When a human observes that customers are searching differently, they can empathise with the change, understand their brand’s role in serving the new need, and find the best way to deliver value.
That’s why marketers need to implement structured testing frameworks throughout their campaigns.
Be proactive
If a business is impacted by seasonality, marketers should plan ahead with increased budgets for peak periods, unique ads that align with the trends, and target keywords that capture the demand. It’s important to use the full functionality of the paid search account, and test and learn so that high-performing ad copy can be leveraged.
Be dynamic
Dynamic search ads are a great way to understand what and how customers are searching. They use the content on a website to generate ads dynamically. So, if a particular keyword hasn’t been targeted yet, dynamic search ads will pick it up quickly. If there are specific search trends that are converting well through dynamic search ads, marketers can break these out into their own campaigns and allocate additional budget towards them.
Be open-minded
What works today won’t necessarily work tomorrow, therefore, “always-on” campaigns should never have a set-and-forget approach. “Growth” campaigns are a great way to trial newly identified keywords without having them impact overall performance. If they work well, they can be shifted into “high-performing” campaigns that are structured in a way to give fine-tuned control over budget and click spend allocation.
Change is a constant
Google processes trillions of searches every year and 15% of daily Google searches have never been done before. People change and so does the way that they search for goods and services. AI gives marketers the ability to dynamically respond to changes in the market. However, if marketers don’t hypothesise, test, and measure when managing their campaigns, it’s impossible to understand the shifts, empathise with their customers, and realign their strategy.
Ruth De Luchi is founder and managing director at Status Agency.
