March 7, 2022
Among the trail of carnage the pandemic left in its wake, one industry that was able to ride the opportunity and come out on top was the homeware sector. Consumer search behaviour throughout 2021 showed a rise in demand for home and garden products as the UK entered the year with its third (and hopefully final!) national lockdown and another Spring from the comfort of our own homes was on the cards.
We've taken a look back at what we learned from the Homeware sector over the past 12 months in a bid to predict how homeware retailers can capitalise on PPC throughout 2022…
What we learned in 2021
With access to search volume data and trends we can be proactive in getting ahead of the curve.
Trends data suggests that increased search for ‘homeware’ will last until April/May. This coincides with increased search volume surrounding ‘home improvements’ in 2021. As you’d expect, this sees significant increases From January onwards so it is important to capitalise on this as early in the year as possible when users are in their research stage.
Improving store visits with Local Campaigns has proven strong in our initial tests throughout 2021 and will be a key driver for 2022. Initial results show that Local campaigns drove a high number of engaged users illustrated within the increased level of local actions (store directions) attributed to the campaign - a 91% increase on the previous campaign structure!
Search terms including ‘finance’ or ‘klarna’ also saw notable increases in 2021, with the option to ‘buy now pay later’ or pay in three proving a huge driver to get users to a point of purchase with lower/more manageable financial commitment that would have previously caused hesitancy. If this is something you offer, make sure this USP is evident within all ads - it could be the final driver the consumer needs to take that basket to a conversion. Other key drivers we found throughout 2021 include customer reviews, delivery costs and easy/free returns.
What we predict for 2022
Search Growth for Home Decor & Interior Decorating, Home Furniture:
- Increased search volumes show no signs of slowing to pre-pandemic levels, with significant up-tick from Jan 2022.
- Inspiration and ideas trends are on the up. Notable uplift over the past three years for search terms such as ‘living room ideas’ or ‘wall panelling ideas’.
- More recently trends are rising for ‘media wall ideas’ and ‘halfway panelling ideas’.
- Clearly, users are on the hunt for inspiration. The use of display, strong imagery and onsite content will help you be the source of this.
- Key audiences we found within the homeware sector are:
- 57% female, 73% non parents.
- Audience is likely to be passionate ‘Value Shoppers’ & ‘Home Decor Enthusiasts’ within Google’s Affinity audience lists.
- Drilling down further, this audience is uniquely interested in (in-market for) Home & Garden Services, Home Decor, Interior Design & Decorating Services and Home Furnishings.
Top tips for success in 2022:
- Capitalise on increased intent from January until May when search volumes for terms including ‘home improvements’ are at their peak.
- Use DSA ad groups within generic campaigns to drive new users within contextually relevant campaigns. Generating new users and real-time data for keyword expansion.
- Optimise your product titles within your feed to ensure key attributes are applied.
- Optimise for recently added ‘short titles’ also.
- Performance Max campaigns have driven significantly increased performance across a number of sectors in initial testing. Start testing these ASAP!
- If you have stores or showrooms, utilise local generic search campaigns to push users towards physical locations where CvR’s are likely higher.
- Similarly, Local campaigns are designed to help businesses provide potential customers with the information they need to visit a store. Local campaigns allow us to target users across multiple touchpoints including; Google Search Network, Maps, Youtube and the Google Display Network.
- Retargeting and creating loyalty and retention by showcasing cross-sell/upsell products to those who have already purchased from you through first party data.
- Showcasing new product arrivals and collections to those invested in the brand.
- Extend the reach of the brand by establishing new users via In-Market and Affinity audiences.
If you’re looking for a little more help or guidance on how to capitalise on Paid Search throughout 2022 you have a few options:
- Access a free audit from our team where we’ll highlight areas for improvement and opportunity.
- Book a call with our team if you’d prefer to just pick up the phone.
- Check out our recent work if you’re keen to see what we’ve achieved for our clients.