PPCChat | Upcoming Holiday Season, eCommerce and Lead Gen PPC accounts | 16 Oct, 2018

This week’s PPCChat session was hosted by Kirk Williams. PPC experts shared how they plan for the holiday season, determining the budget planning, when to start gearing up for holiday season and more.

Q1: What is something you are doing differently this year than any other year to prepare for the holidays?

branding! This is the first holiday where I’ve been able to do tv, radio and billboards along with my digital campaigns. I’m doing lots of direct-action, but boosted by LOTS of media! – @JuliaVyse

we are using more bid automation than previous years in Google/Bing Ads, so we are working into our planning purposeful times to adjust targets several days before/after key dates to ensure the system has time to adjust to significant changes. – @PPCKirk

More involved with shopping campaigns. – @elevatedmrktng

This obviously depends on product type/industry but compiling lists of those that were first time purchasers last holiday season or people that have only purchased once and used a promo code – @markpgus

In regards to our main PPC client, we’ll be targeting some of the upcoming holidays, as they’ll be open for business for Thanksgiving and Christmas (since they’re restaurants). This includes dedicated campaigns or targeted ad groups with keywords and copy to boot. – @marccxmedia

This is actually the first year I’ve been given the opportunity to prep strategically for the holidays, so I”m learning from my colleagues! Previously I was in automotive where holidays are dictated by OEMs – @amaliaefowler

This year we’re heavying up in video for early prospecting efforts – @JonKagan

Q2: When do you expect to begin ramping up budget and bids for the holiday season? (or have you already?)

working with a client that has more limited resources this year so we’re focusing on a key point in time where they have a competitive advantage and hedging our bets there. – @MattMasonPPC

Because lead-gen always slows down during the holidays, we likely won’t be ramping up per se. But my plan is to shift strategies around the week of Thanksgiving – @ferkungamaboobo

it depends on the account (obviously), but more often than not we start ramping up late October/early November with the assumption that the core spend window is between Black Friday and the final shipping day before Christmas. – @PPCKirk

I wonder how many people have ensured their websites this year can handle the additional traffic ( servers and hosting) on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. I heard of people last year that had sites crash! Even Amazon had this on prime day. – @elevatedmrktng

We’ll likely ramp up budgets/bids for the holiday priorities come late October/early November, as Thanksgiving is a little over a month away. – @marccxmedia

Currently for some clients we’re building email lists with holiday anticipation (events related), but the real drive starts after November 11th – we like to wait until after Rememberance Day – @amaliaefowler

So for some accounts, we’ve strategically invested more in competitor and non-branded terms in search to hit them with specific campaigns. Lead gen ads now so “they’re the first to know about Black Friday deals” could kill too. I think when people get as granular as target particular days from last year it might be misguided. So many external factors contributed to that. If competition moves their offers forward or backward things change… let alone new players – @markpgus

usually 11/1 with it peaking cyber Monday. case by case, but we try and look at historical IS lost due to budget and then compensate it for annual and then seasonal growth. And when that ends up not being enough, we swear a lot. – @JonKagan

Q3: How do you determine additional budget for the holiday season for planning purposes (specific number examples encouraged!)? Do you have a specific process beyond “It depends”?

it definitely depends, but I am able to tie up a generalized higher cpcs, more competitors in the auction and the ever-helpful, how much do you need to spend by year end? – @JuliaVyse

We’re looking at last years numbers and adapting based on what our client is comfortable spending. So, they spent $1000 extra and want to do that again, where did they see the highest ROI? We’re investing more into that channel and supplementing with branding. I actually have an incredibly cool opportunity with my currency exchange client to run a travel focused “why put another stop between you and mexico” kind of campaign -> they have pesos on hand and we’re advertising that. So not holiday focused, but fun. – @amaliaefowler

Luckily we have historical data for our eCommerce clients to make a budget from – @elevatedmrktng

I like to use the change in last year’s budget before/after holidays to estimate recommended % holiday growth. Then we translate that to this year’s current spend and increase an additional 10-15% for comp rises (obviously this depends on client approval). – @PPCKirk

