As the coronavirus worsened in the UK in recent weeks and months and consumers are racing to boost immunity, sales of herbal supplements, vitamins and minerals are experiencing high levels of growth.

One of our clients have just reported the best two months in terms of revenue since setting up their business. Another could not keep with the demand and had to reduce some of the activity to be able to pack all the orders on time. We have also seen Vitamin C selling out across many competitors’ sites.

Even though we are seeing a surge in Google searches, it is crucial to revaluate your paid search activity in the light of increased demand. In times such as these, you want to focus on growth but also make sure you keep profitability and your investment is not going to waste.

Here is the list of questions and answers you should ask yourself now if you are currently running PPC campaign in house or with an agency.

What are my main KPIs?

It may sounds funny to say, but a lot of businesses we talk to aren’t fully clear on the KPIs they are working to, and if their marketing activity is achieving these KPIs. First off, we would highly recommend assessing how much a sale costs you, what return are you generating from those sales, and if that return is acceptable to keep your business growing.

Once you are clear with your KPIs, you need to check if these are also aligned to your business goals and performance. Are you showing the right products to your customers?

Should I revaluate my goals?

Yes! This is a crucial time where consumer behaviour is different to what you have been seeing so far.

Your loyal customers may buy in bulk or a different set of products. You also drive new traffic to the site. This is the best time to grow your Brand awareness at a potentially higher conversion rate as intent to buy is higher.

This is the time where you can look into your efficiency metrics such as ROAS/ROI/CPA. Can you loosen them up a bit to make sure you are growing exposure to potential future customers? They might not buy with you now, but they already know your brand and what you offer. There might be a possibility they come back to you another time when they for example struggle with sleep rather than trying to improve immunity.

Google Insights can provide more resources for consumer trends and behaviour.

Should I change Paid Search investment?

Now is a good time to re-evaluate your budgets and reconcile your budgets vs. spend. How does your marketing budget look for the next 3-6 months, and should this be re-forecast and re-evaluated now?

You may want to shift or increase budgets into those products that have more relevancy during this national emergency.

You will definitely want to shift budgets to best performing campaigns to maximize results.

Can you find nuggets of budget that may not have been used throughout the year and apply it to the campaigns that need it most now?

Should I update my keywords?

Yes! Especially, if you struggle for extra budget, you should review your keywords to make sure you are not missing any opportunities, or wasting spend on irrelevant search terms. If left unchecked, irrelevant search terms can sometimes account for huge amounts of wastage in an account.

Remember, that even though your target audience knows how to potentially find you using well utilised search terms, there are a lot of people who will search products you sell using different terms. Maybe they have never looked for supplements before and now they want to support their health.

Let’s say you bid on keywords such as ‘vitamin c with bioflavonoids’ which have performed reasonably well and describe your product precisely. What about people who have high intent to buy but they don’t know what Bioflavonoids are? They will potentially use search terms such as ‘highly absorbable vitamin c’. Always review your keywords and product titles to ensure you are reaching new users.

Insert your landing pages to Keyword Planner to find new keywords or add keywords you would want to bid on and check for potential volume. Run product targeted dynamic search ads and optimise your shopping product titles to ensure you stay relevant.

Should I compete on generic terms such as ‘Vitamin C’?

Bids for generic keywords such as ‘vitamin c’ can be very high, especially now. Look for unique and longer keywords to compete effectively on a smaller budget.

Find effective long-tail keywords by using tools already available. Use your Google Analytics account to see how users are searching directly on your website, Google Search Console can help with organic searches leading to your website, Google autocomplete, and tools like Google’s Keyword Planner are all useful

There are lots of other tools which most agencies have access too which will also help with keywords planning. Take a look at SEMRush or MOZ to name a few. Generally to get the most out these tools you’ll need to invest some time into training.

What about messaging?

Messaging should be reflecting the current trends and how you can support your consumers’ needs during these times. Think about the main trends in our lives at the moment, your products should be there to help and assist consumers. Keep your customers need at front of mind but also make sure your messaging is best optimised for the platforms you are using Some of the core trends which companies can often help with are

• Immunity Boosting
• Wellbeing
• Exercise & Being Outside
• Social Distancing Support
• Working From Home & more.

Make sure you address these in your ads where relevant and provide a solution with one of your products. Don’t forget to fully use ad extensions such as sitelinks and call-outs to provide more information about your business and offers.

Be sure to include this clearly on landing pages. There are lots of customers searching at the moment, so re-evaluating your paid search goals, strategy and messaging can help your stay current and help to deliver products which match your customers’ needs.

To recap:

• Review your KPIs, are they clear and are you achieving them?
• Are you marketing goals current and do they reflect your business goals?
• Assess your invest into paid media, are you underinvesting or potentially wasting budget?
• Use tools available to make sure you are expanding your keyword universe
• How generic is too generic for your business? Is a keyword such as ‘vitamin c’ the right choice for you?
• Review your messaging and how you interact and help your customers