It’s a Google world. We all just happen to live in it.
And bid in it.
Come rain or come shine.
Recently, Google added a post on their Google Developers page that demonstrated how to use Google AdWords scripts to “programmatically fetch weather information and adjust bids in a matter of minutes.”
The post is titled “Bid by Weather,” and goes on to explain, in great detail, the many nuances of this process, which involves Google Ads, Google Spreadsheets, OpenWeatherMap API and more.
In part, it reads:
“This script uses Google Spreadsheets to store the list of campaigns and their associated locations. A call to the OpenWeatherMap API is made for each location and weather conditions are calculated using some basic rules. If a rule evaluates to true, then a corresponding location bid multiplier is applied to the location targeting for the campaign.”
The example Google uses up front in the post involves consumers using the Internet and search engines to track down information on amusement parks on a hot, sunny day – as opposed to a cold, rainy and gray day.
Of course, rainy days aren’t all bad. And there are even plenty of examples of a company, brand or business using this same “Bid by Weather” process to find customers who really could use their assistance when the rain starts to pour down.
For example, you wouldn’t scramble to sell umbrellas while the sun is shining brightly outside, would you? And it stands to reason that more customers would go searching for a local umbrella seller when the forecast is calling for rain, yes?
Let’s just say you manage a site that sells umbrellas, and your data analyst figures out that your ROI for paid search is at its highest when you’re advertising while it’s raining – or just shortly before. So you decide to use the data from the OpenWeatherMap API to feed a Google AdWords script you’ve written.
This script automatically turns on specific campaigns in your account which coordinate with the parts of the country that are going to be experiencing rain in the next five days – or are currently experiencing rain.
As a result, you just might end up doing a few Seinfeld-esque umbrella twirls in celebration…as you watch the sales and revenue pour in. Heck, you might even end up doing a little Gene Kelly-inspired rain dance.
Of course, this is but one example of how you can creatively and effectively use Google AdWords scripts to help boost your business. For more helpful, interesting and inspiring ideas, download a copy of our Big Data ebook for FREE right now.
You can also see what one wise Weather Company executive had to say about using local weather data to provide timely, location-specific ads at the recent Mobile Shopping Fall Summit.
Oh and be careful out there. Before you know it, a lot of you out there are going to be wishing it was only rain that was falling from the sky.
Just remember, this same tactic works for snow shovel sales too.
