Getting the Most Out of the Holidays

It’s that time of year again; jam packed with all of the major holidays and events. Next up we have American Thanksgiving (Nov. 27th), followed by Black Friday (Nov. 28th), Cyber Monday (Dec. 1st), Chanukah (Dec. 16th – Dec. 24th), Christmas (Dec. 25th), Boxing Day (Dec. 26th) and last but not least… New Years (just to name a few)! It is time to start thinking about how these events impact your business & your holiday season marketing campaigns.

Now it’s time to embrace this busy, but exciting time of year and dust off last year’s campaigns or create new ones!

Here are a few tips to help get you started:

1) Assess Previous Data

When planning any marketing campaign, your first step should be looking into campaigns you have run before. This way you can see what worked for you in the past and what to get rid of. Consider every conversion and page view from your Web Analytics, Social Media Platforms and any other data that you have used to track. Were there specific times of days that converted better? What did you spend and what was your return? Are your using location targeting, ad scheduling and bid adjustments to help you get the most your of your budget?

2) Specific Campaigns for Each Event

You can still run your normal campaigns during the holiday season or pause them, but make sure you have a different campaign running for whichever holiday you are targeting next. This allows you to keep a separate budget for this period and use the same campaign again next year (if you choose to do so). Also, it helps keep things organized and makes your ads and keywords more effective.

3) Setting Your Budget

Although it may be seem like a lot to increase your budget above what you are use to spending, remember that a short term investment could give you a long term gain. This is the time of year that others are willing to spend more, and if you put the time into creating a well structured campaign, then they would spend that money with your business and your ROI (return on investment) could be great! There are ways to increase your budget but still be smart and get the most from it. You can set up automated rules – for example, you may set up a rule that will increase a budget to a campaign that is doing better than others.

4) New Features

Everything in the web world changes fast, including Adwords and the social media platforms. Twitter has twitter ads now, Facebook has Direct Marketing and Adwords has Shopping Campaigns & Mobile Bid Adjustments. It is a perfect time to embrace all the new changes that internet advertising has to offer. With Adwords changes, you want to take advantage of the last minute shoppers with mobile campaigns. How can you get them into your store? Use as many extensions that will help you accomplish this goal. You have Location Extensions, Location Bid Adjustments & Call Extensions. With these new shopping campaigns, it is hard not to get your product in front of your potential clients face.

5) Time to Get Started

Our last tip to you is not to wait until the last minute. It is never too early to set up your holiday season marketing campaigns. Have your plan set and start putting it into action. Get your Ads approved, set up scheduling, make your rules, brainstorm keywords etc.

If you are too busy to set up a Social Media plan, or a Google Adwords Seasonal Campaign, then feel free to contact us for more information. We are here to cross all of your “t’s” and dot all of your “i’s” to ensure that you get the most out of this holiday season. Remember Short Term Investment for Long Term Gain!

Ask Us how you can get $100+ of Free Advertising Money when you go with us!