With Thanksgiving just around the corner, most advertisers should have noticed an uptick in volume of clicks as online shoppers begin scouring the internet for the best deals leading up to the holidays.  If you haven’t already started optimizing your campaigns to take advantage of this seasonal lift in traffic, at the very least you should be aware of some of the most important dates in the holiday shopping cycle.  According to historical data from ComScore Networks, the window of opportunity to take advantage of the biggest spikes in online shopping traffic is just around the corner:

Here are some of the dates that you should be aware of, as well as a few simple preparation tips for each.

Black Friday: November 27 

Traditionally, the Friday following Thanksgiving is one of the biggest days of the offline shopping year.  While at a cursory glance this may seem irrelevant when it comes to search engine marketing campaigns, it is anything but.  As I’ve pointed out in previous posts, the current economic climate is forcing gift seekers to invest more time in researching their gift ideas before laying down their hard-earned cash; they’re looking for the best value at the best prices and there’s no more efficient way of doing that than looking online before battling the crowds in the brick and mortar stores. 

Cyber Monday: November 30

For those, like myself, who would prefer to enjoy the long weekend spending time with family and friends (and have no interest in getting up at 4am to battle the crowds), the Monday after Thanksgiving is typically my first earnest attempt at making holiday purchases online.  Combine online shoppers like myself with those who didn’t find what they were looking for on Black Friday and so take their search online, it’s no surprise that the Monday following the Thanksgiving weekend shows a measureable spike in online shopping activity.    

Green Monday: December 7

If Black Friday is the busiest offline shopping day of the holiday season, Green (not Cyber) Monday is its counterpart when it comes to online shopping.  Although it’s two  years old now, Businessweek has a great article explaining the shopping trend progression from Black Friday to Cyber Monday to Green Monday, backing up the data in the ComScore graph above that shows the 2nd week in December as the busiest in the online shopping space.

Brown Monday: December 14

If you do decide to offer discounts or promotions as a manner of counteracting offers of free shipping from competitors, keep in mind that Brown Monday has historically offered shoppers the most aggressive promotions and discounts and also marks the deadline for last-minute free shipping with guaranteed holiday delivery. 

Preparation Tips

1. Be sure to include relevant key phrases like “Black Friday”, “Cyber Monday”, etc. in your keyword list and especially in your ad titles – many online shoppers will use these terms to search for deals.  Our partners in Media Analytics Services have put together a keyword list that should help you get your holiday campaigns ready for these important dates. 
2. If you’ll be offering in-store promotions, say so in your ad copy and make sure whatever information you include is also reflected on your landing page (if you say “15% off digital cameras”, be sure that same text is on your site) to avoid editorial disapprovals.
3. Consider taking inventory of your ads and keywords to ensure they are as specific as possible to your products/services as well as highly relevant -- both to each other and to the landing pages you’ll be sending shoppers to.  If you haven’t already started using dynamic text in your holiday ads, there’s no time like the present. 
4. Historically, Green Monday begins the influx of free shipping offers for the holiday season.  If that’s not something you’ll be offering your online shopping customers, consider what other avenues you can take that will give potential customers an incentive to choose you over the competition and call those incentives out in your ad copy.
5. If you’re going to offer discounts on Green Monday, make sure to pace your strategy so you’ll have something left to trump those offers with when Brown Monday rolls around.

Good luck!