Good news, there are strong indications that Google search demand for aesthetics is increasing!
Keep in mind that just three weeks ago I posted an article that highlighted how demand was leveling off or falling for many aesthetic queries. As we’ll touch on in this article, that leveling off period of around mid-April was near the tail-end of the “bottoming out” stretch for quite a few aesthetic search queries.
**Keep in mind that we’re correlating search volume, or “interest” as Google Trends puts it, with consumer demand. In other words, if more people are searching for a specific term then we can assume that the demand for that term is rising.
The key with any thorough analysis is context. It’s lazy to simply look at one week of data and make any kind of prognostication about trends.
It’s no different than if you were running several ad campaigns and had a great week of leads compared to the previous week. That’s great, but…
- was the previous week particularly bad?
- did all the campaigns beat the previous week’s metrics?
- how did last week compare to that same week in the previous year?
It’s also worth noting that while Google Trends is a very valuable tool, you can glean much more insight into consumer search demand by looking at actual impressions and click data from Google Ads. Unfortunately, that information is only available to owners of campaigns, and these campaigns are specific to micro-locations and may not reflect demand across the country.
What does this all mean? No one measure is perfect, but using both Google Trends and Google Ads is a great start in measuring consumer demand for aesthetics.
One final note: for this analysis, I’ve chosen six of the top 25 terms, 3 for surgical procedures and 3 for non-surgical procedures, based on our search data, pulled from ahrefs.com. This isn’t fool-proof, but it’s better than looking at one term and “declaring victory” for aesthetics!
Search Trends in the Past Week
Google Trends
I don’t want to read too much into one week as it is a very small sample size, but here’s a visual of what I can see for trends in the past 7 days:
The blue line is “Botox,” which is increasing. The others are harder to distinguish, as they have ebbed and flowed throughout the week, but each ended higher than when they started. Still, nothing conclusive here.
Google Ads
Looking at all of our Google Ads clients, we can see an upward trend in both impressions and clicks in the past 7 days.
Keep in mind that we’ve added filters so we removed clients who have increased or decreased budgets during this period. That removes bias from a higher budget. However, we have done some optimization, which can certainly influence impressions and clicks. Still, it’s encouraging to see the increase in Google Trends backed by what we’re seeing in Google Ads.
Search Trends in the Past 90 Days
Google Trends
In the past 90 days, for every one of these terms the “interest,” as indicated by Google Trends, declined from some point in February/early March until late March-early April. Some of the declines were more subtle, such as “breast augmentation.”
All of the terms saw an increase after bottoming out, although some were more dramatic than others. “Breast augmentation” has remained relatively flat in the last 90 days so there wasn’t much of a drop or much of an increase. “Botox” saw one of the biggest dips but has also seen the biggest upward swing since bottoming out. “CoolSculpting” also saw a big dip but its upward swing is smaller than that of “Botox.”
Google Ads
Over the past 90 days, we’ve had a ton of fluctuation in campaigns being started and stopped, which makes sense as many practices closed and some have re-opened. However, these budget shifts skew the raw data when it comes to impressions, clicks, and conversions, as a higher or lower daily spend can dramatically influence these metrics.
If we micro-analyze a specific account, a plastic surgery client who has steadily been spending at least $10k per month in Google search ads, with no changes to the budget in the past 90 days, we can see that, like with Google Trends, demand, which within Google Ads we interpret as impressions, dipped until bottoming out around the 3rd week of March.
From there clicks stayed flat through the start of April, with impressions very slightly rising, before both began to steadily increase. This trajectory mirrors what Google Trends is saying, and while this example shows only one client in one metro, this is encouraging. We essentially have a trend backed up by raw data.
Search Trends in the Past Year
Google Trends
When you look at the past 12 months, the drop off looks more dramatic for every one of these terms. However, the recovery is also more pronounced as well. Every one of these terms has shown growth since bottoming out.
Google Ads
Using the same Google Ads client example as above, with no changes in the budget over the past year, we saw impressions and clicks (and conversions) steadily rising before falling off mid-March, then recovering in early April.
The steady increase in clicks before the big drop-off is more indicative of campaign optimization and getting more out of the budget since the budget didn’t change at all. All that said, the drop off in mid-March aligns with the Google Trends data above, but…so does the recovery!
The Bottom Line
After looking at multiple data ranges, multiple search terms (both surgical and non-surgical), and both national and local geographies, every metric we’ve examined shows an increase in interest, impressions, and clicks. Collectively, these metrics signal an increase in consumer demand for aesthetics.
We predict that as long as aesthetic and medical practices can re-open and see patients over the next month, without any setbacks requiring them to shut down, this demand will continue to rise.
We’ll discuss more about the psychology behind this prediction in our next article.
Here are some additional resources from TRBO to help your aesthetic practice navigate the Coronavirus chaos:
- Step-By-Step Guide for Re-Opening Your Practice Post-Coronavirus
- What Aesthetic Practice Owners Should be Doing Right Now to Help Their Marketing
- Coronavirus Resource Guide for Aesthetic Practices
- 4 Ways Your Aesthetic Practice Can Survive the Coronavirus
- Which Virtual Consultation Software is Best
- 6 Ways to Be Prepared to Re-Open After the Coronavirus Shutdown
- 5 Ways Your Practice Can Generate Revenue While You’re Closed
TRBO Can Help Your Practice Prepare to Re-Open and Capture Market Share
If you would like help with setting up an online store or simply strategizing about your re-opening game plan then schedule a strategy session our growth expert Sonja Vaisz. You can also reach TRBO directly at 877-673-7096 x2 and drop us a line here.
