Updated: 4/27/2020
Search interest patterns are valuable insights into how users are searching for products, often revealing interest before those products and industries actually begin to grow. By closely monitoring trends around different search patterns, we will be able to predict which industries are emerging as legitimate business opportunities in 2020 and beyond.
COVID-19, also known as Coronavirus, has escalated global interest in some emerging markets that were just beginning to grow in 2020. The education industry has changed drastically due to Coronavirus, including a rapid escalation of sub-markets including video conferencing and online tutors. There are a number of lesser-known markets that are escalating at similar rates and should be examined this year.
We gathered insights from various search volume resources, as well as our own internal keyword research tools, to measure trends and identify which industries are emerging this year.
Most Engaged Groups
In order to assess which keyword groups are currently getting the most engagement, we gathered the number of unique competitors and compared it to the number of results. With this measurement, we can assess which industries are currently the most active with relevant competitors and engaging for users.
Digital Competition
To get a better sense of the competitive landscape for these industries, we gathered a list of all of the relevant results on page 1 and 2 of the SERPs for our target keywords. There are a number of insights to be gathered from this data. For example, keywords related to online learning have many sites competing for search advertising, which allows us to infer that the online learning industry is currently active and competitive.
You can interact with the data below with the two filters: the first filter affects which industry is being examined, and the second allows you to filter by result type.
Search Volume Per Industry
The true effects of COVID-19 on the search volume for these keyword groups will not be fully informative until we have several months of data (June or July 2020). With that said, there are some industries that received a significant immediate effect due to the changing nature of how people have been interacting. These effects can be seen below for both video conferencing and online learning.
It is clear that there has been a massive change in how users are interacting with these services, and how they search for them online. Each industry has many insights that can be analyzed to better understand what has changed.
Emerging Markets
The following markets have been selected based on their recent surge in interest and the opportunities and challenges that that may bring.
Video Conferencing
Video conferencing has become a necessity in nearly all businesses for daily operations, as well as connecting with families from home. Video conferencing software like Zoom experienced massive growth, as did the user interest around queries like ‘video conference app’ and ‘best video conferencing.’
ONLINE LEARNING
Online learning is becoming a massive industry out of necessity, as all schools have had to quickly transition into an online classroom setting. Users are searching now more than ever for keywords including ‘online education platforms and ‘online teaching software.’ Online learning software like Articulate and iSpring are the products that have benefited most from this increased interest.
Sustainable Cleaning Products
As COVID-19 continued to spread around the world, people were eager to get all the cleaning supplies they would need to protect themselves from infection. With this escalated focus on and heightened use of cleaning products, many people have started searching for cleaning products that are sustainable. Sustainable can include a number of variations, including “plastic free cleaning products” and “eco friendly cleaning products.” This industry was growing over the past several years, but with this rapidly increasing need for cleaning products many people have started searching for more sustainable options. There is a clear peak in January, as news first began to break of a potential virus and consumers rushed to the stores. But in the months since then, interest has remained high. ‘Eco friendly cleaning products’ has shown the largest increase in interest, but keywords like ‘sustainable cleaning products’ and ‘eco cleaning products’ have also increased.
Takeaways
- Online Learning and Video Conferencing Have Grown in InterestThere has been an unprecedented spike in interest around keywords including ‘online learning platforms’ and ‘video conference app.’ This can be seen in the global adoption of video conference apps like Zoom and the transition to online learning methods as schools close for the year. The true effect of this interest over time is difficult to gauge, since much of the interest is out of a temporary need while we don’t have access to schools and in-person meetings. As things slowly return to normal, it will be crucial to keep an eye on these keyword trends.
- Online Learning is the Most Competitive Industry As can be seen by the ‘Digital Competitors by Industry’ chart above, the online learning industry is the most competitive in terms of search advertising. More sites are advertising for these keywords than for video conferencing and sustainable cleaning products. This is both an opportunity and a challenge: the heavy competition implies an economic response to demand. At the same time, it will be more difficult and expensive to engage users through search advertising in this industry.
- Opportunities Are Immediate The opportunities to engage with users in these industries is immediate, meaning that companies need to create and advertise products now before the situation changes and user needs change. Especially with video conferencing and online learning, the demand will naturally drop significantly once there is no longer a need for these services.
