1. For fast focus group data: YouTube Analytics and Google Consumer Surveys
You probably know the lyric: “Start at the very beginning, it’s a very good place to start.” As marketers, we know different. For us, every new beginning starts with the end … of our last campaign. What specific, actionable learnings from last time can we apply before we begin? To pinpoint those learnings, know who on your internal or agency team has access to your YouTube Analytics dashboard and ask them to take you through the results of your last campaign.
2. For in-depth consumer insights: Google Trends
Google Trends is another great tool to confirm hypotheses about your audience’s interests. Or if you’re still exploring topics, Google Trends will show you where your audience’s interest is growing or dying off. Within your competitive set or industry, what topics of interest can you uniquely own? Google Trends will help you find an answer.
3. For more ideas on what consumers love: Google Correlate
The last tool we’ll explore is Google Correlate. Think of Google Correlate as a matchmaker for search trends. Say you’ve discovered a rising trend—like “how to contour”—and you want to find more topics like it that your audience is interested in. Google Correlate looks for other queries that follow a similar search pattern. Unlike “related searches” in Google Trends, these are not searches that are necessarily related to contouring—just searches that happen along the same timeline. You can learn more about Google Correlate and how to use it here.
Burak Bakay 