When the shops opened in England right after Christmas I noticed chocolate bunnies and Easter eggs were for sale. Now whilst these bunnies seemed a bit eager to me, acting ahead of seasonality in search is a good idea. With roughly a month to go until Valentine’s Day now it is the time to check if your #PPC accounts are in order to benefit, where possible, from this event.

Unlike Chocolate Easter Bunnies – Seasonal PPC optimisation are never too early

Which products benefit from Valentine?

If someone asked me what would make a good present my answer would be that imaginative gifts which demonstrate who well someone knows you are the best – books or a set of screwdrivers can be really romantic gifts. However we usually see a search uplift of the following products:

• Flowers
• Chocolates
• Lingerie
• Travel/Short Breaks
• Jewelry
• Dating (not so much a product but seeing an uplift indeed in January and February)

However this should not stop you marketing other products & services in an imaginative way!

Using traffic and demographic insights

In my search media analyst past I found it very interesting to get human insights from search stats. This is how I confirmed by suspicion that men panic-buy their Valentine flowers (traffic before Valentine’s Day peaking just before the event) whereas come Mother’s Day women (organised & thoughtful as we are) order their flowers well before the event.

The trick for the switched on marketer is thus to find out the traffic trends of various products and services and who searches for them. So in the case of panic buying men you could make the last ordering date (if late) a clear USP:

‘Gentlemen don’t panic: Pam’s Petals takes Valentine orders till 13/02’.

You can redirect them to a high street store (when applicable) once the online cut-off point has been reached:

‘Late buying flowers? Find beautiful roses from £7 in all our stores’.

Playing mind tricks? I think you’d being considerate helping your customer in a moment of need

Roses and lingerie both see a peak time in searches in February (source Microsoft Advertising Intelligence)

How to optimise your search account for Valentine?

1. Research and expand keywords with Microsoft Advertising Intelligence

2. Create and launch your Valentine’s Day-specific ad copy and use dynamic text.

3. Monitor and adjust your bidding strategy to maintain top position and solid performance history

4. Set up demographic targeting to capture age and/or gender-specific audiences

Dating Optimisation Tips

Another area set to profit from Valentine’s Day is the dating industry. A lonely Christmas (or a Christmas break-up!) followed by a bleak January with the ‘month of love’ to follow hot on its heels urges singletons to reinvigorate their search for a partner. Here are some dating optimisation tips from our expert Philip Ryan:

1. Be Specific with Locations: Geo-target ads regionally and use dynamic text... so a searcher in Cardiff knows cupid’s arrow can land on their doorstep, not a 2 hour train journey away!

2. Inspire Confidence in Searchers: If you have tens of thousands of members, mention that you have “tens of thousands of genuine singles”.

3. Include Seasonal References:  Affirm what the searcher is looking for, for example, “New year, new love” and “Find Valentine’s Love” work better than “Online Dating Site”.

4. Use dynamic text: Increase your chances of highly relevant ads by using dynamic text in your ad titles, so a user searching for “London singles” will see your ad that had been set up as “Find {keyword}”... they’ll see it in their results as “Find London Singles”.

5. Calls to Action: Encourage searchers to “Join the fun” or “Find love”.

6. Brand Your Ads: Make sure you include the brand name within the ad copy. If you are advertising offline or running a display campaign the brand recognition will encourage clicks.

7. Include Your Promotion Info: If you have an offer, such as 30-days free membership, make sure to say so in your ad copy.

Valentine falls on a Tuesday this year which should be good news for all online advertisers as generally the event fares better for online if it takes place on a weekday so get optimising!

Read also Peter Haubold's post on preparing your accounts for Valentine's Day

Simone Schuurer - EMEA Community Site Manager