• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, May 24, 2018

Adthena analyzed thousands of paid-search ads and organic searches in the week leading up to the royal wedding. Some searches centered on who made Meghan Markle’s dress, while of others focused on related merchandise. 

Two designers -- Erdem and Jenny Packham -- generated the most attention and activity because, according to speculation, they were the most likely to make Markle’s dress.

The data suggests that this speculation impacted the amount marketers spent on paid-search advertising during the weekend. For example, Bergdorf Goodman and Matches Fashion saw click share rise for Bergdorf by 17% and Matches by 9% on the wedding day for the term “Erdem.” Neiman Marcus saw its click share rise by 27%, pushing out Nordstrom on the day of the wedding for the term “Jenny Packham.”

Amazon used a broad matching strategy against royal wedding-related search terms, most likely relying on Google’s Dynamic Keyword Insertion, according to Adthena’s data. In this case, the strategy failed because of the misspelled word “weding” for “wedding.”  

In the most aggressive bidding on paid-search ads around the term “Royal wedding,” National Public Radio (NPR) and E! Online gained 39% and 28% of clicks, respectively. News stories covered many angles, including stories on Meghan Markle’s father who had suffered a heart attack and did not attend the wedding.

Other keywords tied into the wedding décor also surfaced in searches. The data also revealed that Google Shopping had a major impact with product listing ads (PLAs) around the royal wedding focused on terms and products such as tea towels, flowers, flags, paper dinner plates, and fascinators.

The data also shows that the BBC bid on PLAs for the royal wedding, capitalizing on interest. The keywords seems to drive traffic to the BBC online shop focusing on royal wedding merchandise. They appeared most frequently, compared to other advertisers, on PLAs for royal wedding merchandise.  

Fashion websites mytheresea.com and farfetch.com also capitalized on the buzz with search terms such as “Stella McCartney Wedding Dress.” Markle wore a Stella McCartney dress for the reception.  

The site mytheresa.com increased its share of clicks from 45% to 85% in the four days leading up to the wedding day, pushing Farfetch’s share of clicks down from 36% to 16%. On the wedding day, however, mytheresa.com dropped out completely from the ranking, while farfetch.com gained a stronger presence with 72% of share of clicks on the wedding day.