NetElixir has been accurately predicting annual holiday trends for over five years. We consistently use knowledge from our team of seasoned experts, plus data from over 400 retail clients. Now, we’re sharing these exclusive insights to your team to help your business succeed in this turbulent holiday season in the form of our Holiday Search Planning Calendar.
Our calendar maps out the most competitive paid search days of the holiday season. It visually notifies you when you should be adjusting your bids and across which devices. We don’t leave you hanging. We provide detailed analytical rationale behind each of these decisions. Before we dive deeper into the why, let’s explain how to use this calendar.
How to Use the Holiday Planning Calendar
The Holiday Search Planning Calendar allows you to work smarter, letting you know exactly when to ramp up and when to lay off the gas.
The table on the right-hand side of the file shows when to pay premiums for your bids and at what intensity. It’s based entirely off of what day’s competition is the highest. It also displays a recommended percentage on how much to increase your bids on keywords and where, whether you decide to increase your bids at a certain percentage on desktop, tablet, or mobile devices.
Approaches to take are relative to competitive intensity, which ranges from Moderate to Very High on the table. The calendar image on the left-hand side of the page shows which days of the holiday season need which attentive strategies.
Calendar Examples at Work
On a Moderate day, product-specific promotions will typically show a higher conversion rate. You’ll gain a competitive edge by narrowing your audience and by focusing on specific products only.
If the competitive intensity is High, for example, you should focus on growing profitably and identifying what categories you can compete on pricing.
When the competitive intensity is Very High, you should assess how competitive your product mix is. As always, have a Plan B ready. You should also focus on boosting volume at this time, as well.
Key Trends that Shape the Calendar
Shoppers have more time to decide and buy this holiday season due to an increase in days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. However, that won’t stop a surge of last-minute orders. People procrastinate, even with holiday gifts.
To target these on the go customers and appeal to their purchasing habits, increase bids across mobile devices, as well as local ad targeting. Features such as “overnight delivery” and “pickup in-store” will be very popular among this audience.
With an increase in mobile holiday purchases, it’s important that whenever you decide to increase a bid on a keyword, you must do this at a higher percentage across mobile devices. These active, constantly on the go shoppers will be more focused on finding quick solutions. That means they’ll be more likely to search on mobile devices for stores “near me,” especially since there’s been a dramatic increase in those types of searches in the past few years.
And when Christmas ends, that doesn’t mean that your efforts do, too! With an increase in purchases immediately post the Holiday season (a phenomena we call “me buys”), keep pushing ahead of the competition by taking tips from our Holiday Search Planning Calendar. Apply those bid adjustments with your discretion.