I usually look at impression share, figure out what I’m missing out on, then calculate what I could get at incremental points. I.e, if I only have 50% impression share, what could we feasibly get if we added XX to get to 60%. – @MattMasonPPC

Reference historical data but get people on board for rules! Scale budgets with CPA < x or ROAS > x – @markpgus

We discuss budgeting/reallocation with the client, as we’ve had mostly set budgets (with a little wiggle room, depending on certain campaigns) since starting earlier this year. – @marccxmedia

is the best time to rake in the branding/awareness, use those engagement/visitor lists for BF & xmas! Especially w/ ecomm. –  @timmhalloran

Q4: LEAD GEN FOLKS! How do you typically prepare for the holidays? Is this a low-point in the year seasonally, business as usual, or do you see a bump as well?

Depends! Some of my clients see dips so we prepare by lowering budget and hunkering down for the season knowing people are bombarded. OR, like my example before, we find a way to cut through the noise from a branding perspective. Another thing I like to do with some of my lead gen clients is run a “thank you” holiday related campaign combining emails and branding – @amaliaefowler

If offers are similar year to year, look at days of highest conversion rates and profitability, and place your bets on extra budget there. It might not necessarily be BF or CM. You need to plan for higher Q4 cpc’s and lower efficiency, but not a great time to go dark. People are still working and making biz decisions for next calendar year. – @LisaSanner

When I was in legal lead-gen, we’d see search volume and conversion rates drop. It’d give us a great boost in January though with unused spend and a large set of folks looking for their legal needs again. – @ferkungamaboobo

We definitely have some clients who we just keep the lights on, like landscapers for example.– @elevatedmrktng

Depends case by case but I would love to see Lead Gen do a B2B Black Friday with a focus on next year’s budget – @markpgus

Most of our lead gen accounts remain stable, or decrease during Q4 bc lead quality can become reduced at end of year. On the other hand, watch for last minute 2019 budget shoppers who need 11th hour changes, and your accounts might still close some great new clients. – @PPCKirk

for my accounting lead-gen clients, now is a great time to hit busy execs who are shopping, planning year end and need tools and assistance. if your lead gen plan involves calculator tools or ease of use rather than forms, get on it now! – @JuliaVyse

As our main client is in the restaurant business, our campaigns are a mix of lead gen (for corporate/private events) and reservations/calls. That said, Q4 is pretty big for said client when it comes to private events, so we’re looking to get those campaigns launched. – @marccxmedia

good tip I learned from @SusanEDub is too be monitoring audiences. What happens in Q4 is likely an anomaly one way or the other. So if you don’t stay on top of your audiences, your Q1 could be in for a rude awakening. – @MattMasonPPC

For professional services, a key part of prep is seeing what client’s availability is going to be. Don’t pay to make the phone ring if the office is closed / skeleton crew and not going to respond in a timely manner. – @JasonStinnett

Q4 is our relaxation time, because Jan 1 is when peoples resolutions still exist, and folks are motivated. – @JonKagan

Q5: What percentage of your PPC budget is going to search, and what percentage to social in Q4 2018? Is this a change from 2017?

70 social 30 search across the board. My guys are broadcast-minded and have been treating FB and YouTube like tv. no kidding. here’s an age, here’s a country, spray and pray. – @JuliaVyse

We are a Paid Search only agency so… that’s where our budget goes I’m genuinely curious to hear this from blended agencies/in-house brands. My assumption is more brands are shifting to Social. – @PPCKirk

As we’re Paid Search … ditto on our budget going to search over social. – @marccxmedia

So with my one e-comm client that I’m in charge of at the moment, we’re moving 100% to paid social. Last year, it was 80% paid, and 20% social. We actually stopped doing paid search for them in September – @amaliaefowler

This is going to depend on the clients results to date in each channel but one thing is for sure we are multichannel all the way #search #display #youtube #facebook etc etc  – @elevatedmrktng

I don’t have specific numbers but the strategy is simple. Build audiences in search and retarget the crap out of them in social. – @markpgus

