The digital era is constantly evolving in response to changes in consumer behavior and new trends, especially since the start of the Coronavirus. With the chaos this has brought, businesses have been creating convenient ways to cater to both themselves and their audiences by learning to advertise in a more constructive and successful manner.

Despite this, brands have been increasing their use of advertisements in the ever-growing digital period and matters have actually become quite challenging, as countless businesses attempt to reach their target audience. The effect of Coronavirus on Google Ads has put many brands to battle, competing against one another for consumers alike with over 4 million businesses in total currently using the same platform to advertise.

If your business has been struggling with these same issues, this post can help your company set up a confident strategy to tackle Google Ads and the ever-changing advertising market.

Consumer Trends Relationship to Google Ads

Understanding consumer trends related to Google Ads is crucial before even thinking about tackling the platform itself with your own strategy. Once your company has a good grasp of the research needed, the initial stages of your approach should be catering to what exactly consumers are currently looking for when it comes to advertisements. As SEO-terms and phrases continue to grow in popularity and succeed with advertisers at reaching their target audience, your business should be aware of smart bidding, responsive search ads, artificial intelligence, and video content; as these methods are becoming increasingly popular with consumers.

Along with this, customers have also been more open to advertisements that have been relevant to their current situation at hand. The effect of Coronavirus on google ads has been extraordinary as businesses have taken on virus-related marketing approaches, as a way to relate and empathize with their audiences. Despite the success of numerous brands, some industries have unbearably suffered without much headway in response to the pandemic.

Which Industries’ Ads Have Been Affected by Covid-19?

With planes being grounded and countries going into lockdowns, the travel industry, along with the hospitality one, has been forced to deal with incredibly damaging impacts. As a result, the question came up: What could these industries possibly advertise when the pandemic has essentially put a strain on what they provide for consumers?

For these companies, it’s likely that most have had to rebrand themselves to help get their businesses back up and running against the virus’ effect. These industries have had to change what they’ve initially branded themselves as while also working hard at implementing new advertising techniques to attract their same audience, albeit with slightly different messaging. It’s taken some time to fully understand how quickly the Coronavirus can affect consumer behavior, but constantly readjusting advertising methods and branding, has seemed to be quite successful for some businesses in these fields.

Google Advertising Strategies During COVID-19

For businesses looking to improve their business models, it’s important to learn the effect of Coronavirus on Google ads. While once a key method for businesses to gain traffic and convert sales, the pandemic has shifted consumer behavior, perhaps permanently, leaving industries now confused on how to approach Google advertising. Some companies are still unsure of where to go next with their advertising strategy, which is why these 10 tips for Google ads survival guide have been compiled to help those in need:

1. Be Confident in Your Audience : Your brand should confirm that it has a solid audience base before investing in any sort of advertisement. Along with having a good group of consumers that have a definable interest, you’ll be able to send out better-targeted ads based on the greater information you have regarding your audience. If your brand is struggling with this issue, key methods of creating your target audience could include utilizing SEO-keywords and embedding terms into your content, working on engaging with consumers that already have interest in your brand, or generally better defining your brand and its messaging.
2. Utilize Pay-Per-Click : A successful PPC guide during COVID-19, is a strategy that includes much research and thought before simply purchasing Google ads. Your business should work on putting high-bids in to help your business start off with quality clicks, before eventually developing a strategy that leads to a positive ROI.
3. Don’t Overspend : You may believe the more money you put into your advertising budget, the greater return your brand will. However, that’s not always the case when it comes to pay-per-click ads. Your brand should be doing research to see what competitors are putting into their Google advertising strategies during COVID-19, and build your own strategy around this information. Remember, even if you are putting a ton of money behind your pay-per-click campaigns, pminot every ad click will lead to a conversion.
4. Be Unique : Google users will need a reason to click on your ads, so by creating unique, one-of-a-kind ones will likely lead to success. Even when competing against others in your industry, think out of the box and get creative to separate yourself from rival brands.
5. Get to The Point : One of the best Google advertising strategies during COVID-19 is just getting to the point in reference to the content of your ad. Consumers are unlikely to read through a paragraph of words, so making it clear in the least amount of words possible will help keep consumers stay informed and interested. Less is definitely more in this situation.
6. High-Quality Visuals : What initially attracts people to an advertisement is the use of high-quality visuals. No matter the product you are trying to sell, if the product is poorly displayed or the graphic is of low quality, consumers will not be persuaded to click on your ad.
7. Remarket Your Brand : If the Coronavirus has put a halt to your services and products, or consumers aren’t really in need of what your business is currently offering, it’d be wise to remarket your brand before you start working with Google Ads. Think of the different angles your brand could take on and work on reconstructing your company’s message from a consumer’s perspective.
8. Analyze Placement Reports : Your brand should be keeping track of ad placement reports and taking into account where ads may not be performing as they should. This is a way to put money behind ads that have higher click-rate and save money from the ads with little engagement that should be removed. It’s important that your company constantly stays on top of new reports as consumer behavior is constantly changing, and the success of ad placements will fluctuate as time goes on.
9. Smart Placements : Along with analyzing your ad placement through reports, your company should be researching different appropriate URLs your target audience will likely to be found on. For example, let’s say that your brand is selling undergarments with a target audience in mind of women between the ages of 25 to 35. Just because this demographic is constantly browsing The New York Times, does not mean this audience wants to see your brand’s advertisements as they are reading news on COVID-19. This is why your brand will need to research web pages that are more appropriate for your ad placements, instead of URLs that’ll get you high visibility with little activity.
10.   Extend Your Reach : As part of Google advertising strategies during COVID-19, it’d be smart for your brand to start doing research on different keywords that could potentially extend your brand’s reach and grow its audience. Although, your brand should not do a 180 when it comes to thinking of new people to target, researching similar keywords and phrases that are popular to your already existing audience will help extend your ads’ reach in a strategic manner.

Consumer Trends Post COVID-19

Along with your business thinking of different ways to handle the current situation in reference to your Google Ad strategy, you should also be preparing for the consumer trends post COVID-19. Here’s what your brand should keep in mind:

• Online Shopping : The trend of online shopping post-pandemic will only gain more attention as consumers are finding it one the most convenient ways to shop. Brands are taking this information and sculpting their eCommerce sites to better cater to their ongoing audiences’ needs.
• Virtual Experiences : For people wanting an in-person shopping experience without leaving their homes, businesses are taking on the task of creating virtual experiences through the use of AI, AR, and other virtual platforms to provide it.
• Streaming : Online users already love digital streaming platforms, so businesses have taken this into account with their own advertising strategies. Some businesses, such as Nike, have created online streaming events to launch new campaigns and give their audience’s an experience as if they were in-person viewing the new products.

Overall, companies, as mentioned before, will need to be continuously evolving to meet the needs of consumers. It’s important that your own brand keeps up with current research and new trends to better cater to their audience and in all, help increase conversions.

Conclusion

Whether it is having confidence in your advertisements, researching ad placements, better use of PPC, remarketing your brand, or learning new ways to better spend budgets, industries of all kinds can take this into account with their own Google advertising strategy. The virus has most definitely created obstacles for businesses and their previously prepared advertisements, but through hard work and constant adjustments to their strategies, there is hope for a successful outcome for the businesses willing to innovate.

Post from Hannah O’Brien