Report: COVID-19 Has Forced the Majority of Marketers to Shift Top Priorities

The COVID-19 outbreak has already been felt across many industries, and new research shows that marketers are shifting their priorities as a result of the pandemic.

LinkedIn recently released a report titled, “COVID Marketing Impact and How Marketers are Responding,” and statistics showed that for the majority of marketers (76%), being forced to shift marketing priorities has been the top challenge during the pandemic. Other obstacles include budget cuts (74%), advertising investments and planning (69%) and switching in-person to virtual events (69%).

Approximately 67% of marketers say that the COVID-19 outbreak has had at least “some impact” on their campaign strategies, while 18% say it’s had a “major impact.”

With more marketing activities shifting online, 67% of marketers are now increasing their investment in webinars, and 44% are boosting their spend on online video. About 34% are increasing their investment in search, while 39% are doing so with paid social.

COVID-19 and Marketing Spend on Google Search

As marketing priorities shift due to COVID-19, previous research suggests that Google search ad spend, in particular, is falling.

Merkle conducted its “Digital Marketing Report” for the first quarter of this year, and data showed that Google search ad spend grew just 11% year-over-year in Q1 2020. This was a decrease from 16% growth recorded in Q4 2019, and the weakest growth the authors of the report have seen in more than eight years.

Spend and click growth fell sharply in the second half of March 2020, specifically due to the COVID-19 outbreak, according to the researchers of the report.