As a digital media partner to many OEMs in the boat, RV and industrial equipment industries, we want to share our expectations and recommendations regarding how the Coronavirus may impact your digital media strategy over the next few months. If economic conditions worsen, it will likely impact the number of visitors to your website, and the number of search engine queries for the keywords we (or your media partner) bid on. Most of the media campaigns we manage for clients are based on online behaviors that signal product interest and purchase intent – primarily website visits and search activity. As a result:
- Advertising impressions and clicks are likely to fall
- Clickthrough rates may also fall
- You may experience considerable monthly budget surpluses based on fewer clicks
- For the vast majority of digital media campaigns we manage, we only pay for clicks, not impressions. This is important to keep in mind as you will not be paying for media where the audience isn’t expressing purchase interest or intent by clicking on your ads.
Rollick’s Media and Digital Marketing Recommendations
We highly recommend continuing to spend on media directed at hand-raisers/intenders (clickers) for the following reasons:
- Consumers who click have presumably weighed their purchase interest/intent in context of the overall economy and their personal finances.
- During the 2008 “Great Recession”, brands that were active in their marketing activities and invested in reaching new customers, came out on the other side ready to take advantage of the new economy. Today’s environment presents the same opportunities.
- We believe it’s important to continue brand visibility to hand-raisers during periods where the economy slows. Some customers may delay their purchase during this timeframe but will be more likely to follow through by purchasing the brand they’ve been more exposed to and engaged with over the preceding months.
- The current environment has created an anxiety rarely seen in our society. Customers are looking for ways to take their mind off the news and escape cabin fever. The outdoor recreation industry provides the solution; let’s tell them about it!
- Overall advertising spends across other industries could flatten or fall over the next few months, reducing bid competition. This means your cost-per-click and cost-per-prospect could fall as a result.
- We recommend pausing pure branding/display campaigns, where the targeting is based on general boating/RV/equipment interests, demographics, etc.
If you are looking for unique ways to reach your current and new customers in this environment, please contact us today.
