Advertising in the time of Coronavirus: Week 2

In the last 7 days, Australia has moved into Stage 2 of Coronavirus lockdown, further escalating restrictions on consumers nationwide.

What further effect has this had on online advertising in the last 7 days?
What have Brands done in these last 7 days?
How can Brands respond in these next 7 days?

\We’ll cover these questions and more.

If you missed what we covered in Week 1, click here.

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Where are we at now?

For Search, we are seeing an increase in impressions. However, we believe this will not sustain in the long term and is only a trend we are seeing in the short term.

Certain industries like utilities, telecommunications, finance, insurance, and accounting have similar volumes however, the nature of the search within those industries could possibly change.

Our advice here would be for you to mind your keywords. Why? Although the volume is the same or similar, what you might find is the nature of the search within those industries might change so there are still opportunities for you.

What about display? Volumes on Google Display Network, Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter are all increasing. As there are more people online more often, this means there is more ad inventory available. However, like Search; we are seeing more ad inventory despite seeing brands pulling back their advertising spend.

Looking at our data from our accounts in the past seven days, we see our Top of Funnel CPMs is down by up to 50%. This is where the area of opportunity is at! What this means for you is you will see a much higher return on your investment if you focus a lot more on your top of funnel awareness campaigns.

What can brands do?

If you haven’t already read our blog on “Advertising in the time of Coronavirus”, where we discuss how your Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) will suffer but your business can still remain afloat and get through these hard times.

Now we understand that the middle and bottom of the funnel is a tricky place, our main focus going forward should be the top of the funnel.

In your top of funnel awareness campaigns, take note of your creative elements like it’s tone, copy, visuals, keywords, and placements. Make sure your ad creatives are still relevant to current events. Showing an ad of people gathered in crowds is just one example that could certainly get some of us feeling uneasy.

Your middle of funnel consideration campaigns can use some more authenticity! If your brand allows it, share your own personal experience and how you are currently coping with the current situation.Your audience may not quite know you that well, but this is a tactic that can definitely make you seem much more approachable.

If sales is a big issue, utilizing promotions during this time can still work. However, how you structure your ads and who you target to matters. Look at your most loyal or existing customers, acknowledge the current situation, be relatable and let them know you are thinking of them.

We’ve seen large brands like MacDonalds, CocaCola, Guiness, and Adidas changed their logo to clearly show the relevancy of their brand. Although this change may not have a huge impact on their sales, but at least you are letting the public know that you are acknowledging the new reality.

A more relatable piece of information for brands is research done by Kantar. Kantar has done a survey on what people are sharing the most in this new reality and grouped them all up into 6 themes. What’s the most shared? Memes and selfies are now hitting a bit closer to home and is more relatable on a personal level. But where the focus should be is the other 5 themes, as there could be more insights here that could help your brand put out either top or maybe the middle of funnel creative that can align with these things.

“Longing for Nature – As people stay inside it seems they are increasingly dreaming of outside (17%).”
“Laptop Lives (13%) – People are resourceful, and we see people quickly adapting, by switching their social and work lives into a digital format.”
“Sofa and Snuggles (13%) – Getting cozy and feeling safe with our pets and the people that we are close to.”
“Creativity and Craft (9%) – As the days grow longer with little to do and nowhere to go people turn to their own creativity to keep entertained.”
“The New Essentials (6%) – People love to share images of the things that are important to them. There are a whole host of ‘new essentials’ for self-isolation that people are sharing content around.”
Here are some questions you can ask yourself to help inform your next decision.

Top of Funnel

ToF: How can you take advantage of ToF CPMs?
ToF: Do you want your Brand to nod your head to Social Distancing/WFM/Self-isolation?
ToF: How can you use the Kantar research to flavor your Creative in a way that acknowledges our new reality?

Middle of Funnel

MoF: Is there an opportunity to be human, authentic & relate to fans?
MoF: If you can’t sell now, can you put together Gift Vouchers/Waitlist for the fans for when you can sell again?

Bottom of Funnel

BoF: Can you put a sale together that perfectly ties in with self-isolation/working from home?
BoF: Can you (somehow) partner with an adjacent business in Growth?

We really hoped you got some value from our discussion, and if you did we only ask you to share this with a friend or colleague who can benefit from it as well.

If you are hungry for some more value-packed content, we got you covered. In our next post, Chris talks to Raoul Doraiswamy; the Founder and Managing Director of Conversionry, to ask them what effects they’re seeing the virus having on e-commerce and to learn what Brands can do to lift their Conversion Rates in these challenging times.

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Links to resources

Can we help?

If you need help with your Online Ads, reach out to us here: https://intnt.nl/hello

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