COVID-19: 5 Ways to Fully Maximise PPC During the Pandemic
Posted on: April 15, 2020
The rise of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a shift in the advertising industry overnight. For months to come, the impact of COVID-19 will inevitably shape business and consumer behaviour. With the Singapore Government urging Singaporeans to stay at home as much as possible, this will surely bring about a significant effect on our consumption of media. This also presents an opportunity for the media industry to come forward and engage with consumers.
As media practitioners, we must always be on our toes to quickly respond and adapt to any changes. If you are doing paid advertising on Google, here are five tips how you can maximise them during this period.
Stay relevant with unique value propositions
Businesses exist for a reason: to provide consumers with a solution. In light of this situation, perhaps your business can offer to help by promoting products or services that are in demand. It’s also important that you distinguish if your product or service falls under a priority or essential so that your value proposition can communicate so.
Main trends to be considered:
- Social distancing
- Work from home
- Home-based learning
- Family time
- Entertainment/on-demand/communications
- Essential and medical services
If you can incorporate any of those as mentioned above into your product or service, then consider shifting into a short-term plan to promote these initiatives.
If your product or service allows for it, then consider leveraging on the digital landscape by shifting into virtual services or consultations and providing online workshops.
As for your existing campaigns, reevaluate them and determine if the message still fits. If not, think of how to accommodate it based on the changing landscape. Here are some examples:
- Revise your campaign’s Call to Action (CTA) messages like “Visit us in-store.”
- Include necessary curbside pickup information, if relevant
- Reassure consumers of shipping features like free, fast, etc
- Operation hours and any information regarding additional services
Although not all these messages can be displayed in your primary copywriting, convey the information through ad extensions such as site links and call-outs. Make it clear on your site’s landing pages as well. As important as it is to adapt to the changing landscape, it is also essential to retain your brand presence.
Reevaluate budget and cost of expenditure
Now is the perfect time to review your budgets and balance budget vs spend.
Two factors to consider on what to focus your budget on are products or services that are relevant during this time, and best performing campaigns. Review budget versus actual spends to sniff out morsels of the budget that have not been utilised and instead, apply it to campaigns that need it more.
With a big or small budget, it is still possible to fully optimise your pay-per-click (PPC) budget. Rather than daily budgets, setting your settings under lifetime spend or monthly spend limits can better pace your campaign speed depending on the platform.
Understanding consumer search behaviour
Just because consumers are safe within their homes, doesn’t mean that their online activities are minimised.
With your ads, communicate the benefits your company provides clearly and sufficiently. Depending on your business, you might see minor or significant shifts in search inquiries which activates your ads with two strategies:
- Reactive: Reviewing PPC keywords and campaign placements live to source out for COVID-19 keywords and content.
- Proactive: Come up with a list of keywords that may activate your ads as well as a negative keyword list to exclude among your campaigns such as corona, COVID, Wuhan.
Meet the demand in content and communication channels
The rise of consumption in entertainment, information and communication is mainly attributed to the increase in people staying at home.
According to Facebook, features like messaging and live streams aren’t monetised, which brings about a decline in ad revenue. This impact presents an opportunity for advertisers to see less competition and increase market share without affecting their current budget.
Always keep adapting
In time to come, various restrictions and bans will be lifted either in whole or bit by bit. When that happens, there’ll be consumers who yearn to reintegrate back into their routine. While implementing all these changes for your business, prepare to adjust accordingly.
Conclusion
The sudden influx of businesses closing down has brought about a desperate appeal to #SupportLocal to keep businesses alive. So, we hope the above tips will help provide you with some insights on how you can maximise your existing budget for increased engagement through PPC. If you’d like an in-depth and personalised expert’s opinions, don’t hesitate to consult someone from a digital marketing agency.
