JumpFly Blog: AdWords, Yahoo & Microsoft Advertising

So Christmas is almost here and if your sales aren’t as good as you like, don’t fret, there’s still the post-holiday shopping days. Have you ever gone to the malls a few days after Christmas? The crowds are intense, but the sales are pretty darn good. Kind of like Black Friday, only without having to stand in the cold for hours.

Post-holiday sales - those two or three days after Christmas when people are looking to return their ill-fitting or “dud” gifts and spend their Christmas cash before they go back to work - can really be a boost to your business, if you are ready. Start looking now at what items you have quite a bit of. What do you need to move in order to make room for new lines or product? What has a great mark-up that you can easily afford to mark down and still make money on? Start thinking now about what you can mark down or offer as a BOGO (Buy One, Get One Free) or Buy One, Get One 50% off.

Consumers are trained to think of those days after Christmas as super-discount days. I know people who don’t do their Christmas shopping until after Christmas, just to save the cash or buy more for less. One of my clients already knows that anything Christmas related - from ornaments to tree toppers to nativity sets to Christmas dolls, decor and figurines - will be deeply discounted starting the day after Christmas. They don’t want to have to store it, and they need to make room for Valentine’s items.

So do your post-holiday sales strategy thinking now, before you hit the holidays yourself. You just might find that Christmas 2008 was better than you thought it would be.

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JumpFly PPC Management Specialist

The holiday shopping rush is under way. No doubt, you have already made some improvements to your website and your offers. But have you given any thought to your pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns?

Here are some tips to making the most of your PPC Ads at Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter:

1. Highlight Your Holiday Specials

In your ads, be sure to mention any holiday specials you are running.  From price reductions to coupons to free shipping.  Include it in the ad.  People are looking for bargains this holiday season.

2. Set Your Budgets Higher

This time of year there will be more traffic on all of the product search terms.  Make sure your ads are showing consistently all day by setting the right budget and the right keywords bids. 

You should double-check your positions as well.  There are some terms that become highly competitive this time of year.  You may have been running happily at positions 2-3 for the last few months and all of a sudden drop to 10 because of increased holiday competition.  Keep an eye on this through the end of the month. 

For most B2C retail businesses, the holiday makes up as much as 60% of their total revenue for the year.  Your advertising spend should reflect this.

3. Consider Gift Terms

Be very cautious with the vague, generic gift terms.  However, you may find that gift terms specific to your product line will help you.  For example, if you sell coffee, consider “coffee gifts”, “coffee gift ideas”, etc.  As with everything, watch your cost per conversion on these terms.

The Google AdWords Team talks about some of these tips in their Inside Adwords blog. Applying proven PPC Management techniques is always critical, but especially during the holidays.

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