Prepare your AdWords accounts for Black Friday

It's the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and all you're probably thinking about right now is "I need to defrost the turkey, pick up another can of pumpkin filling, and vacuum before family arrives." That, and "are my clients' accounts ready for Black Friday, the busiest retail shopping day of the year?"

To ensure that you and your clients have a successful Black Friday, we wanted to use this Holiday Campaign Countdown post to share some quick last minute tips from our Optimization Specialists.

While Black Friday typically refers to in-store traffic, the retail industry has seen dramatic year over year increases in e-commerce sales and searches¹. Analysts have also pointed to significant spikes in online shopping on Cyber Monday. The Monday after Thanksgiving yields sales spikes for e-commerce retailers² and is fueled by promotions such as percent off sales, free gifts, and free shipping.

Our suggestions for any retail accounts (or others that might see this seasonal spike) before you leave the office for the Thanksgiving Holiday are:

1. Promotions - Be sure to highlight any promotions you have in your ad text whether they are Black Friday specific or not. If you have a discount on shipping or it is free, highlight this.
2. Budgets - Increase budgets across all campaigns to a comfortable level knowing that traffic spikes will be likely. Make sure ads keep showing when a user searches.
3. Bids – Modify bids on top performing and generic keywords knowing that competition on Black Friday/Cyber Monday will increase. Use the Bid Simulator to see what results you may get with different keyword maximum CPC bids, and consider using Conversion Optimizer to get as many profitable clicks as possible.

Happy Thanksgiving!

[1] MarketingVox
[2] National Retail Federation with BIGresearch, Black Friday Weekend, 12/2/08. *Excludes Cyber Monday.

Posted by Ben Sheldon, Agency Optimization Strategist