8th August 2022
An official Google study (reported by TechCrunch) has revealed 40% Of Gen Z use social media channels such as Tiktok and Instagram to perform online searches. The 18 to 24 year olds aren’t ‘Googling’ every lunch spot, bar or city break as much as older generations. This tells us that Google’s reign over the internet might well be losing revenue. So does this mean Google is destined for the same fate as Yahoo?
First YouTube’s shares hit the rocks with the release of Tiktok and Instagram Reels and now Google Search is feeling the pinch too. And with Tiktok being the fastest growing social media app to hit our smartphones, it’s not surprising Google are struggling to capture the attention of the Gen Z.
Senior Vice President of the search engine giant, Prabhkakar Raghwan, spoke recently at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference about how the zoomers are ditching Google in favour of their beloved social media networks. Raghwan remarked:
“We keep learning, over and over again, that new internet users don’t have the expectations and the mindset that we have become accustomed to.” he went on to say “the queries they ask are completely different.”
According to recent research they don’t typically use ‘keywords’, but opt for immersive content that is visually engaging and they want to hear from others who have documented their own experiences. Google believes these users may not want to leave their loved social media apps to search in a browser, so instead, they search within their social media apps to find content.
For Google, it’s time for them to up their game and start providing the Gen Z’s with immersive content that captures their ever wondering attention. Google has already been working on indexing popular TikTok and Instagram videos to show up on its feed. Currently, a user can type in a few keywords to Google followed by “Tiktok” and they will be served a row of results of Tiktok videos above any standard web pages. If you can’t beat them, join them?
For businesses wanting to reach that Gen Z audience a shift in marketing strategies might be needed. After all, you can’t buy ads on Google to target an audience that isn’t using Google! Planning a social media strategy might be the way forward. Although there’s no fast track to curating the perfect organic posts that will take off on Instagram or Tiktok, a strong strategy will help you get that bit closer to the Tiktok teens.
It’s worth noting that this study tells us that 60% of Gen Z are still running to Google to search which means the search engine still remains the dominant force. For how much longer, nobody knows!