by pkraemer
19. May 2010 23:03
Victoria Day is coming up next weekend. So what are you going to be doing for the first long weekend of the summer? Well if you’re an online marketer and you’re reading this blog post, you may just be modifying your search campaigns to take advantage of this golden opportunity. Why? Because holidays may just be the best thing to happen to online advertising campaigns since conversion tracking code (well, that’s a stretch – but you know what I mean).
Over the last several years of running paid search campaigns, I’ve noticed a trend. Search traffic and corresponding response rates generally increase on holidays, and I’m not talking marginally either. In fact, we’ve seen click-through and conversion rates increase as much as 25% - 50% on holidays, and that number goes even higher if you’re talking about mobile advertising.
Thinking about it, I guess it makes sense too. These days, holidays provide us with an opportunity to catch-up on the demands of a busy schedule, and for many people this means spending time on their mobile devices, catching up on social networking activities, or searching for that holiday deal on the net. In short, time people are spending on their computers or other personal devices that make them prime targets for your messaging. They have time to search for things, to consider relevant offers, and to take advantage of promotions that they may not have the time for in their day-to-day lives.
So what should you do about it? Well, how about increasing the maximum daily campaign budget the next holiday to take advantage in the increase in traffic? Or how about setting a bid premium for your keywords over the holiday in order to increase the position of your ad and take advantage of the added traffic?
And in fact, these types of benefits aren’t limited strictly to holidays. Weekends also provide an opportunity to take advantage of people’s new found interest and attention. You can also use day-parting to control when your ad is shown throughout the day. For example, it may make sense for B2B campaigns to limit media spending to weekdays or business hours. Or if you’re a restaurant, it might be beneficial to focus your spend on those primetime hours people are likely to be looking for their next meal.
Online advertising is real-time, so why not take advantage of that fact and manage your campaign in real-time to take advantage of the benefits these key moments might provide for your campaign. Oh, and don’t forget to enjoy the upcoming long weekend too!
Paul
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