How the Coronavirus pandemic is affecting social media advertising: Five things you should know

In this new and evolving environment, businesses are looking to maintain operations and minimise the impact of the largest global shutdown in history. But there’s a lack of clarity on how they should behave, particularly when it comes to marketing and promotional activities, areas that many of our clients are engaged in at a corporate communications level.

With much of the world in lockdown, we’ve seen an accelerated shift to digital forms of communication, and social media platforms are reporting significant increases in usage. People are spending more time online to stay connected with the outside world, yet we’re seeing a
decline in near-term digital advertising spend.

Given audiences are cautious of businesses they perceive as capitalising on the pandemic, reducing online advertising might seem like a safe bet. However, a recent study found that the vast majority of people believe businesses should continue to advertise during the Coronavirus crisis, and a number of studies have found that brands which maintain their ad budgets during economic downturns tend to come out better off on the other side.