Google Correlate

Driving to work yesterday and, as usual, listening to NPR, I caught a fascinating piece about the new Google Correlate. Google has created a database that tracks search patters, similar to Google Trends. What makes Correlate different is that now you discover what other terms people are searching for, and most of the time, those terms are surprising and unrelated.

For example, if you plug in the term “romance novel” to Google Correlate, you will discover that people who Googled “romance novel” also Googled “old testament,” “get out of debt”, and “decorating tips.” If you plug in “2012 election” you find that people also searched “kindle fire” and “books on kindle”.

As a PR/marketing professional, this type of data fascinates me. Does this mean that most romance readers are concerned about getting out of debt? Possibly. Are people who are interested in the 2012 election also big readers? Most likely. This information brings new answers to the question, “What is your target audience?” We always knew romance readers were mostly women, but Google Correlate can help take things a step further.

Another feature that will play a big role in PR/marketing strategies is the state-by-state comparison chart. You can see the states where users are most heavily searching for your terms. People who Googled “romance novels” and “get out of debt” mostly live in Utah, Mississippi and Alabama. If you’re a romance writer, this information may tell you a trip to Salt Lake City is worthwhile, or contacting media outlets in Mississippi and Alabama could be worth your time. This is also key for purchasing online advertisements where you can set search parameters. In the instance of Facebook, not everyone puts “romance novels” as one of their interests. But almost everyone includes their location and gender. Instead of only targeting the ads at users who included romance novels as one of their interests, you can also target women in these geographical locations.

This database is very new and it shouldn’t be your only gauge when it comes to identifying your audience. But it’s a neat tool that brings new insight and information that, used correctly, could be invaluable to your publicity campaign.

Listen to the full NPR story here.