Popular Covid-19 Search Keywords are Being Overlooked by Marketing Teams

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence

GumGum Inc. recently used artificial intelligence to demonstrate how popular Covid-19 search keywords are actually safe for brands to advertise with. This goes against the popular belief amongst advertisers that they should stray away from creating content that is connected to the term in their keyword tool.

Verity is the name of the A.I engine behind their assessment. It leverages machine learning to see which keywords are safe versus ones that could prove problematic for advertisers. They found over 2.8 million pages that had the popular Covid-19 search keywords over one week of time. Their algorithm determined that a majority of the content was safe and would not threaten brand image.

CEO: Corona Keywords Are Not Dangerous

The CEO of GumGum, Phil Schraeder, voiced his support for the concern surrounding using keywords that could put advertisers in jeopardy. Still, he maintained that after careful review, the company found coronavirus search words to be largely safe. The real risk, he suggested, was missing out on traffic spikes precisely at a time when more people would be online searching in general.

GumGum, for instance, experienced over 1 billion visitors during their testing period. Their publisher network saw more hits than normal. That means that advertisers could be ignoring potential business while being too concerned with covid-19 hysteria. In the advertising world, every impression counts.

Machine Learning to the Rescue

Using natural language processing, GumGum was able to see that numerous sites actually had relatively innocent mentions of the virus. This is contrasted with sites that are simply injecting the keyword to manipulate SEO and drive traffic, regardless of whether or not the keyword would naturally appear in the content.

Based on their proprietary system, there are different levels of threats. They ran an analysis based on threats that a Fortune 100 brand would have to deal with. Their conclusion? Keyword safety wasn’t an issue, even at that level. The CTO, Ken Weiner, claimed that marketers using a standard keyword tool wouldn’t have much to worry about.

CTO Suggests That Coronavirus Terms Can Be Safe for Brands

Weiner has a theory that covid-19 has gotten to a point where it affects everyone in society. That means that it’s different than other examples of brand damaging content. For instance, it’s not the same as an insurance company running keywords for auto parts. This is a global sensation.

The tech guru also pointed out that some niches are better off than others. Anything in tech, video games, or pop culture is okay, he said. Brand safety shouldn’t be an issue unless they have other content that is not relevant to their niche or the content they typically produce. Perhaps keyword tool suggestions are still the guiding light for publishers and advertisers that they always have been.

Life was so much simpler before Covid-19. It will be a long time before enjoying art festivals [as this one] and simple tasks like shopping will be a normal occurrence again.  On  the good note however, internet businesses are flourishing.