Drive Your Holiday Season Sales with Microsoft Advertising
As the holiday season sale approaches, we all are gearing up for one of the most awaited periods of the year. It is that time of the year when we rush to find the perfect gifts for our dear ones.
For e-commerce merchants, this season presents a golden opportunity to drive sales by moving your low-moving inventory with various offers and promotions. With the right strategies, you can maximize the benefits during this period.
Navigate the holiday rush and draw on insights from Microsoft’s Holiday Season Marketing Playbook, to ensure you’re fully prepared to capture the attention of holiday shoppers.
Some Holiday Season Sale Strategies
– Start early and plan ahead
Launching your campaigns early allows you to capitalize on increased shoppers’ activity. This will help you stay ahead of competitors and capture early deal-seekers, with maximized sales across the entire season.
According to Microsoft, 90% of holiday conversions happen outside of Cyber 5, the five-day period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. Launching your holiday advertising early will maximize results throughout the festive season.
Pro Tip: Set your budgets early for the entire holiday season sales. Allocate a significant portion of your budget for October to capture early-bird shoppers, who contribute substantially to November and December conversions.
– Optimize your product feed for holidays
A well-optimized product feed is critical to campaign success. During the holiday season, focus on integrating relevant seasonal keywords and offer clear promotions.
Include holiday-specific keywords and promotions to drive performance. Shoppers searching for deals respond better to terms like “gifts,” “holiday specials,” and “seasonal discounts”. You may solve all your feed-related concerns with our Simprosys Google Shopping Feed App.
Pro Tip: Ensure your products have the best titles and images with respect to the holiday season.
– PMAX Campaigns to expand reach
Leverage Microsoft’s new AI-powered campaign offering, Performance Max (PMAX) to boost visits to your website and increase conversions. Based on Microsoft’s internal data, US retail consumers exposed to at least one PMAX impression within a month saw the following results compared to those who were not exposed:
- 2.6x more site visits
- 4.2x more conversions
Further, you may launch the campaign in late October or early November to ensure the prospective audiences are targeted. Use high-quality images and keyword-centric assets to maximize the impact of your campaigns.
– Use Microsoft Advertising Audience Ads
Microsoft Audience Network can extend your reach beyond search, helping you tap into a larger audience across MSN, Outlook, and partner sites.
You may combine remarketing and in-market audience strategies to ensure you reach past customers and shoppers actively searching for holiday deals.
Further, you may launch Audience Ads in October and layer them in remarketing to ensure audiences are nurtured through your funnel. Additionally, integrate Audience Ads with other ad types to maximize reach and impact.
As per Microsoft Advertising’s 2024 Holiday Playbook, 21% of the first ad exposures during the holiday season sale occur on the Audience Ads, effectively kickstarting the shopping journey for many consumers.
– Utilize promotions and special offers
Promotions are a powerful way to differentiate yourself during the crowded holiday shopping period. You can submit merchant promotions feed to your Microsoft Merchant Center store for holiday deals to entice the shoppers and increase the order volume.
– Monitor your campaigns in real-time
Holiday shopping trends shift rapidly, and real-time monitoring of your campaigns can help you stay agile. Monitor your inventory closely, as order volumes tend to increase during the holiday season. Keeping your stock aligned with incoming orders is crucial to maintaining supply and meeting holiday demand.
– Use a variety of ad formats
Users spend more when they’re exposed to more unique ad formats. Diversifying ad formats can lead to higher user engagement and, consequently, increased conversions. You can try launching Connected TV (CTV) ads, display ads, video ads, and native ads to generate awareness and consideration.
Quick Tips
>> Make sure your website is optimized for mobile devices. Holiday shoppers enjoy easy access to the websites making it convenient for them to shop for their loved ones.
>> Keep track of the conversion tracking tags set up on your store and monitor it closely during the holiday season. Avoid making too many changes, as they might lead to errors or algorithm changes and affect the accuracy.
>> Try to deliver the best possible services during this holiday season, which will play a key role for the next season. Chances of repeat purchases are high for stores that deliver exceptional services.
Conclusion
We now know some of the tips & tricks that can be followed to make the upcoming holiday season profitable. By adopting this data-driven approach, along with early and consistent engagement, you will be able to capture consumer attention and drive sales this season.
One thing that could set you apart from the rest is conveniently managing all the above points from a single platform. Yes, you heard it right. Simprosys Google Shopping Feed App can help you optimize your feed, review and manage campaigns, submit promotions feed, and more.
Get ready for the upcoming holiday season and watch your e-commerce store perform its best!
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