CaitlinB
November 19, 2019

5 Last-Minute Digital Marketing Tips for the Holiday Season

The five weeks from 11 November to 15 December accounted for almost 15% of all eCommmerce transactions in 2018. Last year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday was the biggest shopping week in Australia’s history, showing 28% growth year on year. Australian’s have clearly started embracing global shopping events, and still shop heavily for their family, friends, and homes over the Christmas period.

Key Holiday Sales Dates

  • Single’s Day – 11 November
  • Click Frenzy – 12 November
  • Black Friday – 29 November
  • Cyber Monday – 2nd December
  • Christmas Day – 25th December
  • Boxing Day – 26th December

You still have time to drive more revenue out of the upcoming holiday season and we’ve rounded up 5 last-minute digital marketing tips that you can action right now. 

1. Drive Urgency

No one wants to turn up to Christmas empty-handed, and the best way to create urgency over the holidays is to emphasise shipping cut off dates. Just look at how searches for same-day shipping spike in the lead up to Christmas.

Same day shipping searches spike during eCommerce sales season, as shown by Google Trends
  • Add a countdown timer in a sticky bar on your website to create urgency to purchase. This can count down to the shipping cutoff for standard delivery and then for express shipping.
  • If you don’t already have free shipping, offer it as a promotion during peak holiday periods in order to boost sales!
  • You can also add countdown timers in your Google Ad Copy, in order to emphasise the end of a sale and shipping cut-offs before Christmas.
  • Ensure you give any of your sales promotions and discounts full exposure in your ad copy. For example, you can easily create a generic ad for Black Friday and apply it across all of your relevant campaigns. 
  • Also, remember to duplicate your Facebook Dynamic Product Ads and run a promotional variation with sale specific ad copy.
Capture spikes in searches for sales promotions in your Google Ad copy

2. Make Add-Ons Easy

Don’t forget to suggest add ons in your cart and gift wrapping services in order to increase your average order value. Also, create a well thought out gift guide, and be a saving grace to confused, unsure, or insecure Christmas shoppers. 

3. Lean on Audience Insights

Get your targeting policies optimised prior to the sales period to prevent inefficient spend, while capturing additional sales. Ensure to capitalise on your Pixel data, website visitors, and lookalike audiences throughout this period. 

Try to re-engage previous customers and place ads aggressively in front of audiences who are likely to purchase. For example, you can easily:

  • Create an audience in Google Ads or Facebook, of people who have visited the website in the last 365 days, but haven’t converted. 
  • Review your previous video campaigns on Facebook and build audiences of people who watched and converted, plus people who watched 50% and didn’t convert.

4. Plan Your Budget

Don’t let your budget limit your visibility and results.

  • Make sure you have open Google Ads budgets for your brand on your biggest days. You would hate to miss sales or leave your brand exposed to your competitors during your peak sales hours. 
  • Make seasonality bid adjustments and utilise smart bidding. If you’re expecting a higher conversion rate on boxing day, smart bidding will observe this and bid more aggressively to capture sales

5. Drive Customers Into Your Store

The sales don’t have to stop after the shipping cut off dates. Look at how last-minute searches for late-night shopping spike just before Christmas.

Late night shopping searches spike before Christmas, as shown by Google Trends

Make sure you meet these search queries and encourage users to shop in-store or use click and collection options once the shipping cut-off is nearing or closed. 

  • You can do this through a swift ad copy update or a sticky bar on your website
  • Ensure that your Google My Business listing has your holiday hours clearly listed
  • You should also add a store locator to your Google Ads as a site link

Eager for more eCommerce insights? Get in touch with our digital marketing team today.

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