Holiday search marketing guide

Holiday spending climbs year over year

US retail commerce sales for the holiday season will grow 15.1% to $61.8 billion in 2013

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Week 1(11/4)

Week 2(11/11)

Week 3(11/18)

Week 4(11/25)

Week 5(12/2)

Week 6(12/9)

Week 7(12/16)

Week 8(12/23)

Week 9(12/30)

$ M

illio

ns

Week Ending

2012 Weekly Online Holiday Season Spending vs. Corresponding Days in 2011

Y 2011 Y 2012

eMarketer: Holiday Shopping Preview 9/4/2013

Why this is the most wonderful time of the year

Top 10 highest spend days for online shopping in 2012 all happened during the winter holiday period

eMarketer: Holiday Shopping Preview, 9/4/2013

11/28Thanksgiving

12/17Last ship date

11/29Black Friday

12/02Cyber Monday

12/27Post-holiday sales

12/09Green Monday

Ready, set, shop

When people planned to start holiday shopping in 2012

Source: Infographic by Funsherpa.com

Free shipping is no longer the exception, but the rule

Online shoppers were actively seeking “free shipping” across all search engines in 2012

comScore e-Commerce Measurement

50%of online transactions

had free shipping during

the holidays last year

Promotions can add to your holiday cheer

eMarketer: Holiday Shopping Preview, 9/4/2013

eMarketer: Holiday Shopping Preview, 9/4/2013eMarketer: Holiday Shopping Preview, 9/4/2013

Mobile is always invited to the party

Mobile use is everywhere and constant – but not yet for actually purchasing items.

Timing is everything

Anyone who says otherwise never accidentally went dark on Cyber Monday.

Making a list, checking it twiceOctober

Review and analyze

last year’s campaign

Get familiar with new

Bing Ads features

Launch and test

holiday keywords

Create seasonal

ad copy

Monitor your competition

42%of online shoppers have

begun holiday shopping now

Making a list, checking it twiceNovember

80.4%of shoppers are now

shopping for the holidays

Prepare and launch specific ads for

Black Friday & Cyber Monday

Monitor ad position and adjust bids

Offer incentives and discounts

96.6%of shoppers are

shopping for the holidays

Meet urgency with updated ad copy

After last ship date, drive traffic

to brick-and-mortar stores

Don’t forget that post-season

sales continue after the holidays

Make sure your ads are competitive

in positioning, with the right bids

Keep ad budget high in the weeks

before Christmas, then hold steady

Making a list, checking it twiceDecember

Thanksgiving 11/28/13

Apparently we eat dinner between 2 and 4pm – then we all get back on our computers to finish shopping until 11pm (US)

Ad titles and descriptions

should include:discounts, Black Friday

Important keywords: store hours, locations, Black Friday

Bids/budget:Before you leave the office for Thanksgiving, make

sure you’ve got lots of budget left for these critical days

Time zone is PST. IBM Core Metrics, 2012

Black Friday 11/29/13

Black Friday shopping starts before the sun comes up

Ad titles and descriptions

should include:discounts, Black Friday, brand name, free shipping in the title

Important keywords: store hours, locations

Bids/budget: Make sure your budget is robust

24%of shoppers visited

a retail site on

mobile device on

Black Friday 2012

Time zone is PST. IBM Core Metrics, 2012

Cyber Monday 12/2/13

Cyber Monday hits after the first of December, which means automated budgets will be renewed and ready to hit hard

MultiscreenShoppers were in

store, online and on

mobile devices to

get the best

bargains in 2012

Ad titles and descriptions

should include:discounts, Cyber Monday

Important keywords: store hours, locations

Bids/budget:Budgets renewed the day before, so make sure your dollars

are going where you want them; verify ad positions and adjust bids

Time zone is PST. IBM Core Metrics, 2012

Last shipping and desperation from 12/17+

Shoppers want to know their gift

will arrive in time: Ad titles,

descriptions and titles should

answer this for them.

Now shoppers are turning to brick

and-mortar stores. Ads should

include store locations, hours,

phone numbers.

Slide source: GiftCard.com by CardLab Gift Card Spending Report 2012.

After ChristmasDon’t stop – all those gift cards will be redeemed online

59.8% of people asked for gift cards in 2012

Nearly 50% of survey respondents planned to buy at least one holiday gift card in 2012

Choose your words carefully

How word choice affects search ad success for the retail industry

Most clickable word combos for the top four categories by ad spendConsumer electronics

PC

TITLE DESCRIPTION

Cyber Monday Quality

Brand Cyber Monday

New Promotion

Cyber Monday Promotion

Other Words In-store pickup

Mobile

TITLE DESCRIPTION

Other Words Cyber Monday

Purchase Cyber Monday

Price/pricing Product

Brand Resource

Price/pricing Free shipping

Tablet

TITLE DESCRIPTION

Promotion Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday Promotion

Brand Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday Quality

Product Cyber Monday

Most clickable word combos for the top four categories by ad spendToys and hobbies

PC

TITLE DESCRIPTION

Black Friday Purchase

Call to action Promotion

Black Friday Call to action

Other Words Official site

Quality Promotion

Mobile

TITLE DESCRIPTION

New Call to action

Product Purchase

Official site Brand

Official site Now

Promotion Black Friday

Tablet

TITLE DESCRIPTION

Official site Brand

Official site Now

Official site New

Free shipping Free

Service Free

Most clickable word combos for the top four categories by ad spendApparel and accessories

PC

TITLE DESCRIPTION

Brand Call to action

Size New

Price/pricing Now

Size Brand

Size Official site

Mobile

TITLE DESCRIPTION

Brand Call to action

Official site Online

% off Size

% off Now

Brand Online

Tablet

TITLE DESCRIPTION

Official site Call to action

Official site Online

Brand Call to action

Brand Online

Style/kind Online

Most clickable word combos for the top four categories by ad spendDepartment stores

PC

TITLE DESCRIPTION

Black Friday Product

Celebrity Product

Value Resource

Value #’s

{KeyWord} Black Friday

Mobile

TITLE DESCRIPTION

#’s Purchase

#’s Promotion

#’s #’s

Black Friday Store

#’s Style/kind

Tablet

TITLE DESCRIPTION

Black Friday Store

Celebrity Store

Brand Furniture

Purchase Resource

Clothing #’s

We’re the holiday gift you weren’t expecting

31Mretail searchers not

reached on Google

65Mtotal retail

searchers

117Mtotal

paid clicks

510Mtotal retail

searches (3)

Searchers on the Yahoo Bing Network spend 38% more online than the average internet searcher and 5.6% more than Google searchers.1

1. The Yahoo! Bing Network includes Microsoft and Yahoo! Core Search sites in the U.S.

2. comScore Explicit Core Search (custom), June 2013.

3.comScore US Search Categories Report (custom), June 2013

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