Insight
Back-to-school: Retail, Tech, and Audience online trends for 2022
School will be back in session before we know it, and it’s time for advertisers to prepare for increased volumes for Retail and Tech.
Microsoft Audience Insights found several key takeaways for search when looking at year-over-year (YoY) back-to-school trends. Firstly, there is a rise of interest in homeschooling with clicks expected to start rising in July.1 Consumer Electronics also tends to increase near the start of the new school year, with laptops and tablets seeing an increase in volume around back-to-school season.1 We also expect clothing activity to peak in September, possibly indicating that consumers will continue shopping for clothes after school starts.2
This back-to-school season, prioritize reaching teachers, parents, and degree students by leveraging In-market Audience targeting options. Also, be sure to include both native and search in your strategy to drive incremental lift in site visitation and conversion rate.3
For year-over-year search, click trends, forecasting, audience, and native takeaways, download the full insights.
[1] Microsoft internal data, June 2019 to September 2021
[2] Microsoft internal data, June 2022 – September 2022
[3] Microsoft internal data; Microsoft Advertising query path data for US BTS Retailers, November 2021 – January 2022; Native = Microsoft Audience Network.
