Marin Launches Context Connect, Says Retailer Impressions Surged During Polar Vortex

As the brutal Polar Vortex weather system bore down on much of the U.S. this winter, consumers apparently hunkered down and passed the time by doing more online shopping. According to Marin Software, paid search impressions surged for retailers January 19 to 25, which happened to be the coldest week of the polar vortex. The […]

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Winter Boots SERP ResultsAs the brutal Polar Vortex weather system bore down on much of the U.S. this winter, consumers apparently hunkered down and passed the time by doing more online shopping. According to Marin Software, paid search impressions surged for retailers January 19 to 25, which happened to be the coldest week of the polar vortex.

The bad news for retailers is click volume and spend didn’t keep pace with the increased consumer interest. Search ad impressions skyrocketed 1,500 percent above historic trends while click volume increased 268 percent and spend rose 79 percent. “Advertisers failed to fully optimize for the dramatic shift,” said Marin in a statement.

Marin used the change in consumer behavior it saw during the polar vortex to illustrate why it has developed a new feature called Context Connect for its campaign management platform. The solution let’s marketers take current events into consideration when managing their campaigns, so that when consumer interest flares, advertisers are in a position to act.

“The new capability lets advertisers incorporate weather, television, inventory, sports scores, stock market fluctuations, and other contextual data into their digital marketing campaigns, allowing them to execute smarter optimization strategies and capitalize on environmental changes that affect their business,” said the company. “Marketers can evaluate search, social, and display performance alongside contextual attributes to quickly identify trends and take immediate action by adjusting audiences, creative, and bidding across campaigns.”


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About the author

Ginny Marvin
Contributor
Ginny Marvin was Third Door Media’s former Editor-in-Chief (October 2018 to December 2020), running the day-to-day editorial operations across all publications and overseeing paid media coverage. Ginny Marvin wrote about paid digital advertising and analytics news and trends for Search Engine Land, MarTech and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.

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