However, despite the good intentions, the impact of these changes is significant for advertisers and digital agencies. According to one leading agency, in a single day their clients lost search terms for 28% of their paid budgets and have lost search term visibility of 20.4% of PPC clicks. In other words, one third of their client’s paid budgets have been impacted overnight, and a fifth of their search term visibility has been hidden.

Read more below about the changes, what you can do about it, and how Adthena can help:

Why the changes? 

On September 04 2020, Google Ads released the news via the notifications box that thresholds within Search Term Reports were changing. Google’s aim is to protect its many millions of users from PII and to ensure that identities remain distinct from searches.

As a Google spokesperson explains:

“In order to maintain our standards of privacy and strengthen our protections around user data, we have made changes to our Search Terms Report to only include terms that a significant number of users searched for. We’re continuing to invest in new and efficient ways to share insights that enable advertisers to make critical business decisions” 

What’s different?

If a search term is deemed to have a low enough volume, irrespective of clicks and conversions, it will be hidden from the Search Terms Report. This means that if a search term which triggered one of your paid ads, and which may have been clicked on by a valid lead and then led to a conversion, may now not be shown in reports. 

What do the changes mean for advertisers:

• Low-volume, high-cost, irrelevant search terms will be hidden from view. Meaning you could be wasting budget without the means to add them to your negative keyword list.
• Conversely, those low-volume, long-tailed, relevant search terms which we all love could also find themselves cropped out of the Search Term Report
• SEO could be impacted as many companies use long-tailed search terms to optimize their websites and improve quality scores
• Search strategies will be impacted, with less known in search term reports and the PPC Manager’s tools blunted, many will move towards automated bidding strategies.
• Overall business strategies will be impeded, as search terms used for trend analysis will be  missing, in many cases.

What does Google identify as PII?

In their support pages, Google identifies PII as:

• Email addresses
• Mailing addresses
• Phone numbers
• Precise locations (such as GPS coordinates – but see the note below)
• Full names or usernames

Google interprets PII to exclude, for example:

• Pseudonymous cookie IDs
• Pseudonymous advertising IDs
• IP addresses
• Other pseudonymous end user identifiers

What now? Adthena has the answers

So, is there anything you can do about it? The answer is yes, we’ve got you covered. 

The Adthena search intelligence platform is not reliant on Google’s Search Term Report. Instead, we use our own bespoke machine-learning model to generate these terms for you on a daily basis. 

Our Whole Market View technology shows you the most profitable search terms in your market, as well as the less profitable or irrelevant search terms, which can be added to your negative keywords list. Powerful stuff right? And, by the way, you can’t get this intel anywhere else.

If you’re looking to gain greater sight over your search term landscape, maintain profitability and maximize ROAS, give us a shout to request a demo of our platform. One of our paid search industry experts will be glad to help.

The post Google Ads slash search term report visibility. What now? appeared first on Adthena.

Maintaining your search ad spend can actually lead to greater resilience. Search has proven to be an effective digital marketing channel through this period, with users having a high level of intent and the channel delivering high conversion rates, making it a potential life-line for fast recovery. 

In our recent poll, 38% of digital marketers reported that their paid search spending had either stayed level or increased throughout the lockdown. Only 17% had paused spending on SEM as a result of COVID-19 events.

Wherever you sit on the spectrum, search intelligence will be a vital tool for rising to the top as conditions start to improve, giving you crucial visibility and insight on your market landscape.

What’s changed in your market? 

If you’ve decreased your spend recently, and you’re ready to ramp back up, what changes in the market do you need to be aware of so you can set up your strategy for success?

Alternately, if you’ve been maintaining your PPC presence throughout, which of your rivals are now ready to jump in and disrupt your position? If you’ve been taking advantage of a big player’s absence, what will happen when they come roaring back? 

In our poll, 79% of digital marketers wanted to know: ‘Are there new gaps in my competitive landscape, given the changes taking place?’

Search intelligence has the answers, providing competitive insights into your entire marketplace and allowing you to optimize your re-entry, pivot to new categories, or take advantage of new gaps to  enter new markets.

Here are some examples of strategies we’ve observed:

Insurers shows staying power

As you can see in the graph below, there is a high level of volatility in the travel insurance industry across key categories. Many players dropped out of the market when the world went into lockdown and travel was restricted, but two key players including payingtoomuch.com took advantage of the relatively empty stage to maintain brand awareness during this period.

At times like these, it’s the C-Suite who rely on the data to guide their strategy on a daily basis. When a key category disappears, what new segments can they pivot into next? For example, when an insurance provider finds that over 65s insurance is no longer in demand, they must strive to find a younger audience.

Marketers in insurance will want to look into and prepare their budgets for H2 2020 when travel restrictions likely start opening up.

Citi takes the credit

The below chart shows that credit cards are another industry experiencing high volatility. Citi capitalized while other advertisers dropped out. Search intelligence data provides visibility into these types of opportunities and gives you the confidence to take advantage of them. You’ll also be able to see precisely when other players start to make a comeback so you can quickly adjust your defensive strategy.

