Pet Care Services Trend Forecast
March 2024 - Updated Monthly
With years of experience as digital marketing consultants for pet care service providers, Pet Resort Marketing – Powered by Nehmedia, Inc. has industry knowledge that is unmatched. Our customized approach includes diving into the data to make informed decisions and strategic recommendations for each client.
The past few years have accelerated the digital transformation that was already underway, making online traffic more important than ever. And for pet resorts, veterinary clinics and others in the pet services business, the pandemic has impacted "paw" traffic in both positive and negative ways. Our approach to understanding the trends includes analyzing the historical data, building a model to help forecast future interest and using it to create a marketing strategy based on reliable data.
PRM has developed a linear regression model with seasonal adjustments and pandemic corrections based on the Google Trends data since January 1, 2019. The equation models the expected search trends based on four years of historical data, while adjusting for seasonality and for the dips and surges from the pandemic. By using this predictive model, we are able to forecast search volumes in 2023, which are shown below in Orange dashed lines.
Google Trends tells us what people are searching for, in real time. We can use this data to measure search interest in a particular topic, in a particular place, and at a particular time. This data is widely recognized as a reliable source for understanding search queries and gaining insights about your potential customers.
Source: Google.com
U.S. “Dog Boarding Near Me” Search Demand Forecast vs Google Trends
Pet parents have a lot of choices and factors to consider when they are looking for overnight pet care. They wonder, "Should I ask my in-laws / neighborhood teenager / pet-sitter-that-I-found-online to come over and take care of my dogs?" The reality is that pet resorts offer safety, security and socialization that cannot be matched by other pet care options. Pet parents who are searching for "Dog Boarding Near Me" have either already figured this out, or will be convinced after visiting your website – if you have told your story well! This is the reason we are tracking Dog Boarding near me.
Dog boarding search trends at the during March 2023 are running slightly behind our forecast, but following the forecast trend pretty closely. We saw the surge in demand from Spring Break traffic and expect the next few weeks to be soft with search interest beginning to grow for summer planning. At this point we believe dog boarding demand will be ahead of 2022 during the summer period, but slightly behind our annual forecast.
U.S. “Dog Daycare Near Me” Search Demand Forecast vs Google Trends
"Dog Daycare Near Me" searches are a lot more sporadic and don’t follow a smooth trend. Weather has a lot to do with this. We saw a drop in demand in February due to a lot of the cold weather that occurred across the United States. We see demand picking back up and beginning to match our 2023 annual forecast. With spring in process and summer approaching, we seen demand for dog daycare will continue to increase in the next few months. We would expect demand levels to be higher than the summer of 2022 as Dog Daycare appears to be a growth area in the pet industry. We expect dog daycare search interest to follow much closer to our forecast in 2023. As you can see from the Google Trends data, demand for daycare went way down during the height of the pandemic, and it spiked the following summer. Without these factors, the fluctuations would be fairly predictable based on seasonality.
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U.S. “Dog Training Near Me” Search Demand Forecast vs Google Trends
Dog training search interest really surged after the start of the pandemic with the strong levels of adoptions of new dogs across the country. Starting in June 2022, we saw that interest drop significantly and rebound at the end of the year as families adopted new dogs into their homes. Over the past few months we have seen the demand for dog training to be very strong compared to the end of 2022. Search trends have almost matched our annual 2023 forecast. However, the last few weeks have seen a significant decline in "training near me". So you may experience a softening of demand for training in April. This does not bode well for the rest of the year, given the drop in demand the second half of 2022. So be cautious about your staffing and planning for training demand in the coming months.
U.S. “Dog Grooming Near Me” Search Demand Forecast vs Google Trends
Dog Grooming is seeing a steady increase in search interest in the past few months but is still running behind our annual 2023 forecast. Based on this we do not expect to see grooming demand as strong as it was last year. The impact of inflation could be a prime factor in this trend. Dog Grooming searches vary widely, especially when compared to the more steady Training trends. Grooming is often seen as a more optional service, so pet owners tend to back off of grooming when cost and other factors come into play.
U.S. “Veterinarian Near Me” Search Demand Forecast vs Google Trends
"Veterinarian Near Me" searches have been following slightly behind our annual 2023 forecast. It is interesting that we did not see as significant a drop in interest in the past few weeks, which says the outlook coming up for summer may indicate more demand than we have been forecasting. We do not expect to see the surge in our forecast model as this was due to significant demand in June 2019 that impacted the model. We do see more demand for veterinarians than we saw in 2022 in the coming months.
In Conclusion
Using projections to predict demand, the forecast model helps in planning for staffing needs, demand generation, marketing, and more. These models will be updated periodically to provide business owners with accurate, timely information you can count on.