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How COVID-19 Has Affected Google Ads Results for various Industries

Covid-19 Impact on Google Ads

COVID-19, a pandemic that was underrated a few days back has now become a threat to the mankind. Every country across the globe is in panic mode right now and the impact is felt from all sides. It has affected everything including the global economy. As far as Internet based marketing is concerned, this sector too hasn’t remained untouched from COVID-19 because anything that impacts global economy has its impact on PPC and search trends.

The major change that this pandemic has brought is in the lifestyle of the people and most of us are now preferring to stay indoors as much as possible. This has in one way or another, forced businesses across the globe to modify their business operations and rethink their strategies. In their free time, people too have started browsing the Internet more and more and majority of searches these days are being made for news related to this pandemic.

Our motive behind this article is examining some top industries that have faced serious changes in their Google ads accounts since the outbreak of COVID-19. Amidst this, a shocking fact is that on major e-commerce websites across the globe, the conversion rate has seen a decline of jaw-dropping 21 percent and that is a serious percentage.

Some Businesses That Have Experienced Improved Conversion Rate during COVID-19

Non-Profits and Charities

During hard times like this one, people have generously shown their good side and because of this, non-profits and charities have seen:

  • A 10% increase in search ad impressions
  • A 23% increase in search ad conversions
  • A 20% increase in search ad conversion rates

Google Ads support various Google grant programs to allow non-profits advertise for free, but keeping them in compliance is often tough. Fortunately, it is clear that they are discovering searchers more easily than ever in this crisis.

Health and Medical

Ever since the outbreak of COVID-19, search engines have seen an enormous growth in the amount of traffic received by those sharing genuine information. The pursuit is just one, i.e. self-protection and the protection of the entire community. Then, online sellers of medical supplies have also been benefitted enormously because of this as more and more people prefer buying everything from E-Stores rather than visiting a super-market or nearby grocery store for the same.

Business Management

Websites and companies engaged in business management related services and products too have been making profits during these hard times. This is mainly because companies have now allowed employees to work remotely and for this, a set-up is required that these businesses can offer. Since February 23, overall business management searches grew by 23%.

  • The searches for office supplies increased by 90%, paid search ad clicks increased 35%, and search conversion rates have increased by 41%.
  • Packing and shipping supplies more than doubled their search ad conversions (up 123%) and search ad conversion rate (up 107%).

Other than these, the finance sector across the globe and beauty and personal care industry, followed by On-demand media and the sector of suppliers of greetings, gifts and flowers too have seen a huge rise in the traffic as well as conversion. According to a report, searches for cards and greetings have seen a 15% increase in conversion rate and the searches for gift baskets have seen a 30% increase in the conversion rate. This also deserves a mention here that the searches for floral arrangements have seen a 43% increase in the conversion rate.

Industries with Mixed PPC Performance during COVID-19

Real Estate

The borrowing rate has remained low for the past some time and the real-estate sector has managed to stay neutral amidst this panic. The SERP has remained stable in the past two months and seeing the trend, it is expected to stay the same way. An important point here to note is that relocation and moving services have seen an 11% increase in search volume while maintaining a healthy CTR, CPC.

Home Improvement

March is the month which is usually still for home improvement projects, thus, one must not be surprised to see home improvement searches slowly declining for the past few weeks. However, the next few weeks will be a decisively indicative test for the industry.

On one hand, people are spending more time being stuck at their homes, thus, this could inspire new home projects and an excuse to get off the couch. While on the other hand, economic uncertainty may dispirit discretionary spending. Until now, average conversion rates remain steady but vary wildly.

Home Furniture

Very similar to home improvement segment, the home furniture industry has seen +/- kind of impact of this pandemic disease. Recent researches have concluded that search volume, CPCs and conversion rates have all stayed within +/-2% over the past weeks. Amidst this, an important thing to know is that searches made for home appliances and bedding and linens have seen a conversion boosts of +7% and +12%, respectively.

