Shoppers are already on the lookout for this year’s trendiest Halloween costumes, and if Google Shopping trends are any indication you’ll be seeing a lot of Minions, Walter Whites, and Foxes at your Halloween party this year.

We took a look at the top trending searches on Google Shopping, and found that Minions took the #1 spot on top trending searches, with people searching for both adult and kids costumes that sport the Despicable Me franchise character. On the heels of the Breaking Bad series finale, searches for “Breaking Bad costumes” are nearly 3x higher this year compared to last. And rounding out the top three are Fox costumes, likely spurred by Ylvis’s What Does the Fox Say video on YouTube which broke into the Billboard Hot 100 list this September and generated more than 100M views and counting.

Top trending costume searches on Google Shopping: 

Other costume trends: 
  • Searches for “Duck Dynasty costume” are 3x higher this year than last, trending highest in the state of Texas. 
  • “Gatsby dress costumes” are trending highest in New York and California. 
  • Batman continues to be a perennial favorite, with searches trending up 36% from last year. 
  • Following their latest album release, searches for “Daft Punk costume” are the highest they’ve ever been in the history of the band. 

Costume shopping across screens 
Increasingly, people are using multiple devices to shop for costumes - in fact, last year Google searches for costumes on mobile devices grew 67% compared to the year before. BuySeasons, an online retailer for costumes, has seen that their mobile website traffic increases dramatically during commute hours and on the weekend, as people browse for costume ideas while they’re on the go. However, most shoppers will use a laptop or desktop to complete their purchase. To reach shoppers across all screens, BuySeasons launched mobile Product Listing Ads (PLAs) on Google Shopping this year, in addition to desktop PLAs, and created mobile-optimized web pages to make navigating their website much easier for mobile shoppers.
(Screenshot of BuyCostumes.com product listing ad for a Duck Dynasty costume - one of their hot selling products for this Halloween) 

Shoppers complete their look on YouTube 
Searches for “Makeup Tutorial” videos on YouTube spike every October as people look for the right makeup to complete their costume.

This year, M•A•C Cosmetics launched a series of videos on YouTube to promote the new MAC + Rick Baker collection, creating a playlist of how-to videos which feature makeup artist and special effect visionary Rick Baker and show users ways to create Monster's Bride and Day of Dead looks with the line. M•A•C will also use TrueView in-search ads to help generate awareness for their videos when people search for “halloween makeup” on YouTube.


On average, 1 in 5 Halloween shoppers last year bought from a retailer they hadn’t shopped with before, showing that the holiday can be a great opportunity to introduce your brand to new customers (Google Consumer Surveys, Q3 2013). HalloweenCostumes.com revamped their YouTube strategy this year to build brand awareness for their site, using TrueView video ad as an effective way to generate awareness with new customers. To help shoppers find the costume that’s the right fit for them, HalloweenCostumes.com created a series of videos on YouTube to point viewers to their fit finder tool on their site. They also created a video showcasing their couple suggestion tool which recommends costume ideas for groups, along with a series of makeup tutorial videos on YouTube to help shoppers complete their outfit.


Whether you’re a fan of Game of Thrones or Miley Cyrus, there’s something for everyone this Halloween. Happy hunting!

Posted by Stephen Arthur, Head of Industry, Retail, Google