During this week’s PPCChat discussion, Julie F Bacchini sought experts views on Q4 2024. As clients are entering into Q4, are they excited or nervous? Are experts trying to do something new? and will Q4 this year be strong, weak or similar to 2023?
Q1: Is the Q4 season a big deal for the accounts you manage? If so, why and if not why not?
I am not in ecomm PPC, so Q4 is not frantic for me. I am very happy about that. I did ecomm one holiday season and that was enough for me! @NeptuneMoon
YES! it’s a big push for the end of the year for my restaurant clients, it’s a big time of year for my travel client, and on the gov side, it’s all about respiratory illness and winter safety. For my retail clients, of course it’s the biggest three months of the year. @JuliaVyse
Yes
Ecom – huge
SaaS & others – want to get done with their annual budgets, planning for next year etc etc
Lead Gen / Local Businesses – Relaxed from December. @alimehdimukadam
Thank god no…been there done that… since I moved into audits and training it’s big in terms of focusing on family and kids. I buy a lot though. And as a consumer I’ll try new stuff @runnerkik
Google is rolling out changes to Shopping that include AI. https://blog.google/products/shopping/google-shopping-ai-update-october-2024/ . Gotta love changes in Q4. @NeptuneMoon
what perfect timing! @JuliaVyse
I’m sure Meta will roll something out soon too. @NeptuneMoon
Depends on the accounts – always pretty big for straight eCom and some B2B, depending on seasonality, but less crazy than usual I’d say. @revaminkoff
Q2: Do you have anything new that you are trying for this year’s Q4 season?
I’m hoping my retail clients will try out the automated creative enhancements in PMax this season. It’s a lot to hand-make all the different versions of a sale ad. And we have a TotalTV product I’m excited about. It’s a bespoke product for linear TV + CTV all in one buy. @JuliaVyse
I do not have anything specifically new for Q4. @NeptuneMoon
Looking forward to continuing to play around with Demand Gen as the new Video Action platform to get ahead of the Q2 2025 forced migration. @revaminkoff
Getting dynamic remarketing & business feed uploaded for a travel client but their dev team is yet to prioritize it.Seeing good results from things to do campaign (getting organic & paid results – travel specific) so looking to scale that more. @alimehdimukadam
Nothing new, generally, I try not to make big changes to strategy or execution fourth-quarter. @runnerkik
@alimehdimukadam Ugh developers. Here’s hoping no one’s client web sites get majorly changed before 2025 too. Bonus points if it happens without anyone telling you… @NeptuneMoon
Haha, WordPress might disagree….The whole issue that has unfolded lately, is affecting a lot of end users. @alimehdimukadam
I have not dug deeply into the WP drama. @NeptuneMoon
People are jumping ship – ego, words, contributors are being expelled, plugins are taken over. (ACF + Nitropack will not receive official updates via WordPress.org anymore) It’s a mess. @alimehdimukadam
Q3: How are clients and stakeholders as we head into Q4 this year – are they excited, nervous, etc.?
My clients in general are nervous. It’s been a tough year and while we argue about the word ‘recession’ the lived experience is that things are too expensive and people are making hard choices about what they buy. We need a big success in the next three months, and that’s not easy to do. @JuliaVyse
I feel like there is general nervousness here in the US. This election cycle is brutal and there is a lot of uncertainty. I think the economy here in the US is also not particularly strong despite what numbers might say. Prices for a lot of things are still quite high. @NeptuneMoon
There is nervousness. Bright side – expectations are “let’s see – we’ll give our best”, that way everyone’s aligned. @alimehdimukadam
Nervous!!!!!! all this. @runnerkik
Rate cuts are first sign of trouble – usually markets tank around 50 days post first rate cut. And there are lot of variables including geopolitics, election, etc. Sometimes it feels like the world is a button press away from someone stupid to cause extreme chaos. (This is what happens when I spend a lot of time on X. @alimehdimukadam
And Google is not helping with the changes. @alimehdimukadam
It is harder to quickly move the needle now too with all the automation. I’m not sure all brands fully get this. @NeptuneMoon
I do think it’s interesting that we often think very macro. Our clients and their customers are not, for the most part. @ferkungamaboobo
YES! the micro thinking and vs the macro tools. @JuliaVyse
Very true @ferkungamaboobo – when your household necessities still cost 30% more than they did 2 years ago, that hits consumers hard. @NeptuneMoon
Like, covid as a black swan event or whatever — every business owner I know and worked with was not really caring about portfolios and stock markets, and them caring about bigger policy was smokescreen. They were caring about how to design their businesses to deal with the policies, they were caring about how to handle days with half their staff was out sick. @ferkungamaboobo
I think it depends on the client/company/industry – some people are nervous and on-edge (esp. B2B imho), and others are feeling more optimistic. Agreed that people who are on edge want to see changes fast and it’s very hard to understand that with AI, that just won’t work anymore. it kinda will work, but not nearly as fast they want it to work/want to be able to see the results. @revaminkoff
B2B & B2B SaaS – lead times have increased between Q2 & Q3. @alimehdimukadam
Q4: What is your gut feeling on how Q4 will be this year – strong, weak, similar to 2023?