Amazon opens the floodgates

Here we can see that Amazon has made a strong comeback to PPC after going dark during quarantine. Businesses that have been quietly picking up traffic left behind by Amazon’s absence, need to be ready to adjust as they come back into the PPC game to ensure they minimize the impact on their revenue.

……

Re-enter smart

To secure your best chance at a full recovery, you need to leverage search intelligence to find and take advantage of competitive opportunities and watch for emerging threats. 

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Read more insights and download the guide ‘Racing start: 4 stages to winning in new markets:’ on our Search intel for new markets hub.

The post Sink or swim: Are you ready to dive back into your markets? appeared first on Adthena.

Fitness habits globally have been turned upside-down by stay-at-home orders and social distancing. Gyms and yoga studios are closed and sports leagues are paused, so we’ve taken our workouts to our living rooms. This has led to an influx in buying home gym equipment and using fitness apps in record numbers. 

While we may be feeling the (workout) pain at home, many fashion retailers are feeling the pain on their bottom line. Yet, one space of flourishing search activity has been fitness apparel. While consumers have curtailed purchases of dressy outfits and office attire (no clubs to visit, no office to go to), online retailers have focused instead on meeting the need for yoga pants and wicking tees. 

Apparel brands jockey for position

In search, this trend has created some interesting shifts in strategy. Lululemon has taken the driver’s seat in paid text ads, causing Adidas’ share of clicks to steadily decrease in June. It’s likely that Lululemon recognized the opportunity at hand and maximized on capturing the at-home exerciser’s needs. 

Gap is actively leveraging their fitness line too; however, shifting their focus to PLAs and gaining clickshare there vs. text ads. Based on the data, it appears Gap is focusing more of their resources on improving PLA performance. They are doing quite well, dominating about 50% of clickshare in the space. 

With search intelligence, you know when to make your move

For brands trying to improve search performance and drive site traffic, competitive monitoring is crucial to understand gaps or weaknesses in competitor strategy. It’s the key to identifying niches you can exploit within a category that your rivals might not be targeting as aggressively. With granular search intelligence, brands can spot threats and opportunities in a very targeted way. Looking specifically at women’s athletic apparel, men’s shorts, or running shoes, for example, you’re able to better understand performance and competitor activity within a specific product segment.

So, where are the opportunities or emerging threats in your search landscape right now? Adthena has the insight you need. Request a demo to find out how we can help. 

The post Who’s setting the pace for fitness apparel in search? appeared first on Adthena.

As businesses and agencies have moved to automated bidding in recent years, the role of the PPC manager has shifted toward strategy. While technology and AI can see patterns and trends based on past events, only a human can understand motivations, cycles and potential. The importance of that distinction is clear right now as PPC teams are having to navigate the murky waters of uncertainty and minimize any wasted effort, resources and media spend. As the pandemic shuts economic doors, it’s the PPC professionals who are finding the open windows.

In times of volatility, people can do what automation can’t

With the economic impact of COVID-19 disrupting business as usual in PPC, the pitfalls of relying too heavily on automation are evident. 

Automated bid management is only able to react to behaviours it has seen before and can, therefore “understand.” It cannot pick up on behavioural trends driven by forces beyond the Search Engine Results Page that PPC pros routinely analyze and interpret. Automation is not effective at reacting to peak and trough trends, or agile enough on its own to react to novel threats or opportunities the way a human can. Technology is only as good as its own parameters, whereas humans have infinite capacity for adaptation and extrapolation.

That’s not to say PPC professionals don’t need tools. Quite the opposite, now is the time they need every bit of data and market intelligence available to understand what’s happening in their sectors, see what competitors are doing, and plot the right course.  

Image: The Adthena platform reveals market and competitor trends (UK Catalogue Retailer example) 

The graph above illustrates the trend in market share (share of clicks) for top catalogue retailers in the UK, March to May 2020. At the beginning of the COVID outbreak, we see that Amazon (in orange) dropped out of the paid search auction completely in mid-March, enabling other competitors such as Argos to pick up their share. With lockdowns being lifted, Amazon re-entered the auction on May 5 and their share has steadily increased. By monitoring market trends like these, PPC practitioners can view new opportunities that present themselves due to gaps in the market, and make informed decisions about whether seizing these opportunities would truly be in the best interest of the business. Practitioners should ask themselves: does the business have the ability to service the demand? Is this aspect of the business profitable right now? Do you have the infrastructure to deliver should you secure the clicks? 

Lean on your people 

Optimizing PPC campaigns right now is about using what you know about your market and consumer needs to target what generates revenue in this moment. And it may look very different from your business as usual. To stay in the game and drive results during unprecedented market conditions, businesses right now need to rely less on automation and more on data-driven, human decision making. This is when CMOs and digital executives need the ingenuity and instincts of their teams to see them through. 

If your business has been affected by Covid-19 and you need help with your search strategy, we’re here to help.

