Uniqueness brings holiday shopping ROI goodness
Nov 29, 2007 Analytics Tools
Many online marketing bloggers seem to be writing a lot recently about how “everyone” can maximize ROI this season by getting on the pay-per-click gravy train. Although many online retailers will see significant increases in revenue compared to last year, competition is also getting much more fierce. Be prepared to bid higher, target the long-tail, and offer attractive promotions to win your holiday share of sales. Your analytics should show ROI quicker than normal, with the added search traffic. Be prepared to be unique.
Hungry shoppers looking to search engines for holiday shopping ideas are looking for one thing: uniqueness. The average shopper knows what products are available (or not available) in stores, and want a second opinion. Looking at some of the information available through client campaigns this year, I’m seeing a mixed shopping bag of ROI, for several reasons:
- Google Adwords is the clear cut winner for PPC traffic, going strong with over 90% of click share for identical campaigns - making the competition for holiday shopping clicks fierce. Yahoo comes a far distant second with about 8%, and Adcenter about 2%.
- Promotions are fierce, making competing on price point very difficult for small business. Finding it hard to compete on price point? Target the jugular and offer comparisons based on value-added benefits.
- Landing pages are served up randomly on multivariate tests making it harder to compete for the unprepared advertiser. Keep a close eye on the competition, using proxy servers located in different cities and countries, and check back often.
It’s a black picture for small business advertisers at this point. Being unique is tough when customers hound you on price without buying into value-added benefits, but those same customers can still be won over. How do you win holiday ROI goodness with uniqueness?
- Run short-term promotions, smaller business needs customers to convert now and not click back to competitors.
- Compare your promotional products and/or services with competitors, eliminating the need for comparison shopping.
- Accentuate your value proposition by digging into your policies and putting them right on your landing page in short, concise points.
- Get creative with promotions, don’t just offer the same thing as the competition. Be prepared to go the extra mile for your customer this holiday season, and ROI should reflect that effort.
When to Call it Quits
Sometimes there is little to do if search traffic does not convert during the lead up to the holiday season. Certain industries and websites traditionally perform poorly in search marketing campaigns because shoppers simply are not looking to purchase — only research. If it doesn’t quite fit under the tree or in the stocking on the mantle, you’re not likely to sell it online. The majority of clicking visitors are likely to convert within the first week of seeing a highly-optimized landing page, so you needn’t feel bad about giving more time to a failing campaign.
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