With so much tinsel in the tree, how will they spot me this holiday season?

The harsh truth: You may have wasted your time with your holiday season planning. But wait, it’s not too late!

It’s that time of year where search marketers plan for the most manic yet exciting time of the year: Holiday season. With predictions that nearly half of US holiday shopping will take place online, everyone is gearing up to “be ready.”

You may have your advertising campaigns scheduled, budget set, shipping sorted, customer service prepped and all ready, and so on. Yet with the ever-growing amount of online shops, there is an ever-increasing competition for retailers. It’s becoming increasingly difficult not only to stand out but to be seen online at all.

How do you know customers will be buying from you? During holiday season shoppers tend to be less brand loyal, as they hunt for the best deal and the quickest deliveries for their Christmas presents. And as always, Google remains a primary starting point for a shopper’s journey.

So, if your products aren't appearing on Google’s search result pages in first place, planning for the anticipated high demand may be fruitless.

What can you do?

Don’t jump the gun. It’s important to plan for the traffic tsunami. However, if you don’t want your competitors’ products to OUT-perform yours on search results pages, best you do your A, B, C.

A) Show up on SERP

How? Submit high-quality product feeds to the Google Merchant Center. Tip: Make sure your feed ticks all the 5 C’s. Remember Google has very specific requirements, including particular product categories, inventory as well as title and description length restrictions. See further Google specs here.

B) Grab attention

Our eyes will naturally be drawn to something that appears to add value, like a special offer. Remember yours is not the only ad to appear, but you need to make sure that you’re the only one they see! How? Enhance your PLA by incorporating Merchant Promotions to your PLA campaign.

So what does it look like?

C) Improve click-through quality

How? By incorporating product ratings & reviews Product ratings refer to the actual product being advertised and are provided by merchants, third party aggregators, editorial sites, and users. (Product ratings are not seller ratings, which refer to the rating of the merchant.). The ratings are reflected in a 5-star rating system.

What does it look like?

 

More info here.

Note: These factors will not guarantee your ad to be listed. Other key elements, such as your bid settings, must be considered too. Your information must be deemed accurate and relevant to the user, and of course, the reputation of your company must be managed and nurtured.   

Even though the focus here was on Google, don’t rely on this channel alone. If you’re really serious about this, make sure you capitalize on the customers of Amazon, eBay, and all the great comparison shopping sites too. Find out their individual restrictions, give them what they want, and then still go that extra mile to see what more you can do.

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