Trending

Trends are a funny and temperamental thing, aren’t they? From mullets and mohawks, to planking and Pokémon, trends are a representation of their time. Being such, they are subject to change, are often short-lived, and are sometimes quite bizarre. Each new year produces it own, and as quickly as they rise, they fade into the periphery. Yet, their popularity always tells a story, and as Google Trends highlights, stories can be a very powerful and ingenious marketing tool.

Google Trends

As Google’s year in review for 2019 highlights, superheroes (cut from every cloth imaginable) were the focus of many individual searches. Perhaps this is unsurprising, due to the massive cultural blockbuster event that was Avengers: Endgame last April. Nevertheless, it reinforces my argument. Trends, as often depicted in queries on search engines like Google, reflect the people and the time in which they occur. They’re indicative of some of the most important events and consequently, affords marketeers like myself a personal insight into what people are interested in.

Trends Impact on PPC Planning

Now you’re probably wondering how trends can impact your own PPC campaign. Planning a PPC campaign and knowing when to run specific Google Ad campaigns can be a tricky task at the best of times. There are so many things to consider in each given year. Things like holidays, weather, cultural events, sporting competitions etc. can all impact your marketing activity. Planning around these things is crucial to maximise campaign effectiveness. Google Trends is particularly useful in this planning phase as it allows you to view user interest in a specific keyword or phrase over time, helping you to plan when is best to run your specified campaign.

Furthermore, Google Trends also highlights related queries to your own, providing you with a greater understanding of the market you’re advertising within. By having more specific examples of keywords that are being searched for, you can select the most popular and plan your campaign’s ad groups around these terms. This is incredibly beneficial and insightful when conducting keyword research. Combined with Google Ads’ very own keyword planner and you’ve got a very powerful tool that every digital marketeer and PPC specialist SHOULD be taking advantage of.

PPC in 2020

It’s very likely that Coronavirus or Covid-19 will define the year 2020. Indeed, searches related to the virus have increased dramatically on Google over the last few weeks. As WordStream highlights, the Coronavirus has dominated our concerns, which have in turn, manifested in our search queries (See below).

Looking further into these search trends, it becomes apparent that the virus peaks late at night, at approximately 22:30, and then again in the morning at roughly 7:30 (see below).

What this means is that the virus is perpetually on the minds of people. It’s often the last thing they think about before bed, and the first thing they think of when they wake up. Consequently, advertisers need to alter and adjust their accounts accordingly. The Google Ads platform’s Ad Scheduling feature can help you with this. Additionally, what this may mean is that searches relating to the virus are likely to be infiltrating into your campaigns’ search terms, even if your campaigns are completely unrelated. It’s at times like this that the importance of negative keywords cannot be understated.

It’s Healthy Being Clean

In a small nugget of positive news, the fears surrounding the virus have resulted in a sharp rise in the searches of cleaning products like hand santiser and masks (see below). So, if you’re in a similar or related industry, you’re probably rubbing your hands together right now, just like the inventor of hand sanitiser.

Google Trends represent the demand of the users. By capitalising on this data, you can supply this demand and provide the users what they want, when they may be most in need, whilst also introducing them to similar related products or events. By using Google Trends to help strategise your campaign’s keywords and ad group structure, you’re already fighting half the battle. In such a user-centric world, take advantage of the tools provided. Any insight of your potential audience is an asset, and every digital marketeer needs to rememb