We are living in unprecedented times – no one knows what is around the corner and no one could have guessed we would be here even 3 months ago. Our focus is on people’s health and wellbeing through this turbulent time, but as your partner, it seems only right to share news and articles which can support your business. We will try to keep our finger on the pulse of this enormous change, and although we can’t promise to have the right answers – we will do our best to provide opinion and content to ensure together we do our best to make the right choices for our wellbeing, our communities and our businesses.
Whether it’s how people are using technology, what they are searching for and buying online or their view of the world – we have seen a lot of changes in consumer behaviour in the last past few weeks. This week, our team share some thoughts on key take outs and observations we’ve seen since lock down.
“During the Covid-19 crisis, consumer behaviour has changed a lot. Consumers are at home, they are travelling less, and they need things to be delivered safely. Many consumers are worried about economic downturn and have become price-sensitive, but at the same time, spent money on items they need in their “new normal” lives.
Changing consumer behaviour means that there has been a huge shift in the way that we can expect PPC campaigns to perform when bidding by device, past behaviour, location, time of day, day of week, demographic, and the many other signals which are used to bid accurately and analyse our data. Every brand is different, and microtrends are emerging on a daily basis, so when it comes to using automated bidding, it’s incredibly important that we aren’t wholly reliant on either automated technology, or manual bidding, but that we’re using a hybrid of the two; super-reactive smart bidding with extremely close oversight to quickly identify and react to changes in performance.”
Imogen Collins, Head of PPC.
“We are in difficult and ever-changing times where resonating with your target audiences with your BAU messaging might not reflect the current situation. Vidmob, a trusted Facebook creative partner, walked us through their current findings during Covid 19. They analyzed 8.5K ads with a total of 674M impressions in the Entertainment vertical.
Their findings were:
– People are watching videos for longer where the presenter is looking away from the camera and is avoiding eye contact.
– Text is usually a dominant element in successful videos on Facebook, this has dropped to the bottom in the last 30 days.
– Prior to Covid 19, women and men were equal in top-performing elements however men have over taken this
– Reflect the lockdown with visuals of people on their own or couples – avoid group gatherings.
Vidmob’s finding shows that leaning into the situation will aid performance. Covid 19 affects us all in different ways, but by using creative that is sympathetic will help to form a unity between your brand and your target audience.”
Rachel Milner, Head of Paid Social.
After a week of poor query growth in the Home & Garden category, we saw this bounce back last week, with good traffic and conversion rate in this category – a trend we had expected to see as a large proportion of the population gets used to spending the majority of their day at home. Particular stand-outs include Bedroom Furniture, Small Kitchen Appliances, Floor Cleaners, Ovens, and Bakeware. In other categories, we continue to see strong performance from Beauty & Personal Care, Baby, Fitness, and across Book, Game & Hobby Categories. Apparel continues to see negative query growth YOY, but crucially we saw a less extreme drop last week, with traffic picking up across apparel. ‘Loungewear’ search terms saw an uplift in search queries, and footwear is outperforming the rest of the category.
We have seen some great examples of brands putting themselves in their consumers’ shoes – whether it’s tailoring their hero products, providing useful content over sales messaging or just being honest about how their service may be changing due to Covid-19. Some smart examples from M&S Food around advice on freezing food and La Redoute like many homeware brands have chosen to focus comms on the fact millions of people are now having to create a workspace at home and are potentially ill equipped or uninspiring. Dunelm closed their online offering for a number of days but have come back with a very strong, insight lead approach. This recent communication was great as it was answering 3 consumer insights; people are looking at their homes and wishing they worked better, they are spending but keeping a closer eye on their money and also any home improvements have to be DIY. This comms focused on improvements under £20 which can be done without the help of a handyman or lots of tools you don’t already have. Spot on.
“Review your messaging across all channels (especially ‘personal’ channels like CRM) This simple slip from restaurant chain Prezzo was sent to me by email after lock down commenced. Ensuring your messaging is relevant, current and considered will help give consumers confidence in your brand. If your dispatch time is going to take longer adhering to new guidelines, with fewer staff than make sure this is on your website, emails and other communications. As well as this upfront messaging on their website – Homebase have also added a nice line on their homepage heroing garden furniture and barbeques – ‘Make the most of being Homebased’”
Emily Long, Head of Client Services & Digital Strategy
“Increase coverage to help customers get the products they need – This is exactly what the team are doing here. Looking at GA to get an idea of what products are being sold (there is a big shift) and that shift should also be reflected onto our client’s sites so products with high demand are more visible.”
Jérémy Courty, Account Director
Keep moving, create memories and feel the endorphin rush. The fitness community is providing more free online content than ever before, so whether you have kids or not there are free workouts to follow at home without the need for equipment.
Our favorites are:
With kids – Cosmic Kids Yoga and Joe Wickes PE Class
Adults only – Yoga with Adrienne, Tom Daley HIIT or Dame Kelly Holmes
James, our Head of Partnerships has even vowed to continue doing Cosmic Kids Yoga with his daughter Sienna after lockdown as it is creating a wonderful opportunity for quality time together.
