Did you know that we’re about to enter the longest Q4 shopping holiday season the e-commerce industry has seen in years? There are 32 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve in 2018, and you can count on consumers to be looking online for deals and discounts that entire time.
As always, advertising will play a critical role. But according to the e-commerce experts, the key components for digital marketing success will look a little different this year.
In the second webinar of our Holiday E-Commerce Strategy Series, we unwrapped the latest industry trends to help sellers get their advertising holiday-ready. Here’s a snapshot of the top tips:
Optimize for Mobile Traffic and Conversions
In previous years, consumers tended to research products and brands on smartphones before ultimately making purchases on laptops or desktops. No longer. Last year’s Cyber Monday marked the first $2 billion mobile shopping day in the US — a number that’s likely to be surpassed this year.
From browsing to buying, holiday shoppers will be doing it all on the go this season. With larger smartphone screens, helpful voice assistants and advanced shopping apps, relying on mobile devices is easier than ever. We anticipates mobile will account for a solid 80% of all holiday traffic this year.
In other words …
The time to start planning advertising budgets for mobile is now, before you risk falling behind. For specific strategies you can start using today, check out the full webinar recording.
Be First to Google’s New Transactions Platform
This year Google Shopping Actions will make its debut. And we expect it to be a BIG focus throughout the holiday season.
With Google’s new platform, a growing number of consumers will discover products across Google Search, Google Express and the Google Assistant — ones they can add to a universal cart containing items from multiple sellers.
We’ve already seen “Google Express” listings creep into a number of Google search results. Many more are expected come November.
If you haven’t signed up with Google Actions yet, take time today to get the process started. That way, you’ll have ample opportunity to start testing different types of product ads to see which work best for your products. We’ll be covering this topic in depth during next week’s webinar, so be sure to register for that one if you’d like to get insider tips from Google itself: Google Shopping Actions: Prepare Your Products for Online Holiday Sales.
Invest in Amazon Advertising
More than ever, success on Amazon is going to require advertising. In years past, our marketplace specialists tended to mention digital marketing as one small component of a much bigger strategy — one that focused heavily on strong product images, excellent customer service, great fulfillment and the like.
In 2018, advertising will be at the heart of holiday sales success.
Whether you’re selling wholesale to Amazon or as a third-party seller, be sure you’ll have enough budget to maximize your visibility on the marketplace all season long. One of the biggest mistakes sellers can make this season is to sail through a successful November and early December, only to find the entire Amazon Sponsored Ad budget has been spent come December 15.
Our advice? Treat Amazon just as you would Google AdWords: Measure, analyze and adjust as needed all season long. (Again, more detailed suggestions can be found in the on-demand recording.)
All that to say …
As the end-of-year spending frenzy approaches, it’s time to get your advertising in order. For even more tips on creating promotions, managing your ad budget, optimizing for mobile and ramping down for a strong start to 2019, check out the slide summary above and listen to the full webinar here.
Don’t forget! There are still three more upcoming sessions in our five-part holiday strategy series. View the full series to see what’s next, secure your spot for live events and catch up on any sessions you missed.
