Google Trends is an extraordinarily powerful insight-engine for marketers. It’s simple to understand and free to use, so it’s surprising that the insights it generates so rarely appear in marketing presentations.
The tool shows the volume of Google searches for any word, name or phrase you care to type into it. However, it’s when you start to pit search terms against one another that it becomes most useful.
A good starting point is to compare your brand to a close competitor, to see the nation’s relative interest and how this has changed over time. Heineken v Kronenbourg. Travelodge v Premier Inn. Lidl v Aldi. Every chart tells a story.
As an example, let’s look at two of the nation’s most famous brands: X Factor and I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. Which is the hotter property?
The chart shows that public interest in X Factor has decreased with every new series since Ben Haenow’s triumph in 2014. In contrast, the nation has become increasingly smitten with the bugs and camp-fires of I’m a Celebrity. The trend has continued to the point where I’m a Celebrity overtook X Factor on search volumes for the first time in 2018.
The charts produced by Google Trends are indexed against the highest search volume during the period selected. The high point is given a score of 100 and all other search volumes are ranked from 0-99 in relation to this. I’m A Celebrity’s recent peak scored 79, so it still has some way to go to match the historical highs of X Factor.
In my next blog post I’ll give some examples of how brands and marketing teams can use Google Trends for specific insights. Finally, in Part Three I’ll use Google Trends to look at which brand has won the 2019 Christmas advertising battle.