Ozone’s lead strategist, Frances Lazenby, cracks open the insight vault to take a look at how our readers have been engaging with personal finance content during 2020’s unsettled times.
Even before coronavirus reared its head, many consumers were fearful of the wider economic impact of Brexit (remember that!) on their personal finances. This, coupled with other policy changes such as the raising of the state retirement age or our consistently low interest rates, means there is little surprise in seeing the nation’s purse strings tightening, or at the very least, becoming a bit tangled.
But COVID certainly added a bigger global spin to that. New words like furlough have become part of our country’s vernacular and every day we heard more worrying tales from the depressed economy. It’s at times like this we see consumers turn to trusted sources - such as our thoroughly-researched personal finance editorial - for information, reassurance and advice.
As the UK entered lockdown, the page views of our personal finance content rocketed by over +60% during March, suggesting a nation fearful of what this new world would mean for them and their pocket. This short period of panic - which coincided with supermarket shelves being stripped of pasta and toilet paper - appeared to be relatively short-lived with personal finance page views returning to ‘normal’ levels as we got used to a new way of living.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this spike in readership was driven by a greater proportion of consumers seeking out content to help with financial assistance. Yet, what we’ve seen steadily happen over the past six months is that content return to normal levels and an increasing reader interest in Savings-based content. Given the continued uncertainty, it makes sense that people will want to put a little bit more to one side, if they can.
When thinking about when to catch users engaged with personal finance content, readership patterns are fairly consistent across the working week. However, we see a significant drop in consumption over the weekends as more people switch from their task-based working lives to a more relaxed, lighter mindset - although I’m sure some will still read finance content for fun!
Peak day for reading is a Monday as readers face up to the working week and switch on to get things done. Overall however, and in a pattern that’s represented for every day of the week, first thing in the morning provides the maximum opportunity for reaching consumers each day.
When analysing Ozone’s personal finance content, we can see that the overall tone of the editorial skews towards negative. This is to be expected given that we are in the midst of a deep recession. Much of the personal finance content published by our teams will be focused on helping readers navigate this challenging climate, and so the tone while reassuring and helpful is likely to be framed in this context.
Within personal finance there are areas of difference. For example Personal Banking, Taxation and Retirement Planning content all have the highest negative sentiment scores, which is understandable as these are not always cheery subjects these days! However, when looking at Savings content, over half of this is positive sentiment with only a small percentage being categorised as negative.
While sentiment analysis helps us understand more about what content readers are engaging with, it’s important to remember that this is about the nuances in editorial style and writing, and not about running ads in unsafe environments. In fact, studies have shown that on premium, brand-safe websites, content with either positive or negative sentiment bias create more impact for advertising than in neutral content.
In conclusion, following the ‘panic peak’ of personal finance reading in March, consumption of this content remains incredibly strong across our network and specifically we’re seeing more users come to read about Savings. The best time to reach them is earlier on in the week, with early mornings being the optimal daypart. For personal finance brands, it’s also worth thinking about the sentiment of the content-type to ensure creative and messaging is in line with the broader tone of editorial.
With near universal reach of all UK adults, our reader insights provide a content-driven barometer for real-life consumer behaviours. If you’d like to find out more, drop us a line here.
