I know many of you are probably still getting back into the groove of things after the long Holiday season, but it’s time to start thinking about the next holiday: Valentine’s Day. We are only 1 month away from the holiday of love so it’s time to start strategizing and planning for how to use the increased search volume on Valentine’s Day related keywords to your advantage.
If you are a retail client, you probably are already planning for Valentine’s Day. As one of the Retail Vertical Experts here at Microsoft, I can give you some helpful tips to maximize your efforts. I hope you find these tips useful and beneficial to your planning around this all important holiday.
· Valentine’s Day search traffic in adCenter
This year, Valentine’s Day falls on Saturday, February 14th, 2009. Within adCenter, we begin to see a lift in Valentine’s Day related searches around the middle of January and this lift continues until it spikes the week of Valentine’s Day and trails off significantly afterwards.
Key Takeaway: Get your Valentine’s Day campaigns up and running as soon as possible and make sure they are all running at full steam the week of February 14th.
· Men vs. Women
The average amount that men expect to spend on Valentine’s Day this year has increased vs. last year when compared to women. Men still spend significantly more than women during the Valentine’s Day holiday.
Key Takeaway: Utilize demographic targeting and bid boosting in adCenter to refine messaging and bid strategies towards the most likely searcher.
· Not just a holiday for spouses and significant others
While the majority of spending during Valentine’s day is by spouses and significant others, there is still a good portion (over 25%) that is spent on family members, friends, coworkers, etc.
Key Takeaway: Implement creative messaging to remind searchers about other gift recipients. Use the recipient phrases in ad copy to drive home the message (“Valentine’s Gift for Teacher”, “Valentine’s Gift for Sister”).
· It’s not all about flowers
While most people think flowers when they think of Valentine’s Day, in most research, flowers don’t even make it into the top 3 most popular gifts to give during Valentine’s Day. The most popular gifts are weekend getaways, cards, romantic dinner, entertainment event and jewelry.
Key Takeaway: If you are a travel, entertainment, greeting card, restaurant or jewelry client, you should be preparing ad copy for Valentine’s Day.
· Economy, Economy, Economy
With the recession taking hold over the country and even worsening in some areas, shoppers are looking more and more for bargains. Most people are feeling the pinch in their wallets so word your ads accordingly to motivate them to visit your site.
Key Takeaway: Shoppers are really interested in deals on free shipping and discounts. Call out these phrases directly in your ads to let searchers know you are offering discounts.
Thanks
Justin
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