This is a guest post by Sri Sharma, managing director at Net Media Planet.
There are so many online publishers competing for every sale this festive period it has never been more important to stand apart from your rivals. There is still time to maximise performance of your e-commerce site this Christmas by improving your Paid Search marketing.
Here are some top tips for your ecommerce site to help you make it a bumper 2012 Christmas!
1. On time delivery is crucial this Christmas
Make sure delivery times, cost, returns etc. are clearly visible on landing pages and ad copy so consumers have all the information they need. We recommend you offer free delivery if possible, and include your last order date, especially as the day itself draws closer.
2. Clear, bold and direct messaging is key
Help stand out from the rest by making your ad copy very sales based with offers expressing ‘buy now’. This will help create a sense of urgency and increase conversion rates.
3. Forget last minute shoppers at your peril
Last year there was a significant increase in online sales in the week before Christmas. Make sure you have reserved PPC budgets to make the most of this opportunity, particularly if you are offering consumers the opportunity to shop online and collect in-store.
4. Maximise your budget
As search volumes rise throughout the festive season, it’s critical to eliminate unwanted impressions that lead to nowhere. Streamline your Paid Search campaign by updating your negative keyword list to help filter out unwanted traffic.
5. Adjust Daily Budgets
With higher search volumes, you have to increase spending on PPC activity. To ensure that you don’t miss out, adjust campaign daily budgets to accommodate this expected increase in spend. Showing ads during just the top converting hours of the day is an effective technique for those spending on a limited budget.
6. Don’t forget the days after Christmas
Post-Christmas is also incredibly important for Paid Search, particularly on mobile with many people checking out Boxing Day sale deals on their mobiles at home. To increase mobile traffic and conversions, leverage position-based bidding to ensure that ads appear within the top two positions. Secondly, include location ad extensions to quickly direct on-the-move shoppers to the nearest store.
7. Tune into tablet
Massive sales of tablets are expected over the Christmas period, indeed, some shops are already reporting that sales of tablets are up by 1,000% from last year. Retailers are branding Christmas 2012 the ‘tablet Christmas’. We recommend that you optimise your tablet-specific Paid Search campaigns for post-Christmas day when many more people will be using their devices for browsing and sale shopping.
8. Create a special Christmas landing page
A themed page can act as a centre for all of your Christmas related products and content. This can help get shoppers into the festive spirit and also provides online retailers with the opportunity to increase the AOV through cross-selling. • The importance of culture in international Paid Search marketing – Be mindful of Christmas messaging, recognising cultural and linguistic differences. For example, in the US it is more typical to say “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas”.
Good luck and we wish you all the best for a bountiful festive season! If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Image Christmas Shopping Source