Weak. I think some of our local campaigns are going to do really well and that will give us a boost, but I’m not bullish on luxury travel or retail this year. @JuliaVyse
I think it will be meh to weak. A lot depends on how the election and its aftermath play out here for US markets too. @NeptuneMoon
Let’s also not forget about all the folks impacted by “once in a lifetime” level weather events in the US too. @NeptuneMoon
Flat to meh – it feels like everyone has already been in holiday buying mode for awhile and with all the uncertainty around the election, I don’t foresee a big influx of money into things that aren’t necessity buys. @revaminkoff
Though a lot of money will have to go back into the economy to fix the damage done by the weather events. @revaminkoff
This would be the time for true brands to shine (Ecom)Otherwise my gut is leaning towards a bit meh coz election will definitely have an impact. But who knows, if things go Red – markets & consumers can splurge. @alimehdimukadam
I am curious about how Amazon’s Prime Days last week did. I have not seen anything on that (I haven’t looked either) @NeptuneMoon
Prime Day gave a good sneak peek into the overall trends. @alimehdimukadam
“People are looking for deals because the economy isn’t as good as it was,” Jay Kamhi, creator of the Mr. Predicto fortune-telling toy and president of Amazon toy-seller Kamhi World, previously told The Post. @alimehdimukadam
Take it with a grain of salt – Amazon does not release actual sales figures. And that last point that overall shopping was down but deal seeking shopping was up does not bode well. @NeptuneMoon
Q5: Are you running into any issues yet with your Q4 strategy? If so, how are you solving them?
My main issues with the Q4 strategy are client issues. Lots of changing mind mid-campaign, lots of extra briefs, lots of ‘lets just try this’ while we have a lot of other activity going on. The usual stuff that happens when someone is overthinking and trying to do a lot. @JuliaVyse
Can Google stop making big changes? Just for a quarter. @revaminkoff
…Google is not helping. @JuliaVyse
It really is wild how platforms don’t make Sept through Jan a blackout window for platform changes isn’t it? @NeptuneMoon
I am asking a few Ecom clients to warm their audience by sending out emails before hand (awareness) – existing customers driving sales will be key. @alimehdimukadam
I guess I didn’t mention how I’m solving: it’s communication. It’s returning to briefs, it’s returning to strategy, and lots of discussion. This is a time to talk a LOT. @JuliaVyse
I am honestly surprised I’m not already getting Black Friday deal emails yet. I was at this time last year. @NeptuneMoon
I’ve been getting holiday messaging, not BF specifically. Sephora Canada is on top of it. @JuliaVyse
I’ve been getting a lot of good sales emails and last week was crazy with prime day/ target circle week/ etc. – I get it’s not technically BF, but it feels like it. @revaminkoff
Q6: What are your biggest concerns in Q4 for your accounts and/or in general?
I am concerned about the US being in chaos if I’m being totally honest. @NeptuneMoon
My two big concerns are platform surprises and market surprises. I can do a lot to help my clients, but I can’t plan for what I can’t plan for. That’s probably very big picture, but I’m kind of fine with CVR and CTR fluctuations. @JuliaVyse
Google in general concerns me and all this AI and search talk…but Google might tread lightly because people are searching TikTok a lot more and I’m sure it bugs Google. @runnerkik
The AI in Shopping thing is really interesting and pushing it out in Q4 is… something. Like do platforms just really, really not care about their advertisers? If this stuff is so great, why not roll it out so advertisers can really understand and utilize it? And it happens every single year. @NeptuneMoon
It’s almost like these innovations come out for the Q4 earnings call instead of for user-adoption. @JuliaVyse
Well, AI is another way to shake those cushions… @NeptuneMoon
PPCChat Participants
- Julie F Bacchini @NeptuneMoon
- Julia Vyse @JuliaVyse
- Reva Minkoff @revaminkoff
- Ali Mehdi Mukadam @alimehdimukadam
- Reid Thomas @ferkungamaboobo
- Sarah Stemen @runnerkik
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