Healthy New Year’s Resolutions: Too Popular to Be Ignored

USA.gov, the US government's official web portal, just listed the most popular New Year’s resolutions. Not surprisingly, half of them are health related: drink less alcohol, quit smoking, lose weight, get fit and manage stress (the others, for the record, are mostly of financial nature). While this is not good news for local liquor stores and smoke shops, every business owner offering products related to a healthier life style may rejoice. January typically is the biggest month for advertisers in the Health & Wellness industry.

Looking at vertical trends from last year, all health categories peaked in January. Clicks for weight loss-related terms almost doubled in the first month of the new year.

40 to 45% of American adults make one or more resolution each year, but with more than one third of resolution makers dropping off their goals after one month, it is crucial for advertisers to optimize for the key date of January 1st. Acting quickly and preparing campaigns for the first days of January is mandatory for success. For many resolution related keywords – weight loss being an example below – traffic spikes early and is cut in half by the middle of the month. This trend applies to “stop-smoking” or “quit drinking” keywords and general fitness/exercise program as well.

Below are some tips how to prepare your search campaign for 2011 New Year’s resolutions:

• Set appropriate budget to accommodate the unified marketplace; with Bing now powering Yahoo! search results, you can expect traffic spikes.
• Review 2010 data to identify your best performing keywords and ad copies.
• Bid for top 3 positions that had 70% of click volume last year (see chart below).
• Expand keywords to ensure optimal coverage (see attached Excel file*).
• Include all match types in bidding strategy.
• Leverage content network as Microsoft has excellent partner sites in the health industry.
• Reflect New Year’s resolutions in ad copy.

The chart below illustrates how weight loss and nutrition-related keywords performed in January 2010 when in positions 1 to 8. Please notice how click volume decreases with each position, especially when below position 3.

While search advertising should be a no-brainer at this time of year for anyone offering products from vitamins to fitness equipment and from weight loss to stop smoking programs, other advertising channels become increasingly important.

Aaron Finn, founder, chairman and chief strategy officer of AdReady in an interview from February 2010 stated:

“For the most part, advertisers have two goals: one, to drive sales, and two, to help customers remember the brand, and have positive associations with its product or service when it comes time to make a purchase. But search advertising can't meet both of these objectives. Any advertiser who isn't combining search advertising with other advertising channels is leaving money on the table every single day.”

It’s easy to see why display ads are such a powerful addition to any search campaign when listening to Aaron Finn again:

"Display ads can be placed on thousands of Web sites, in a targeted or broad manner, and they aren't as costly or complex as you might think. New systems help marketers with all budget sizes and skill levels as they build, place, target and measure ads. But ease of use itself isn't a good enough reason to use display. You want to complement your search ads with display because display ads can do what search ads can't: communicate the uniqueness of a brand. Most online searchers won't recall a company or product advertised on a search page. But display ads, created with powerful visuals like color themes, photos, Flash and visual elements, help customers recall a brand vividly."  

MSN Health ranks amongst the Top 10 Health & Medical Information websites in the US. [1] For advertisers in the Health & Wellness industry, it might just be the right starting point to reach the desired audience.

Visitors of the MSN Health site are mostly in the upper income brackets with 25% having a household income above $100,000, while 38% have graduated college or higher. [2] 83% of Health & Fitness visitors have bought online in the past six months. [3] Most users are in the age groups of 35 to 54 with more females (55%) seeking online advice on health sites. [4]. Some of the segments that can be specifically targeted include researchers for allergies, cholesterol, cold & flu, diabetes or migraine as well as healthy eating enthusiasts or active lifestyle and fitness seekers.

Of particular interest for the Health & Wellness industry might be MSN’s new website, Fitbie, that offers tools and advice on getting fit, losing weight, eating right, and staying in shape.

By finding the right mix between behavioral and profile targeting, Health & Wellness advertisers – especially in the small and midsize business category - may find an inexpensive but effective way to reach new customers. Wouldn’t that be a perfect New Year’s resolution for your business?

Unless, of course, Mark Twain was right when writing: “New Year's Day: now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions.  Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.”

*NOTE: Keyword lists are not to be uploaded "as is", always review any keyword suggestions for applicability to your own product offerings and landing pages.  Failure to do so could result in editorial rejections, a poor user experience or both.

[1] Hitwise, October 2010

[2] @Plan, Spring 2010

[3] comScore, PlanMetrix, October 2010

[4] comScore, MyMetrix, October 2010