Black Friday is over and, hopefully, we’ve all seen positive results in our accounts. Weeks of preparation making sure campaigns are set up correctly, offers are in place and the site is working as planned have paid off with a significant bump to revenue and a boost to Q4 results.
It’s important to take a moment to reflect and enjoy the results of the hard work but we can’t relax for too long because the next challenge is already here - ensuring we make the most of December and all the sales that come with it.
With so many factors at play, managing accounts in December is completely different from any other month with a range of considerations to maximise the chances of success. Luckily, none of these are overly complicated by themselves but it’s how they work together that can make the difference.
This week, let’s look at the major points to consider when managing your account for positive December results.
1) Budget Pacing
Perhaps the most important thing to get right in December is accurately pacing your budget based on demand and the logistics of your business. When you think about the unique trends over the course of the month, the normal method of dividing spend by available days and steadily pacing quite literally doesn’t add up.
With the Black Friday weekend extending into the first few days of December and customers getting their Christmas shopping out of the way in the first half of the month, we need to take a more active approach to pacing than we normally would. Accounting for these weekly trends is crucial to make sure we have enough budget to support search volume and so we don’t leave any revenue on the table.
Rather than pacing steadily, a smarter approach is to weight your budget heavily towards the first two weeks of the month. By the time we’re a week out from Christmas, sales decrease significantly and businesses can’t guarantee that orders will arrive in time to be under the tree on Christmas morning. Focusing on periods where search volume and sales intent is highest will mean maximum performance for your account without having to scramble for sales.
2) Factoring In Competition
It’s not just about how much budget you have to spend, it’s also about how efficiently you can spend it. We’ve talked at length about how the auction space is becoming more competitive every year and Christmas is a great example of this with a higher number of competitors who are increasingly proficient at managing their accounts.
When reviewing budgets for December, be sure to factor in that CPCs will be far higher than normal and forecast accordingly. Without accounting for this, it’s nearly impossible to operate efficiently and meet your targets. We already know that conversion rate will be much higher in the leadup to Christmas so a higher CPC can be easily balanced by an increase in sales & revenue if the account is managed correctly.
Don’t be afraid to highlight this and ask for additional budget, backed up by account data, to ensure that you can stay competitive and get the results you need.
3) Scheduling Changes
By the time Christmas arrives, even the most motivated marketer is running on empty. They’ve spent the last two months setting up, optimising and reporting on campaigns during the busiest retail period of the year. With so much going on, it’s easy for things to fall through the cracks and for errors to appear.
A simple way to guard against this is to use scheduling options to ensure that things happen when they’re meant to. When setting up campaigns, ad copy or promotions, take a moment to create a rules ensuring these finish at the appropriate time. Having an ad talking about your Christmas discounts and same-day shipping options is great, unless it’s running on the 26th of December!
The peace of mind in knowing that your Christmas ads and campaigns will pause when they need to is well worth the extra hour that it will take to set these up across the account during the planning stage and will mean no nasty surprises when you log on in January.
December brings so much opportunity to our accounts but also brings its own unique challenges. Considering the things which make this month different and what you need to do to set your accounts up for success will mean a strong end to 2024 and a relaxing, well-earned holiday once it’s all said and done.
To get your accounts Christmas ready, get in touch.