Content Analytics: how to use Google Trends data to identify regional interests

It's been a while since I last published a content analytics article, but I promise it will not disappoint. In this article I will discuss the use of Google Trends insights to understand regional interests and local community discussions. This is not only unbelievably valuable information for local journalists, but also for marketers, advertisers, brands, sports teams, and sports rights holders to understand better the interests of their brand.

As mentioned in a previous post, I distribute weekly reports to all our regional news offices. In this, I analyze a couple of important metrics valuable to our journalistic operations. Obviously, paywall hits are one of them. More importantly, transactional insights are also one of them. As an analyst, it is common practice to look at historic results to identify and explain variations in performance. Based on this information, one forms hypothesis on what could improve the business' operations, helping key decision makers to ask better questions. (More on what an analyst REALLY does can be found in this excellent article).

So, the goal is to understand local community conversations. This is where Google Trends come in. Often asked by our regional chief-editors is the question "if I were to increase paywall hits, how do I know what topics to write about"? This is an excellent question. Let me first say that these newsrooms have a fantastic sixth sense for identifying newsworthy events. It is their job to identify a potential news story based upon their experience, instinct, and journalistic education. And they are incredibly good at it. But not always, this set of information can cover the entire spectrum of discovering regional debate. And instead of me performing various analyses around previous topics that have performed well (which I also do), I also recommend them to have a look at what's currently trending on Google in their respective region. One of the main learnings from Everybody Lies by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, I've learned that people don't always speak up about what they think or want. Often referred to in the book, sexual desires make up most of the internet's search results but it's not something people talk about publicly. Thus, internet behavior analysis enters the research scene. Because what do people often do when they have a question or want to know something about something? They google it. And these results can be analyzed, as I've learned from the book. Whatever your area of work is, it's a highly recommended read. But instead of me sharing the Amazon link here, please buy/order the book at your local bookstore. They need your support.

Back to analyzing Google Trends data. This source provides an incredible amount of insight on what is keeping local communities busy. Using the Pytrends package for Python, I've been analyzing these online conversations. Here's a random example for what Google Trends can tell us: take one wild guess on what's been keeping the local community in Catalonia busy these days...

It's fair to say that the match against FC Bayern Munich made the club FC Barcelona a laughingstock. And since the coach Setien got sacked the day after the 2-8 result, the debate for his successor started. Two names were mentioned: Pochettino and Koeman. But was Pochettino ever a realistic option for the locals of Catalonia?

Only briefly, the Catalans considered Pochettino. But once a day later Koeman was also mentioned as the new coach, Pochettino's day was over.

Google Trends for news

Imagine using this for journalism. What should sports journalists write about with so much football happening: Champions League or Europa League? A simple search result would already give answers:

Back to the regional news discussion: what should local journalists write about? One can simply use Google Trends to find out what's happening locally by finding all related search terms connected to a local city or event name. Here are some examples of other applications what you could do with Google Trends data:

• Advertising: identify the most popular keywords and thus target your relevant (!!) ads
• Marketing: find out what people are saying about your product, what related searches they make
• Sports marketing: find out when people Google for tickets, merchandising etc. and plan your campaigns to the moment when your fans are most ready to buy.

Previous articles in this series:

• Content Analytics: the content shelf life
• Content Analytics: identifying the best transaction moments

If you liked this article, please let me know via a comment so I can understand what to share more of. Also, I work as a consultant in sports business & media around fan engagement, data analytics & strategy. If you want to work with me, please feel free to connect & DM me or have a look at my website.