Shhh…. It’s nearly that time of year, no don’t say it. If we don’t say it may, there’s still time to get our PPC strategies ready for Christmas. Darn it, we went and said it.

Oh well, I guess Santa is out of the sack now. 

The festive season is nearly upon us, and it’s an excellent opportunity for marketers. But only if they’re ready.

So, let’s have a look at how you can make sure your PPC campaigns are ready for the holidays.

Review Historic Campaign

The first thing you might want to do is have a look and your previous campaigns. What did you do last year or the year before? What worked well and what didn’t?

We don’t expect everyone is going to be running the same campaign each year and using the same material (unless you have a giant red truck with a bloke with a beard on it) but is there any Evergreen content that you can use this year to save yourself some time and money? How did it perform last year? Can it be adapted to meet this year’s strategy and plans?

But not just your campaigns. What were your competitors doing? Others in the industry and marketplace will have been coming up with creative and unique ideas. Take inspiration from the past and use it to shape the future.

Targeted festive plan

What is the plan of action? Your holiday campaign should have some connection to your overall marketing campaign and brand strategy for the year, otherwise, your customers are just going to be confused. But what is going to separate this content from the rest of the year? What will make it festive and targeted at the same time?

Think carefully about how you can target your customers. Consider intent led keyword research to understand just what your target audience will be searching for and how those searches may change as we approach this time of year.

This plan should lead until the post festive period, considering the New Year sales and how that may affect your company.

Get the timing right

The next thing to establish is timing. Despite Wizard’s request, the festive period is only so long. 

The timing of your PPC campaign is key to maximising the opportunities this time of year presents. Going too early can put customers off as many will not be ready to start thinking about it yet and have other priorities. Too late and your competitors may have gotten ahead of you, getting the optimum positions and keywords.

You also need to consider how long your campaign will run. Obviously, this will incur costs but with the ability to control your PPC campaign, you can make changes to adapt it for the post festive period.

Remember as well to consider your SLA (service level agreement). If it takes time for customers to receive goods or services, make sure you factor this in when deciding on your advertising campaign.

Not just Christmas Marketing

Yes, we know the obvious answer to this one. But outside of just ‘Christmas’ as a theme, what is going to make your ads stand out? What theme will get customers’ attention and help get your brand front of mind in this busy retail period?

It will always help to keep a theme consistent with the overall marketing strategy of the brand. This will help build brand loyalty with your existing customer base and keep the tone and continuity throughout the year.

Of course, there is always the opportunity over this period to do something new and different. Remember PPC is about getting customers to engage with your brand, so the theme of your advertising should relate to the brand, as well as the season.

Post Holiday Evaluation

So the holidays are over, everyone is back to work having eaten far too many mince pies, owning too many pairs of socks and having an excess of brussel sprouts.

That must mean it’s time to evaluate your holiday campaign. Some of this will have been happening during the campaign, to make sure keywords were appropriate and optimal. But now is the time to see how successful you were.

Take this opportunity to use analytics and customer feedback to review the performance of the campaign and establish what worked well and what didn’t. Where can the business improve in future campaigns and is there anything from this one that should be carried forward and saved as future content?

The festive season is a great opportunity for businesses to stand out and do something a bit different with their PPC from the rest of the year. However, it is important to remember that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every year and it is ok to reuse content that has worked before.

Just make sure it aligns with the current strategy and plan of action.