{"id":224210,"date":"2020-03-28T10:43:57","date_gmt":"2020-03-28T05:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/54.251.169.215\/?p=224210"},"modified":"2020-04-18T17:10:20","modified_gmt":"2020-04-18T11:40:20","slug":"4-major-trends-caused-by-covid-19-and-how-to-respond-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qcsglobal.com\/blogs\/4-major-trends-caused-by-covid-19-and-how-to-respond-data\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Major Trends Caused by COVID-19 and How to Respond [Data] \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Our lives have changed so quickly in the past few weeks as COVID-19 became a global pandemic. As travel comes to a virtual halt, schools close, and governments react, most of us find ourselves stuck in our homes to avoid and halt the spread of the novel coronavirus. Many small businesses have reacted<\/a> by reducing or suspending operations and are already feeling the toll on their bottom line.<\/p>\n

As people\u2019s behaviors change, their search behaviors change too. We\u2019ve already seen how COVID-19 has impacted Google Ads Results for different industries<\/a>\u2014and the results are unprecedented. Some industries were well poised for the shifting market, but many are not.<\/p>\n

But change doesn\u2019t necessitate failure. As more data emerges and trends become apparent, there\u2019s plenty of room for small businesses to adjust to the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and weather the storm.<\/p>\n

At WordStream, we\u2019re looking across tens of thousands of advertisers to understand the impact of COVID-19 on PPC advertising. In this article, we\u2019ll examine several trends that have emerged over recent days and weeks as COVID-19 has spread\u2014and offer viable, actionable strategies for how advertisers can adjust their campaigns to reduce the negative impact of the crisis.<\/p>\n

The Trend: COVID-19 plummets store visits by 90% in one month<\/h2>\n

It may be obvious to state, but as people practice social distancing and avoid unnecessary trips, and as many businesses are forced to close their physical stores or limit their in-store capacity, most brick-and-mortar stores are feeling the pain of limited foot traffic.<\/p>\n

In Google Ads, many advertisers track store visit conversions<\/a> to understand the offline impact of their online advertising. Many local advertisers<\/a> optimize their PPC campaigns using these metrics and have noticed significant challenges in the past month as COVID-19 effectively eliminates unnecessary foot traffic.<\/p>\n

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Advertisers began noticing a small drop off in store visits in late February. By the first week of March, store visits were down 24%. As the virus spread exponentially, store visits were down 46% at the beginning of the second week of March. Following the president\u2019s address and the CDC\u2019s global travel warnings, the remaining store visits were down 80% on Thursday, March 12. This past week saw virtually no unnecessary store visits, as store visits hit their current low, down 90% from a month ago.<\/p>\n

How to respond: Get your small business online<\/h3>\n

As traditional brick and mortar businesses suddenly can\u2019t rely on foot traffic to fill their store fronts, now small businesses must focus on their online presence. We haven\u2019t seen Google search traffic diminish too much since the COVID-19 outbreak, so all small businesses should take this time to improve their online web presence fast.<\/p>\n

Here are the five steps we recommend.<\/p>\n

1. Design a simple website<\/h4>\n

Your company\u2019s website is the cornerstone to your online presence. Your small business doesn\u2019t need to have a complex website, and you can create a basic website in just an afternoon.<\/a> Google even supports small businesses with a free website builder<\/a>!<\/p>\n

And as you refine your site\u2019s landing pages, be sure you\u2019re optimizing your landing pages for Google.<\/a><\/p>\n

2. Get your business on Google My Business<\/h4>\n

As COVID-19 shuts down businesses, we expect more people to turn to Google to ensure businesses are even open during these uncertain times. By creating a Google My Business account<\/a>, you can proudly display your business hours, address, posts, photos, and even reviews across Google search and Google Maps.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re already running Google My Business for your business, be sure to update any your business operations if they\u2019re changed by COVID-19.<\/a> That includes updating your business hours and phone number, and posting a notice about any changes your customers should know about your business\u2019s operations with respect to COVID-19.<\/p>\n

3. Engage your customers on social<\/h4>\n

Your customers expect that your business might change during the pandemic and they\u2019re looking for updates to confirm whether and when you\u2019re open. Some will turn to Google or your website, but many others will try to find your most recent posts on Facebook or Twitter. If they can\u2019t find you on social, they\u2019re less likely to trust you\u2019re still open. Be sure to create a free business page on Facebook<\/a> and give your customers a periodic update so that they know your business is still open.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0Get your products online with Google Merchant Center<\/h4>\n

Traditional retail is struggling with minimal store visits, but ecommerce is an attractive opportunity to keep your sales coming in, even if your customers are stuck inside. To start selling your products online, create a Google Merchant Center account<\/a> and upload your first products online. You can even use an automated product feed<\/a> to help keep your products, prices, and inventory updated on Google.<\/p>\n

Once your first products are online, be sure to regularly optimize your Google shopping feed<\/a> by following simple best practices for product titles, descriptions, images, and taxonomy to ensure that searchers can easily find your products online.<\/p>\n

5. Promote your business online<\/h4>\n

You\u2019d be surprised how many people can find your business online with just a few simple tools, but even the best search engine optimization can benefit from some additional traffic. Advertising across search and social is easy and these platforms can drive plenty of extra traffic, sales, and loyal customers for small budgets.<\/p>\n