Happy Yahoolidays: Search Market Specs By Michelle Megna
October 19, 2006
Industry watchers are predicting a huge spike in holiday shopping this year — and if you want to cash in on it, you have to be prepared. E-tail sales will hit $32 billion this year, up 18 percent, with a record 114 million shoppers going online, a 6-percent increase, according to JupiterResearch's "Online Retail Holiday Forecast: 2006. But how do you get the customers clicking to your site? By making a search marketing campaign to-do list, and checking it twice.
Search marketing campaigns are critical to any online business, but it's especially true during the fourth quarter. About one-third of gift buyers start their online shopping at search engines, according to Shop.org's BizRate eHoliday Mood Study 2005. The same study showed that 75 percent of e-tailers said search was one of their most successful marketing efforts, second only to house e-mail lists.
Since you don't have a workshop full of elves to help you out, the Yahoo! Search Marketing team is offering the following tips to help you get the most from your campaign, including building a list of relevant keywords, writing ads, managing bid strategy and choosing landing pages most likely to convert clicks to ka-ching.
Build a List of Relevant Keywords
Review Yahoo! Search Marketing's list of seasonal keywords for relevant additions.
Review your holiday product offerings and best sellers.
Opt into Advanced Match and Content Match to extend your reach.
Apply holiday modifiers, such as "Christmas gift idea."
Offer gift cards and bid on relevant keywords.
Maintain keywords consistent with inventory availability.
Build gift guide for general gift keywords.
Write Targeted Titles and Descriptions
Position the search term prominently in the title and description.
Customize descriptions by category, for instance gifts versus home décor.
If templates are used, make sure it's not obvious to the shopper.
Include pricing and promotions where possible, including end-date of promotions, and if free shipping is common, play that up.
Include last date for on-time holiday delivery.
Adjust message throughout the season as appropriate.
Include multi-channel options such as in-store pick up.
Put your most important message in first 70 characters of description.
Consider the context of the marketplace when determining whether pricing or overt branding is advantageous.
Don't be overly general or specific in your ads, for instance if keyword is general don't promote only one product.
Coordinate messaging with offline promotions.
Prepare An Effective Bid Strategy
Adjust bidding and budgets to maximize seasonal opportunity.
Budget adequately for promotional periods.
Budget and bid for maximum sales of best selling products.
Budget appropriately for early shoppers, last-minute shoppers and post-holiday shoppers.
Determine if your objective is strictly return on investment or includes competitive share of market.
Select Effective Landing Pages
URL must link to page that is obviously and immediately relevant to the keyword.
Land on higher level page if product pages don't carry promotional language.
If not landing on product page, provide a clear and obvious path to product.
Make prices and promotions consistent with search copy.
Provide effective on-site search for easier navigation.
Use gift guide pages for general gifting keywords.
Offer incentive for e-mail capture such as free newsletter or sales alerts.
If You Want to Extend Your Search with Yahoo!
Participate in Search Submit Express (details and pricing available here) or Search Submit Pro (details and pricing available here).
Do you have a comment or question about this article or other e-commerce topics in general? Speak out in the SmallBusinessComputing.com E-Commerce Forum. Join the discussion today!
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