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How Covid Has Affected Pay-Per-Click Advertising

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Overview

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There is no doubt that COVID-19 has affected everyone’s lives, and it has proven to have a deep effect on search engines and search behaviour. Users’ online behaviour has changed, and online marketers have had to adapt to these changed behaviours without historical data giving insight into what to expect.

What Changed When the World Went into Lockdown?

When the pandemic first hit, Google placed restrictions on some advertisers, especially on those trying to capitalise on the Coronavirus. Restrictions on items like face masks and hand sanitisers were implemented to curb people inflating prices and to hinder any potential false information on the virus.

However, this did have a negative effect on advertisers who had legitimately been selling these products online pre-Covid, as they were no longer allowed to advertise.

E-Commerce sites also felt the effects as potential customers, who were already feeling the pinch of an economic downturn, did not have access to delivery of items bought online. This resulted in e-commerce sites seeing an increase in users visiting their online stores, without much improvement in actual sales.

Travel and accommodation advertisers had to completely stop ad accounts during this time, due to restrictions on travel.

Were There Opportunities for Advertisers During Lockdown?

There are a lot of negatives when looking at advertising on search engines during lockdown, but there were also positives and opportunities. For example:

Impressions/Search Volume

While there had been a drop in conversions, there were increases in impressions and search volumes. People who were confined to their homes spent more time browsing the internet. They were researching and browsing sites, possibly making plans for when lockdown ended, or prepping for future projects. Either way, there were increased site views, and this opened doors for various marketing strategies.

Screenshot from Google Trends

Remarketing

With the increase in search volumes, lockdown offered a great time to start populating remarketing lists. This allowed marketers to remarket to users who had been browsing during lockdown, and could remind them of their interests once lockdown ended. Increased search volumes and visits to sites, allowed remarketing lists to populate faster and marketers to have customers ready to advertise to.

Branding/Awareness

The first lockdown offered a great opportunity to set up branding campaigns to try and capture the interest of users browsing. Strategies could include Facebook image ads and a focus on Google Display Network ads. Facebook and the Google Display Network tend to have a lower CPC (Cost-Per-Click) than other platforms, and they allowed advertisers to get an influx of curious users for a low budget and CPC.

While we do not live in a Covid free world yet, there have been some additional changes in users’ online behaviour since the world has eased up on lockdown restrictions.

With travel being possible, for the most part, travel, holiday and accommodation advertisers are pushing their marketing again and users are converting. After multiple lockdowns, it’s easy to understand that people are eager to venture out, so right now the timing is perfect to start relaunching and pushing travel and holiday-related campaigns.

Conversions are picking up again across all industries as users are not just browsing anymore, but are rather intent on enquiring, purchasing, and booking online. While conversion rates are not necessarily as high as they were pre-Covid, there has been a large upswing in users committing valuable actions on websites.

User behaviour has also changed in the sense that more conversions (conversions being a specific action taking place on a website) are coming from social platforms. Facebook and Instagram campaigns, in particular, are showing improved conversions and conversion rates when compared to pre-Covid. Google, for the most part, previously ended to be the preferred driving platform for garnering results for many companies, advertisers and marketers.

The bottom line is, users’ behaviours, since the Covid epidemic started, have changed and marketers and advertisers are needing to adapt to the change in search trends. Tools that give historical data cannot be assumed to be accurate in the new, post-lockdown world that we find ourselves in. Deeper discussions and strategy need to be explored before approaching pay-per-click advertising.

Glossary

Conversions — A trackable predefined action (such as an enquiry, purchase or download).

CPC/ Cost-Per-Click — Average cost-per-click (Avg. CPC) is the amount you’ve paid for your ad divided by its total clicks.

Google Display Network — A group of more than two million websites, videos, and apps where ads can appear.

Impressions — An impression is counted each time your ad is served. Impressions help you understand how often your ad is being seen.

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