5 Tips To Optimising Your PPC Campaigns For Maximum Profit At Christmas
Christmas is well-known as one of the most demanding times of year – but if you’re savvy about how you adjust your PPC campaigns in response, it can also be one of the most profitable. As 21Digital Agency resident Google AdWords expert, I find that as Christmas approaches each year I get quite a few clients asking me for advice on how their PPC campaigns can capitalise on the Christmas rush. My specific advice varies depending on the client in question, but there are some universal rules that always hold true…
Look After Your Budget
This is the absolute golden rule of managing any Google AdWords campaign, but it’s particularly important at this time of year. Running out of budget at a key moment is a nightmare scenario; it will stop your PPC strategy in its tracks, and you’ll almost certainly miss out on a huge amount of web traffic and conversions.
Plus, as you might expect, there’s a massive boost in Christmas search queries around the festive season. This means that in order to stay properly competitive with other businesses, you need to make sure you’ve got the flexibility to cater to the pitches and falls in demand throughout Christmas. One way you can get ahead of this is by looking at your historical performance; find out which days and times traffic has peaked in previous years, and plan in to raise your budget caps at those times. Time-of-day bid adjustments are particularly useful for giving yourself an edge over your competitors at peak traffic hours.
Build Traffic Quickly With Easy Wins
If you’re struggling to build up a bit of momentum with your campaign, don’t worry – you’re not alone! There are a couple of different ways to get your own web traffic up to speed, but at this time of year one of the most tried-and-true ways is to bid more aggressively on products that have a high conversion rate but a relatively low impression share. By driving traffic to your site more quickly, you can then get a better foothold on success with other products.
Also, a quick tip on Google Shopping: I’d advise managing seasonal products using a separate campaign entirely, so you can manage their bids and budgets without the worry about its potential impact on your core campaign.
Never Forget About Mobile
This is a key statistic to bear in mind: compared to a year ago, modern consumers are 50% more likely to expect to be able to purchase something immediately on their phone. It’s not as mind-blowing as it might once have seemed, given how much we all use our phones every day, especially to buy products or services. With that in mind, it’s crucial not to undervalue mobile with a low mobile bid – it might automatically cut you off from a significant portion of relevant (and converting!) web traffic. For your most valuable products, or those with a high conversion rate, it may well be worth considering boosting their mobile bids so that they show in the top results, allowing you to make the very most of the high Christmas conversion rates.
Finally: Don’t Be Afraid To Be More Aggressive!
Though naturally you might tend towards more conservative bidding during the rest of the year, Christmas is a time that can reward a change up in strategy. Review your bids regularly; strategically bidding above your competition will allow you to make the most of the increasing conversion rates in the festive season.
If you’re nervous about how best to judge these opportunities, don’t worry – that’s what we’re here for! PPC is my personal area of expertise here at 21Digital Agency, so if you have any questions about how to optimise your Google AdWords campaigns, I’m only too happy to help. Just give the office a call on 01254 660 560, or send an email to hello@21digital.agency. and we’ll see what we can do to help you make it on the web.
Sam Fletcher is 21Digital Agency Head of Agency, responsible for overseeing all strategic digital marketing, with a personal specialism in PPC (Google AdWords). A keen mountain biker and motoring enthusiast, he has a lifelong dual passion for both business and design, which he now uses to come up with bespoke, creative marketing campaigns.
