How Can You Use Google Trends to Increase Your Sales?

Tracking current consumer habits, behavior patterns, needs, and searches is an important area for businesses to manage their reputation and grow by increasing sales. While businesses conduct market research on consumer behaviors, they can also use some digital tools that allow them to monitor and analyze trends in real-time. Among these tools, Google Trends, which allows us to track current consumer behaviors through search trends, is one of the most widely used.

Google Trends is a free Google service that analyzes how frequently selected keywords are searched for, from which regions, and with which words and topics they are associated. Google Trends is also a powerful tool for storytelling because you can observe how people react in real-time to events, main issues, and current topics. For example, you can look back year by year to see what search trends were in 2021 or 2020, and which keywords were trending. For instance, the three trending searches that appeared when we looked at the 2020 trends were Coronavirus, How to Get a HES Code?, Zoom.

Our founder, Berkun Meral of IQUEEM, states that the Google Trends service is a tool specifically used to determine which products the e-commerce sector is more interested in and that, when used correctly, it has the potential to reduce marketing costs.

Here is a 3-question summary for those who want to use Google Trends in their marketing activities:

1- How to use the Google Trends feature?

Google Trends not only provides us with search analyses going back to 2004 but also allows us to obtain real-time information about last-minute search trends. Thus, its usage can be seen in two areas. The first is to analyze consumer behaviors and trends for inclusion in marketing strategies. The other is to observe how people react and what searches they perform when an event affecting society occurs in real-time or when impactful news about companies is published. With these analyses, we can look at both last-minute trends and the latest search trends for our keywords. Knowing what people are searching for, what they are curious about, and what they are searching for in response to an event will always provide a different perspective in proactive communications.

2- How can Google Trends support our sales?

In order for sales to occur, it is very important to know consumer trends and to conduct the right communication efforts at the right time. Trends help us in these two areas. Every search we perform provides some insights into consumer trends at that time. For example, if we give a sector-based example, in the tourism sector specifically, you can determine when, in which regions, and in which Google products the search for "Early Reservation" is most frequently performed, and you can create your strategies accordingly. Moreover, you have the opportunity to research data going back to 2004.

As you can see in the graph above, searches for "Early Reservation" from the Turkey location have increased especially in October-November-December over the last 5 years. Accordingly, we can assume that purchasing tendencies are higher during these dates. This will guide us in planning our communication efforts.

3- In which areas can we use Google Trends in our marketing activities?

Trends reports generally provide data that you can use in all your advertising activities. Therefore, I believe it is wrong to consider the reports as only SEO or Google keyword advertising. Therefore, it is always beneficial to review these reports when devising your entire advertising strategies and creating a roadmap.