How to Step Up Google Ads around Holidays or Events?

Holiday traffic is unpredictable. When your target audience is searching for a specific product or service during holidays or events, make sure you are there to offer your best deal. You can catch the holiday wave by setting up your Google ads campaign accordingly. However, make sure that you follow the trusted tips to boost your sales.

Here are a few ways mentioned to help you step up your Google Ads around holidays or events.

  • Preplan the Ad Campaign

You can make the best use of holidays or events by planning everything well ahead of time. When you start planning, it gives you ample time to get your ads created, approved, updated, and uploaded. This way, you will be ready to launch your Google ad even before the holiday or event starts. Since you might have to run the Google ad campaigns for a more extended period, you should have relevant knowledge and data to ensure the effectiveness of your decision. 

Some marketers make this common mistake that they don’t invest enough time in preplanning for the Google campaign. It can lead to disastrous consequences and monetary losses. For instance, if you end up choosing the wrong keyword with a low search volume, you won’t be able to achieve a higher conversion rate. So, you should better start preparing for holidays one year or at least a few months before to give your marketing team enough time to make the campaign impactful.

  • Display Ad Format

You can also target your audience during holidays through Google Display Ads. When it comes to planning ads especially for some holiday or event, you can tailor the display ad copy specifically for your target audience (but hey, make sure your ads are not so tailored it gets creepy). Similarly, the image you add in the display ad should be according to the holiday theme. Moreover, you can use the tempting discounts and sales offers instead of adding traditional call-to-action, i.e. Shop Now, and Click Here, etc. The deals you offer to your target audience in the display ad format should make them click the ad instantly. 

Keep in mind that display ads are likely to have a low “Click-through Rate” as compared to other google ad campaigns as they play a passive role. However, you should know that CPC (Cost per click) for the display ads is also lower than search ads. So, it will make up for the loss and you are more likely to get a positive ROI (Return on Investment) in the end.

Here is the image of a Google display ad that is specially designed for Christmas.

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It uses the Christmas theme by adding a Christmas tree, stick, and lights with a can of ‘Pepsi’. It seems like it doesn’t even need a copy as the image elaborates the purpose of the ad perfectly.

  • Sitelink & Offer Extensions

There is not just one way to promote your offer, you can find a lot of creative ways that fulfill the purpose. Sitelink extensions are one of the most effective ways of showcasing your deal. However, you must identify the marketing objective of your industry first to be able to choose the right technique. For instance, if your objective is sales-focused, you can include extensions to direct traffic to the deal available on your website. But if you are running a subscription-based business, you can replace the landing page of your website with an offer-focused page during the holidays. It will surely help increase the conversion rate and you will be able to get a higher ROI.

  • Google Ads Automation

If holidays or events are around the corner and you couldn’t plan for them in advance, the Google Ads Automation feature can be your savior. All you have to do to activate this feature is go to the ‘Campaigns’ tab in Google Ads and click the three dots in the right corner. Here you can select ‘Create an automated rule’, select ‘Pause Campaigns’ under the ‘Type of Rule’. Then set the time and frequency of your automated rule according to the requirement of the holiday or event. It will help run the campaign on a specific day or hour of the holiday. Moreover, it will turn off the campaign when it reaches its budget limitation. You can also give it a custom rule name to be able to find and review it later. 

  • Audience Targeting 

As mentioned earlier, you must preplan everything while planning for an ad around the holiday. One of the most important steps of planning includes keyword research. However, you don’t necessarily have to find an event or holiday-specific keyword necessarily, instead you can set up your campaign focusing on the target audience.

There are two ways of doing so: First, you can run a separate campaign, and second, you can set up the audience as “observational” in the existing campaign and add a bid modifier to it. The second method is easier and straightforward as all you need is to increase the bid and get the desired results. However, it is suggested to increase the bid by 15% first and adjust it later based on its performance. This way, your ad is going to appear at a higher position for the target audience as compared to your competitors’ ads.

In summary, there are a lot of ways and Google tools that you can use to promote your offers and place them in front of your targeted users. You must explore the features that Google keeps introducing and gets hands-on experience to be able to practice these methods effectively. If you want to be creative while planning ads for holidays, events, or any other occasion, you should allow yourself to take calculated risks and try new things out there. It will help you meet your marketing objectives regardless of their uniqueness and difficulty level.  

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