Black Friday and Cyber Monday are some of the best times for companies to advertise for their business. Shoppers are already out looking for the best deals; you just need to find a way to get them in your door rather than going to the competition. That’s where Google Search and Shopping Ads come in.
If you haven’t already, it is time to get ready right now. You need time to create the ads, get them to the customers, and help them make the plans that they need to get their holiday shopping done. Companies who wait until the week before Black Friday shopping starts are the ones who end up missing out.
Before you get started, remember that Google Ads are pricey, especially for the popular Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals. All retail companies are looking to get their information out to the customers with plenty of time to make the sale. This form of advertising is for the big companies, the ones with an established reputation who are ready to spend a lot of money. Google Search Ads and Google Shopping Ads work, but they are expensive and no company should waste their time until they are prepared.
With that in mind, some of the best practices that your company can do when utilizing Google Ads for the holiday shopping season includes:
Prepare Early
Shoppers like to get a head start on their holiday shopping and most will not wait until December to do this. While the National Retail Federation claims that 59% of consumers in the United States planned to wait until November to start their holiday shopping, 22% started or were planning to start in October. This is a huge segment of the market you can reach if you just get your marketing done early.
Work on your marketing campaign as early as possible. This gives you a chance to create all of the marketing materials that you need. You can then iron out all the details before the sale begins and catch those customers who like to get their shopping done early.
On a similar note, make sure that you run some kind of sale during the holiday season. While starting early helps you catch more customers, continuing the campaign will make sure that you reach as many people as possible.
Look at the Brick and Mortar
Your retail location is a great place to lead your clients in your promotion. They may see one of the promotions or sales that you advertise and want to know where they can go to get the great deals. If your Google My Business information is out of date, you could send those customers on a frustrating wild goose chase.
Take the time to update your Google My Business page. This will help customers find what they are looking for from you. It also can send more customers your way. Over the past two years, mobile searches for “Where to buy” grew by 85% and searches for “store hours” and “open now” peaked on Christmas day. You will only show up in these searches if your information is up to date.
Look At Your Historical Data
It is easy to spend a lot of money on your Google Ads campaign, especially around the holidays. You will get a lot of potential customers through the door with the right campaign in place, but you do not want to blow your whole budget on just this season. Always be deliberate with your budget.
With the help of Google Analytics, you can look at all of your historical information. Maybe you see that Black Friday was successful, but you saw a big dip in the week before Christmas in sales. You can then change up your budget to reflect this and get the best return on investment.
Set Up a Budget
Every retailer who decides to work with Google Ads needs to set up a budget before they start. This is true of any ad campaign you do, but it can be especially important before you jump into advertising around the holiday season.
Google ads are often going to be expensive. If you have advertised during other times of the year, you will notice a big change in the price during this time. It can be worth it due to how many customers you bring in, but with fierce competition to get the top spots, you have to go in with a plan.
For example, having a shopping ad right on the top of search results on mobile devices can provide you with three times the engagement from your shoppers. This is an almost unheard of stat for other types of advertising. But it is also expensive because all retailers want the limited spots.
This does not mean you can’t go for some of those spots. You just need to have a plan in place. Do not run right in and spend as much money as possible on each category, or you will waste your money. Sit down with the marketing team and come up with a good mixture of advertising that will help you bring in the customers, while staying on budget.
Target the Easy Wins
Your goal is to bid more aggressively on products that can drive the most profit and that have higher conversion rates while also having a lower share of impressions. You will need to research where this will show up, but that is something your marketing team can help with.
Look at your holiday merchandise and determine what are the highest performers, with the best conversion rates. These need to be some of the items that you put into your promotion. You can have more than one, but do not focus on the items that barely get any clicks, even if they turn out with a high profit margin.
Preparing for the Holiday Season
Google Ads can provide businesses with a way to reach more customers and see the best return on investment for their holiday season. With a good understanding of their customers, early planning to get their listings near the top, and the right budget, customers can get the most out of Google Ads to help them see great profits this holiday season.
