Customer insight via Google

This is the second part of my statement that the real value of Google is not in the lead generation, but in critical bits of information about brand and consumer behaviour. This is about what are people searching and how are they looking for your product.

Google provides timely information about how your customers behave, how they buy and what, at a particular time, they are looking for.

I previously did this with the history backed up from reports from Google Adwords and if you have that you can get really granular and operate very, very quickly. I still use that but only in exceptional circumstances.

However, times have changed for the better so here is a graph from Google Trends for “government bonds” searches in New Zealand.

Consumer behaviour and demand

It shows a very sharp rise, surprise surprise, in people searching for government bonds in the last month. Something to do with that credit crisis.

What it really reflects is fear. And a very tangible mass movement of investors trying to bury their money safely in a ditch so they can’t lose it. In fact here is the chart for the search “invest in gold”.

Google searches as people run for gold

There really is no better reflection of the motivations of the mass market, outside the market, that happens in real time through Google Trends and the Google Adwords reports. This is because they are updated more frequently than you can run a market survey, the data is much greater than an opinion poll and its all free and immediately accessible.

If someone managed to compress, monetize and distribute this a little better we could see the end survey research in its traditional form. Most good marketers, who are talking to there customers will know where the market is leading. This gives you the product they want to buy and a trend of when they are trying to buy it. All you have to do is work out the price.

It represents real time market demand.

Google as a brand measure

One of the biggest mistakes by marketers new to Google is handing over Google Adwords and Search to an advertising agency. I include SEO practitioners as agencies within that context.

The real value of Google is not in the lead generation, which is important tactical execution, but in critical bits of information about brand and consumer behaviour. Specifically:

1. what are people searching and how they are looking for your product
2. the recognition and pull of your brand.

These are strategically important and form part of the knowledge in developing your marketing program and how you talk to your customers. For any website, not just an ecommerce site, in fact any business, the information you can get for free on Google can save you thousands in research and brand measurement as well as provide valuable insight into your customers motivations. This post is about the brand.

Googling your brand measurement

Over time knowing how often someone searches for your brand, if at all, tells you whether your advertising is providing long term value.

Below is a graph of the number of searches for Direct Broking on Google Trends since 2004.  Up until November 2007, on my arrival, the website had done no real advertising. Just PR and a brand pull strategy. Unfortunately brand pull doesn’t work without an initial concerted push. So no one looked for Direct Broking. We did some optimisation, Google Adwords and PR straight away and a brand campaign throughout February before we really pushed hard in the 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2008.

Searches for "direct broking" since 2004

What this graph shows is a very real recall of the brand name since we started investing in awareness, first with some spikes at the start and then as we campaign. Best of all there is some real consistency coming through in between later activity where people are still searching our name.  So our acquisition based internet advertising program is delivering for the brand. Who says you can’t brand on the internet?

The second cool bit of brand knowledge is how often you are searched compared to your competitors.  This shows your mind share against your competitors. With the Google keyword tool I compared us to our previously better known and better marketed, bigger budget competitor.

I typed in our brand name and theirs (asb securities) for New Zealand based searches (our stomping ground) and what I got was a lot more variations of our brand name and bigger volumes of people searching. Our volumes are about 20% higher which is not bad for an internet advertising strategy versus a very powerful, consistent, television sponsorship (yes I am a bit jealous). This was also the other way around a year ago so we’ve gained and overtaken on brand recall through Google. This will be indicative for the rest of the population.

Brand measurement on Google isn’t exact science, nor is it as good as a traditional, surveyed brand monitor. But, if like me, you want to spend money on pointy activities, it’s good guidance on whether you’re doing the right thing.

Next time consumer behaviour.