PPC marketing strategy: Incorporating paid search into your holiday Internet marketing strategy

As an online marketer, the holiday shopping season seems to start earlier each year; that’s because, in many respects, it does. Advertisers push the bar by offering sales and other promotions earlier and earlier every year. For all practical purposes, you should consider November 1st the beginning of the holiday shopping season, and you should have your PPC marketing strategy planned well in advance.

Interest in ‘Black Friday Deals’ for the past 3 years:

C = 2013
B = 2012
A = 2011

Key Christmas holiday shopping dates

Mark your calendar for these vital online shopping dates:

Veteran’s Day Weekend
Nov. 8 – Nov. 10, 2014 – Many retailers kick off the holiday sales push over Veteran’s Day weekend by offering a variety of discounts on Christmas gift products.

Thanksgiving
Nov. 27, 2014 – Christmas holiday shopping is about the only thing we do as well as eating on Thanksgiving weekend; perhaps the sheer volume of food consumed makes television, napping and online shopping the only viable options.

Black Friday
Nov. 28, 2014 – The Friday after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year. Ensure that you are price competitive or have some other compelling offer to lure open-walleted shoppers like zombies to brains.

Cyber Monday
Dec. 1, 2014 – The online counterpart to Black Friday, Cyber Monday generates more revenue for retailers with each passing year, and is absolutely vital to your PPC marketing strategy.

Green Monday
Dec. 8, 2014 – coined by eBay to describe its best sales day in December, Green Monday is traditionally the 2nd Monday of December. Be unabashedly greedy with high bids and deep discounts for effective pay per click on this day.

Free Shipping Day
Dec. 18, 2014 – a one-day event when thousands of merchants offer free shipping with delivery by Christmas Eve

How important is free shipping to your holiday Internet marketing strategy?

Paramount. There have been countless studies done that indicate the undeniable psychological impact of free shipping – even when the consumer ends up paying more in total for their items! – so I won’t beat a dead horse. If there is any way you can viably integrate free shipping into your holiday pay per click marketing offering, do so, and advertise it blatantly in every way you have available.

We hope this has been a helpful guide to bolstering your PPC holiday Internet marketing strategy. If you need help this holiday season, reach out to a seasoned pay per click marketing manager at The Search Guru today!