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Observations on ad serving activities during a disease outbreak

Most people have a daily routine that they follow to the letter, but there are times in life when that routine is forced to change. The changes that they make can have a ripple effect that spreads out across a variety of different places and activities. There are many reasons why a person might suddenly change their routine, with illness, or the fear of getting sick, sitting at the top of the list. Flu season can bring about changes to the daily routines, as can more widespread diseases that strike fear into the heart of the world population. Let's take a closer look at how a situation like that can make a difference to ad serving activities.

Stay home and avoid busy places

Where people view their ads and how they respond to them can change quite dramatically during a disease outbreak. You will find that people try to stay home as much as possible, while also avoiding going to potentially busy places like restaurants and movie theaters. Business that advertise in those specific categories may see less bang for their buck, with people simply waiting for the outbreak to pass. TV ads may reap greater rewards here, with more folks tuning in at times when they normally would not.

Perform more online social activities

Even when choosing to stay home, people still want to stay in touch with friends and family. This means that the amount of time spent online, texting, or interacting on social networks and online games increases. Advertisers who put a lot of resources in getting the message out via those avenues may well see a spike in their click-through rate and responses to ads.

Do more online shopping

The number of people who do the majority of their shopping online increases with each passing year, but the numbers will more than likely spike during a disease outbreak, which once again goes back to the fact that people are more inclined to stay at home. Online businesses may well see an increase in sales during these periods. Services such as online grocery delivery and food delivery may also see new users sign up. While some may do so on a trial basis, others will almost certainly stick around even after the disease outbreak is contained.

Benefit many publishers

People spending more time online means that they will have more time to do things they would normally not. In the case of a disease outbreak, the demand for up-to-date information increases, which may mean that articles on the subject, as well as news pieces about the disease, get a lot more viewers and generate more ad impressions. Those sites will almost certainly see a spike in ad revenue, especially if they are of the pay-per-view variety.

Generate more online traffic

All of the items that we have mentioned here bring us to a rather obvious conclusion, which is that online traffic as a whole will increase during a disease outbreak. Simple math tells us that this will lead to more pageviews and a higher number of ads served, which increases the likelihood for online advertisers and publishers making more money during this uncertain period of time.

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