How to manage your SEO campaigns during an economic downturn

Economic downturns create uncertainty and lead to changes in user behavior, impacting markets and forecasts, as well as the approach and resources allocated to marketing efforts.

No two recessions or economic downturns are the same, so marketers are operating in uncharted territory every time one occurs.

This article will help marketers manage their SEO campaigns and demonstrate the value of their efforts even during times of recession, market uncertainty, and major changes in target consumer behavior due to external factors.

Business in a recession

Consumers naturally cut back on spending and set stricter priorities during economic downturns.

When sales decline, companies begin to cut expenses, lower prices, and delay new investments. Unfortunately, marketing costs are often the first to be cut. This cost-cutting approach is ineffective and should be avoided.

Clients often judge SEO and paid search as separate channels, and SEO may be considered “okay to turn off for a while” while brands feel good about what they’ve done so far, assuming their current performance won’t worsen during a downturn.

But SEO isn’t the only channel that can be problematic: in 2009, the overall US advertising market saw a 13% decline, driven mainly by radio and magazines, which saw declines of 22% and 18% respectively, while “online” only saw a 2% decline.

Why not cut spending?

It may be good to hold costs down going into a downturn, but not supporting your brand or considering how your core customers’ needs are changing could jeopardize your mid- to long-term performance.

Organisations and trade bodies such as the IPA (Industry of Advertising) are calling this a “loss of mindshare”. In the UK, the IPA is Publicly advertisedIt warned brands not to cut marketing spending over the coming months.

It’s also worth highlighting that stagnant or slowing marketing spend can feel regressive.

Overall U.S. ad spend growth is projected to increase by about 10% in 2024. Compare this to the pre-2020 average growth rate of 23.3%.

There are a number of possible reasons for this year-over-year spending pattern:

• Market SaturationInvestment levels have reached a point where further investment in the current consumer market would result in diminishing returns.
• Price Pressure: As consumers go through times of economic uncertainty, their confidence and spending priorities with disposable income will shift, resulting in businesses looking to maintain advertising/marketing effectiveness without increasing spending.
• Market consolidation: As consumers spend less, smaller organizations or those unable to compete effectively may exit a given market. This leaves fewer but stronger organizations in the market, resulting in a more competitive environment with less competition for mental availability.

When reading research articles and thought leadership content from experts in the International Journal of Business and Social Science, Harvard Business Review, Economist and Financial Times, five key marketing objectives for a recession emerge.

• Spend and invest smarter.
• Retaining your existing customer base should be a priority.
• Exploit your competitors’ weaknesses.
• Monitor the market and adjust spending to target segments based on their behavior.
• Minimize your current expenses and spend smarter.

Digging Deeper: SEO for User Activation, Retention, and Community

How to Keep Your SEO Optimized During a Recession

The overall message is “don’t spend less,” which is great.

But when it comes to renewing our contracts or honoring retainer agreements, companies want to know how their SEO spend specifically impacts their bottom line.

To address this, we can look to the 2008 recession and the recent pandemic, when other businesses pivoted and changed their messaging across their digital marketing.

Use what you learn to help your clients and employers weather the economic downturn without disrupting their SEO efforts.

Check your TAM and messaging

Total addressable market (TAM) can be defined in a few ways:

The most common definition is the total number of people who could potentially use a product or service. For example, the TAM for a new smartphone would be the total number of people who own a mobile phone.

Although TAM has limitations, it is a useful metric for investors to assess a company’s growth potential. Companies with large TAMs are attractive to investors because they have the potential to generate a lot of revenue.

During a recession, businesses (B2B) and consumers will react differently depending on the stability of the economy.

Depending on your TAM, you may need to pivot your messaging and value proposition, which ties into your SEO strategy. Depending on whether your product is considered an essential, luxury, postponeable, or consumable, align your activities with these messaging goals.

During economic downturns, prices of essential items tend to be more volatile, so you may want to emphasize your value proposition even more to financially unstable consumers.

For those in your TAM who are doing well, you should continue your awareness campaigns (top-and-mid-funnel activities).

In comparison, luxury items are presented as exactly that: luxury items/rewards consumed as a reward for saving money in other areas. They also elicit a dopamine response and can boost morale.

The remaining two categories – deferrable and expendable – are the hardest to pivot.

Examples of things that can be postponed include TV streaming services and magazine subscriptions. Users who postpone ahead are likely to research cheaper alternatives so as not to miss out. During this exploration phase, you will need to fight to stand out and retain your existing users.

For other items that can be postponed (such as vehicle servicing, changing tires, or updating a home security system), supportive messaging should focus on the long-term financial and opportunity costs of not taking these actions now.

Supplies and services are more likely to affect local SEO than other sectors, as consumers will choose to carry out maintenance and upgrades themselves instead of hiring a gardener or decorator.

This is both an opportunity and a threat as you work to become recognized and build trust as a business and sell to consumers.

To do this, you need to understand the overall trustworthiness of your target consumers.

Understanding consumer trust

In addition to looking at your TAM, you should also look at consumer trust within your SOM (serviceable and earnable marketing) and SAM (serviceable and addressable market).

Consumer confidence is a measure of household optimism and how they feel about their financial security now and in the coming months.

Two common sources of this information at a macro level are the Michigan Consumer Confidence Index (MCSI) and the Consumer Confidence Index (CCI).

When consumers are confident, their disposable income is more likely to be spent on luxury, postponeable and consumable products/services. When disposable income is low, the focus is on essential goods/services.

You can collect your own data through surveys and engaging with your own community.

Talk to your sales team regularly. Your sales team talks to customers and potential buyers frequently. This gives you valuable insights, such as:

• What frustrates your target audience?
• What objections are they making?
• How they view their finances.
• Their view of your market.

These insights can help you understand your customers better, even if you can’t create your own economic indicators.

Smarter opportunity analysis and competitor targeting

Most businesses are focused on maintaining and retaining their market position during a downturn.

This is the perfect time to identify the consumers they currently have and work to attract them to your products and services. Targeting your competitors is the basis of any SEO campaign anyway.

However, price and value sensitivity increases during a recession, so your messaging and content can focus on the pain points consumers have with competitors’ products and services.

Turn these into competitive advantages to generate conversations with new prospects. You can create comparison content with your competitors to highlight their weaknesses as non-issues or highlight their strengths as your own.

For example, if you offer a rotating proxy service and you know that your competitor Bob’s Proxies has uptime issues, make sure your content highlights that your service doesn’t have those issues.

Learn more: SEO SWOT analysis: How to optimize what matters

Positioning for the post-recession era

SEO is a long-term strategy, but in economic downturns you need to balance the long and short term.

Consumer confidence and spending typically recover within a year or two of a recession, and when consumers return to post-recession spending levels (or establish new market norms), you want to be visible and stand out in your industry.

You can do this by establishing and maintaining top-of-the-vertical visibility and maintaining a consistent level of activity to stay competitive for lower-funnel conversion-focused queries.

Keeping SEO Momentum Going Through Uncertain Economic Times

Marketing can seem more challenging during an economic downturn. Customer spending habits change frequently, and you may have to act against your instincts.

It’s important to optimize your budget and set your priorities strategically so you can continue to market your products and services while still meeting your customer’s needs.

A recession can be an opportunity to build customer loyalty and mental availability across your SAM and TAM. During a recession, SEO can mitigate direct cost channels (e.g. paid) and provide long-term benefits and short-term stability.

Google and other search engines are continually updating during this time, and competitors who remain stagnant and withdraw resources will suffer in the mid to long term and will cost even more in the future to recoup lost performance and the opportunity cost of lost visibility.