Tips for festive paid search success

Along with freezing temperatures and festive cheer, the holiday season also brings plenty of opportunities when it comes to Paid Search. Whether it be the pre-Christmas rush for gift buying, or the post-Christmas hunt for bargains, a well optimised and planned PPC campaign can help you take advantage of these seasonal trends.

During these times you can expect to see an uplift in traffic coupled with increased conversion rates, so it's never too early to start planning how to capitalise on this activity, especially as 35% of internet users have started their Christmas shopping by the end of August!

To help you achieve success this holiday period, we wanted to pass on some helpful tips:

Budget Wisely

Make sure you plan your spend around your last delivery dates for Christmas, you don't want to be left with budget past your last order dates, as this means you've missed opportunity of high traffic and conversion rates.

Equally, not allocating enough budget will mean missing out on sales, so plan your spending carefully (if possible, have a reserve fund you can dip into straight away should traffic outstrip your expectations)

Incorporate Important Dates

Everyone searching for gifts around this period is 'date aware'. Make sure any important dates are effectively leveraged. Doing so can help create a sense of urgency and hopefully improve click-through and conversion rates (e.g. “Last Free Shipping Day Before Christmas!”, “Buy Now To Guarantee Christmas Delivery” ).

Remember, once your last delivery date has passed, ensure you stop any Christmas promotions/copy to prevent driving high numbers of visitors to the site who can't have their order fulfilled.

If you are running sales after Christmas, be aware that search activity for sales will begin to pick-up early on 25th December. Bargain hunters are keen to get started, so ensure your site and PPC campaign are ready to capitalise on this peak. Consider a short campaign between your last pre-christmas order date and a sale starting creating awareness of the sale start date (be it on Brand keywords, Content Network or a Remarketing campaign to previous customers).

Stock Levels

If possible, highlighting stock levels either way can be useful. Got a high demand item back in-stock? Reflect this in your advert.

Running out of an item? Use this to create a sense of urgency and make people commit to the purchase (“Last Few Left!”, “Buy Today - Only 3 Left!”). It is also useful if this can be highlighted on-site near the product price info.

Weighing Up The Benefits

With increased opportunity is bound to come increased competition. If you need to, don't be afraid to raise your bids higher than you would normally to remain competitive. But, only if you have worked out that you can maintain your ROI whilst improving volume i.e. you can afford to increase the bid in line with the increase in conversion/ROI you expect to see if it means you will see more sales.