Seasonality in PPC – how to optimise your paid marketing performance

Firstly, what do we mean by “seasonality”? We have the four temperate seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter. But each industry has their own trends, patterns, as well as peaks and troughs throughout the year, something that is known in business as “seasonality”. Popular examples for e-commerce include Black Friday, Cyber Monday and shopping for Christmas. Read on for tips to enhance your ads for these peak times!

Seasonality is something that affects all businesses in one way or another, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all. Seasonality can extend beyond the four seasons and create quite a complex, multi-layered landscape where pre-planning and strategising is critical in order to generate great results and maximise return.

Not only that, but it is important to be able to distinguish if seasonality is in fact the cause in these performance fluctuations and be sure that there are no other factors at play.

It is also important to be aware of the wider market trends too, which will also affect your decisions around optimising and adjusting your campaigns.

In order to act on these patterns in traffic and interest trends, firstly we need to look at the data.

Identify the trends – what are they?

As a PPC Specialist, it is our job to identify and strategise for times when interests for products or services change, whilst maximising return. There are several ways we can do this, and we have a variety of tools at our disposal, including:

Tools

Historical Data

• If you do not have a brand-new account, this should be the first port of call – look at the data! Using the data allows you to back and prove any trends you can identify, tell the story through the data. When you’re looking at specific times of year, such as Black Friday, analyse performance year-on-year, and factor in what deals were being offered at the time – context is key!

Google Ads Keyword Planner

• However, if you are brand new to paid advertising or don’t have the historical data there are other tools you can utilise to get an idea of your industry’s key patterns and trends, such as the Google Ads Keyword Planner. 

The next step could involve creating content specifically for your trends. We’re only going to be highlighting a few ways in which you can tailor your ad content to fit the seasons, this is not an exhaustive list!

Text

• Write compelling ad copy, ask questions (if appropriate), tailor messages to users’ specific requests
• Black Friday: include details of offers, and/or implement promotional assets

Images

• Use eye-catching and high-quality images, depending on the campaign type, images can also include logos and brand messaging
• Black Friday: implement creative that is specific to the deals being offered, making sure it is working in harmony with your other channels

Video

• Create engaging videos and supply multiple formats as Google may automatically resize them for you, giving you less control over your content.
• Black Friday: similarly to using images, implement sale-specific creative, ensuring a cohesive and professional presence

Some of these changes might seem not so impactful, however, highly relevant ads make all the difference to a user’s search.

The next step is super important, remember to check-in and monitor performance. Gather and absorb the data, it will make you more responsive to anomalies, any changes etc.

Lastly, refine your campaigns and continue to optimise! This will all be in accordance with what your individual business goals are, but using this as a starting point allows you to reach different audiences and broaden your marketing approach.

Got any questions about seasonality in PPC? Contact one of our specialists for support and guidance.