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Already using Adthena? Take a look at our new Covid-19 reports

We’ve launched a set of bespoke reports tailored to the COVID-impacted landscape. PPC decision makers using Adthena can access these reports to gain an understanding of key movements in their markets:

• Customize insights by period and search term group to reveal market intel and inform decisions.
• Benchmark performance against competitors on share of clicks and share of spend, with intuitive visuals. 
• Identify the biggest movements in any market over a two-week period among top competitors.

Request your bespoke COVID-19 report from your Customer Success Manager today. 

Visit the Paid Search Campaign Hub

For more insights to help you boost performance including the downloadable guide ‘Find your PPC A-Game in 2020’ visit our Paid Search Hub

The post The resurgence of the PPC professional: let your people steer the ship in a crisis appeared first on Adthena.

Peter: Tell us about your day-to-day role at the agency?

Ryan: As PPC Architect, I’m in charge of our enterprise-level accounts, working hand-in-hand with clients on strategy, execution and reporting. In addition to that, I create paid search content for our website and blog, and help teach the paid search team here by sharing the knowledge that I’ve gained over the years.

Staying ahead of clients’ rivals

Peter: What’s your biggest challenge for the agency, clients and your teams?

Ryan: The digital space evolves at a very fast pace. It’s constantly changing. Making sure we’re on top of these changes in the digital realm, as well as staying ahead of our clients’ competitors is a monumental, never-ending challenge.

We always start by learning as much possible from the client. They are the experts in their own business and their industry. We find out who they think their top competitors are, what they’re up to, and what the client wants to do to stand out.

We then take all of that input and compare it to what’s actually happening in the digital space, before coming back to the table with the client to summarise: where they’re currently at, where they want to go, and how we can help get them there. Finally, we set up actionable, tangible key performance indicators that we know will help them grow their business.

Harnessing search intelligence

Peter: How do you find out what’s really going on with a client’s search landscape?

Ryan: Firstly, we use search intelligence to get a holistic picture of the entire market and get a grasp on which players are visible in which categories and for specific keywords. Looking at market trends, share of clicks, average CPC levels, and share of spend – gives us an initial check of whether our client’s goals are realistic and achievable, or whether we need to reset expectations with them.

We then dive deeper into the client’s space to conduct keyword gap analysis. What is the client bidding on? What are they not bidding on that is being bid on by competitors? Is there a top competitor that is encroaching on their space? Ultimately, we find the gaps that our client can move into to win.

Finally, we use search intelligence to analyse ad copy. What is the client saying? What are competitors saying? How do they compare? What patterns are being used most frequently across multiple competitors? What isn’t being said by anybody, that we could take advantage of to stand out in this space?  

Getting our competitive intelligence from Adthena means its all in one place and it’s easy to digest and understand. It makes everything go a lot faster, and with Smart Monitor we can set up alerts to key events and shifts in key trends to stay on top of the market automatically. Adthena is the first tool I’ve used that I can say, “Yes, this is worth it.” 

Peter: How do you convince clients to make the investment in the Adthena platform?

If a client has a tight budget, we stress the importance of being able to see data that we’re not going to get anywhere else, to get a much better view of what’s happening in the market. 

We just started working with a new client in the HVAC space up in Canada, and as soon as we told them what the tool could do and they saw a demo, they were 100% on board, and were willing to do whatever it took to start using it. They’re all about the different things you can see in the Adthena platform, they’re very excited about it. I guess it just depends on the client and what their budget looks like at the time.

The future for strategists

Peter: What do you think the search space will look like in the coming years?

Ryan: In terms of paid search, Google will continue to try to automate as much as possible. Dynamic search campaigns, which use existing website content to decide which search queries to match ads to, will play a much bigger role in the coming years. I believe we’re also going to see Google doing more with ad extensions that keep the user on Google. They’ve already done it with organic traffic with ‘zero click’ where people can take actions on the SERP, even to the point of making a transaction or a conversion, without ever having to click through to the client’s website.  

We won’t be able to automate everything and we shouldn’t. To be perfectly frank, you never want to let the machine handle absolutely everything, only for something to go wrong and nobody notices for an extended period of time. 

However, I see automation as an opportunity for strategists because they can spend less time within accounts going through tedious changes – and more time looking at the bigger picture and widening the net. 

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SEO. PPC. Content. Social Media. Analytics. Design. Development. Portent pulls together these tactics to craft stunningly useful digital marketing campaigns that grow your business. portent.com

To find out more about how Adthena’s competitive intelligence can help you deliver value to your clients, take a look at our solutions or get in touch with peter.sady@adthena.com

More in this digital agency series:

• • In conversation with: Lauren Ogundeko at PHD
  • In conversation with: Erika Mendes at ROAST
  • In conversation with: Jennifer Miller at Neo Media World
  • In conversation with: Matt Boland at ForwardPMX
  • In conversation with: Emily van Lierop, VW – PHD Global

………

Read more agency insights and download the guide ‘Brand Crashers: how to get rid of them and what to do next’ on our hub: Paid Search Insights for Agencies.

The post In conversation with: Ryan Moothart at Portent appeared first on Adthena.

