UK Father’s Day 2013: Lots of Opportunities for Online Marketers

Valentine’s and Mother’s Day are in the books, now it is time to think of Dad. With Father’s Day approaching quickly on June 16^th, advertisers across various industries have a unique opportunity to market their products and services.

Last year we saw close to 40% increase in traffic to the key verticals on the Yahoo! Bing network (1). More specifically, generic father’s and father’s day gifts terms saw close to 75% between April and June 2012.Special outings, (for example a trip to the golf course, a visit to a sports event or dinner at a restaurant) electronics, apparel, gift cards, sporting goods and books & music are the most popular father’s day gift categories. So, it’s commercially a key day for marketer offering products and services (presents) for Father’s Day in these categories. We predict that the numbers for 2013 might even be bigger.

To be prepared for the expected surge of traffic across search engines optimizing your account in May is crucial for a successful campaign. Trends on Yahoo! Bing network show that the online research begins about one month to three weeks before Father’s day.

To help small businesses to get the most out of your Bing Ads campaign we collected a few tips what to look for when preparing your account for Father’s Day.

 Keywords

• Create a dedicated Father’s Day campaign to catch the attention of undecided shoppers. In 2012, searches for the keyword “Father’s Day” and “Father’s Day  Gifts” grew continuously since mid-May with a big spike in the last week before the event. On Father’s Day itself the number of searches jumped up by 75% compared to the day before. This indicates that small businesses can drive a lot of potential shoppers to physical stores until the very last minute. (1)

• Few top terms which saw increased traffic due to the seasonal factor are listed below (1):

• Bid on all match types ideally with the highest bid on exact. This is important because exact match typically delivers at higher CTR with lower costs per click.
• Place competitive bids for your most important keywords. You want the associated ads to show in the mainline. It is estimated that these 3 positions receive up to 70% of the total clicks. Below listed is the estimated KPIs for key categories impacted by Father’s Day (1)

Ad Copy

• Highlight your best offers and deals for Father’s Day
• Mention “Father’s Day” in your ad copies to grab audience attention
• Promote shipping options such as free shipping, discounts and coupons, guaranteed delivery for last minute gift shopping.

Targeting

• Bing Ads offers variety of targeting options including: device, day and time of the week, demographics along with the location targeting.
• Searchers in the age group 25 – 49 account close to 60% of the searches (1). So, you might be interested in our incremental bidding feature

• Incremental bidding offers an additional opportunity to reach your preferred audience by increasing bids for specifically targeted customers. Here’s an example how it works:

The easiest way of course is to let us do the work.  Contact us and we’ll do the optimization work for you. Our search experts are more than happy to help.

Another quite simple way is to export your already optimized campaigns from another search engine. Just use “Import from Google AdWords”  from the main menu in Bing Ads and follow the instructions.

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(1)   Bing Ads Intelligence Tool