For marketers, the holiday season is the most wonderful time of year. And this year, total U.S. retail sales are expected to top $1.1 trillion. Shoppers are primed to spend. It’s up to you to make sure they spend with you, and not your competition.
Grab their attention by optimizing your Google PPC ads with these five expert tips.
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1. Increase your holiday spend.
Be prepared to spend more in general during the holiday season. It’s a peak sales season for everyone, and with more competition, you’ll need to increase ad spend to maintain (or grow) your impression share.
In addition to increasing your overall spend, pinpoint specific campaigns that could use an extra boost. You might increase bids on the PPC and Google Shopping campaigns promoting your best-sellers, for example.
2. Add holiday-focused keywords.
We know you’re strapped for time right now, but make room to do some keyword research. Use your SEO tool of choice or Google Trends to see what gift-related phrases are trending this year, and consider how to apply them in your campaigns.
You’ll probably discover at least a few keywords you hadn’t thought of. For example, a search for “Christmas gifts” shows that “Christmas gifts for people who have everything” is up 140% right now. This could be a great keyword for nearly any type of product.
Add any promising keywords to a new campaign to boost your clicks and conversions this season. create campaigns for traditional holiday keywords, as well, such as “stocking stuffers” or “gifts under $25.”
3. Stand out with ad extensions.
In the crowded holiday advertising landscape, anything you can do to stand out is worth it. Enter ad extensions: extra lines of text you can add to your ads to increase your real estate on the SERPs. We recommend using these for the holidays:
Location extensions: For shoppers who prefer to browse and shop in-store, location extensions help them find your brick-and-mortar quickly.
Sitelink extensions: You can link to gift guides, stocking stuffers, and other gift or sales pages.
Promotion extensions: These extensions were made to promote sales. They’re available for discount-off and percentage-off deals.
Pro Tip: Mobile searches for “best deals” have increased by 90% over the past two years, according to Google. Attract these shoppers with promotion extensions.
4. Retarget window shoppers and procrastinators.
Many shoppers start browsing ecommerce sites early, but 64% will wait until there’s a sale before they make a purchase. Target these shoppers with dynamic display ads. You can include the specific products they were looking at to encourage them to come back to purchase.
Whenever you’re running a sale, update your ad copy to really motivate them to buy.
5. Keep your product feed in tip-top shape.
Use high-quality product images (800 x 800 pixels minimum), and refresh your descriptions and titles. Are they compelling? Could you squeeze in a few more holiday keywords?
Avoid wasted spend and lost sales by ensuring your product feed is accurate and up to date. Double check that all of the details are correct, including available colors, sizes, and price.
Also, we know everyone’s sick of hearing about supply chain issues, but it’s important to ensure you have a plan in place for out-of-stock items. Be ready to pause these campaigns. You could also try featuring similar product suggestions on those pages.
Win this holiday season
Optimize your PPC campaigns this year, and your efforts will pay off. Increase your spend, use ad extensions and holiday keywords, and keep your product feed up to date.Then, once it’s all over, take a breath and get ready for next year with our After Cyber Monday Checklist for eCommerce Brands.
