Himanshu Arora | Co-Founder, Social Panga

Understanding the consumer buying

behavior through Google Search

UNLOCKING

THE

CODE

Deciphering Consumer Behavior

Consumer Behavior is a branch of marketing which

deals with the various stages a consumer goes

through before purchasing products or services for his

end use.

GOOGLE SEARCH

THE

DATA

GOLDMINE

Google Keyword Planner

vs Google Trends

WHY

GOOGLE

TRENDS?

Google Trends Is

A better source for local information instead of the

standard surveys or focus groups because it allows us

to leverage the largest panel in the world (the

internet).

It’s honest, trusted and not influenced/skewed.

AND

We can get answers to questions we never asked

from people we never considered. On top of that, we

can get information on historic behavior — you can’t

ask panels how they felt six years ago!

FILTER FILTER FILTER!

By Region:

Allows you to define your search by worldwide,

country, state or even city/metro area.

FILTER FILTER FILTER!

By Time Frame:

Lets you select a variety of predefined time frames

(last seven days, one year, one month, etc.) or set a

custom period.

FILTER FILTER FILTER!

By Categories:

You can limit the terms and search volume to a

certain category. Having this dimension allows us to

look at specific trends and discover new

themes/searches.

FILTER FILTER FILTER!

By Engines:

This option lets you choose between News, Web

Video and Shopping search, which offer great

flexibility depending on the brand and vertical. This

also allows you to focus on the right intent — learning

through video search or buying through shopping

search, for example.

EXAMPLES:

Facebook vs MySpace

The Result Charts

Facebook vs MySpace

The Result Charts

WHAT CAN

GOOGLE TRENDS

DO?

Competitive Brand Health

By State

Let’s assume we are a major automotive manufacturer, and we are

trying to understand what the most popular brands are on a state level

(U.S.). It’s simple; just go into Google Trends and export the top terms by

the Vehicle Brands category.

Now what?

Having this type of data allows planners to prioritize awareness-based

media campaigns. If we are already the #1 top-of-mind automotive

brand in a specific state, we might want to target our awareness-based

campaigns to a different region where there is less affinity. We can even

break this down further to the individual cities. or just us vs. our main

competitors.

Category Priority Topics

By State

We all know that deep consumer understanding is a key piece of what

moves the business and allows marketers to create the right messages

for the right audiences. Part of that is understanding and leveraging

local nuances and trends. One of the key ways of doing that is to look at

local shares.

Now what?

Now that you understand which other brands consumers in your market

are evaluating based on the search volume, you could look at the

individual models they are searching for and starting building your

messaging around those interests. (If people want hybrids in a region,

make sure you amplify your hybrid models and messaging in that

region.)

Shopping Trends

One of the beautiful aspects of Trends is that you can query data from specific

engines, one of them being Google Shopping — a huge bonus for direct

response and CPG brands. By filtering the results down to Google Shopping

searches, you can clearly understand purchasing intent for various product

categories.

The map on the next page shows you the highest intent for beauty purchases this

month by state. It presents clear insights into the products consumers want to buy

today.

Now what?

If we have a limited budget and optimize against direct response or sales, we

might want to prioritize and focus on the markets where we can get the most

value for our media spend. As an example, if we know there is a high purchase

intent for anti-aging products this month in a specific market, we would adjust our

targeting to match/capture that.

CONCLUSION

THANK

YOU