Have you ever read something in the press or on a media site and then searched online to learn more about the topic?
Almost everyone has.
After reading an article about a product or idea, many people use search engines to find deeper details about the topic or its elements. This workflow can drive short- or long-term brand or non-brand keyword search patterns.
By analyzing these patterns, you can answer very strategic digital marketing, PR, and SEO questions:
- What types of media placements drove these search patterns?
- What product messaging and positioning is driving audience interest?
- Should we consistently invest in PR or SEO instead of short-term campaigns?
- How do I steal my competitor’s best placements with our unique positioning?
- What publications should I use to test product positioning for a new go-to-market strategy?
- How do I increase the brand search for a new product launch?
These questions just scratch the surface of ways to apply this analysis to strategic search marketing, new category design, or general product management.
First, let’s define brand search behavior in the context of digital media and search.
What is brand search behavior?
Brand search behavior is how an audience searches for brand details as a result of either short-term or long-term engagement with brand messaging across other platforms. It is a strong indicator of brand engagement. As the audience learns about your brand or aspects of it, they will naturally search online for more details.
Brand search behavior can work like this:
- Problem awareness: Search begins after the audience identifies a need, issue, or potential solution from press, social, or advertisements, often using non-branded keywords to learn more (e.g., “best fitness tracker”).
- Brand-specific search: After researching or learning about potential solutions, the audience may search for specific brands using branded keywords (e.g., “Fitbit” or “Fitbit data”).
- Deeper search for validation: Consumers compare brands and seek detailed information using keywords like “vs.” or “reviews” to evaluate options.
- Purchase decision: The audience might use search terms focused on finding the best price, how to buy, or maybe contact (e.g., “buy Apple Watch” or “Apple Watch price”).
- Post-purchase search: After buying, consumers may search for support, tips, or community engagement (e.g., “Fitbit phone”).
This process provides deep insight into what drove this brand search behavior.
Analysis process overview
This process identifies the messaging, sources, and people driving an audience to search for a brand. The tool stack for analysis includes:
- Google Trends
- Glimpse
- Ahrefs
- Grok on the X platform
The steps are fairly simple:
- Select competitor phasing: Identify how people search for a competitor or your brand name.
- Uncover search patterns: Find short-term or long-term patterns in brand search patterns.
- Find the source of influence: Determine leading indicators of those patterns and what is driving brand search.
Starting by identifying the phrasing used to search the competitor ensures you’re finding the right keyword phrases that an audience uses to find the brand website.
The leading indicators, or the source of influence, can identify patterns for:
- Growth
- Decline
- Random changes
An audience can search for a brand name after reading just one or a few strategic placements or after consistent exposure to a brand’s messaging.
Example: Lectric eBike Analysis
Let’s use Lectric eBike as an example. They are an ebike brand that has grown from 37,000 to over 210,000 organic clicks per month, with over 150,000 clicks per month from brand searches. Their brand search has grown in the short- and long-term over the past few years.
- Select competitor and phrasing: Use a tool like Semrush to identify the top variations of brand keywords. For example, searches like “Lectric eBike” or “lectric” show variations people use.
- Identify patterns with Google Trends: Use tools like the Glimpse plugin to explore seasonality or year-over-year (YoY) trends. This aids in identifying growth patterns and exporting data for later analysis.
- Identify the source of influence: Determine media influencing growth patterns using tools like Grok for Twitter search, Ahrefs for brand mentions, and ChatGPT for analysis.
Key Insights and Bonus Tips
- Use Grok search for media coverage to identify potential trends.
- Ahrefs helps identify historical trends in brand coverage and can be paired with ChatGPT for deeper insights.
- Identifying major market factors driving demand is beneficial; consider using the PEST (political, economic, social, technological) model.
Conclusion
This guide helps in conducting competitor search behavior analysis. By applying the insights shared here, you can uncover effective strategies to surpass competitors in organic search and drive sustainable revenue growth.
Notes on data and analysis quality
- Ahrefs: While useful, it doesn’t account for advertising, social media, or physical publications.
- Grok: Provides real-time access to X data, but it’s unclear how much content beyond company-related posts is included.
- Google Trends: Doesn’t capture all searches and includes some crawler data.
- ChatGPT: Lacks access to real-time web data and may produce inaccurate insights, which should be manually verified.
