COVID-19 is bane for many business verticals but also a boon to some. It is likely that your business must have fallen under the category of “boon, bane or no-effect” wrt your Analytics tool during COVID-19. But the point is how will you analyse your business performance during this crisis? Here I will tell you how to find the effect from your Business Analytics tool during COVID-19 and let the C-level know- “There is no need to panic BOSS! We are under the “no-effect” category.” OR “Boss, as per our business analytics during COVID-19, we need to recreate our Acquisition Strategies and move them to something else as we are under the “bane” category.”
So, it is the time to analyse the listed factors in order to judge the business performance, decide priorities & take action now during COVID-19!
1. Take a close look over Geographic trends
This is obvious that you have a unique set of audience arriving from any City/Region/Country/Continent or you operate worldwide.
Let us suppose, you are selling in the United States and you know that all traffic to your website comes from the US only. So, check in your Analytics tool, whether traffic from the United States is hampered or is it constant? If it looks like the below “time-series” line graph, then take a deep breath, you are under the “no-effect” category and there is still a demand for your product and business performance is OK.
Also notice that I have selected the graph to be as “month by month” analysis, because we want an overall trend analysis when this pandemic has hit the US, i.e., after January 2020.
But if you see a negative trend, then you should skip to point 4 and analyse that aspect.
2. Look into your Conversion trend
So, now you know that “demand” for your product is constant during COVID-19, but what about the sales? The revenue? As demand for your product does not necessarily mean that people are buying. So, you now need to check the trend of the conversions as well. Just include the “conversions” with “users” in the above graph and you will get the trend of your conversions too. What do you observe? A negative trend in your goal completions? That means visitors are just checking & researching your products and your products might be either “out of stock” or “can’t be delivered.” If you see a positive or no-effect trendline in conversions, then you can now assure that everything is right and you are under the “no-effect” category. And you can continue with the same strategies for sustaining the business performance during COVID-19.
But if you are under the “bane” category and business performance during COVID-19 is declined as above graph then it’s time to dive more into the data and figure out what people are doing if, not buying?
3. Figure out your “Notify me when available” click trends or “Email Subscription” trends
If you are having an ecommerce site, then you must be having these options. If you found these trends to be rising, then, you are now going “out of stock” for many products. But it is a good sign that people are still being loyal to you in the COVID-19 crisis. So, this is a great indication that you should now move to “branding” of yours as this can always put you in hitting the minds of everyone subconsciously, and will effect your business performance in a positive way.
4. Check for your product searches in “Google Trends”
Google Trends is a free tool by Google which shows the Search Volume and its trend of any search happening on Google Search, YouTube Search, etc.
This will help you in knowing whether the people are searching for your product or business? Is there any demand for your product or not during COVID-19? Because if there won’t be the demand, then there will be no traffic and no sales. Here is how you can check in Google Trends:
Firstly, logon to this URL Secondly, choose your targeted country
Thirdly, in the box, write the “search term” of your product. For example, if you sell Iphones, then you will write “iphone.”
Press “Enter” and you will find what is the current trend of searches during COVID-19 in your targeted country. If you found this to be decreasing, then, there is no point for now in advertising about your product. The negative trendline could look like the below image.
Now, don’t waste your money on the products which are not being searched during COVID-19. Instead, now it is the time to move to “branding” of your business through Social Channels or Google Display Ads. This will impact users because as the COVID-19 crisis will be over, they will come to you.
These were the core factors through which you can analyse your business performance during COVID-19, and take actions accordingly.