The holiday season is fast approaching. With the sounds of jingle bells and cheerful music on the not too far tinsel clad horizon, those of us who work in or around eCommerce businesses are all too familiar with the whole new meaning to the term “silly season” this time of year holds.
Between wrapping up (no pun intended) previous campaigns, Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales and the impending Boxing Day price slashes, it can be hard to even think about which of our many ugly sweaters to dawn at the office holiday party.
To prepare ourselves, our wardrobes and our clients for the madness that invariably ensues when the calendar ticks over to November – this blog post includes a few do’s and do soon’s when it comes to getting your holiday campaigns ready.
If you’ve found yourself with a little extra time up your sleeve (yeah right!) in preparation this year, here’s what you can do today, to have your most successful holiday season yet!
Things you can do now to get the most out of your holiday ads.
- Take a look at what kind of ads have been successful (however you define this) over the past 6 months. By knowing what’s performed previously, you can evolve and replicate your holiday campaigns based on the learnings and data earned throughout the year.
- Begin building your remarketing lists now while CPM is cheaper. By ramping up your cold outreach in the coming weeks and focusing on brand awareness and getting eyes on your website, you will have a qualified audience list that is ready to convert when it comes to setting your holiday campaigns live.
- If you run Google ads, now is a good time to optimise your feed. Having updated and accurate product categories, types and descriptions will help give Google more signals to match to search queries and serve the most relevant ads as fast as possible.
“The best time to plant a tree is two years ago, but the second-best time is today.”
Things you can do in the weeks approaching. (Don’t worry you still have time!)
Everyone is under pressure during this time of year, including Google and Facebook. With an increased volume of ads requiring approval, you’ll likely have to deal with a disapproved ad or two along the way.
To set our clients up for success, the WebSavvy team recommends November 9th as “ad eve”. We encourage you to have your ads; signed, sealed and ready to go early. Being prepared will not only make this busy period less overwhelming but also account for those inevitable last-minute changes and hiccups and hopefully keep your inbox and to-do list under control.
Your Holiday success checklist:
✔️ Aim to have your ads signed, sealed and ready to go in the back end of your ads manager early. We recommend November 9th for the holiday season or one month ahead of any sale period.
✔️ Ensure that your website and any tracking is all working smoothly.
✔️ Check your stock levels reflect your ads and the volume of sales you’re forecasting.
✔️ Account for increased postage and delivery times that come with this season and communicate this in your messaging.
Top Tip: The early bird gets the worm and in the case of working with an agency the earlier you can get your creative and copy finalised the more time your Account Manager has to work with you to make the most successful ad campaign possible.
Considerations for a post-2020 holiday season.
We’re not going to say the words, pivot or unprecedented because we’d really like you to keep reading this blog post – but what we will say is that 80% of Aussies are starting to think about Christmas shopping before December*.
Therefore digital ads have never been more necessary in the months leading. Consider widening your audience and targeting a more expensive group of people with good ad creative in the lead up to the holidays. According to Google, shoppers are less apprehensive about ordering goods and services online and we are more willing to try new things during the season of giving so nows the time to get people lining up out the door (metaphorically speaking).
Dare we say this year’s silly season will be even sillier? If you’d like to talk to one of our Account Managers about how WebSavvy can help with your digital strategy book a chat!
