We love tapping the power of search to track real-time data on public sentiments and behaviors.
In addition to following this interesting study from the Massachusetts General Hospital about symptom searches correlating to COVID spikes, here are three other search-related behavioral trends our team has been keeping tabs on:
- The rise of voice and visual search: While smart/voice-activated devices don’t currently have formal search ad options, marketers can still attempt to reach these users by adding more “voice-friendly” and conversational long-tailed keywords (e.g., “what’s the best time to book a trip?”) into their overarching SEA strategy (primarily to reach people on voice-enabled displays, tablets, and mobile devices). Other marketing opportunities exist across smart/voice-activated devices outside of the search realm, so we expect fully-integrated search ads to come into play as adoption and usage of voice functionality grows.
- The death of the tablet: Tablet spend for Google paid searches has continued to decrease for three quarters in a row, likely attributed to the usage of larger smartphones.
- The increase in YouTube watch time, especially via TV Screens: There has been an 80% YoY growth in watch time for YouTube TV and YouTube viewed on TV Screens, with a 25% MoM growth from March to April this year. KSM has also noticed this trend among its clients during the pandemic.