Your PPC strategy During and After Lockdown

As we head mid-way into May, the government has started easing the lockdown rules slightly, many shops are beginning to re-open and online businesses are beginning to market their products across Google again as a sense of normality has started to begin.

A lot of businesses have been impacted by the pandemic, some have continued to promote their business through Google Ads, and some have thrived and had to increase their budgets. Other businesses have not been able to do this and had to really decrease their budget and visibility or put a pause on their ads all together.

With the new rules in place, brands have begun to promote their businesses again, or are at least thinking about it. If your business is one of the unfortunate ones that have had to decrease budgets or pause campaigns, it is a good idea to start a ‘reactivation plan’ so that you are well ahead of the lockdown being lifted and everyone going back to normal.

The announcement may come fast and it won’t give you enough time to prepare and be ready to start up again. You need to think about your strategy, where your competitors are at, your budgets and where you are going to start, especially for businesses who stopped their marketing over the last few months, as it is going to be similar to starting over again.

Plus, industry experts have said that if a brand has never focussed on marketing in the past, now is definitely the time. Since everyone is buying online right now, there has been a shift in consumer behaviour and even after lockdown, it is unlikely these behaviours will go back to normal overnight. People will still continue to shop online, as many will still be afraid of catching the virus.

So, with all these considerations to think about, we wanted to share some tips to help you get started:

Start now

If you haven’t been using Google Ads for your business over the last few months, you need to focus on building and testing audiences and remarketing lists so you have people to reach once you do want to promote and push products.

Do your research

Use tools like Google Trends and Search Console Performance Reports to see your audience’s interests in certain products and when they take an interest in them. Take a look at where your competitors are too, and what you need to do to out-perform them.

Plan your strategy

Think about what campaigns you are going to start with. What products you think your audience will be interested in right now or when lockdown ends. With all the research you have gathered, you can then plan your campaigns. If your customers aren’t buying your products or service right now, you can try bidding on keywords that relate to information searches or you can plan to build awareness campaigns so you are still on your customers’ minds.

Think of your budget

We recommend using a good amount of budget to reach your audience, especially when starting your ads up again. However, if you do need to lower your budget, we suggest putting your budget on the best performing areas. Google’s tool, Segments, can help you identify where to allocate budget and where to reduce it.

Test, test, test

There is no better time than right now to test your campaigns, test your messaging, test your audiences, test different products and to keep testing. All the data and knowledge you gather will help you know which campaigns and audiences are going to perform the best and you may only need to do minimal testing after lockdown to find new audiences and new interest as you will already know what works and what may not work.

Still need help and advice with your Google Ads during this time or for after lockdown? Get in touch and we can have a chat about how we can help you and your business.