For a retail company it would seem to make sense to dedicate a large portion of their marketing budget towards advertising for holiday sales, such as end of year sales at Christmas time. Interestingly, though, year end holiday sales revenues only account for approximately 25% of annual sales revenue on average. While individual sale revenues varied greatly, it is important for companies to focus their advertising budgets on the right holidays and special events. For example, it would make sense for an outdoor grill company to focus their ad budget on running ads during summer months, when people are more likely to be grilling out. Inversely, it would not make sense for a winter clothing retailer to spend a significant amount of money advertising during the summer months.

Knowing When To Advertise

Knowing when to market your product or service is just as important, if not more important, than simply dumping a huge portion of your budget into marketing. Marketing a grill in January is not going to be nearly as effective as marketing that same grill the week before Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start to summer and grilling season. Likewise, failing to market your product or service at the right time can be equally as damaging to your overall revenues.

Organic Traffic

Organic traffic is generated a few different ways. Organic website traffic is any traffic that is not generated by paid advertisements, which can include general search engine placement, social media posts, word of mouth referrals, and returning users. 53% of website traffic is derived from organic searches with nearly one third of consumers searching for local businesses on a daily basis. (Higher Visibility) This makes general search engine optimization (SEO) a priority for any website from online retailers to general marketing/communications websites. Proper SEO implements a variety of techniques from proper meta descriptions for more accurate robot crawls to mobile user experience and ADA compliance with colors and proper copy tags.

Advertising on Google

Google is the most common search engine in use, comprising of over 87% of the worldwide search market. Google Ads is a robust service for placing paid ads in front of your customers. There are five types of ad campaigns available to you from Googl eAds: Search, Display, Video, Shopping, and App. Knowing which one(s) to utilize and when is paramount in achieving your greatest return on investment.

Search

Search ads are text ads that appear in Google search results. These are most useful for targeting potential customers who are actively searching for services that are similar to yours. For example, if you are a jewelry retailer you may create a search ad campaign with keywords such as “gifts for my wife” around Valentine’s day. Google then would display your ad in the appropriate location within the search results based on your ad campaign content and average bid amount. These ads are best for getting in front of people who are ready to buy your product or service.

Display

Display ads are image ads that google strategically places on websites. The potential for placement is in the millions. This is a great method of expanding your brand awareness. These are displayed to people who are likely to be interested in your product or services, but are not necessarily actively searching. These are best used to reach potential customers in the early stages of purchasing.

Video

Video ads are great resources for getting your product or service in front of a relevant audience. Video ads are placed in YouTube videos either before, during, or after a video is played. Over two billion people use YouTube, so the potential audience is quite large with video ads.

Shopping

Shopping ads are placed on the Google Shopping page, similar to the concept of a search ad. Shopping ads are great for companies that are selling physical, tangible products. These ads are created for specific products, for example a company that sells grills would list one or more of their products as a shopping ad campaign during grilling season.

App

App add campaigns are promoted within the Google Play store and certain other apps including YouTube, Search, and Google Display Network. These ad campaigns are app specific, which is a great service for individuals or companies that are interested in distributing more copies of their mobile applications.

Mobile Usability

Mobile responsive websites are considered the standard, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that yours is. Having a website that scales properly on phones, tablets, and computers is extremely important in retaining visitors. Mobile devices, excluding tablets, accounted for over 50% of website traffic in 2021 and have consistently hovered around 50% since 2017. (Statista) A user’s experience is directly correlated with customer retention – whether you are selling a product or a service a hard to navigate or otherwise distastefully designed website will drive potential customers away from your business. Google also rates your website’s mobile usability, which directly effects your search engine placement.

Knowing when to advertise, where to advertise, and providing a positive user experience are tantamount to not only retaining existing customers, but also earning new clients. Contact us to find out how we can serve your digital marketing needs, maintain your current business, and help you grow sustainably.