Paid search
Using Google Ads to capitalise on the festive season
We have already been in 2024 for a while, and many more holidays are just around the corner. Most (online) holidays, such as Valentine's Day, King's Day, Halloween, Singles Day, Black Friday and Christmas, are periods when online consumers start looking for gifts and great deals. We also see a strong year-on-year increase in search volumes around these days. It is therefore very important to respond to this in good time. This is especially important for the holidays at the end of the year, when it is essential to develop and implement a strong strategy in good time.
Responding to search volume
Around the most important holidays, we are seeing increasingly higher search volumes. It should be noted, however, that last year was fairly unique in this respect. In almost all industries, we saw a decline in total search volume compared with the two preceding years. This was mainly due to coronavirus, the lockdowns and the shops being closed in 2020 and 2021. We expect search volumes to increase again in the coming years.
What is the best way to respond to the increase in search volume in good time? Take Valentine's Day, for example. This day falls on 14 February and, when we look at Google Trends, we can see that the number of searches for the term Valentine's starts to increase significantly from the first week of February. As people are still mainly searching broadly for the term Valentine's at that point, we can assume that purchase intent is not yet particularly high.
When we look at the search term “Valentine's gift”, we can see that it increases during the week of Valentine's Day. We can therefore conclude that consumers search somewhat more generically for Valentine's at the beginning of February, but as Valentine's Day actually draws closer, the search query changes, purchase intent increases and people search more specifically for gifts. The graph below also clearly illustrates this.
Our experience
The experience we have gained with our various clients shows that several strategies work well to ensure that advertisements remain highly visible during these busy periods.
Most advertisers want to be highly visible around increases in search volume related to the holidays. It is therefore sensible to lower (bid) strategies such as Target ROAS or Target CPA slightly, so that you can still remain highly visible. Our experience is that the increase in costs pays for itself through additional sales and revenue during this period.
Another strategy that often delivers good results is to use a remarketing campaign during these periods to capture generic terms. For example, for Valentine's Day you could create a campaign with remarketing audiences only, such as consumers who have previously purchased a product or visited your website in the past 30 days. These are consumers who are already familiar with your product and/or brand, and it is often worthwhile to be visible during a more generic search such as “Valentine's Day.”
Consumers who are not yet familiar with your product and/or brand will be less likely to make a purchase through one of your advertisements when they search more broadly. Generic terms are also generally much more expensive, as several advertisers often bid on them. It would be a shame to pay a lot for an irrelevant click.
Our tips
This blog already covers a number of strategies and important considerations around the holidays, but in addition to these strategies and insights, there are a few other points that we believe are also important to include when implementing the Google Ads strategy around the various holidays.
1) Promotional calendar
At the beginning of the year, create a clear and well-organised promotional calendar listing all campaigns and promotions. This will also allow you to prepare your Google Ads campaigns properly and in good time, ensuring that you are highly visible at these important purchasing moments.
2) Is your ad copy festive enough?
Always make sure that your ad copy aligns with the promotional copy on the website. Does the copy fit the holiday well? Is it creative and engaging enough? Is the discount mentioned? These are all ways of persuading consumers to make a purchase from you.
3) Extensions
Always ensure that your promotion extensions and sitelinks are up to date, with the correct copy and promotions clearly and properly displayed. It is quite easy to link a promotion extension to each advertisement and create a sitelink mentioning the discount or promotion.
4) Look at the past year, analyse what went well and what did not
Our final tip: take a close look at the same period in the past year. What worked well and can we build on, and what did not work so well and should we stop doing or adapt? There is no need to reinvent the wheel every time. Sometimes, only a small adjustment is needed.
Key takeaways
For all advertisers who want to get more out of their campaigns around the holidays, here are the most important points at a glance:
- Be prepared (in good time) with a promotional calendar;
- Make sure that your product prices are up to date and adapt your ad copy to make it as relevant and engaging as possible;
- Make use of your audiences and marketing lists;
- Respond to the increase in search volume: temporarily lower your bid strategy targets, as the additional revenue this generates will offset the additional costs.
Would you like to get more out of your campaigns around the holidays? Please feel free to contact one of our specialists. Together, we will look at the right strategy to keep you from being overlooked during these important days!
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