Emily: My role is Global Head of Digital Operations across search, social, and programmatic for the Volkswagen brand account. I lead a unique team responsible for the strategic governance and support of in-market teams across 27 different markets. 

A long journey

Tom: What are some of your challenges in the auto space?

Emily: One challenge unique to the auto sector is the fairly long conversion path. Buying a car is a high-consideration purchase and can be as stressful as buying a house or getting married for some people. Even in this fast-paced digital world, it can be months before they actually make the transaction.

That’s a long time to maintain similar communication styles across many different platforms, online and offline, with the end sale handled by dealers completely outside of our control. We’re not able to be as reactive as you might be with an instant purchase. For digital marketing teams, it means we need to have the most accurate tracking possible to optimise that journey for users. 

Tom: How are you going about optimizing that journey?

Emily: The long customer journey throws up other key challenges around data and automation. How do we link up all the different data sources and use automation to enhance innovation, drive efficiencies, and solidify a continuous user journey?

We’re launching a new website for VW at the moment which has enhanced personalization capabilities built in. It has the ability to score users according to who’s been interacting with the website more recently and for longer, and recognises them separately to standard visitors. This allows for a very smart online journey. For example, if you looked at a Polo last week, and return to the website this week, it will show you Polo as the hero image. 

The next step is to find ways to utilise this website data to personalise the journey through from search. For example, we’re currently looking at the anonymised search histories of users – if they’ve previously searched for certain key terms, we can show them a customised page when they come to the website, rather than the standard home page. 

Greener strategies

Tom: How do you use search intelligence to inform your strategies?

Emily: We use search intelligence at a local level to inform our strategies. For example, in Europe people are buying fewer cars due to mobility solutions such as Uber, Lift, car leasing, or healthier options like cycling. To help combat this decline, and in line with a greener mindset growing, there is an opportunity to really push forward the Electric Vehicle range in Europe.

EVs are a new technology and a new category. It’s much more expensive to convert in because people are still skeptical about performance and the supporting infrastructure. It will take much more investment to educate users and assure them that an EV won’t leave them stranded with a low battery on the way to work. Our aim is for VW to be seen as one of the best options for EVs and to convert diesel drivers into trying electric by showing how comparable they are in terms of performance and efficiency.

To win in new and establishing markets, it’s crucial to be able to benchmark how we’re doing at owning the space compared to competitors. Is our spend higher or lower than rivals? Are we getting a bigger piece of the pie and the category? Our local teams depend on intel from tools like Adthena to surface insights and optimize campaigns. Adthena gives them a quick and accurate snapshot of the market’s search data, including competitors’ spends, which partners like Google aren’t able to share with us. It gives us an extra layer of visibility that we wouldn’t otherwise have.

The human touch

Tom: How do you see the future of search and industry experts?

Emily: There are some interesting topics that will shape the future of search, from voice to clickless ads. Automation, AI and machine learning will be supercharged in the years to come as well and have a big impact.

I’ve been in the industry for a long time, have spent many hours in spreadsheets, and have earned my stripes in search. In the future, industry bods will have a lot automated for them. As agencies, we need to ensure our people still have a good grounding in the technical side, to be able to apply the human touch and ensure we’re focusing on the right insights and isolating what’s important.

There may, in fact, be more technical requirements, as we integrate with more cross-channel marketing. Personally, I’d love to see a space where we can fluidly bid across platforms outside of the ‘walled gardens’ of search.

Monitoring & targeting

Tom: How can Adthena help with industry challenges?

Emily: Adthena will be a great tool for helping businesses coming out of COVID-19 lockdown phases; keeping an eye on share of voice as well as competitor strategy when it comes to messaging. We do a weekly report for VW showing trends and recommendations for proceeding in certain European markets.

I was pleased to hear recently how Adthena’s new Smart Monitor sends you alerts when there is a brand infringement. The fact that full brand monitoring is a standalone product is great because different teams are constantly trying to understand whether they should be bidding on their own brands. This removes the constant worry about whether competitors are encroaching on your space for those marketers not covering their own brand terms.

Tom: Yes, Smart Monitor is a great addition to the Adthena artillery. And next to be released on our product roadmap is Enhanced Location Targeting which will be particularly insightful for the auto industry. It’s already rolled out in the US with state-level and zip-level view, and we’ll have city-level view in Europe in H2 2020 which I’m super excited to come and tell you about Emily.

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PHD is a leading global communications agency with over 6,000 employees in 100 offices worldwide, and is a part of Omnicom Media Group. Phdmedia.com

To find out more about how Adthena’s competitive intelligence can help you deliver value to your clients, take a look at our solutions or get in touch with tom.larkin@adthena.com

More in this digital agency series:

• In conversation with: Lauren Ogundeko at PHD
• In conversation with: Erika Mendes at ROAST
• In conversation with: Jennifer Miller at Neo Media World
• In conversation with: Matt Boland at ForwardPMX

………

Read more agency insights and download the guide ‘Brand Crashers: how to get rid of them and what to do next’ on our hub: Paid Search Insights for Agencies.

The post In conversation with: Emily van Lierop, VW – PHD Global appeared first on Adthena.

