Using Search Data to Anticipate and Increase Customer Activity

This article is based on a presentation at IBA’s Spring 2024 Data Jam: Decoding Consumer Analytics by Steven Hines, Manager and SEM Lead at Deloitte.

Every day, two billion potential purchasers pick up their phones and open Google to search for goods and services or to have a question answered. “Can I buy the product I just saw a commercial for?” “What’s the score for the IU vs. Michigan State basketball game?”

Retailers can leverage these searched questions to better understand who’s searching for their brand and why they’re searching, explains Steven Hines, a manager and search engine marketing (SEM) leader at the global consulting firm Deloitte.

“We can use tools, including something as simple as Google Trends, to better understand and identify our audience behavior,” says Hines. “What are they interested in? How can we better reach and message the people that we want to convert to not only a one-time purchaser, but a loyal, lifelong customer and brand advocate?”

Hines explains how Google Trends can help brands streamline and optimize how they strategize and measure ad campaigns. To illustrate, he uses a mock example of the legacy retailer Stanley, which has experienced a surge in popularity across a new audience with the rise of their internet-famous Quencher travel tumbler.

“This is a scenario we see time and time again,” explains Hines. “Clients will approach us saying that they need more purchases, but don’t know how to get there. More often than not, search is a big piece of the puzzle as we start to look at different marketing tactics.”

How Search Data Can Help Retailers

Search data is an indicator of brand health and the effectiveness of marketing, Hines says. Brands should ask how people are searching for their brand versus how they’re searching for competitors’ brands, what are seasonal or social trends impacting their brand, and if increases in search interest correspond with increases in ad clicks and purchases.

Brands can also examine data to identify which months customers are searching for their brand the most, to determine if they can spend more on their digital presence on a specific platform, and to see what platforms people are searching from the most.

“All of this data can help us plan stronger marketing campaigns and ultimately, drive more retail purchases,” says Hines.

There are three different ways to filter to uncover insights in Google Trends:

1. By topics: Brands should use this filter when they’re looking for a specific brand or competitor, Hines explains. In the Stanley scenario, a marketer at Stanley may search just for “Stanley” or for a competitor with a search like “Hydro Flask.”
2. By keywords: A keyword search is a little more nuanced, Hines says. Brands can use this filter to analyze search data for a social, news, or business trend that may impact their brand. Brands can also search for a phrase here, such as “Stanley at Target” or “Stanley at Walmart.”
3. By categories: Companies can analyze search data for categories to understand how their brand fits into the existing landscape. Search terms here may be broader, Hines explains, such as “water bottles.”

Hines’ team at Deloitte uses this data to analyze and understand the brand they’re working with, he says, especially when they’re putting together a pitch for a brand and need to speak intelligently about that brand’s trends. Hines explains how results from Google Trends can be used to better understand a brand in various stages of the marketing process:

• Brand equity: Brands can use Google Trends to examine if interest is growing or declining over time. If interest is growing, then a brand can implement campaigns intended to convert interest into purchases, such as a clickable ad unit on Facebook or Google. If interest is stagnant or declining, they may implement awareness campaigns to create demand, like a video spot on YouTube.
• Competitive activity: Trends can also inform how search interest compares to competitors in-market. Brands may ask how they can use ad campaigns to get more users to search for the brand, and once more people are searching, they can consider how to ensure that those users will easily find the brand on Google.

• Key brand moments: Search data also demonstrates how brand interest and chatter is changing in real-time. Sharp increases and decreases in the number of users searching for a brand often correlate with notable social media, news, and product events, such as a spike in searches for “Stanley bottle” and “lead” in January 2024, Hines explains. In response to these key moments, brands should change their messaging to reflect the current dialogue about their product

“No brand that I’ve ever worked on has gone without a positive or negative spike in demand and sentiment,” Hines notes. “More often than not it could be short-term, but we need to understand how it’s impacting the brand.”

• How to spend advertising budgets: Google Trends can also help brands understand how to spend their advertising budgets. For example, potential purchasers may search for a water bottle in the summer when they have a camping or a beach trip coming up, but there might be a dip in searches in the fall or winter.

“In January, we need to have a more awareness-focused approach, but in the summer, customers are already raising their hand to purchase,” Hines explains. “That means that in the summer, we want to run ads that are going to get them to the point of purchase immediately, while before the holidays, we may want to build awareness and reinvigorate interest.”

• Micro-trends in search interest: Trends indicate micro patterns in user interest and help brands understand the products, reviews, and features that users are looking for. In the Stanley scenario, these include “Stanley Valentines” or “Stanley Valentines cup Target,” which were common searches ahead of Valentine’s Day.

The final and arguably most important part of analyzing trends in the marketing process is anticipating future search interest, Hines says. Brands can build predictions using historical and current search trends and analyze how past years compare seasonally, and determine if historical “peaks” in the trend can be anticipated and messaged with unique ads.

How Search Data Informs Marketing Strategy

Brands can use search data throughout the marketing process to plan, build, and optimize campaigns, Hines explains. The process has four areas, beginning with planning and analysis, moving into building campaigns and understanding messaging, jumping into data analysis to gather insights, and finally, optimizing the ad campaigns the brand is running.

“The life of a digital marketer is basically taking this pinwheel and rotating it over and over again with a brand to continue to push the needle,” says Hines. “The world of digital marketing is evolving at a breakneck pace, and search data can expand beyond keywords and be leveraged across the entire suite of marketing efforts.”