Tips marketing: What types of marketing are hot Google search terms and phrases

Ok, I got my data geek hat over the last couple days and was goofing around with Google Adwords Key Word Tool, Google Trends and Google Insights for Search looking for the most popular forms of marketing (according to Google). These are different but very related tools and for those not familiar:

• Google Insights for Search compares search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties.
• Google adwords keyword tool is intended to help you evaluate and discover the performance of different keywords and phrases, but evaluation data revolves around volume, advertising competition and trends.
• Google Trends is a great way to compare search trends between keywords and phrases with some nice charting, geographic and language comparison as well as initial organic results.

Once again, the purpose of this was to look at various types of marketing and see how they are trending on search results. I was personally very interested in some topics dear to my heart, but I'll keep those to myself for now. I also decided to remove the obvious leaders like advertising, direct marketing and product marketing from the discussion (FYI - nothing is close to "advertising" as a search term at 9m/mo). 


In general, among the 500 terms I studied, social marketing, viral marketing and mobile marketing are extremely hot topics.  In terms of search, we've seen non-English speaking countries (India, Africa, Singapore etc) leading the way with marketing related English terms and phrases going back to 2004, but many of these top phrases have dropped off in recent years. Additionally we're seeing other, more traditional marketing terms and phrases on the decline because interest has spread online, particularly around social media. Knowing that I spent only a morning on this, here is the detail around the Google Keyword tool's top 10 in global monthly search volume:

1. Sports marketing - The fact that sports marketing is so high on the list surprised me too. It has 165k global searches/mo and jumps to 201k locally. It peaked back in 2004 though and has slowly declined back into the pack with other terms. In fact, it has declined almost 60% since 2004. It has been most popular in US and the other English speaking countries, with Singapore and South Korea being the top non-english speaking countries.
2. Social marketing - Has 165k searches\mo and jumps to 201k locally. It has peaked this year matching its previous record in 2004. Strangely, this term is led by non-English speaking countries such as Kenya, Ecuador and Pakistan. The related searches rising the quickest relate to Facebook where Google doesn't even give data and just says "breakout." In the US this is quickly rising throughout the country with "social media marketing" being the most significant alternative term.
3. Event marketing - Has 135k searches\mo but has dropped 60% since 2004. Regionally it's most used in South Africa, India and Singapore, but with the US and other English speaking countries rounding out the top10.  
4. Marketing public relations - Kind of a funny  term, but it has 135k searches\mo. However it has also dropped 60% since 2004. It has similar regional interest as event marketing, but the US rises to 3rd here.
5. Viral marketing - Has 135k searches\mo and is holding globally, but falls to 90k locally. It climbed slowly since 2004 but dipped a bit since the economic recession. This term is also popular in non English speaking countries such as Singapore, India and Indonesia, but UK, Australia and Ireland are in the top 10.
6. Promotion marketing - Has 110k searches\mo, but has fallen 60% since its peak in 2004 as well. Similarly led by Africa.
7. Strategic marketing - Has 110k searches\mo, but fell to 90k locally. It has also fallen 60% since 2004 and is led by Africa.
8. Mobile marketing - Has 110k and has held steady since 2004, but fell to 74k locally. Regionally it's led by India, Pakistan and South Africa. Most English speaking countries don't rank high here. However, the term in the US has risen consistently since 2004.
9. Integrated marketing - Has 90k searches/mo and is dominated by non-English speaking countries.  However integrated marketing has fallen 40% since 2004.
10. Digital marketing - Has 90k searches/mo and is dominated by non-English speaking countries.   Digital marketing has peaked this year, climbing 20% since 2004. In the US this has been on the rise in recent years with alternative terms like Digial media marketing and digital media also being used.

As a next step, I decided to replace the phrases on the decline (noted in red above) with the six highest that are trending up or at least holding steady.

1. Video marketing - Has 60k global searches/mo and is consistent locally. This is still most popular in India, Malaysia and Indonesia but the US is a strong 5th regionally. The related searches the are rising quickest are "youtube video marketing" and "youtube marketing" which are having "breakout" years. In the US this has continued with a strong search volume but also uses phrases like online or internet marketing with "viral video," and "viral video marketing" growing fast. 
2. B2B marketing - Has 49k global searches/mo and is consistent locally. This is largely led by India but UK and US are 3rd and 4th. This has been dominated by the eastcoast and westcoast in the US and held consistent volume over time.
3. Guerrilla marketing - Has 40k global searches/mo and is consistent locally. This is oddly most popular in Austria and the Philippines, but the US is not far away at 8th. In terms of rising searches, people are trying to figure out what this means by looking for blogs, examples, tactics etc. In the US this term has held steady across the country.
4. Social media marketing - Also has 40k global searches/mo but drops to 30k locally. It's had 80% growth however since mid 2008 and is only now peaking. Terms that relate such as "Facebook marketing" and "Twitter marketing" are quite strong with "social networking marketing", "social media strategy" rising the quickest. This is again dominated by India and Singapore, but the US, Canada, and Australia fill out the top 5. Within the US this is pushed by the eastcoast and westcoast.
5. Buzz marketing - Has around 33k global searches/mo but drops to 12k locally. Technically they've dipped since the recession, but I didn't feel it was as significant compared to others. This is primarily driven by France with the US in 4th. The most logical related search includes "viral buzz marketing", but topics such as "blog marketing" are rising fast. In the US however, the term has been declining. 
6. Experiential marketing - This has about 22k searches/mo globally but drops to 12k locally. This term has held steady over the years with related searches using combinations such as "experiential event marketing." There is a quickly rising expansion of variations as well. In the US this is most common in the midwest and eastcoast.

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