Matt: As Head of Paid Search, I lead the EMEA PPC team of 100 across operations, training, new business and strategy.

Collaborating with clients

Tom: What are your biggest challenges at the moment? 

Matt: Aside from the current situation, one major challenge for us is collaborating with clients that work in siloed teams across digital marketing. Often in a client business, separate teams are working on different channels such as paid search, organic search, display and others, and may not have coordinated tracking or attribution models connecting the various outputs and results. 

Each in-house team can have their own targets and KPIs, which means they can end up competing with each other rather than collaborating to achieve the best results for the business. We’re continuingly addressing this challenge and guiding our clients towards a unified approach that looks at the bigger picture.

Adthena gives us data that’s easy to access and analyze so we’re able to give our clients an accurate picture of what’s happening in the market: Are they running the right offers? Is the ad copy good enough to cut through? It’s important for us to have a relationship at senior director level on the client side, who has the wider perspective on everything that’s going on – and that’s the person we present the data to. That way they can understand what’s important for the business as a whole and make the case internally to move in the right direction.

Effective teams

Tom: How do you ensure your own teams don’t become siloed?

Matt: We hire smart people and train them up in programming language when they arrive. No matter what their strength is, they’re exposed to different facets of the operation and to problem-solving challenges. This approach means that within all of our paid search teams, everyone is able to automate reports, automate data gathering, and automate our alert system – giving us more capability and speeding up the process.

We’re working towards a more consultative approach, where our people will be able to have a broader range of discussions with clients and bring a wider suite of solutions to the table. This helps in avoiding being siloed ourselves and thereby allowing our clients to become un-siloed and enjoy a broader view. 

Tom: How do you ensure your teams don’t become bogged down in data?

Matt: Using competitive intelligence tools, such as Adthena, helps our team to understand the market in more detail than they would be able to with Google’s tools alone. Rather than spending a lot of time gathering, preparing and cleaning data – we’re able to take advantage of automation to gather and analyse large amounts of data at a fast pace. This gives our team a great advantage, as they can focus on top-level analysis of the insights to find opportunities for optimization, performance issues that need to be fixed, and adjustments on keyword bids to maximise results.

Future expertise

Tom: What do you think the future holds for paid search?

Matt: I believe the future will be all about people. Having strategic thinkers on your team to get the best out of paid search will be key. 

The future will be more and more automated. Many more ‘smart’ products are coming out now which remove a lot of our control over manual levers and options for optimization that we traditionally had. We currently have the option to optimize as we wish, but over time there will be fewer options especially around the match types on keywords. 

We’re moving towards a world where there’s less need to run complicated, technically challenging accounts, and it will be more about having the right people to run search as efficiently and as effectively as possible.

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ForwardPMX is a global brand performance agency providing brands with a unified global vision, and the local depth and expertise to engage fast-moving people, everywhere. forwardpmx.com

To find out more about how Adthena’s competitive intelligence can help you deliver value to your clients, take a look at our solutions or get in touch with peter.sady@adthena.com

More in this digital agency series:

• In conversation with: Lauren Ogundeko at PHD
• In conversation with: Erika Mendes at ROAST
• In conversation with: Jennifer Miller at Neo Media World
• In conversation with: Emily van Lierop, VW – PHD Global

………

Read more agency insights and download the guide ‘Brand Crashers: how to get rid of them and what to do next’ on our hub: Paid Search Insights for Agencies.

The post In conversation with: Matt Boland at ForwardPMX appeared first on Adthena.

The impact of coronavirus on health, business, the economy and pretty much everything else, can cause feelings of doubt and fear amongst employees. Beyond productivity, our culture is focused on promoting transparency and positivity amongst our teams, so we believe in overcoming these feelings of doubt with the truth. We let our employees see the good, the bad and the ugly of what’s going on in the business. And we’ve been establishing trust through communication and by encouraging open dialogue at all levels. 

We understand that every individual will respond differently to long periods of remote work and potential isolation. We use Slack and in-house Google surveys to keep us informed and connected with how our colleagues are. The surveys revealed that many Adthenians were missing the social interaction in the office, and some were struggling to adjust to the lack of routine. 

We used these insights to create a new initiative to develop our culture virtually, and to connect and energise our colleagues.

Our Wellbeing Heroes

We value personal relationships here at Adthena, so we adopted an initiative to create connection and promote healthy working-from-home habits, which we dubbed our ‘Wellbeing Heroes’.

Each week a handful of people across the globe are nominated to be one of our ‘heroes’ and offer tips and advice via our dedicated Slack channel. Five key roles were identified: Wellbeing Wizard, Routine Rocky, Adthena Chef, Netflix Academy Awards and, lastly, the Adthena Cribs Host. It has been a hit so far! We’ve re-established some of the great office culture virtually, and we’ve educated each other along the way.

What makes this idea even better, is that the concept came from a discussion and idea sharing session one of our very own Adthenians had with his flatmate while they were both working from home together. This is proof that although we are all in our homes, the concept of ‘idea sharing’ has expanded beyond what we knew before. We developed the idea into an initiative which we believe exemplifies our culture here at Adthena.

