Holidays are almost here, so bring on the cheer – and as a search advertiser, this is the most exciting time of year. As we know from last year, the top ten highest spend days for online shopping all happened during the winter holiday period.
Ready, Set, Plan
From Thanksgiving to Black Friday to Cyber Monday, all the way into the New Year – it’s not a huge surprise when it comes to measuring high spend days for online shopping. What might surprise you are the factors that shoppers consider when making purchases during this time, so check out our insights below.
- Free shipping offers dominate: Research shows that free shipping is no longer the exception, but the rule. Last year, online shoppers were actively seeking “free shipping” across all search engines; in fact, 50% of online transactions had free shipping during the holiday season. –Our advertisers can likely expect the same behavior this year and perhaps even an increase in effort to stay competitive.
- Consumers are already spending: During 2012, we learned the majority of consumers – 39% – plan their holiday spending budgets during the month of November. Now is your chance to catch their attention and make your way on a holiday gift list.
- Offer gift cards: Don’t forget that gift cards account for a huge percentage of gifts. Last year, 59.8% of people asked for gift cards and nearly 50% of survey respondents planned to buy at least one holiday gift card for someone else. As increasing numbers of consumers do their shopping online, we should expect the gift card trend to continue. Plus, the investments you are making now in your online holiday planning doesn’t end with just the post-holiday sale fever – those gift cards will continue to be redeemed online into the New Year.
December is the Biggest Online Shopping Month of the Year
Top Keywords for Cyber Monday
You already know that keywords matter, so make sure yours are relevant, refreshed, and ready to go. In preparation for the upcoming Cyber Monday, we looked back to see what the top keywords were last year.
Top non-brand keywords for Cyber Monday 2012, based on revenue were:
- cyber monday deals
- cyber monday deals 2012
- cyber monday 2012
- cyber monday
- cyber monday laptop deals
In addition to brand and non-brand keywords that highlight the given holiday milestone (e.g. Cyber Monday, Black Friday) – you should consider adopting broad match to ensure you are not missing out on opportunities. Given the variability of the queries during the holiday season, you now have even more opportunity to increase scale for lower cost with Bing Ads’ enhanced broad match technology.
Take Advantage of Yahoo Bing Network Holiday Growth Trends
With a close eye on the shopping season, our teams have been constantly monitoring click volumes on the Yahoo Bing Network. Over the last few weeks, we are seeing increasing year-over-year click projections through the holidays – which means more opportunity for you.
Advertisers who are leveraging year-over-year rates from earlier in the month to predict activity and spend throughout the entire holiday season may under estimate the budgets they may need going into late this week. We recommend that you monitor activity frequently and to take advantage of anticipated click increases by adjusting your budget appropriately.
High Spirits and High Expectations for the 2013/14 Season
We know the holidays can lead to high revenue, but also high expectations. Now that more than half of US consumers own smartphones, they are doing research before turning to brick-and-mortar stores. While mobile is a constant and important point along the way to purchase, 55% of people look up price information about a product, then are still going to the store to buy. Search ads should include store locations, hours and phone numbers to make that purchase journey as easy as possible for consumers.
All in all, we expect this holiday season to be a great time for marketers and retailers. The National Retail Federation is projecting 2013 holiday sales to rise 3.9% to $602.1 billion for the 2013 season. This means there are great opportunities for our advertisers on Bing Ads as US retail commerce sales for the holiday season will grow 15.1% to $61.8B in 2013 (eMarketer: Holiday Shopping Preview 9/4/2013).
Our “holiday wish” is that you will have a successful retail season this year by leveraging some of the tips and data we’ve shared with you today or from our Holiday Search Guide.
Cheers to a prosperous end of year - we look forward to hearing about it!
Steve