It is well established that digital marketing should remain a priority for brands who are able to continue operations during these challenging social and economic times.
In this article, we explore some of the more specific strategies that marketers should consider, as a result of changing consumer habits and public safety advisories.
Namely, if you haven’t re-evaluated your Paid Search campaigns since early March, it’s time to start optimizing.
Be leery of bidding on trending medical terms.
Bidding on “coronavirus” and similar keywords may seem like a smart idea since SO many users are searching for news and updates on the topic.
However, Google is restricting impression delivery for these types of sensitive terms. Google reps have informed many advertisers that “Coronavirus” currently falls into Google Ads’ Sensitive Events policy. In an effort to prevent potential profiting off of today’s solemn state of affairs, many programmatic platforms are putting extra scrutiny on ads that contain a whole host of trending terms, including “pandemic” and “virus.”
There also may be SEO implications.
Ranking for COVID-19 related keywords places your website under “sensitive” categories. For advertising purposes, this could be detrimental to your campaigns’ reach and performance, due to most brand’s safety (not to mention, PR) guidelines.
Be sure to optimize the user’s experience.
Consider creating specific ads for more sensitive ad groups. By grouping keywords, including any trending healthcare, economical, or political terms, into a single ad group and driving to a dedicated landing page, this ensures a seamless user experience and sends a more credible message for brands.
The next several weeks remain unknown for many aspects of business, but as marketers, we can stay ahead of the curve by knowing how to optimize for best performance. Search marketing will continue to play a critical role in helping brands to thrive in in the short, and long term.
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