Is  your PPC Ad Agency campaign underperforming over the Christmas holiday season?

After managing nearly 1000 campaigns and seeing trends move up and down over the last decade, we have identified some really obvious data trends that are predictable year to year in certain industries when running paid search ad campaigns. This blog will explain how you can identify them and be prepared.

Most businesses have down time that is caused by seasonality, which is important to look at. Here are 2 examples that make it really evident:

• Example 1 – An electrician that focuses on cooling repairs.

• Example 2  – An event hire business that specialises in heater rentals.

Google Trends can be a great PPC tool to gauge how your industry will move month to month.

Summer /Christmas lull

As you can imagine, when Xmas comes around, (assuming you are living in the southern hemisphere where December is hot), you can expect that when this time comes around, a business specialising in heaters will TANK.

Running ads on Google will show lower conversion rates, higher cost per click, lower click through rates and less ROI overall. The reason for this is there are more businesses promoting their offers over this holiday period, yet less people searching for your heating products since the temperature is scorching. This is an extreme example of how your PPC campaign can underperform but the fundamentals are true. Less demand + High supply competition and your ads are going to struggle.

Winter Hibernation

Another obvious time where things can go pear shaped is in winter. Running ads for seasonal items like cooling, low carb beer, swimming pools, wedding planning and gym memberships will usually result in lower performance over the winter period due to lack of demand. This period usually happens between May and Late July, particularly in more seasonal locations such as Melbourne, Adelaide or Sydney where hot weather doesn’t last all year round.

One way to prevent this drop in website visitors is to add some form of interruption based marketing such as Meta ads (Instagram or Facebook) or Google Display Ads such as banner ads or YouTube Video Ads .

If these ads are optimised correctly, you should notice seasonality reduction since you are reaching the top of the funnel with a high volume of awareness through cheaper clicks and impressions.

Conclusion

You can turn ads off if your product is super seasonal and you are just a small player in the market. tThis can allow you to save budget for when the market is primed to purchase. You can bid more aggressively in the stronger seasons and have a fatter daily budget for your campaigns across social media or search marketing. 

Turning ads off is not always the best solution…Hear me out.
Okay, so picture this. You are the 3rd biggest player in the market that you are in and have been running ads for the entire year. Your budget is fatter than everyone else in your industry, your revenue and profit figures are top tier and everything is going smoothly. Your options are:

1. Turn off ads to try and maximise downtime over the off-period.

2. Run your ads when everyone else is having down time in an attempt to monopolise the market and rise to top position as the household name in your vertical.

Our recommendation: Consider option 2 very carefully as it could be the factor that allows your business to monopolise the entire market. If you are willing to pay more per new customer over this short period of time and out bid everyone in a dry market, it could allow your business to rise to the top of the market.

Of course, you will need enough of a budget to push you through this entire period so plan this carefully. But this could allow you to really wear down your competition. Also, always remember that data can be read differently and is always subjective to some extent, despite what people say. So if your conversion rate is low now but your impressions and clicks are high, these users who are just window shopping now will know who you are when it is time for them to reach out and purchase your product/services. An offer that destroys the rest of the market is super potent here – think big like 50% off or offering a free month.

Contact PPC Artisan –  The most sought after PPC Agency in Melbourne ‘s underground to scale your business.