As I write this, I’m working from home, as is the rest of the BrandVerity team. For some of us, that means juggling how to home school our kids during the workday. For others, it translates into having their dogs in their laps during video calls. All in all, though, we are a lucky group to be able to have jobs that enable us to work from home. Our gratitude goes out to those who are not able to do the same, yet are helping our communities function as normally as they can, from healthcare and hospital workers to those at our grocery stores and pharmacies.

With the year already in full swing, global consumer marketers are poised to take advantage of the $5 trillion in global ecommerce spend projected to happen by 2021. And while leading companies will continue to leverage multiple channels across the digital marketing funnel to build their brands, search marketing will still play one of the most critical roles.

With US retail ecommerce spending projected to rise as much as 13.2% to $135.35 billion during this holiday season, it’s no wonder that brands are investing so much in their paid search programs to capture the surge in traffic.

And while brands and their marketing departments are working overtime to drive sales, new BrandVerity research has brought to light some important findings and hidden risks brands need to be aware of when it comes to the journey consumers are taking online to find the perfect gift.

In order to give brands a better understanding of the search experiences their consumers are having this holiday season and beyond, and how they are impacting brand perception, we commissioned a research study of over 1,000 US consumers, balanced against the US population for age, gender, region, and income. Here’s what we found.