Women Found to Surpass Men in Valentine's Day Searches
Traditional Valentine's Day marketing has long revolved around enticing men to buy products for their wives and girlfriends. New search engine data might change this, however. According to Google's Retail Advertising blog, four out of the top ten Valentine's Day searches included male-gender specific phrases such as 'men's valentines gifts' and 'gifts for boyfriends.' None of the top ten search phrases were related to women. This suggests that search engine marketing might be better off targeting women come Valentine's Day 2011.
It was also found that search engines were used mostly to find ideas for presents rather than for buying any specific product. This suggests that markets should optimise their keyword campaigns by promoting Valentine's Day related keywords over product related keywords next year.
Erin Piper of the Google retail team couldn't help but note that: "Interestingly, searches are highest for 'gifts for boyfriend' with 'gifts for girlfriend' a very distant second, both trending well above gifts for husbands and wives. Is this because dating couples need ideas for a new boyfriend or girlfriend, or do married couples know exactly what to give each other?"
