With the holiday season rapidly approaching, paid search advertisers need to be prepared to give their search and display campaigns extra attention to capitalize on the holiday rush. This period sees a surge in quick, impulsive purchases, making it crucial for advertisers to optimize their PPC campaigns to attract holiday shoppers and ensure their ads are seen, engaging, and generating clicks. A key strategy to achieve this is optimizing your text ads for the holiday season.
This post will cover three essential factors to consider when refining ad text, along with tips on modeling your ads after successful examples from major retailers like Target, Pottery Barn, L.L. Bean, and Kohl’s.
Here’s a preview of what we’ll be exploring:
Three Key Areas of Focus for Ad Text
- Incorporate Holiday Messaging and Language
- Implement Seasonal Promotions and Special Offers
- Optimize for Clicks
Let’s begin by delving into holiday messaging.
1. Incorporate Holiday Messaging and Language
Advertisers should create new or adapt existing text ads to include language and messaging that resonates with holiday shoppers. Crafting distinctive, targeted holiday ad text helps your ads stand out from the generic ones often found on search engine results pages.
My advice: EMBRACE YOUR CREATIVITY! (Just stay within Google’s text ad policy guidelines.)
Imaginative, engaging, and positive ad text consistently delivers good results, even outside the holiday season. If you haven’t experimented with creative ad text before, now’s the ideal time to try. For a prime example of a unique text ad, take a look at this one from Kohl’s that appeared for the search “fleece jackets”:
Notice how the top description line incorporates festive holiday messaging. This cleverly combines creativity with targeted messaging.
Remember to tailor your ad text messaging based on your target audience. Consider these ideas if your business falls into any of these categories:
- E-Commerce: Highlight the joy of giving, the convenience of online shopping versus crowded stores, guaranteed in-stock messages, and so on.
- Consumer Services: Showcase holiday specials, unique holiday-specific services, or temporary seasonal changes to your offerings.
- Business-to-Business (B2B): Emphasize time-sensitivity, year-end deals and availability, etc.
2. Implement Seasonal Promotions and Special Offers
Updating or creating text ads that highlight specific, seasonal promotions and special offers is essential for attracting holiday shoppers. Ads featuring promotional offers or incentives consistently perform well because they differentiate you from competitors.
Be specific with your promotional offers and clearly explain how searchers can benefit (this also applies to updating your landing pages – a topic for another post).
Again, consider promotions relevant to your consumer category:
- E-Commerce: Include coupon codes, percentage-off discounts, free shipping, complimentary gift boxes, guaranteed delivery dates, pre-made gift sets, and more.
- Consumer Services: Promote last-minute offers for forgetful shoppers, year-end deals, and promotions extending beyond the holiday season.
- Business-to-Business (B2B): Offer year-end deals, new fiscal year promotions, and extended offers beyond the holidays.
Let’s examine some examples:
Search Query - “Designer Scarves”
See how prominently Ann Taylor showcases their coupon code and percentage-off offer? It’s immediately clear that shoppers can get a significant discount.
Search Query - “Holiday Lights”
This ad is excellent for several reasons. First, it’s entirely targeted towards holiday shoppers, from the display URL to the description lines. Second, it includes a coupon code and a percentage-off offer. Third, while targeting the “holiday lights” search, it also suggests the retailer offers other holiday items.
Use these examples for inspiration on integrating promotions and special offers into your ad text. If you have an offer that you believe potential customers should know, include it in your ad copy.
Here’s a list of common offers that attract attention during the holidays:
- Coupon Codes Included
- %-Off Offers Included
- Free Shipping
- Pre-Wrapped Gift Sets
- Free Gift Box/Custom Gift Message
- Guaranteed Delivery Date
- Guaranteed In-Stock
- Extended Offers Beyond the New Year
- Ability to Put Items on Hold
3. Optimize for Clicks (The Ultimate Holiday Text Ad)
After enhancing your holiday text ads, ensure they have the best chance of getting clicked. Let’s illustrate what to implement alongside your creative and promotional ad text with a comprehensive example.
Introducing the Ultimate Holiday Text Ad!
Let’s break down this ad:
- Relevant Keyword/Dynamic Keyword Insertion: The headline displays a clear, relevant keyword, potentially using dynamic keyword insertion for a more targeted approach.
- Social Media Integration: This ad integrates social media to some degree. Connecting your ads to your Google+ profile improves relevancy for Google and unlocks features like review extensions.
- Location Extensions: Enable location extensions to drive foot traffic to your physical store.
- Sitelink Extensions: Always enable sitelink extensions and, if possible, create seasonal landing pages that match your ad’s theme, as demonstrated here.
- Call Extensions: Utilize call extensions to allow searchers to contact you directly.
- Holiday Messaging: The ad incorporates targeted holiday messaging, clearly conveying that Pottery Barn offers holiday-themed products.
By combining these elements and putting in the effort, your text ads will shine during the holidays. Elevate your PPC campaigns with these simple ad text enhancements, and don’t be afraid to get creative!