• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, December 31, 2020

COVID-19 might have been the top keyword at MediaPost in terms of coverage, but when it came to search and performance marketing, readers had a thirst for information about if and when digital budgets would increase in 2021.

That's in addition to concerns about services, bias in query results and social justice.

Microsoft headlined in three spots among the 10 most read articles. Google received attention, but didn’t appear in a most-read headline on MediaPost until No. 11. Then the search engine appeared four times between No. 11 and No. 20 of the top read articles in 2020.

Instacart garnered the most attention in May, when it launched a self-service ad platform, offering an alternative to Google and Amazon. It launched the self-service tool for promoted products in search results in its ad platform as demand for its services boomed during the pandemic.

Here are the top 10 most read MediaPost articles for 2020 pertaining to search and performance marketing running in Search & Performance Marketing Daily.

No.  1:  Instacart Launches Self-Serve Ad Platform, Offers Alternative To Google, Amazon

No.  2:  Microsoft Clarity Debuts As Free Analytics Tool With Heat Maps

No.  3:  Rep. Jordan Asks Sundar Pichai To Assure Google Will Not Favor Biden

No.  4:  Microsoft Building One Platform To Run Ads On Bing, Google, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn

No.  5:  Families Of Women Who Portrayed Aunt Jemima Object To Change, Searches Skyrocket

No.  6:  Gartner CMO Spend Survey Shows How Digital Budgets Will Increase In 2021

No.  7:  CNN Donkey And Elephant Campaign Aims To Drive TV Viewership Through Social

No.  8:  Microsoft Bing Tracks COVID-19 Confirmed Cases, Aggregates Data And Articles

No.  9:  Gen Z, Millennial Beauty Shoppers Are Reluctant To Buy Unfamiliar Products

No. 10: Consumers Ready To Meet Brands At Drive-In Movie Theaters

When it came to the Inside Performance opinion blog, Google ranked No. 1 with Google Finds Balance With Election Results, As Social Media Flounders. Oracle’s pending partner acquisition with TikTok came in at No. 2, as more people wanted to know whey Oracle, not Microsoft should buy TikTok.

Racial injustice continued as a topic of interest. No. 3 focused on why retailers might stop using the phrase “Black Friday” in their holiday ads.  

No.  4:  Google Trends Reveal What Voters Think

No.  5:  The Lincoln Project Baits Trump With Propaganda

No.  6:  YouTube Ads Making An Impact, Brands Benefiting From Content Made For Kids

No.  7:  Social Distancing Makes Consumers Want To Engage More With Brands, Ads, Content

No.  8:  How Jack Daniel's Parent Brown-Forman Proves Content Performance

No.  9:  Fitness Equipment Brands: Time To Rethink Campaigns As Gyms Re-Open

No. 10: A Very Merry COVID Christmas? Pandemic Will Permanently Change Consumer Behavior: Analysts