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The weather maybe so balmy that your priorities are towards the beach instead of Christmas but the weather should not be an excuse to let your eyes of the bauble. Have a look at our tips to make the most of your online Christmas 2012 and find out if the recently released ‘top toys’ lists can inform your toy keyword lists in the UK and the US.
The 2011 UK ‘Dream Toys’
The Toy Retailers Association represents 75% of the UK toy trade and can therefore advise you on what the popular (toy) gifts are going to be this year. This could be an additional marketing opportunity for you. The association shows an all-up list of Top Toys (below) and Top Toys by categories such as boys, girls, pre-school, games, creative, construction & cool & hot. The common trend between the top toys seems to be a ‘technological twist’ (more noisy toys for my two year old nephew!)
The Independent reports on the lists as following: ‘For boys there are a number of traditional toys which generally fall into two categories: constructive and destructive’
Overall top 12 UK Dream Toys
US shoppers intend to spend the same as last year on toys & start shopping at Thanksgiving
In the US the Toy Industry Association (TIA) refers to market research by the NPD group into spending intentions. The majority of people intend to spend about the same on toys as last year – only 9% intends to spend more.
Consumers told NPD they plan to begin their shopping about the same this year as last year. This year almost 41% of consumers say they plan to start their holiday shopping on Thanksgiving weekend or later, compared to 40% last year.
Research carried out in January this year showed that last Christmas Dolls, Building Sets and Outdoor & Sports toys saw the strongest growth, while Youth Electronics, Action Figures/Accessories/Role Play and Games/Puzzles saw the largest drop. Giftbee lists these products as popular toys (there are similarities between the UK + US) for the US Holiday season. Toys’RUs also has released a list.
Source: NPD Group
PPC Top Toy Tips
If you’re selling any of these toys it could be worth it to see if the newer toys already generate searches. This post on keyword finding techniques may be useful. If you are looking at a rather new toy you may find there aren’t many searches for it yet. ‘Fireman Sam - Pontypandy Multi Rescue Set from Character Options’ may not be searched for much. Ensure your generic ‘Fireman Sam’ ad group is built up well and coupled with an attractive ad. You can create small ad groups around the most popular toys (using specific keywords) and use dynamic text to pull exact keyword into your add and add a very accurate landing page for a great customer experience and ROI in case traffic on these terms is hotting up.
You can also group the top toys you are selling together on your site and refer to them from you Christmas home page such as Littlewoods has done:
Our 2011 Optimisation Advice for a Great Christmas & Beyond:
Like to read more about how to prepare your search accounts for Christmas? Have a look at our previous posts:
If you have any good (toy) Christmas optimisation ideas or trend resources , why not share them below?
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Great article Simone! I must say that there are all the ingredients to boost the ROI factor from here on, especially for businesses related to toys.
Thank you the information on your blog was very useful.
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