Since the coronavirus pandemic kicked in, most of us saw an impact on our Google Ads campaigns. Some are positive but most are negative. While we would expect the cost per click to decrease now that many companies stopped advertising or reduced their advertising spend, we’re actually seeing a different trend with some of our Search campaigns where the cost per click is increasing.
Why is that?
Because of a lower search volume of the keywords we’re targeting. People are no longer searching for services as they stay at home while the companies try to win in a bid auction and get clicks while there are significantly fewer searches.
Let’s say we had 1000 searches for our keyword “plumber near me” before the pandemic and 10 competitors that were bidding to get the most clicks and leads from those 1000 searches. Now with the pandemic, the search volume dropped to, let’s say, 200 a month and 6 competitors (some companies stopped advertising in the meantime) are all bidding to win the clicks of those 200 searches. The demand for the services is low so the clicks and therefore leads get more expensive.
What can we do about it?
The situation is what it is so we have to find different ways to reduce the damage and keep our client’s businesses profitable. Try to find new keyword and targeting opportunities. Something that might not work before, might work now during these difficult times. Focus on the things that bring the most results while lowering the spend on things that bring no conversions to reduce wasteful ad spend. Try to reach customers with a different copy or different ad networks – Seach, Display, Remarketing… Now is the time to be creative and think outside of the box to make sure the clients can get through this crisis without large consequences.
