Articles in The 'holiday-shopping' Tag

2020 Holiday Forecasts, Trends & Tips

by Jill Goldstein

There is no doubt that the holiday shopping season will look different this year. COVID-19 has caused a major shift in how consumers purchase their everyday necessities, let alone retail items. Between safety concerns and store closures, there has been a shift to online buying. According to eMarketer, analysts predict approximately 150 million new shoppers worldwide will be buying online in 2020. What does this mean for the 2020 holiday season? How should you shift your marketing strategy to capture the increased search volume and make this your best holiday season yet? Let’s find out.

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Google Now Showing Location Extensions & Sitelinks Together

by Anne Garcia

In September we announced that Google enhanced its Sitelinks by including up to four text ads as additional links for paid search ads on Google.com. Now the search engine has released ad formats that show Location Extensions and Sitelinks together.

Google says that the location extensions can now be shown alongside one-line sitelinks in text ads and will continue to show with two-line and three-line sitelinks on desktop and laptop computers. The ad below shows the Location Extension highlighted in red with the three-line sitelink extensions highlighted in green.

In order for your ad to be eligible to show these added links, your AdWords campaign must have both Location Extensions and Sitelinks currently enabled. To implement these add-ons, go to the Ad Extensions tab within the advertising platform.

In addition, Google is now showing larger maps from the Location Extensions links on both desktop and laptop computers. When a user clicks on a Location Extension, a larger map will appear on the right-hand side of the search engine results page (SERP).

Below is a screenshot of the expanded map when a Location Extension was clicked on from a paid search ad.

These new enhancements are just in time for the holiday season so that online advertisers can reach more customers within targeted locations.

Only 85 Shopping Days Left Until Christmas – Is Your PPC Campaign Ready?

by Anne Garcia

The most wonderful time of year will be here before you know it, and ahead of writing your wish list to Santa, I recommend you plan your Holiday PPC campaign first. Cyber Monday, the Monday following Thanksgiving, is the kickoff of the online holiday shopping season and your PPC campaign should be ready for all of the online shoppers. Here are some tips to maximize your online holiday sales:

• Review previous holiday PPC trends, like your ad spend, traffic and conversion rates in order to make proper forecasts for the upcoming season. Remember to diligently monitor your PPC budgets to make sure your ads do not stop showing due to budget caps. While most retailers see an increase in sales and online traffic during this time of year, advertising spend sees the same lift and I suggest you increase your daily budget allocations in your search engines to ensure proper exposure.
• Add holiday-themed keywords like, “Christmas,” “holiday,” and “Hanukah”, to your existing keywords to create long tail phrases in order to be seen in more searches and garner more visits to your site. Also, don’t forget to update your ad copy to include holiday phrases to entice searchers to click on your ads and visit your site. And it’s always a best practice to create special landing pages with holiday themes to tie to your keywords and ad copy to increase your overall quality score.
• During this challenging economy, consumers have a bargain-hunting mindset and will be searching online for coupon codes and free shipping offers, doing price comparison shopping and online research even though they have plans to make in-store purchases. Additionally, consumers are prone to shop early in the holiday season, but are apt to purchase later. The implementation of Remarketing campaigns would be beneficial during the holidays since it will remind customers of your brand, products and/or offers since they have already visited your site.
• Lastly, don’t forget about the post-holiday shoppers looking for deals on the gifts that Santa didn’t bring them. Leave your holiday ad budget open during the last week of the year to accommodate for these shoppers.

Happy Holiday PPC building!