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The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
June 2005, Volume 4, Issue 6

search engine marketing

Jack-O-Lanterns in June: Retail Sites Should Focus on Paid Search Advertising Strategies Year-Round

by Sam Chiu, Paid Media Specialist, iProspect

Despite the seasonal nature of the online retail vertical, there are a number of reasons why year-round investment in pay per click advertising for such business is still not only recommended, but vital.
According to a JupiterResearch February, 2005 report*, 26% of online holiday shoppers said they began to think about their holiday purchases in October or earlier. Prior non-purchase interaction with a website is a crucial step in motivating a customer to include that site in their purchase consideration set.

Even though last-minute shoppers are unlikely to respond to early holiday messaging, online research is an important factor in bringing first time buyers, as well as returning customers, back to a website when it’s time to buy. We have numerous clients who place cookies on visitors that never expire – and all of them have tracked off-season visits to eventual online conversions.

Certainly the conversion rate of your PPC (pay per click) ads drops during the off-season, but you won’t be paying for a lot of clicks either. But those clicks that do not lead to initial purchases may lead to a visitor filling out a form or requesting information, or other interactions which enable you to develop a relationship with the potential buyer several months prior to the holiday season.

Our own research has shown that not only do retail customers perform research on seasonal products year round, but a small fraction of them also tend to purchase year round as well. Even after the holiday season, sales in the spring of 2005 for Christmas and Halloween items are still very strong for one of our retail clients. What’s even more surprising is that Christmas and Halloween purchases are still being made in the middle of May, more than 6 months before the holiday season!

Even though the overall volume for holiday products may be low during the off-season, the average order size is still high compared to the average non-seasonal purchase. And these sales are very profitable because at that time of year, both PPC bid prices and competition are lower. If your competitors aren’t smart enough to do the same thing, you can own the market for those off-season products for a number of months, at very little cost.

Although you may shift the majority of your pay per click advertising budget to your in-season products, you should definitely save some budget to stay in the auctions for your off-season products. Retailers should also remember not to focus solely on keywords that generate immediate sales, but also plan for latent purchase/research behavior before this coming holiday season.

* JupiterResearch February 4, 2005; Holiday 2004 Postmortem; Retain New Customers Through Retail Basics

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