Search volume soared before hitting a low point this year…
No one can argue that the Electronic Cigarette industry is booming. Since 2007 worldwide searches for terms associated with “electronic cigarette” have seen a huge increase peaking in January 2012 and every January after that (due to the additional new year stop smoking related searches).
It’s not surprising given the amount of controversial press coverage the Electronic Cigarette industry continues to receive that searches increase when the industry makes the headlines. But will searches continue to rise for this booming industry or is it already starting to decline?
This brief report gives some insight into the rise of the Electronic Cigarette industry and how it’s changing where online search is concerned.
More search volume in the UK than anywhere else
Interestingly, searches online are more so in the UK than anywhere else in the world, closely followed by Cyprus and then the USA.
Searches for electronic cigarette declining in both the UK and USA
Interestingly, the two countries that have similar search volume (UK and USA) are both now seeing a decline in searches for terms such as “Electronic Cigarette” with UK searches now at their lowest point since 2011 and US searches at their lowest since 2009.
New Search Terms on the Rise
By comparison a number of search terms such as “Vapour Cigarette” are actually increasing, rapidly:
Whilst there are significantly less searches for terms such as “Vapour Cigarette” than “Electronic Cigarette” the current trend is clear and if trends for both terms continue the two will potentially take each others place in terms of overall volume.
Summary
Is this a sign the industry is slowing down? Perhaps, but it is certainly a sign that search patterns are changing with more, varied search terms being used and it’s this combined with the sheer amount of competition in search which means E-Cigarette brands should react and take a wide and varied approach to their online marketing.
It’s crucial, as it is with any industry, to understand how customers are searching and understand when they’re searching more and indeed less. Using this information, brands can learn how best to deploy their marketing efforts and maintain realistic expectations based on statistical facts such as the above.
All data provided by Google Trends
