Seasonal Opportunity for Health, Wellness and Weight Loss Advertisers

When I was a kid, my mom had this book that covered all sorts of health-related topics; it had everything from describing what poison ivy looked and felt like to how to remove a fishhook from an eyeball (I always wondered about what kind of story could result in such an affliction) -- that book was my medical bible.  I consulted it for what to do about every cut, scrape and sprain whenever my mother would dismiss it as nothing to fret over.

Now, whenever I feel an ache or a twinge that doesn't seem right, or if I want to research whether or not the low-carb lifestyle might be for me, my first stop isn't going to be that book... it's a search engine. 

Like many others, I tend to visit Live.com for health and fitness information before I'll to go a site like MSN Health, WebMD or the Mayo Clinic.  I can't speak for others, but for me, it's a matter of efficiency: by typing my query into the search engine, I'm most likely going to bring up relevant results from all of those medical resources on just one or two pages.

Given the spike in health, fitness, wellness and weight loss related searches that increase in the time leading up to and immediately following the start of the new year, an opportunity arises for advertisers who specialize in products and services related to getting and staying in good health.

Here are a few tips to make sure you're taking advantage of this seasonal spike in traffic:

• Weight gain/loss will be top of mind for consumers around this time of year. Ensure relevant keywords are in top positions, you may need to increase your bids to keep up with the stepped-up competition.

• As consumers consider their goals for the new year, they will be looking online for resources to help set and achieve them. Ensure your keyword coverage is adequate and highly relevant to your related products/services.

• Consider your primary audience for ad copy messaging and incremental bidding and structure your campaigns accordingly.  Remember that women and men each set and achieve goals differently, so you'll want your messaging and possibly bidding strategy to reflect that.