Here are some examples of our most popular posts:

Adthena Chef

Our Financial Controller, Asta shared her recipe for homemade cauliflower pizza.

Adthena Cribs Host

Joey, our Senior Account Executive, gave us a tour of his home, patio garden and jungle-themed standing desk, as well as introducing us to his cat Olive.

Numerous exercising tips and videos have also been shared, as well as recommendations for what to watch and read in spare time, and top tips on everything from sleeping well to boosting productivity.

As the Wellbeing Heroes initiative goes from strength to strength, another group, our Task Force, has been kicked off as well. During this period, the Task Force will act as an extension of the People Team, inspiring and empowering individuals to adopt healthy habits professionally and personally. When we return to the office we expect the Task Force to evolve and continue with its mission to promote well-being across the business

About Adthena 

Adthena is the world’s most advanced intelligence platform for paid search advertising. Our AI technology and machine learning models give our customers a clear view of the market shifts and all the moves their rivals make across the search landscape. Which means they can make informed, strategic decisions and ensure success, supported by our team of world-class industry consultants.

If you’d like to join us, check out our current vacancies here, and to find out more about how our teams work, take a look at our Tech Team Brochure. 

The post Why a tech start-up needs Wellbeing Heroes right now appeared first on Adthena.

Pete: Tell us a bit about your role, Jen?

Jen: My role is Search Director, Sr. Partner at Neo Media World in Los Angeles, which is a performance-led agency within Mindshare. I oversee paid search accounts between Neo and Mindshare LA. I lead a team of 7 across search strategy and business intelligence, as well as keeping the paid search machine rolling for our West Coast clients.

From search to business intelligence

Pete: What do you find most interesting about search?

Jen: Having a journalism background, I’m interested in the research aspect of SEM and ‘the why’ behind search behavior. Why are people searching for a certain product? Why is a keyword that is completely unrelated to a client’s business trending within their account? Search is the largest anonymous focus group; it’s the truth when it comes to user intent and mindset.

I’m very passionate about our approach to providing business intelligence through search and using it as a research tool to understand wider user behavior and enhance planning.

Pete: How does using search for research help clients?

Jen: We’re able to draw out insights from search data to inform a client’s business strategy. A client might have a preconceived belief that certain keywords are aligned with their products or that their customers will behave in a certain way. Search can sometimes reveal that a user’s mindset is actually quite different to what they initially thought.

We can then help the client adjust and go in a new direction to be more successful with their search strategy.

Automation vs. strategy

Pete: What are your most significant challenges in paid search?

Jen: Within our industry, we have to deal with constant change, such as the shifts that come with automation. Google is making a lot of their tools automated and easier to use so that, in theory, anyone can pick up and run a campaign. But if you don’t know how to use them in the first place, the tools are no good to you. Even so, in a world of increasing automation, we must ask ourselves: how will our roles evolve?

Automation has enabled us to provide immense value to clients in other areas. Because we’re now able to utilize automated tools for traditionally manual tasks such as bidding or ad copy, we can focus our time instead on providing strategic insights and business intelligence to deliver against a client’s business goals.

Looking ahead

Pete: How do you see the future of search?

Jen: In order to adjust to this ever-changing search world, our roles must blend tactical execution and strategic insights even more.

One question we always get from clients is ‘what are our competitors spending?’ But insight tools for media just don’t capture search at a granular level so we’ll need to explore how we get these learnings for our accounts in a way that’s helpful and actionable in the future. We partner with Adthena to get SEM-specific competitive insights to understand what a client’s competitors are doing, when a client should enter the bid auction, and when they should bow out.

Search is also a piece of a vast media puzzle. As we move toward more automation, our search marketers need to evolve to better understand how other channels fit into the media ecosystem. We need to be able to seamlessly integrate search with the other channels to achieve the best results at a holistic level, rather than keeping SEM in a silo.

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Neo Media World is a digital-first global performance agency, focused on harnessing new media and technological capabilities to drive better results for clients. neomediaworld.com

To find out more about how Adthena’s competitive intelligence can help you deliver value to your clients, take a look at our solutions or get in touch with peter.sady@adthena.com

More in this digital agency series:

• In conversation with: Lauren Ogundeko at PHD
• In conversation with: Erika Mendes at ROAST
• In conversation with: Matt Boland at ForwardPMX
• In conversation with: Emily van Lierop, VW – PHD Global

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Read more agency insights and download the guide ‘Brand Crashers: how to get rid of them and what to do next’ on our hub: Paid Search Insights for Agencies.

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Life as we know it has changed beyond all recognition this year. Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, travel has been heavily restricted; working from home has become the norm; and some businesses are facing struggles such as product shortages. As a business leader, I’ve been through both the 2001 dotcom crash, as well as the more serious 2008 financial crisis – and what I can tell you is that tough times do come to an end. 

While many of us are not on the front line of saving lives, we do have a responsibility to save livelihoods. Businesses need to go on, and CMOs and marketing leaders need to make good decisions, and manage through the downturn and subsequent rebound. 

