Search Engine Marketing Consulting

A Holiday Sales Checklist for Pay Per Click Advertisers

Improving ad positions or creating new ads is only part of what you need to consider during holiday sales periods. A huge swing in traffic brings new potential and new problems. A review of the following elements can help prevent problems and maximize sales potential:
  1. Budgets
    Seasonal upswings may hit spending limits and result in a slowing or stopping of ad distribution. Review your campaign budgets/spending limits. Make sure your credit card limit will cover expected increases (Google may allow you to add a backup card, as well). If you are on invoice, review your account credit limit plenty of time in advance: it may take weeks for approval. Check again afterwards: sales may be even higher than you anticipated. Warning "flags" are posted in your advertiser User Interface, too, when budgets start maxing out often. Be sure to check.
  2. Ad Delivery
    If you set ad delivery to prorate to a budget, the system may not be able to adjust quickly to significant traffic increases and ads may stop running early. Make sure to monitor it.
  3. Campaign end dates
    Some campaigns may still have a start and end date from when they were set up (newer campaigns may have been set to No Expiration Date). Make sure the end dates do not fall during holiday sales periods. Old campaigns may have originally been set with an end date thought to be enough, but isn't. December 31 is a popular end date, but still within a good sales period.
  4. "Amount in inventory"
    Shopping sites may require a quantity for each item. Set the amount to cover both inventory and the higher demand. Refresh the uploads to reset the inventory count so you don't "run out" of an item in stock.
  5. Disapproved ads
    You may miss or not get a warning when an ad goes offline. Check ad status during peak periods, especially for high potential terms.
  6. Competitive offers
    Your best sellers may also be your competitors' and they may have a better offer. Check the ads around yours and compete accordingly. Check during peak hours in case they are targeting ads based on time of day (day part).
  7. Capacities
    Holiday traffic may be higher than anticipated, especially if running new or expanded campaigns. Consider if the following might choke under load: server capacity, internal search engine, credit card processing, and anything else that may get a lot of use or peak hard.
  8. Landing page problems
    Look for high click, low/no conversion terms in your tracking reports. It may be due to "page not found" errors, site malfunctioning, "try later" messages, or out of stock situations. If not, check if the competitive offer is better (see #5). Check during peak traffic periods in case it's a capacity problem (see #6).
  9. Seasonal products
    You may think you know what they are, but check the previous year's sales history and make sure to protect best sellers (see #5). Also, use available search term tools that shows seasonal trends.
  10. Content ads
    You may not be running content site ads for some terms, but during holidays the potential may be higher and worth more attention.
  11. Change approvals
    Be aware of ad approval processes. Ads may not run until a human approves certain changes. Call customer service and ask them to expedite the review if you have a time sensitive ad.


Home      How We Do It       SEM Services       Contact
Consultant Q&A       Why Pay Per Click?       Site Map       Holiday Sales Checklist for PPC


Call 760-580-8866
San Diego, California, 92029

Copyright     2007    Mariano Marketing - Search Engine Marketing Consultant    All Rights Reserved