Global events often impact PPC performance and COVID-19 has been no different. With more people spending time at home during the initial lockdown and the current lockdown across most of the UK, search trends have been affected. For any affiliate marketers, staying on top of the CPC traffic and Google AdWords trends is key to driving traffic. Below, we look at how this has been affected and how you can use it to your advantage.
Increased volume and performance across industries
There are a few industries who have seen increased volume and performance since the initial lockdown. While we are only in the initial stages of lockdown 2.0, this information can be valuable for the next few weeks.
According to WordStream, the business management industry saw an increased level of traffic. They reported that searches for office supplies had increased by 90% with clicks increasing by 35%. However, this is unlikely to be as popular this time around with many people already having their office supplies by now.
Other industries that saw an increase in search ad impressions include non-profits, health and medical businesses and the beauty industry. The CPC for beauty and personal care was reduced by 14% initially with a 6% change in search CVR.
How have keywords been affected?
Facebook is currently the top-performing keyword in the UK with a search volume of 55m. According to Google Trends, this keyword has dropped slightly in interest during lockdown 2.0 with the figure currently sitting at 87.
In terms of shopping sites, Amazon and Ebay both have extremely high volume traffic. Amazon has a search volume of 27M in the UK and Ebay has 22M. There was a slight drop in interest for Amazon on the first few days of lockdown 2.0 but this has steadily increased to 99 again since then.
Ebay saw a drop in interest on 4 November but this has increased back up to 86. This quick drop at the very beginning of lockdown 2.0 is something that we are seeing mirrored across some other top-performing search terms such a YouTube and Hotmail. This indicates that while there was an initial delay, traffic is starting to steadily increase once again.
While this information might be relevant to retail affiliates, it is important to note when comparing CPC traffic.
Using trends to your advantage
If you are hoping to take full advantage of the increases in CPC traffic during lockdown 2.0, it doesn’t hurt to know a bit more about the top-performing keywords. For iGaming affiliates, you’ll find that the search terms with the highest volume are related to leading brands such as Betfair and Paddy Power.
The term ‘instant gaming’ has a search volume of 79K in the UK and so this might be something to consider. According to Google Trends, this term dropped in interest right before lockdown 2.0 but peaked again on 3 November.
Other top-performing keywords right now that you could use to niche more effectively include ‘free spins no deposit’ and ‘no deposit bonus’. The CPC for both of these terms is between £6-8.
Lockdown 2.0 is likely to play out slightly differently to the first lockdown back in March and April. As affiliate marketers, we must stay on top of trending terms and niche our content accordingly. It is very likely that CPC traffic and Google AdWords will be impacted more over the coming weeks.