The business and marketing strategies that you carefully planned for 2020 have likely been ‘thrown out of the window’ by now, at least in part. So how can Search Intelligence help inform your new 2020 strategy for the rest of the year and beyond?

Our vision at Adthena is to create a world of search transparency, where precise ads connect marketers to consumers. Given our unique position, with visibility of data across a Whole Market View of multiple industries – I wanted to share some search insights we’ve observed, with the hope that they enable you to make better decisions for your businesses. 

In this blog, we’ll look at some of the major market changes that coronavirus has caused and explore how key global brands are addressing these fluctuations and using their SEM strategy to take back control.

The Responders

Firstly, let’s look at some examples of businesses and industries that have been impacted by significant changes due to the virus, and are having to respond to ensure the success of their organizations.

Retail

In the above data visualization from the Adthena platform, we can see that Amazon dropped out of many categories and geographies as we went into lockdown. This opened up opportunities for other competing businesses. With the closure of bricks and mortar stores, the focus for retail has gone entirely online and rivals, such as Walmart, are able to capitalise on Amazon’s absence.

Having access to this level of market-leading Search Intelligence and insights into your verticals, can help you spot competitive gaps and turn them into opportunities.

Banking

We’ve seen some significant changes on an almost daily basis in the banking sector. Some major players like Virgin and First Direct have either dropped out or have seriously reduced their spend. In their place, others such as Halifax are on the rise – perhaps willing to expand their lending in certain categories of mortgages, with interest rates at an all-time low and government stimulus coming into play.

The beneficiaries

Next, we look at some examples of businesses that are seeing a silver lining in the current crisis and are, in fact, benefiting from or taking advantage of market changes.

Collaboration Software 

We’re all acutely aware that many businesses are operating with all staff working from home at the moment. In line with this, we’re seeing a real increase in search volumes and spend around the keyword term ‘collaboration software’. 

One of the top providers at the moment, Zoom, have taken the decision to pull out of paid search altogether. Their strategy appears to be to make the most of their surge in popularity and rely on their brand and organic traffic for now, whilst pocketing paid search budgets for later.

Zoom’s absence has created some gaps in the market and we’re seeing other players trying to take their space. However, with Slack dropping in and out of the auction intermittently and Salesforce exiting completely, they appear to be struggling to get a foothold.

Homeschooling

With schools closed in many parts of the world, we have seen the search term ‘homeschooling’ pick up significantly. As you can see in the above chart, with over 12 new entrants coming into this space, the market is in chaos. When an auction gets as busy as this, there’s usually a mixed bag of messages and products entering the market, so the types of brands coming into the auction will be very varied. 

Summary

Although there is likely to be a significant downturn in advertising spend overall during this time of change, SEM is the most resilient channel and will likely be an essential lever for a fast recovery. In our recent poll, 38% of digital marketers reported that their paid search spending strategy had either maintained or increased. Only 17% had taken the decision to remove all budgets from SEM as a result of COVID-19 events.

Most marketers are currently being asked what their strategies are for capitalising on changes or maintaining their level of performance. In our poll, the most popular question that 79% of digital marketers wanted to know the answer to, was ‘Are there new gaps in my competitive landscape, given the changes taking place?’

Our own experience at Adthena is that our clients are very actively engaged with our platform, data and services right now. Engagement tends to take two forms: 1. Understanding their whole market landscape; 2. Setting up automated smart alerting for competitor changes and market opportunity.

Having market-leading Search Intelligence on your side will arm you with the intel you need about what’s happening within your competitive set, to be able to present your strategic response to the business and secure the confidence of senior leaders.

Five key takeaways

1. Stay positive. Market opportunities do exist, however you’ll need to segment your data to a granular level to be able to spot them.
2. Prepare for the bounce-back. Only 25% of marketers are actually adjusting their budgets for H2 2020. Leverage your brand now and be prepared for the bounce back. 
3. Benchmark your market share. It’s critically important that you benchmark your market share now to ensure your next move is the best one. Don’t rely on guesswork to drive your success. 
4. Stay on top of ad copy. Ad copy is evolving rapidly in markets such as food delivery and footwear. You need to stay on top of copy and offers on a daily basis to keep up. Ensure the sentiments are right and your messaging is on point and you’ll boost your brand perception in the process.
5. Study your global and local markets. Pay attention to what’s happening in global markets (where a downturn is yet to appear) as well as local markets. You’ll stay ahead of the curve and keep your search campaigns moving in the right direction to get the best results from your investments. 

If your business has been affected by COVID-19 and you need help with your search strategy, we’re here to help.

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Read more insights and download the guide ‘How to Position the Strategic Power of Search in the Boardroom’ on our Search intel for the C-suite hub.

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Some people will need these stimulus checks for basic necessities such as housing, food, car payments, etc. But others who aren’t in as tough a situation might use this one-time payment for other purposes. What could they potentially spend their stimulus check on?

