When you’re running a sales-led business, the festive season is always a time for potential growth. That being said, the period isn’t just a stressful time for put-upon parents trying to secure that Barbie playset – marketing managers know that there’s pressure on them to deliver when it really counts. So when it comes to your Google Ads spend, you may be hoping Santa comes early with a few ideas to maximise your effectiveness. Fortunately we’ve got a few tips for you, and we won’t even ask for a glass of sherry in return! While Mariah never sang “All I Want For Christmas Is An Optimised Ad Campaign”, we’re sure she was thinking it, so we’ll help her out with the details.
Optimise Your Shopping Feed for Festive Success
Santa has two lists – naughty and nice, which seems a little reductive but we won’t tell him how to do his job – but only one really matters to you. That’s your shopping feed, and you shouldn’t miss the opportunity to optimise it to make it more Christmassy. Focus on what you can adapt to fit the season, such as product titles and descriptions, as well as potentially adding some more festive cheer to product images. Upping the festive feeling in potential customers should see you ending up on the nice list. Think of it as a second mince pie left on the mantel on the 24th.
Ensure Conversion Tracking is On Point
You should be checking your own list more than twice; regular tracking is essential if you want to capture and action the important seasonal data. Keeping a close eye on purchase completions and add-to-cart, along with any season-specific tracking, will allow you to make changes when needed and decide when to do more of the things that are working. Don’t worry, it’s not like cooking a turkey – repeated checking isn’t going to slow down the moment of truth here. It could even result in a few additional surprises like those bacon bits in the Brussels sprouts.
Budget Wisely
Now this is a universal rule. If you go all out on the stocking fillers, you might find that you’re out of pocket when it comes to the piece de resistance. A daily budget check is advisable when it comes to seasonal ad spend, so you always know where you stand. Prioritising the big-ticket items is essential – high-converting items and ads that perform well should get a bigger slice of the budget when you come to carve. You should still have enough left over to allocate some spending further down the list. If not? Well… everybody likes socks?
Use Ad Scheduling to Capture Key Shopping Times
You don’t want to end up running out into the street five minutes before the shops close, so forward planning is a necessity when it comes to setting your ad scheduling. Aim for prime online shopping hours, which primarily fall in the afternoon and on weekends. Also consider scheduling ads with greater frequency about ten days out from the big day; this is often when people have time off to take care of their shopping, and a few ads earlier in the day might be worth trying. This way, you won’t be left as disappointed as that year your Secret Santa handed you a fiver in an envelope on the 16th of December.
Leverage Christmas-Themed Ad Copy and Creative
People like to get in the spirit of Christmas, and you are absolutely advised to lean into this when it comes to writing ad copy and doing the creative side of things. Keep the visuals festive: holly, sleigh bells, Santa cutouts and as many robins as you can bear to add. It really does have an impact, putting a smile on the face of prospective customers and reflecting well on you. Consider your calls to action and make them punny; “We ho-ho-hope to hear from you soon”, that kind of thing (but funnier, obviously). Probably skip the mistletoe emoji, keep things family-friendly, and play up the seasonal angle.
Remarketing: Because Not All Shoppers Are on Santa’s Nice List
You won’t capture every lead first time, because you don’t have a team of magic reindeer and the seeming ability to stop time. It’d be cool if you did though, right? In your case, you might have to settle for remarketing, which isn’t the name of Santa’s ninth reindeer – it’s when you expand your marketing efforts to reach out to customers who haven’t made orders from your first run, and try to imbue the holiday magic in people who left items in carts. Sometimes people need a reminder, like that one uncle who insists on telling awkward jokes at the dinner table.
Monitor, Adjust, and Stay Jolly
You can easily end up feeling a little bit less than merry if your initial campaigns aren’t hitting the mark like the first tray of pigs in blankets. But cheer up, it’s a season, not a single day. How you react to early setbacks will define the holiday for you, so it is essential to remember monitoring the data from as many angles as possible, then make adjustments to do more of what is working, less of what isn’t, and to put a jaunty little hat on those figures. (Or at least a paper crown). Set aside some time each week to go over numbers in detail and make plans based on what you learn, because the only surprises should be wrapped in paper and left under the tree.
Your festive efforts will be rewarded if you make sure to follow the above advice. Christmas is a time for family, a time to remember, and for those of us who run ad campaigns, a time for revenue growth. There’s still plenty of time to go before the big day, but why not let this be the year that you have all of your campaigns wrapped up before the tree goes up and you lose #Whamageddon?
