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‘Tis the Season to Optimize Your Ad Campaigns

Whether you are ready or not, the holiday season is officially here. Stores were decking the halls with Christmas paraphernalia while trick-or-treaters were still running door-to-door. Holiday ads flooded our inboxes the second we reached November 1st. The festive season is full of online Christmas chaos, and it seems like the whole world is sending ads, running specials, strategizing, and managing campaigns all at once. Everyone is competing to grab the attention of consumers in an attempt to get that hard-earned cash. So what’s the best way to make sure your business doesn’t get lost in the crowd? One way is to optimize your websites SEO and ad campaigns to get the most out of the holidays.

Here are seven powerful techniques to optimize your ad campaigns and SEO this holiday season – all to enhance your brand, boost sales, and satisfy customers.

Make sure your keywords are ready for the season.

You should already have a keyword list in place for SEO purposes, but now is the time to check it twice. Take some time to go through it and make sure it is entirely up to date. If needed, add some new products or services specifically geared towards the holiday season. Pause older campaigns and remove outdated terms if they’re no longer relevant. Cleaning up your list ensures you don’t waste time and money on poorly matched keywords at this crucial time of year.

When it comes to keyword usage, you must be using the right words and phrases, and you are to create a balance between broad terms and exact match keywords. Retailers want their ads to be as targeted as possible, yet not so limited that only a handful of consumers see them. Merchants will likely want to rely most heavily on phrase match keywords while scattering in broad and exact phrases to gain targeted yet substantial coverage.

Utilize your data.

Your existing data can tell you a lot about what keywords to target and which products to promote. Before the season gets into full swing, start by digging through previous data to determine what seems to perform best, look at your ad copy, specials, website landing pages, and what time of day your ads get the best feedback. This will give you a clear idea of what to do next and what to avoid while creating your campaign for the holiday season. Some things you need to focus on:

  • Take a look at past years; how have things changed?
  • Plan to adjust or increase your marketing budget to compensate where necessary. Ads are useless if they never reach your target audience, so it’s okay to invest a bit of money into the season because you are focusing on the return.
  • Review your strengths and weaknesses.

Target procrastinators

Merchants can optimize their SEO and ad marketing campaigns to target last-minute shoppers in a couple of different ways. The first is to use the phrase ‘last-minute’ in a campaign’s keyword structure and the ad’s copy.

The other method eCommerce stores can use is guaranteeing arrival dates if orders are placed by a particular day or time. If there is one thing the procrastinating shopper is searching for, it promises that their package will arrive by Christmas. By utilizing phrases like “delivered before Christmas” in ad copy and landing pages, retailers can boost their click rates and sales.

Incorporate holiday messaging.

Advertisers need to create new text ads to incorporate language and messaging geared toward holiday shoppers and their searches. Creating unique, targeted holiday ad text will help your ads stand out from the crowd of boring and basic text ads.

Get creative; just be sure to stay within policy guidelines. Inventive and playful ad text consistently performs well and always grabs the consumer’s attention.

Is your website ready?

Your keywords are on point, you researched your data, and your ad creatives are ready. Now it’s time to tweak and optimize to ensure success. Studies show that more than half of Google’s searches today will come in from a mobile device. You will lose out on sales if someone lands on your website from a mobile device and needs to zoom your pages to see them. It’s annoying and frustrating when shopping, and an outdated site takes away some of your credibility.

While you’re at it, ensure your landing pages are holiday optimized as well. While ads can get a shopper to your site, it’s the landing page that secures the sale. For this reason, creating high-quality landing pages is vital for holiday advertisement optimization. It is critical to prominently display deals and promotions on landing pages that match specific advertisements during the holidays.

Incorporate other social media platforms into PPC campaigns.

A lot of people hear PPC and immediately think of AdWords. However, Facebook and Instagram are good places to spend your marketing dollars, especially during the holidays. Facebook offers a lot of different ad formats ranging from traditional arrangements to video and even lead generation ads. As with AdWords, you’ll need to have a clear plan and some great visual creatives to go with any campaign you run. Because it can be expensive, you should also be prepared to track it closely.

Enlist help.

If optimizing your ad campaigns seems like a daunting task, enlist the help of some experts. At Sage Island, we will make adjustments to your SEO and marketing ads, so you get the best bang for your buck. We will exhaustively research keywords to make sure you stay competitive. We can also ensure your website is ready for the holiday rush, guaranteeing you get the most out of your marketing campaigns this season.

Time might be running out, but you do have some time left to launch a holiday campaign if you haven’t already. Move quickly and get the ball rolling right now by contacting us today. Enjoy the holiday momentum, and get your business on your customer’s nice list.

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