Flashback to ‘08-’09 stimulus checks

In 2008, we saw a similar movement take place, with the passage of the Bush Economic Stimulus Package. Well, what did consumers spend their money on then? It was found that most either saved it or paid off debt, and that around 20% spent it.

However in 2009, the approach was a little different. Economic payments were made only to those who were existing beneficiaries from federal programs. The rest of taxpayers felt relief by receiving tax rebates in monthly paychecks.

With this in mind, what are we to expect for the 2020 stimulus checks? Here’s what we think will happen in a few different markets, with search data to back up consumer behavior.

Budgeting for opportunity with stimulus checks

While some will need the checks for groceries, utilities, and the bare necessities of life, others might use their stimulus check for investing. Using AI-powered machine learned technology, we are able to capture key market trends across search term groups, and reveal what competitors are strategizing. 

If we look at a group of generic search terms relating to investment, we see that while some players have dropped out of the market (i.e. Banyan Hill) others, such as Merrill Edge and TD Ameritrade, have seized an opportunity in pulling ahead, vying for clickshare.

TD Ameritrade seemed to have taken a dip in the initial weeks of COVID, but has pushed back up, challenging Merrill Edge. Merrill Edge does seem to focus more on mobile than desktop, however, they did take quite a drastic dip in the month of March.

Market trends across the investing space – Google paid search 

So what’s your takeaway if you’re a finance marketer right now? Having always-on competitive monitoring, especially in uncertain times, can allow you to see your market more clearly and takes the guesswork out of what your competition is doing.

Don’t sleep on the competition

With the ease of deliverability, mattresses could be a larger ticket item that people spend their stimulus check on. By tracking the competitive action around a keyword group related to mattresses, we see that a top dog has emerged, Mattress Firm, in mid-March by increasing their spend.

Conversely, it appears that Tuft & Needle and Purple have decreased spend in the past few weeks of COVID-19. Nectar Sleep has maintained a steady share of clicks through out these times.

Market trends across the mattress space – Google paid search

What can mattress retailers take away from this? Well, when competitors decrease their spend, such as Purple and Tuft & Needle, other competitors can easily swoop in and start claiming those clicks, just as Mattress Firm has accomplished.

When in doubt – order out?

As time goes on in quarantine, people are going to want a respite from cooking. That leaves us with more people flocking to delivery services such as Uber Eats or Grubgub. How are companies shifting to accommodate and what does the market look like? 

DoorDash is the most dominant advertiser during this time, followed by Grubhub. UberEats has a stronger mobile presence than they do on desktop. Finally, Postmates has a very weak mobile presence, often dropping out of market for extended periods of time.

Market trends across the food delivery space – Google paid search – last 30 days 

So, what does this mean for you?

1. Having alway-on competitive intelligence that tracks variable market trends is valuable in these uncertain times. When you need to stand out amongst your competition, using competitive insights can give you that edge. 
2. With every up, there’s a down, and with every down, there’s an opportunity to push through the uncertainty and gain some competitive clarity. 
3. Transparency is key. Transparent data that allows you to reach audiences more efficiently in search can help save time and money in the long run.

If your business has been affected by COVID-19 and you need help with your search strategy, we’re here to help.

The post Stimulus Checks streaming in: What search can tell us about potential consumption trends appeared first on Adthena.

In daily fantasy sports, for example, FanDuel is working hard to drive installs and keep its app alive with free-to-play gaming contests based on things like each week’s Survivor episode or how many times a certain candidate said the word “Trump” during the presidential debates.

To follow the crowds, traditional sportsbook operators are turning more to casino gaming, slots and poker. Gambling brands have paused PPC activity on terms like “sports betting sites” and are now using that budget to push harder on terms like”bingo” or “best online casinos” to get new sign-ups and bring in depositing players. 

The PPC standings are changing by the week

The new gaming environment is changing the PPC landscape, as sportsbook operators test out new tactics during this unwelcome hiatus. Williamhill.com paused its action in the desktop PPC market in mid-March, shifting from a steady 10% of market share down to less than 1%. Fanduel.com did the same as of the first week of April, reducing its share of clicks from the #1 position and about 30% market share down to around zero.

With those two players out of the text ad picture, competition for desktop terms diminished, and other operators like draftkings.com, playsugarhouse.com, and goldennuggetcasino.com picked up considerable market share.

How to look before you leap

For gaming operators entering new PPC territory or trying out new strategic options, competitive intelligence is absolutely vital. 

You’ll need to understand the rules and the players in an unfamiliar category before you start spending money. You’ll want to know the top terms the most successful competitors are appearing on and understand what budget is required to generate the performance you have in mind. 

Even if you’ve slowed your PPC activity across the board, you might consider investing some of that unused budget to scope out other spaces in your industry for opportunities and trends you can exploit later. Monitoring competitive movements in search will let you take advantage of openings or quickly spot and respond to aggressive moves. With so much uncertainty in every market and every vertical, now is no time to be on the sidelines.

The Adthena team is here and ready to help you deploy these tactics and otherwise optimize your PPC strategy through uncertain times. Reach out to one of our competitive intelligence consultants today.

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