Automotive

As far as the automotive industry is concerned, the searches as well as conversion rate has seen a noticeable drop of more than 30 percent in the past two months. Experts say that this is never a good news for this industry, but it would be really wrong to attribute this drop only to COVID-19, as the pre-existing downfall in the global economy was also showing its impact well-before COVID-19.

Retail Industry

Ecommerce was expected to soar during this pandemic, but this has not become a reality as far as the retail industry is concerned and it has been researched that the retail industry has seen a drop of more than 14 percent in the overall conversion rate. However, a good news amidst this chaos is that bigger retail websites like Amazon, etc. have been fighting really hard to bring down this deficit to only 9 percent.

Jobs and Education

The impact of COVID-19 is also visible prominently on jobs and education sector and this has mainly because of the fact the schools and colleges are closed for several weeks.This in turn has enhanced the business of e-learning websites and distant learning centres and according to the experts, the increase in paid search traffic for new careers and vocational training is +10% and +8%, respectively.

Legal Services

The law and legal sector too has suffered a minor impact of around 5 percent in its traffic as well as SERPs and an estimate says that phone calls were made in an equal manner, but more than 30 percent remained unanswered. Experts from this industry say that if you think that this pandemic is impacting your business, you can update your campaigns to reflect your current hours. Similarly, if you are working remotely, you need to ensure that your website, your call only ads, and your ad’s call extensions reflect the best number to reach your team.

Industries That Have Been Hit the Hardest So Far

During COVID-19,the biggest concern is undoubtedly public health.It is unfortunate that some industries are at risk and those working in these industries are specifically affected.

Travel and Tourism Industry

One industry that has suffered the most because of this pandemic is the travel and tourism sector as people as well as governments have totally ceased travelling nationally as well as internationally. As a result, a huge decline has been registered in the overall searches made in relation to these sectors and almost every company has suffered in converting the visitor into a customer.

Bars and Restaurants

WHO recommends social-distancing as the best method for prevention from this pandemic and this has directly shown its impact of hotel and restaurant industry too.Not just they have seen a huge decline in the number of physical visitors, but searches related to them too have seen a huge decline.

Users have cancelled their booking and because of the restrictions related to travelling, no new searches or bookings are coming.But yes, because governments have encouraged delivery and take-away services, this part of the hotel and restaurant industry has seen a huge increase and searches for take-away and delivery hotels and restaurants have increased by 19 percent.

Live Entertainment

The decline in the business of hotels and restaurants has put a huge impact on the live entertainment industry too, and the point of “Social-Distancing” too has played its role in this.
Because of these two factors, searches made for live entertainment has reduced by 24% and conversion rates have fallen 30% and as said above, this is a serious concern.

Conferences

The pandemic known as COVID-19 has impacted the large conferences too as most of them have been cancelled till any further notice or they are now being help online.
Since the end of February, more than 33 percent reduction has been noticed in the conversion rate on the websites belonging to this industry too.

Sports and Fitness

As far as sports is concerned, the biggest event is Olympics that was scheduled to be held in Japan in some months, but as of now, it has been postponed for one year because of the pandemic, COVID-19.
This has impacted the travel industry and yet again, social distancing has also been the major influential factor in the decline seen in the searches as well as the conversion rate of this industry. Amidst this, a ray of hope has been witnessed in online as well offline sports program and something similar has been noticed in terms of sports camps too.

Building and Construction

The pre-existing economic slowdown was already a reason behind the slowdown of building and construction industry and COVID-19 has made the condition more miserable.
The future projects have been put on hold and this is likely to continue until this pandemic is over.

Industrial and Manufacturing

Very similar to the building and construction industry, the industrial manufacturing was also on the slow side for the last one year and COVID-19 has come as a negative bonus over this decline. In the past 3 months, Cost per Click has seen an increase of over 5% and conversion rates in the industry have decreased modestly but advertisers have suffered a huge decrease of 13% in search traffic.

While you are Stuck at home during the Coronavirus Quarantine, keep an eye on the performance of your PPC accounts.

Stay safe, stay healthy, and maintain social distancing.

Author avatar
brandconn
https://www.brandconn.com
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