8 Industries That Are Ruling the PPC Market During Covid-19 Pandemic

A brand new set of PPC benchmarks has disclosed the list of industries that are performing exceptionally good right now, the ones who have been hit hardest, and the ones which are observing mixed results amid this pandemic.

Generally, WordStream publishes its Google Ads benchmarks report annually, but due to these unusual times we are living in, it has published its second report this year.

 The newly released Google Ads benchmarks are up to May 2020, comprising data across 21 industries.

This data can be utilized by the marketers to compare the performance of their ad against the industry average. This will give the marketers an opportunity to think about the changes that need to be brought in their campaigns if any.

Let’s see what this data has in for us.

Industries With Boosted Ads Performance

During this pandemic, some industries are seeing a rise in their demand, which has resulted in powerful ad performance.

Here is a list of the 8 industries that have seen the most significant growth in their ad performance during this pandemic.

1. Apparel – Their performance enhanced in April first, and then that momentum was carried into May.
2. Beauty and Personal Care – Their conversion rates increased in April. During May, when these local services were resumed, shopping campaigns saw a reduction in the conversion rates but a rise in online booking.
3. Hobbies and Leisure – With people having plenty of time to get involved in their indoor hobbies, marketers have observed a stable performance in the last few months.
4. Arts and Entertainment – Although these advertisers faced challenges initially in April, the ad performance recovered once these attractions reopened.
5. Computers and Electronics – As stimulus checks were mailed out during April and May, customers spent more on big-ticket electronics reportedly. This resulted in a surge in their ad performance.
6. Occasions and Gifts – Online marketers observed lower costs but higher conversion rates. Instead of traditionally purchased gifts, the sales of subscription boxes and delivered gift boxes skyrocketed.
7. Health – The higher search volumes and lower cost-per-clicks enabled marketers to find lots of new customers and convert them at a little expense.
8. Real Estate – The reduced CPCs have allowed marketers to keep costs low and CTRs perpetual.

Industries With Mixed Ad Performance

Many industries are on the edge of rain or shine as they respond to the changes brought in by this pandemic. Here’s the list of industries that have seen a mixed PPC performance during Covid-19:

1. Retail
2. Sports and Fitness
3. Dining and Nightlife
4. Home and Garden
5. Food and Grocery
6. Job and Education
7. Legal and Government
8. Finance
9. Vehicles
10. Business and Industrial

Hardest Hit Industries During Covid-19

Several large industries have been severely affected and are still experiencing the impact of Covid-19, which is being reflected in their PPC campaign performance. These 3 industries have been the hardest hit during this pandemic:

1. Internet and Telecom – Since this March, their conversion rates have sunk by nearly 30%. Many prominent marketers are expanding their budgets, which in turn is driving CPCs up for comparatively smaller marketers.
2. Family and Community – Marketers are observing less than half of their usual conversions from Google Search, which has resulted in increased costs as clicks and CPCs remain constant.
3. Travel and Tourism – This was the first and most impacted industry due to Covid-19, and it still remains affected.

Conclusions

Click-through Rates Up

From this data provided by WordStream, we can derive that most advertisers have rapidly modified their PPC Campaigns to offer more relevant messaging in recent times. This has resulted in almost a global increase in CTRs across search engines.

Conversion Rates and CPC down

Across various industries, the conversion rates and CPC are sinking side by side. WordStream associates this to search engines’ (like Google and Bing) Smart Bidding modifying marketer’s bids in real-time in response to the immediate transition in ad performance.

This led to many marketers’ ROI remaining stable or growing despite their low budget.

We can clearly see how the world is evolving. There have been significant changes across various industries, including digital marketing. With everything developing around us, the ad campaigns must also adapt to these changes.

We hope this article helps you to bring the required changes to your campaigns. Let us know how Covid-19 has affected your business via the comments below.