Holiday Optimization Guide

1. Get started early! 40% of people start their holiday shopping before Halloween, according to an NRF study.1 Start preparing your campaigns and doing keyword expansions in October and early November to ensure everything is running smoothly before the most important shopping days are here. • Account Optimization Basics • Optimize your account structure for the holidays–this typically means creating new holiday campaigns or adjusting existing ad copy to include holiday verbiage. • Upload all holiday keywords and ads before the season starts to ensure they are approved in Microsoft Advertising adCenter and ready to go live. • Multi-screen strategy–everyday more consumers are using smartphones to research products, find coupons, and make purchases. Make sure you capture this increased traffic by creating a mobile search campaign in your adCenter account. • Prepare for the key holiday shopping days (right). • Tailor your ad copy around these and other key dates. • Make sure you’ve set a big enough budget for each of the peak shopping days and increase your bids so the additional competition doesn’t push you off the first page of search results. • Monitor budgets closely–increased traffic and a higher cost-per-click (CPC) can deplete your budgets before the day or month is over, causing you to miss relevant traffic. • Last year, Cyber Monday had record online sales of $1 billion.2 Cyber Monday also falls at the end of the month, when your remaining budget could be low. Adjust your daily or monthly budget to avoid missing out on this major online shopping day. • Holiday Optimization Guide

2. Capture More Traffic With Keyword and Match Type Expansion • Match type expansion–bid on all three match types (exact, phrase, and broad) to capture the influx of seasonal traffic. • Add variations of your keywords: • Take your existing keyword set and add seasonal terms. For example, if your existing keyword is “power tools,” add a new keyword with “gift” at the end. Your new holiday keyword is “power tool gifts.” • Add misspelled versions of strongly performing keywords that searchers may frequently misspell. • Add negative keywords to prevent irrelevant searchers from seeing and clicking your ad. • Capture Searchers’ Attention With Compelling Ad Copy • Test your ad copy early to see which ads perform better in adCenter so that you can present your best performing ads when traffic picks up. Pause ads that have significantly lower click-through-rates (CTRs) than your other ads. • Tailor your ad copy to the holiday season and include those peak shopping dates in your ad copy for the best return on your investment. • With the economic uncertainty shoppers continue to be price sensitive–use this to your advantage by calling out sale prices, “__% off” or coupon codes in your ads. Two of the biggest motivators for people searching online are free shipping and coupons/discounts. • Use limited-time offers to create a sense of urgency and persuade consumers who are researching a product to buy now. • As you get closer to Christmas remember that shipping becomes a higher priority to consumers; change up your ad copy to include verbiage such as “guaranteed to arrive by Christmas” or “2-day shipping.” • A recent Forrester study showed 55% of consumers now expected free shipping when shopping online. Keep this in mind when you set your promotion strategy.3