Holiday Conversions: Are Your PPC Campaigns Ready?

For many ecommerce retailers, holiday time represents the most sizable chunk of their yearly revenues. In planning for the 4th quarter rush, you have to consider the impact of seasonality on your budgets and key metrics, as well as the timing of key offers. As it turns out, December 11th was the key date for 2006.

Over at the Inside AdWords blog, Google’s Chief Economist lays out the potential impact of increased consumer demand on your cost-per-click, conversion rate and cost-per-acquisition. Note: these data are only for retailers who have enabled conversion tracking, so interpret them with a grain of salt.

The conversion rate peaked on December 11, somewhat before the peak of overall retail sales, since it takes time to process and ship the online orders. By December 23, things were pretty much back to normal. Once Christmas Day arrived, conversion rates dropped to their lowest point of the year — people were just too busy opening presents to think about buying more things… at least for the next few days.

This chart emphasizes the surge on the 11th:

Your own business’s historical data will give you the richest picture of when to expect a bump in paid search activity. There are a few things you can do to prep your site and campaigns for the holiday rush.

1. Man The Budgets - The marketplace may dictate an increase in spend as holiday competition heats up. Revisit the assumptions you used to set your budget with the likely cpc and conversion rate boost to adjust accordingly.
2. Sync Your Creative - Make sure your paid search creative syncs with your site. If you’re featuring a special deal, test out the seasonal messaging in your creative to see if you get a holiday boost.
3. It’s All About The Presents - Holiday time is gift giving time. If you’ve got landing pages with gifts for him, gifts for her, gifts for the ___ lover, then now might be a good time to take advantage of gift related searches. Consider your keyword coverage and creative.

Basic Holiday Planning Requirements

Regardless of channel, there are a few basic holiday considerations you should keep in mind.

1. Is It Going To Get Here In Time? - After a certain point, every shopper is asking this question. If you make them guess, you might lose the sale. Clearly state the last day to order for which shipment by Christmas is guaranteed in an obvious place. Offer a shipping time estimator and, if possible, 2-day and overnight shipping options.
2. Gift Certificates - If you’re courting the last minute gift giver, then gift certificates are a must. There are all manner of gift certificates - the paper kind that get mailed, the electronic email type and even ones that people can download and wrap up like a gift.
3. Gift Rejection - Your return policy will probably receive the most scrutiny during the holiday time, so make sure it’s easily found, simple to understand and is customer friendly. Don’t forget to offer gift receipts, gift wrapping and shipping to multiple addresses for the long distance gift giver.

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