Your Back-To-Work SEM Q4 Checklist

Didit Editorial

11 years ago

August 22, 2013: Summer 2013’s almost over and Q4 – which begins October 1 – looms ahead. Q4 is historically the most volatile time of year for SEM managers, because of rapid changes in the competitive landscape, seismic traffic events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and fast-paced holiday-themed price promotions.

So imagine that it’s the Monday after Labor Day. You and your staff are all back from vacation, you’ve got a hot cup of coffee on your desk, and a difficult marketing mission to fulfill. Today, you’re extremely lucky, because Didit’s Tara Matuszewski –Account Director and accomplished SEM Holiday Warrior — has given you these recommendations from her personal post-Labor Day checklist.

1. Know Thy Brand Promotions. It’s critical that you get your client’s promotion schedule as soon as possible so that you can begin to strategically flight your budgets to align with your client’s promotional calendar and catalog drops. Some might argue that this should have been done already — during the slow summer season — but brands don’t always lay out their plans that far in advance.

It’s a fact that sales and promotions historically drive ROI. Budgets and bids should be adjusted during promotions and sales across demand-driving categories to take advantage of the resultant increase in conversion rates. Q4 traffic spikes in October as shoppers begin their research in preparation for holiday purchases. You will want to allocate budget where it is needed to take advantage of this traffic spike. Although the majority of purchases take place in early to mid December, consumers research and purchase throughout the season. Because holiday shopping starts early, it’s critical to be in good position for key generic categories starting as early as early September/October.

2. Take Advantage of Key Holiday Shopping Days and Weeks. The week of Thanksgiving, the week before Christmas, and the week when your client drops physical mailers and catalogs are all hugely important, because of traffic spikes. Many customers use catalogs and other promotional materials for research and then make their purchase online. Use historical data to allocate budget towards strongest performing days and lean on past holiday messaging that drove strong CTR. Ad spends should be ready to capture traffic and conversions that are generated due to promotions and sales that your client has planned.

3. Make Sure Your Ads Are Competitive. Ensure that your offer is unique within and is competitive against other ads appearing in the search engine landscape. For example, if you are currently touting the fact that you are offering “20 percent off” on a non-exclusive product you sell, make sure that competitors are not using the same language that you are using. Even if the terms of the offer are the same, use language that will stand out on a SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Remember: your competitors will be actively tweaking their ad copy throughout the season. Consequently you’ll need to continually monitor the landscape to win – this is why Q4 is so daunting for many SEM teams. Also make sure that your copy is clear and error free. Maintain the consistency of your messaging. Copy should have the same tone and theme across all of your creative.

4. ABG (Always Be Granular). Manage your site links carefully. Often, brands have sitelinks (inline links that are part of an ad) leading to generic landing pages or to pages that do not have offers. Remember that each sitelink URL needs to be unique, or else Google will not show them. Also, manage your sub offers carefully! Suboffers and all sitelinks must be kept up to date.

5. Watch Those Landing Pages. Keep up good landing page discipline. Often, offers are dumped onto older, templated landing pages. Landing pages need to look good and be easy to use. Make sure that the user has an excellent experience. Customers will not purchase from a landing page that isn’t constructed in an intuitive, easy to use manner.

6. Think Negative. Pay attention to your negative keyword strategy. We’ve found with our clients that special care must be taken to use negative keywords so that they don’t end up spending precious budget on non-relevant keywords. For example, if you have a client who bakes cupcakes, you need to control for the terms “cup” and “cake” so that you don’t end up bidding against cup manufacturers or non-cupcake baked products.

Finished that coffee yet? Have another cup: it’s going to be a long slog through Q4, and we hope that these tips will make your SEM Holiday Season a profitable one.