Commentary

Holiday Calendar For Targeting Search Campaigns

Halloween may not be the biggest holiday of the year in terms of sales, but search marketers might want to know that in 2017 Google searches for “Black Friday” saw the highest growth spike immediately following October 31, and the week of Black Friday.

Lotame, an independent DMP and data exchange, and Jumpshot, a marketing intelligence and data analytics company, conducted months of research and analysis to create the 2018 Holiday Shopping & Campaign Guide, a trends report for mobile and desktop. The companies analyzed anonymous visits and transactions on 26 ecommerce sites and marketplaces from September through December 2017 to determine 2018 trends. The data tracks five billion actions daily across 100 million devices and determines the best time to target consumers on a variety of platforms.

advertisement

advertisement

In 2017, about 75% of Google searches on the term “black Friday” resulted in traffic to either Deal/Affiliate or Publisher sites. Traffic to ecommerce sites from the search term “black Friday” picked up again right around Black Friday, which fell on November 24, 2017.

For Amazon, mobile conversion rates peaked two weeks prior to Christmas. The week of Black Friday, Amazon saw conversion rates rise 5.2%. The week of Cyber Monday conversions rose 5.6%, and the week beginning December 11, 2017, conversions rose 6.4%, per the data.

Visits on ecommerce sites are forecast to surge based on 2017 data. The report suggests marketers should begin implementing partnerships and sponsorships with marketplaces, as well as sponsor search results on Amazon.

Other important dates in the report include November 19, when the data shows consumers should start searching for and buying more electronics, toys and video games, as well as women’s clothing on Walmart.com.

This year, Hanukkah comes early -- December 2. Around this time, Amazon conversion rates are expected to peak for Beauty products, as they did last year. On all other platforms, conversion rates in the Beauty category fell as the holidays drew nearer.

In the Clothing category, conversion rates acted in a similar way to the Beauty category. On Amazon, conversion rates peaked in mid-December for Women’s Clothing, reflecting a tendency toward last-minute buys. For all other retailers, clothing does not see a strong peak in conversion rate -- in fact, conversion rates fell slightly.

Overall, the appliance category saw an 80% increase in conversion rates the week beginning Cyber Monday, compared with the prior week’s average.

1 comment about "Holiday Calendar For Targeting Search Campaigns".
Check to receive email when comments are posted.
  1. Clayton McLaughlin from icrossing, October 17, 2018 at 4:17 p.m.

    How does one get a hold of this report?

Next story loading loading..