If you have a seasonal summer business, you probably paused your PPC campaigns (or dropped their budgets substantially) and packed it in for the winter. We see this all the time with clients that come to us for PPC management services in the spring looking to advertise gardening equipment, boating accessories, camping gear, golf apparel, swimsuits, local summer shops and much more!
Well, now it’s March and it’s time to thaw that account and get it ready for the rush of seasonal traffic that’s about to start flowing!
Here are our top tips for thawing your frozen PPC account before the busy spring/summer months ahead:
Well, now it’s March and it’s time to thaw that account and get it ready for the rush of seasonal traffic that’s about to start flowing!
Here are our top tips for thawing your frozen PPC account before the busy spring/summer months ahead:
1. Brush Up on Recent Changes
Online advertising is certainly not a static industry. If you haven’t been actively monitoring and optimizing your AdWords or AdCenter account all fall/winter, you’ve most likely missed out on some recent changes by Google and Bing. Take the time to read up a little bit on what has been going on in the industry and tweak your account as needed. New functionality like AdWords Callout Extensions have been rolled out and if you’re not using them, your ads may get passed over.
2. Update Your Best Performing Ads
Identifying your best performing ads provides a good basis to start the year, but updating those ads to make them more timely and relevant will start you off on an even better foot! Make sure that any pricing, dates or coupon codes referenced are still applicable before unpausing any ads. To get the best return, create some new ads to test titles, offers and calls-to-action against your historical ad juggernauts.
3. Add Keywords for New Products
Product offerings can change from year to year so it’s important to update your keywords to reflect your current selection. Pause any campaigns, ad groups or keywords that advertise products you no longer carry or will not have in stock for some time and create new keywords around any new offerings that you’re launching. If these products are totally new models or offerings from the manufacturer, create ad text that informs consumers and gets them excited about availability.
4. Check Your Bids & Settings
Strange things can happen to an account over the winter. Jack Frost can go in there and change keyword bids, campaign budgets, bid preferences and modifiers, billing credit card information, ad rotation settings and much more! (Or more likely, you probably changed those things at the end of last season and totally forgot.) Be sure to review all of your account and campaign specifics in order to avoid a shock later on. You don’t want to invest time in getting your account ready only to find out that you just wasted your whole budget on display network ads because you forgot to change your settings.
Kate Pierce is the owner of LionShark Digital Marketing LLC, a West Michigan internet marketing company. Her areas of expertise include Paid Search, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Web Consulting for small businesses, Copywriting and Local Online Marketing. She lives in the Grand Rapids area with her husband and enjoys cooking, watching sports and spending time outdoors. Like a true digital marketing expert (i.e. geek), she loves talking about marketing theory and SEM trends… so don’t say you weren’t warned!
Online advertising is certainly not a static industry. If you haven’t been actively monitoring and optimizing your AdWords or AdCenter account all fall/winter, you’ve most likely missed out on some recent changes by Google and Bing. Take the time to read up a little bit on what has been going on in the industry and tweak your account as needed. New functionality like AdWords Callout Extensions have been rolled out and if you’re not using them, your ads may get passed over.
2. Update Your Best Performing Ads
Identifying your best performing ads provides a good basis to start the year, but updating those ads to make them more timely and relevant will start you off on an even better foot! Make sure that any pricing, dates or coupon codes referenced are still applicable before unpausing any ads. To get the best return, create some new ads to test titles, offers and calls-to-action against your historical ad juggernauts.
3. Add Keywords for New Products
Product offerings can change from year to year so it’s important to update your keywords to reflect your current selection. Pause any campaigns, ad groups or keywords that advertise products you no longer carry or will not have in stock for some time and create new keywords around any new offerings that you’re launching. If these products are totally new models or offerings from the manufacturer, create ad text that informs consumers and gets them excited about availability.
4. Check Your Bids & Settings
Strange things can happen to an account over the winter. Jack Frost can go in there and change keyword bids, campaign budgets, bid preferences and modifiers, billing credit card information, ad rotation settings and much more! (Or more likely, you probably changed those things at the end of last season and totally forgot.) Be sure to review all of your account and campaign specifics in order to avoid a shock later on. You don’t want to invest time in getting your account ready only to find out that you just wasted your whole budget on display network ads because you forgot to change your settings.
Kate Pierce is the owner of LionShark Digital Marketing LLC, a West Michigan internet marketing company. Her areas of expertise include Paid Search, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Web Consulting for small businesses, Copywriting and Local Online Marketing. She lives in the Grand Rapids area with her husband and enjoys cooking, watching sports and spending time outdoors. Like a true digital marketing expert (i.e. geek), she loves talking about marketing theory and SEM trends… so don’t say you weren’t warned!
RSS Feed
