Not every Boxing Day search is about shopping
In January 2020, I compared interest in Black Friday, Boxing Day and sales after the holiday period. There was an important complication: in Australia, Boxing Day searches can also be about cricket.
A broad term can mix different intentions. Treating every search for that term as shopping demand would give a misleading picture.
Make the comparison about the customer question
Use related terms to check your interpretation. Keep the geography, period and comparison settings consistent. Consider what else could cause interest in a phrase before deciding that it represents demand for your products.
A comparison term is a useful check, not a perfect experimental control. Search interest alone does not establish how much people spent, or whether one shopping event caused another to perform differently.
Check against the store
Customers might find offers through email or familiar brands rather than searching the event name. That is a hypothesis to test, not a demonstrated cause. Compare the relevant channels before interpreting lower generic search interest as lower sales, and do not assume participation in a discount event suits every retailer.
Compare search patterns with your own sales and campaign evidence over appropriate periods. Account for changes in promotions, stock and the customers you reached.
Historical context: these comparisons describe the 2019–2020 retail season, not current rankings or a forecast for the next sale.
The enduring lesson is to understand the meaning behind the metric before using it to make a spending decision.
See our Search Console research guide and Google Ads management.