If you’re a retailer looking to maximise your sales for Christmas here’s our top five tips for increasing online sales:
1. Set up and Optimise Google PMAX Shopping campaigns
If you have products to sell you will benefit from setting up Google PMAX Shopping Ads. They’re Google’s first fully automated Ad campaign type and they are ideal for showcasing your products in Google Shopping search results (product images) and making it easy for people to buy. The great thing is that the Ads also show up across Google’s entire Ad inventory (including display, search, YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps and more). Google uses its machine learning to get your Ads in front of the right people at the right time, so it’s a fantastic way to maximise your online sales leading up to Halloween and Christmas. You can read more about Google PMAX campaigns here in our blog.
2. Stay at the front of people’s minds with remarketing Ads
People do a lot of browsing in the run up to Christmas, looking for perfect gifts, festive home ware and decorations and much more. If you want to make sure people are seeing your products, remarketing is a powerful advertising tool. Remarketing works by retargeting your website visitors with Ads about your business as they browse the web. You can set up remarketing ads in Google, Facebook and Instagram.
Google’s remarketing Ads are great for targeting people who have visited your website but who have not yet purchased. Are you new to Google’s remarketing Ads? Here’s a really in depth blog by Search Engine Journal on how to launch your first Google Ads remarketing campaign.
We also recommend taking advantage of Facebook Catalogue Ads. These Ads show your products to your chosen audience on Facebook and/or Instagram. The great thing about them is they are personalised to your audience, as they target people who have already interacted with your business. You could even choose to show your products to a broader audience who Facebook targets based on their behaviours, including people who have shown an interest in products that are similar to yours.
3. Increase your budget
This might sound obvious, but if you’re already running Google Ads and social media campaigns it will be worth increasing your spend leading up to and over the Christmas period to increase your chances of online sales. If your Ads are effective, the more you spend, the more sales you should make. Your targeting and Ad wording will need to be spot on if you are going to get a good ROI. So if you are new to online advertising, it’s best to test your Ads now, so that you are all properly set up as we head closer to Christmas. If you don’t have the time or expertise to set up and run your own Ads it’s best to hire an expert to do it for you.
4. Email marketing/App push notifications
If you have taken the time to build up and nurture your email list, it is still a great way to get online sales. You need to stand out through the noise through of spammy emails and every other retailer who is doing the same thing. Create a compelling offer, keep the headline and body of the email clear and simple, with clear CTA’s and of course direct them to the right landing page.
If you have a mobile App then what better way to boost your online sales than to send offers direct to the people who have taken the time to download your App? Mobile push notifications are a great way to get your customers spending. We highly recommend doing an ‘App only’ offer or discount to make these customers feel valued.
5. Review your settings
Finally, make sure your budget isn’t being wasted by reviewing the setup of your Ad campaigns. Review your location settings, bids and search queries. By keeping on top of search queries and adding irrelevant ones as negative keywords you can really help to minimise wasted clicks and get the maximum return on your budget.
We hope you found these tips helpful and we wish you a successful trading period in the run up to Christmas. For help with managing and getting the most out of your advertising campaigns please get in touch with us at Q Social Media.
