What can bid request data reveal about consumer behaviour over the last year?

A year on from the first lockdown, KMTX's Phil Vella takes a look back at trends that have shaped the ‘new normal’ 

KMTX is a tech-first company. Our uniqueness lies in the ability to manage and interrogate vast swathes of log-level data from across the entire bid landscape: over 1.5 billion page views for analysis, processing over 70,000 queries every second. So, with consumers spending even more time online, does our data show the direct link between what they look for, read about and spend their cash on?

The ability to process this volume of data demonstrates the fundamental difference between search and actual intent: what you see here are trends based on pages where a targeted ad was displayed, rather than just a volume of curiosity that you might see within search trends.

We use AI media trading, which means we constantly follow this active intent: advertisers can take advantage of such fluctuations in consumer and contextual interest in real-time by optimising campaigns to deliver on precise insights. This means guaranteed forecasting and performance for our clients.

Here then are the most interesting trends and fluctuations we’ve observed over the last year.

Bitcoin 

As the price of Bitcoin exploded in the past few months - demonstrated by the red line in this graph - interest in the term ‘bitcoin’ closely followed that trend. However, there was an enormous peak in activity during March 2020. Why? As most of the world entered initial lockdowns and stock markets tanked, there was an explosion of interest in alternative investments and financial systems.

Electric vehicles

Despite lockdowns, electric car sales boomed in 2020. That was reflected in a sharp rise in interest in electric cars during the year: as consumers became more aware of the cost of running vehicles which they no longer used as frequently, they looked at more efficient alternatives. Meanwhile, interest in Tesla not only matched the trend in electric vehicles as the dominant brand, it correlated directly with their share price.

Lockdown & exercise 

The early stages of the pandemic brought serious restrictions to everyone and many took what few opportunities they had outside to exercise. This can be seen in the peak in interest in running during the initial lockdown. Just like any good New Year's resolution though, that has since waned while, in contrast, indoor activities closely matched lockdowns throughout the year: as seen by interest in ‘Lego’ as they experienced their best sales year ever.

Lockdown vs holiday

Many of us are wondering when we’ll be able to travel again freely, so it’s no surprise that the government announcement on 23 February, informing us about the path out of lockdown, brought an immediate surge in holiday planning. Here we can also see a divergence between our two biggest markets: France and the UK. French users showed optimism in the new year, while the UK was suffering under new COVID strains. That situation has now reversed: as the French enter lockdown Mk III, Brits are making holiday plans.