How Google Trends Can Help Your Content Creation
There is no shortage of advice for when to post your content. Some advice suggests high noon! Others say “right after work is best!”. The problem with these recommendations is that none are tailored to the specific type of content you’re posting. Sure, the general populace normally sifts through YouTube on Sundays, so it’s usually a good bet. But are viewers of your particular topic really looking for your content at that time? How do you know? Is there a way to find out?
The goal of this article is to empower Content Creators by giving an overview of a simple and free tool that can be used as a starting point. As a Content Creator, you can discover insights into when your prospective viewers are more likely to search for your content. We’ll help you get there.
Google Trends API
Both free and publicly available, Google Trends is an incredibly underutilized resource for Content Creators. You can use this tool to enter any search term of your choosing, limit to YouTube, choose your date range, category (if you’d like), geographical location, and voila! You have greater insights into when your target audience is searching for the content you provide.
Google Trends shows Relative changes in search volume. Basically — it won’t tell you exactly how much or how popular a search term is, but it can tell you comparatively if the search volume is growing, shrinking, or not changing much at all.
Attack on Titan Case Study: Search Interest Spikes
Let’s go through an example for Attack on Titan (since here at SUGOI we’re pretty star crazy about anime!)
As you can see, the above shows the search interest of “Attack on Titan” over the past 90 days. It doesn’t quite look as you’d expect though does it? You’ll notice peak interest in the Search Term right on May 29th, 2020.
Peaks in Search Interest like this can be enormously insightful. Let’s dig in and use Google search to see if anything happened on May 29th that would bring about such a dramatic increase in interest!
Ah, there we go! The number one search result by Funimation tells it all! The trailer for the new season of Attack on Titan came out on the day of the spike, harboring massive interest from the Attack on Titan fan base (see the full article here)
So, as an Anime Content Creator, there can be enormous value to retrieving the newest content, as quickly as possible. You’ll want to try your best to “catch that wave” (as surfers like to phrase it!).
Naruto Case Study: Daily Insights
Trends data usefulness extends past simply capturing massive spikes in search trend interest. Useful insights can also be captured on a more granular scale. Maybe you’re interested in the time of day that viewers are most likely to search for your content.
Let’s explore that use case through the lens of another favorite among Anime Content Creators, Naruto.
From this Chart, we’re able to see that the time of day where Search Interest is the highest is roughly 2AM Mountain Time (you can see the time when you hover your mouse over the graph, Google uses your local time). Question solved!
Additionally, we’re able to see data like related topics/queries, and more specifics on where in the U.S. Search Interest is the highest. Take a look at the additional information provided by this Trends example:
Looking at this, we discover even more interesting information about our viewers! Top sub region is Hawaii, why is that? Do they have any environmental triggers that makes Naruto extraordinarily popular there?
The manga series is the top search interest? Are “Manga Read Aloud” YouTubers capitalizing on something many of us didn’t know was a thing? Similarly, “Naruto vs” are many viewers simply die-hard fans who want to see Naruto battling every villain in the book?
Equipped with these trends, you’ll be able to pose these sort of questions and begin to tailor your content to the needs and wants of your base. After all, the more your content fits your target demographic, the more likely you are to succeed at growing a truly interested and passionate viewer base!
We hope this brief walkthrough was helpful!
Google Trends is a powerful resource that we’re happy to introduce to our Anime Content Creators. If you have any additional questions, or you’d simply like someone to bounce ideas off of, feel free to reach out to us on our site. We believe in your success, and we’d love the opportunity to aid Content Creators in their journey!
Adventure on Anime enthusiasts!
