The widespread impacts of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown conditions, that we have become very familiar with over recent months, have certainly resulted in turbulent times for businesses and marketers alike.
However, opportunities have arisen for those brands who are able to continue on and attempt to make the best out of these challenging times.
Without the opportunity to visit high street stores, online search volume has boomed across a broad range of industries. Yet, whilst many businesses have paused advertising for the interim. This increased traffic volume paired with lower levels of competition leaves one glaring question. How can businesses capitalise on this?
Step 1: Understanding your unique circumstances:
Firstly, understanding the current patterns, trends and circumstances in your respective industry is important. Keeping on top of this is more difficult as it is fluctuating rapidly with lots of variables to consider.
Regularly checking google trends to monitor and understand how search volume has changed based on lockdown is very useful, as certain industries are experiencing unprecedented highs.
Reviewing the auction insight tab within google ads can illuminate the current landscape of those occupying similar ad space. Keeping an eye on the number listed in the bottom right corner is extremely important currently, as this indicates the number of competitors appearing alongside you in the auction.
Cross-referencing the same period from the previous year will give insight into market changes which could indicate that the time is right to increase exposure, particularly If the landscape has dramatically shifted, with fewer competitors for potential customers to browse and more impression share occupied.
Step 2: Being proactive rather than reactive
One way in which many businesses are succeeding during our current predicament, is to adopt a more proactive rather than reactive stance and what better way to do this than to incorporate smart bidding to your PPC campaigns?
How does Smart bidding work in turbulent times?
During volatile periods, smart bidding reacts in real-time to set a unique and dynamic bid for every search query, whereas manual campaigns require multiple days’ worth of data before reactive changes can be made.
It is important to consider your marketing objectives and align these with a strategy which will work best with these objectives. Therefore, determining the primary way you are measuring success is very helpful for choosing a smart bidding strategy type. You may have set ROAS or CPA targets; you may want to generate more overall clicks and build brand awareness, or potentially you have a restricted budget within which you want the most possible conversions.
For more information on Google Smart Bidding and why you should be utilising it more, please click here.