Advertisers master the holiday season with these five steps

Christmas is just around the corner, making it one of the most profitable times for online retailers. Christmas online sales amounted to 12.3 billion euros in 2016. This year, consumers want to spend even more. Advertisers should set the course for the festive season in online marketing now at the latest to save themselves stress and stay one step ahead of the competition. The advertising technology company Marin Software has compiled five recommendations for action specifically for search engine marketing.

1. analyze your target group

In addition to Christmas, the coming weeks offer other sales occasions that will appeal to your customers to varying degrees. It is therefore important to define who your target group is and which event particularly encourages them to buy. For example, are they bargain hunters, gift buyers or event buyers? Then look for the right event that appeals most to this type of shopper:

• St. Nicholas, December 6: Event buyers
• Christmas Eve/Christmas, December 24; December 25: Gift buyers
• New Year's Eve, December 31: Event buyers
• January sales: bargain hunters

The text of your ad should focus on the customer's interest in buying and less on the holiday. This increases the click rate.

2. use additional information in your ads

Try to stand out from the competition. With extensions (so-called ad extensions) you can increase your click rate as well as the attention for your brand. The following extensions are conceivable: Related links: Guide customers to Christmas promotion pages Location extensions: Show opening hours on public holidays at a glance Non-clickable additional information: Send a smart message for the festive season or advertise current promotions

3. exclude certain days from bidding

Our experience shows that AdWords accounts are confronted with very different performance, especially on public holidays. If your data from the past year shows unusually negative performance on certain days, for example directly after Christmas, then you should exclude it from bidding. This way, the data will not be used for bidding on your ads and you will save money. This is because negative performance increases the bid price.

4. do not forget retargeting

Advertising pressure is particularly high at Christmas. Retargeting is helpful to ensure that visitors to your site remember you during their festive shopping. Remind your customers, for example, that you offer the ultimate bargain. Retargeting lists can be created at little cost and simplify the delivery of offer campaigns to your target group.

5. use automation

Use rules and automate possible processes in your campaign management. This saves time and stress. So you can sit back and relax during the holidays while your campaigns are managed according to your specifications.

Marin Software is a global advertising technology company and leading provider of the Advertising Cloud for cross-channel performance marketing. Marin controls and manages digital advertising campaigns with a total value of several billion US dollars every year.