Recap of Google’s Holiday Shopping Guide 2008 Webinar

Recently I listened to the Google Unwrapped holiday webinar called, Make the Most of the Holiday Season.  It’s important for me to get a head start for the holiday season in order to generate the most sales possible, and it’s becoming a priority for other internet retailers as well. In this webinar recap I’ll go over some of the 2007 holiday shopping trends, followed by recommendations for the 2008 holiday season.

2007 Holiday Shopping Trends

According to Google, Q4 carries the sales for the rest of the year for most retailers, which makes getting ready for the holiday season bigger than ever.  Online sales year over year continue to grow as consumer confidence for online shopping improves.  It’s important to make note of a few key days during the holiday season that have been known to top the charts in terms of online sales.

1.        Black Friday – (in-store) Friday after Thanksgiving. November 21, 2008

2.       Cyber Monday – (online) Monday after Thanksgiving. November 24^th, 2008

3.       All Mondays during the month of December tend to generate more revenue than other days.

4.       First and second week in December are on average highest revenue generating days online.

What to do in 2008

What to do for your PPC ads during the months of November and December 2008:

• Make sure all campaigns and ad groups are on, and bids are set accordingly in order to be in front of potential buyers during these peak times. Google also states that due to the weak economy, consumers are being more selective and is comparison shopping before they make a final decision. Therefore, don’t let these buyers get away from your site and move on to competitors!
• Offer special promotions, discounts, free shipping etc. to get them to return to your site and buy. Google states that consumers are desperate for deals and will be looking for promotions in order to decide on where to buy from.
• You can also submit your products to shopping search engines like Shoping.com, Shopzilla.com & Pricegrabber.com just to name a few. These shopping search engines allow consumers to review prices for a product between multiple companies at the same time. They also factor in shipping costs for each company depending on your zip code.
• Another tactic you can utilize for your PPC ads is Google Checkout. It’s a great way to call attention to your ads over your competitors and allow consumers to checkout quickly and painlessly.

Other shopping trends Google points out:

1. Consumers are skimping on certain items in order to spluge on a few pricier favorites.
2. They’re planning more in advance to save on gas money – no impluse shopping.
3. People are researching online and purchasing offline. One way to offset people researching online but purchasing offline if you don’t have a brick & mortar store is to offer free shipping or online only coupons.
4. You can also offer guaranteed delivery dates during the holiday season to make consumers feel more comfortable with buying online so close to the big day.

More PPC tips for the Holiday:

Again, make a note of the busiest online shopping days and print them off, hang them up in your cubicle. Bid higher on these days – make sure you are in front of these consumers, because they will buy from someone, why not you?

Also make sure to monitor your campaign daily budgets and bids. You don’t want your campaigns to be shut off early in the day, but you can’t afford to spend, spend, and spend either. Set your campaign daily budgets to your max and lower bids if you find you’re blowing through your budget too quickly.