Holiday To-Do List for a Merry PPC Campaign

The holiday season is just around the corner. And as online shoppers are ready to scour the Internet for the best online deals, it is best to take advantage of the surge of traffic by coming up with an effective pay-per-click (PPC) campaign strategy.

Pay-per-click campaigns, when properly executed, will help you leverage your sales. A well-designed PPC campaign will help you get even more than what you expect for the holidays.

The following will serve as your to-do list so that you will have a guide on what you should do so that you will be able to come up with an effective PPC campaign for the holidays.

PPC Checklist for Holiday Marketing Online

If you had a PPC campaign last year, evaluate what you have done. Enhance areas that worked well, and improve on those that didn’t go too well.

It is always best to have a reference for your plans. If you have already done a PPC campaign for the previous holidays, you would have an idea of where your strategy went right and where it didn’t.

Certain keywords are sure to have done better in driving traffic than others. There are also some dates when your PPC has brought in the most sales. You will also know if the budget you had last year was worth it.

READ: 10 Little-Known Tips to Increase Your PPC ROI

From what happened last year, you ought to know what you should do this year so that your PPC campaign bring about the best results. Capitalize on the strategies that worked well. And for those that didn’t try to analyze why it didn’t. If there’s something you can do to rectify it, do it! It is experience that will really help us make the right decisions next time.

But if you haven’t tried PPC yet, now is the best time to start!

A well-designed PPC campaign will help you reach your sales goals. Studies have some that a lot of buyers start shopping even before Halloween. Your competitors could have already started their PPC campaigns already. Would you let them keep the benefits of PPC all to themselves?

It’s about time that you make use of one of the most effective ways to drive traffic, and ultimately, conversions. PPC campaigns continue year after year so why don’t you try it now? The holidays are almost here so if you plan to employ PPC, better stat now!

Have a more aggressive strategy on key dates.

Some dates really are different than others.

Again, if you have tried PPC before, you would know when some keywords generated traffic the most. Strategize your PPC campaign to be aligned with the trends on these dates. Also ensure that you have enough supply for products on dates when they have the most demand.

Think With Google has come up with a guide on date-related behavior form online shoppers. Try reading through it and see how you can strategize for key dates.

Consider increasing your PPC budget.

PPC costs money. If you employ PPC throughout the year, your budget for the holiday season should be higher. This is to take advantage of the higher traffic that is expected around the season.

To know better how much you should spend, you should try using Google’s Bid Simulator Tool which will give you traffic and costs estimates for certain keywords as well as for ad group levels.

Moreover, you can also identify what people are searching for by using Google Trends, allowing you to know what keywords to look for a bid for.

Feel the Holidays!

It’s a no-brainer but just to remind you, you should give your entire campaign a holiday feel. Make your audience feel that it really is the holiday season so that they will exhibit a holiday behavior. And you know what that means right? Holiday spending!

Make sure to include holiday-related keywords. Words such as “Holidays”, “Christmas”, “Hanukah”, “Black Friday”, “Cyber Monday”, “holiday promo”, “free holiday shipping”, are proven to pull in a lot of traffic so make sure to use them to your advantage.

Don’t forget about mobile users.

Studies reveal that mobile users compose a big chunk of the online traffic during the holidays so don’t forget to optimize your campaigns for them. A lot of time is spent by users researching so you should cater to them.

This being said, you should consider employing the aid of mobile AdWords tools. The following can also help you attract more mobile users with your PPC campaign:

Attract More Mobile Users To Your Holiday Campaigns

Establish a landing page that is optimized for mobile users

When creating your landing page be sure to consider loading time. Mobile pages that don’t load within three seconds are usually abandoned.

Customize your advertisements for mobile users by using mobile ad and sitelink preference settings.

In settling your bids, consider getting ad positions that are most valuable for mobile devices.

Extensions can help you with your holiday PPC campaign.

Google allowed extensions to determine where ads will be seen in Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Extensions are now seen to be valuable components of PPC campaigns. As you launch your PPC campaign for the holidays, make sure to have at least the following extensions implemented to help you:

Sitelink Extensions

Sitelink Extensions allow the inclusion of additional links and files. Using these you will have the ability to link landing pages that you should give a holiday look.

Call Extensions

Call Extensions allow you to add your phone numbers to your ads. Studies show that people trust companies that put their phone numbers better.

Location Extensions

Location extensions allow you to add your location information to your ads. Just the same as those with contact information, users trust those that put their locations more.

Review Extensions

Review extensions give you the ability to include reviews from third parties. Reviews can also boost the credibility of your ads as you allow actual product users to give feedback on the products you offer.

In making use of these extensions, make sure that you abide by the requirements and the rules that govern them. For example, sitelink extensions should have symbols and that they should initiate a download. It can however, direct visitors to a download page. Review extensions, on the other hand, should link users to credible third-party sources. Violations of policies will disapprove your extensions.

Click on the respective links of the extension that you would want to know more about below:

Sitelink Extensions       Call Extensions            Location Extensions    Review Extensions

Try remarketing/retargeting.

Remarketing or retargeting refers to the ads that appear on a browser or application after visiting a website. Doing so will give a remind to the user about the site, having the potential to make a transaction if we hadn’t done one already, or make another transactions if he already had done so the first time.

Not all remarketing efforts are successful. To make it remarketing easier for you, make sure that you use the right platform. Google can help you with remarketing through AdWords. Other platforms that can help you are Adroll, Bidable, Chango, Meteora, Perfect Audience, Starmedia and Struq.

As best practice, ensure that your users are directed to landing pages that are related to the remarketing ad. Offers of free shipping or discounts can best pull your customers back for more shopping.

Automate!

Automation can make your PPC campaign easier, as well as more effective. Some tasks that can be automated are the scheduling of campaigns, pausing keywords and ads that have low performance, changing your keywords, and managing your bids.

However, don’t leave your whole campaign dependent to automation. Automation can only do so much so in as much as you can, monitor your campaign and implement strategies that you know for yourself will be most effective.

Make the most out of your PPC Campaign.

When executing a PPC campaign, don’t do it for just one channel, or for one product. Be aggressive! Make the most out of your PPC Campaign.

Try to tap other channels where buying product directly is allowed, like Facebook and Instagram. Try Pinterest, too!

Your PPC Campaign can only go as far as your vision for it so think bigger!

Make your PPC work for you this Holiday Season

With the surge of traffic around the holidays, pay-per-click campaigns should really be taken advantage of to help you leverage your sales. Just make sure that you plan your strategy and execute it well so that you can make the most out of your PPC campaign.

With our tips above, you are bound to be on the right track with your PPC campaign for this holiday. Follow them and you are more certain that your PPC campaign will be a huge success.

Without a shadow doubt, a well-designed and properly-executed PPC campaign will help your Holidays be beneficial for your business. So follow our Holiday to-do list for a merry PPC campaign and have a truly worthwhile holiday!

Happy holidays to you, and all the best for your PPC Campaign!