About 20% going to social. Mostly because we lead with search and try to avoid spreading budget too thin. – @seanhecking

Follow up to the last tweet, we are really trying to create funnels across marketing channels – @elevatedmrktng

if there was ever an It depends answer, it’s this one. Totally depends on client. I try not to think of it as search vs social anymore, but channel vs channel. Publisher vs publisher. Although, with that said I’m doing prog and direct publisher buys as well. – @MattMasonPPC

it’s about 75/25 On the SEM side – @JonKagan

Q6: Do you have a dedicated Amazon holiday plan for this year? Roll call for agencies actively managing Amazon ads for clients (or in-house brands). Any interesting tidbits to share?

I’m trying Amazon for the first time ..hi @BryantGarvin !!! with a toy client. it’s a full on test, we have no idea if it will resonate, but I’m pretty pumped. – @JuliaVyse

Yes. We do a ton of AMS, both search and display. – @MattMasonPPC

Q7: Do you believe this year will be different in some way for holiday consumer behavior? If yes, how so and/or why?

I think that consumers value efficiency, so if you don’t have an easy to follow path for them from beginning to end of their journey (cross-device too), you’re going to lose out – @amaliaefowler

I think we are going to see the biggest year *ever* for mobile conversions. Like, not just in the way everyone has always said the year of mobile, but I think an astonishing number of people will convert on mobile devices for holiday sales in 2018. – @PPCKirk

Yes 100% — Instagram is where it’s at right now. Spending on that channel is going to be at an all time high based on what we’ve seen this year and not just w/ millennials. Stories & messenger ads are going to be a big hit too. –  @timmhalloran

I think it will start earlier yet it happen more mobile with more compulsive buyers. Which means Amazon will dominate. –  @jdprater

I think that “Black Friday” is turning into a multi-week thing. Not ground breaking… but people are more and more willing to buy early/wait because it no longer is true that lowest prices are on Black Friday/Cyber Monday. However, I think Amazon will be day of – @markpgus

Q8: If you could give 1 piece of advice for holiday prep for a noob PPCer, what would it be?

My biggest piece of advice, is talk to clients early and pencil in a date in Aug/Sep to discuss strategies, ad creative, etc. Make sure there is a plan for approach, and step-down. Planning is important.  – @PPCKirk

Start learning Amazon ads it’s going to be necessary for eCommerce. – @elevatedmrktng

Planning solves 95% of your problems. Communication solves 4% of your problems. The other 1% isn’t worth letting your turkey get cold for. – @ferkungamaboobo

Set up and frequent clear communication cadence with client, team and partners. Things will go unexpectedly. It’s how you adapt and adjust that can make all the difference. – @LisaSanner

Coordinate with the client on a holiday strategy (if it’s promoting certain products, using certain keywords/copy, etc.) and ramp up budget/bid strategies as the holidays get closer. – @marccxmedia

1. If BF is the first day you’ve ever sent an email or served an ad, don’t expect too much. 2. Plan it and schedule it a week or two before the rush, so you’re not killing yourself on Thanksgiving. 3. Build a war room, get some coffee, & dont come out BF –  @timmhalloran

Don’t sweat it. Do your best. Practice self care. Almost everything in your life is more important than that set of bid changes you’re stressing about. @kkwrites

for any industry newbie, I remind them that Q4 will the lowest point of their career mentally and emotionally. Survive it, because it’ll get mildly better in January. – @JonKagan

PPCChat Participants:

• Kirk Williams – @PPCKirk
• Amalia – @amaliaefowler
• J D Prater – @jdprater
• Robert Brady – @robert_brady
• Mark Gustafson –  @markpgus
• Elevated Marketing – @elevatedmrktng
• Jon Kagan – @JonKagan
• Julia Vyse – @JuliaVyse
• Doug R Thomas– @ferkungamaboobo
• Jason Stinnett – @JasonStinnett
• Tim Halloran –  @timmhalloran
• Lisa Sanner – @LisaSanner
• Marccx Media – @marccxmedia
• Matt Mason –  @MattMasonPPC