With the Golden Quarter almost upon us again – the busiest, most lucrative months in the ecommerce calendar – it’s time to ensure that your digital marketing is running full steam ahead.
Whether you already have a solid, ongoing digital marketing campaign in place, or whether it’s in need of a boost, PPC advertising can provide an affordable and effective way to take it to the next level.
In this article, we explain how PPC works and why now is a good time to get your campaign rolling.
What is the Golden Quarter?
The Golden Quarter is the stretch of months that traditionally contain the highest level of spending by consumers.
Due to a cluster of events which encourage people to spend – including Black Friday and Christmas – it’s a highly competitive time for retailers.
Those who get their marketing right are able to boost their immediate sales and, later on, can turn those orders into long-term, returning customers.
However, competition is so fierce – from companies marketing offline and online – that those who aren’t able to make their voices heard may not only miss out on the potential for extra sales, but may lose customers to more exciting advertising and more tempting offers from competitors.
What are the key Golden Quarter dates?
The key dates in 2022 will be:
- Halloween: October 31
- Football World Cup kickoff: November 21
- Black Friday: November 25
- Cyber Monday: November 28
- Christmas: December 25
- Boxing Day: December 26
- January sales
Singles Day takes place each year on November 11 and accounts for billions of pounds in revenue, but is largely confined to consumers in China. In previous years Amazon’s Prime Day has been scheduled within the Golden Quarter too, but recently moved to July. However, Amazon has been known to announce surprise Prime Days in the past.
What is PPC?
PPC is the commonly used term for pay-per-click advertising and there’s a clue as to how it works in the name.
PPC sees your adverts appear on the websites of other people and businesses, such as news outlets, blogs and directories. You are billed a small amount each time a user clicks the advert, which will take them to your site.
Your advert can be a graphic, text, a combination of the two or, increasingly, may contain video too.
There are many websites that display PPC adverts, it’s a huge revenue generator for those that do. You’ll see them on the major websites such as Google, YouTube and news websites.
You may also see them on smaller, independent websites, who rely on the revenue they generate as a source of income.
How does PPC work?
You can improve the effectiveness of your campaign by specifying who will see your adverts. You can control which websites will and won’t display them, selecting, for example, websites that your potential customers are likely to use.
In the case of Facebook, which holds detailed data on its users, you can be very selective about who sees your advert – their age, location, hobbies and so on.
On a search engine, you can choose to appear alongside certain search terms. For example, your advert may show when people search for kitchen utensils, or tennis equipment.
With a PPC campaign, you can also specify who you don’t want to see your advert, whether this is by geography, social grade, or some other consideration.
You can also manage your budget by setting a maximum price you are willing to pay for each click, and also by setting a cap for your total campaign. When you have spent up, your adverts will no longer appear and you won’t be subject to any further costs.
Why PPC is great for the Golden Quarter
For long-running marketing campaigns, search engine optimisation is generally considered the more cost-effective method of promoting your business online.
However, the practice involves persuading sites such as Google to rank you highly by proving your credibility. This can be hard-won, and can take time to materialise.
PPC, on the other hand, is effective immediately. Once you have designed and written your adverts, you can turn your campaign on and off at the click of a button.
From the first day of your campaign you can be highly visible across the internet. When your campaign is finished, you can remove those adverts and there will be no further costs.
This is ideal for short-term campaigns such as winning Golden Quarter sales: whether your SEO is already returning results or not, PPC will give your campaign added juice right when you need it.
You are also able to promote specific products or deals, for example costumers on Halloween, football-related gifts ahead of the World Cup, or a gift-wrapping service in the run-up to Christmas.
This can help you stand out from your competitors, put your brand in front of customers right when they are primed to spend, and help increase short-term sales which can later be converted into long-term relationships.
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