With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, Bing Ads has revealed some interesting findings into the search behaviour of the UK’s besotted consumers and the advertisers targeting them.
With men set to spend nearly twice as much as women for the day itself (£39.40) and the majority expected to leave purchases to the last minute, here are five search trends to look out for ahead of Valentine’s Day 2018.
1. Remarketing to target the undecided shopper
Our data shows that there are two spikes in the consumer search journey for Valentine’s day. While searches jump on the February 6, consumers are only clicking through at the last minute on the and February 12 and 13. This year we’ll see remarketing tactics being used more around Valentine’s as it offers the best ratio of click-through rate to cost per acquisition. Indeed, 2017 data shows that remarketing in retail paid search led to a 145% increase in click-through, with a reduction of 83% in cost per acquisition.
2. Evolving consumer tastes
While flowers and chocolates are the typical Valentine’s Day gifts, search data reveals new trends; year over year, searches for wine, beer collecting and brewing increased 27%, and antiques and collectibles increased 23%.
3. Getting personal
As shoppers are buying their Valentine’s Day gift in a last-minute rush, we’ll see brands use personalisation to target specific consumer groups with tailored promotions and suggestions. Brands will showcase “For her” or “For him” recommendations based on browsing history and use remarketing data to upsell or cross-sell products based on purchase history.
4. Streamlining the shopping journey
Shopping comparison tools allow brands to target consumers with the most relevant information about a product (image, price, offers, locations etc), and lets them go direct to purchase. Time-poor consumers will be drawn to products that enable them to identify a product they want and purchase with fewest clicks possible.
5. It’s not all about online delivery – using extensions
Consumers use search for so much more than online shopping, they use it to find out the most relevant information they need as quickly as possible. As UK consumers leave getting their gift to the last minute, they might not have the time to wait for delivery. Brands will ensure useful extensions, such as phone number and store address, are displayed on the search page to help the consumer find what they need.