To compare COVID-19 related shifts in strategy for multiple advertisers, visit our Advertiser Comparison tool.
Utilizing your Date Range Filter
Adjust your date frame to your preferred time period. Pathmatics suggests performing week over week or month over month date range comparisons to identify COVID-19 spend shifts.
To view week over week or month over month trends side by side, save your comparison and open a new web page with a new week or month date range.
Example:
Open an Advertiser Comparison and adjust your date range to the month of February 2020.
Open a new Advertiser Comparison containing the same competitive set, and set your date range to March 2020. Toggle between web page tabs to easily view monthly data shifts.
Overview Insights
Your comparison Overview will allow you to identify spend and impression changes over time, as well as any changes in the volume of creatives each advertiser launched.
Example:
Both Burger King and McDonald’s decreased spend significantly from February 2020 to March 2020, with Burger King cutting spending in half and McDonald's decreasing spend by roughly one-third. Wendy’s saw an increase in spend and creative volume from February to March:
February 2020:
March 2020:
Device Breakdown Insights
View your device breakdown to see any shifts in advertiser device strategy.
Example: Did an advertiser move ad dollars over to social media platforms and away from desktop devices?
Historical Comparison Insights
Identify which points throughout each month an advertiser increased or decreased spend via your Historical Comparison graph.
Example:
McDonald's experienced an overall decrease in spend during February 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic increased severity across the US:
Publisher Insights
Many advertisers have been adjusting strategy when it comes to the sites they are purchasing on due to COVID-19. To view which sites your competitive set is running on, visit the Top Sites Running Creatives for chart:
Example:
McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King have all been continuing to spend on Hulu.com over the months of February and March, as many Americans are enjoying ample streaming time as a result of mandatory lockdown.
Additional References
Visit our Key Date Tracker to identify major COVID-19 events and their influence on shifts in data.
For a comprehensive overview of Advertiser Comparison visit our Advertiser Comparison Article in Knowledge Base.
If you have any questions regarding pulling specific insights, please contact your Client Service Manager.