Marketing is a challenging profession during good times. In times of crisis, as in the current COVID-19 pandemic, “challenging” is an understatement. While we depend on marketing automation tools to lighten the load and improve efficiency on a regular basis, are they up to the work of handling a rapidly changing critical situation? 

The good news is yes, you can depend on your automation processes to handle volatile situations, as long as key core elements of search are considered and adjusted in a timely manner. These elements include:

• Evaluating bid modifiers. With a large percentage of people essentially sheltering in place at home, your time of day bid modifiers are probably in need of an assessment. What was a “normal” demand curve is no longer normal, in most cases. With people working from home or not working at all, expected patterns like weekend free time, mid-day lunch breaks and work arrival times have been upended. With most people staying at home or very close by home, geographic volume has most likely moved as well, so geographic bid modifiers also deserve an evaluation. Don’t forget that device behavior has most likely changed as well.
• News cycle effect on content demand. Think about the various topics that have been forefront in the news over the past few months related to COVID-19. With each new hot topic, searches on that topic spiked. Tracking these search spikes can help you to determine what kind of information your audience is looking for.
• Adjusting for creative approval lag time. When changing/adding ads resulting from a crisis situation, remember that your automation rules may need adjustment. Because of ad approval windows by Google and Bing, it’s possible that a special promotion may go live before the ads do. If your strategy is to pause evergreen ads when posting new promotional ads, you should wait until you know for sure that the new ads have gone live before pausing your other ads.
• Don’t forget your brand principles. When reacting quickly to tumult, it’s easy to go off message. While things like getting appointments scheduled online within a certain time frame or providing 24/7 contact availability are important brand promises, you may not be able to continue these during a crisis, at least temporarily. Revisit your evergreen messages that may need to be altered for a time. Make sure everything you’re telling your audience is valid.
• Monitor queries and Dynamic Search Ads. If you don’t want any crisis-related content to show up in campaigns, exclude them.
• Refine volatility alerts. What metrics do you really need to be alerted about? Think about what happened with your automation platform during the last volatile period and make adjustments as needed.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, marketers have a lot on their plates. Automation can help with your workload but take some time now to make adjustments for optimal performance during this time.