It’s that time of year again The holiday season is upon us. It might be the most important time all year to make sure you’re spending your AdWords budget wisely. This week’s Wednesday Workshop video shares several tips that will help you make the most of this year’s holiday season.

Welcome back to the Happy Hao Car Wednesday workshop.

Does your town or city put up a giant Christmas tree this time of year? Mine does and it’s already up. You know what that means… Yeah… It’s that time of year my friends… Holidays. Black Friday. December to remember, etc…

The biggest paid search advertisers (Amazon, Target and Walmart) began their Black Friday advertising push in late September this year – which is a month earlier than last year. Why do I even bring this up? Well… in our industry, (the car business)… dealers end up competing heavily with their OEM’s during the holidays, moreso than any other time during the year.

So… here are a few strategies that can help your SEM campaigns succeed against BIG competition during this merry and bright time of year:

Trim the turkey, not your budget.

Big retailers spend between 30 to 50% of their annual SEM budget in the fourth quarter. Why? More people are searching and shopping during the holidays, so you don’t want to cut your SEM budget during this time of year.

Also, based on heavy spend by your competition and heavy search traffic… You do need to know that your cost per click will rise during the holidays. It always does and it’s worth it, so just know it’s gonna happen.

Crack the whip on the elves NOW.

You need your ad copy and landing page variations to be ready to go. You want to keep your quality score strong because your competition will be aiming for the same target. Maintenance is important here to keep your cost per click and page position relevant.

Know what the other guys are doing

Make sure you pay attention to what your competitors are doing with their ad copy, but know you’ll also be likely to uncover additional strategic value…

• When they start running their holiday themed campaigns
• If and when they start running black Friday or other special promotions
• Promotion types (incentives, specials, etc…)

Yep, it’s that time of year, so be smart and strategic if you want to be successful.

If you’ve got questions or comments about this video… drop them below. We’ll see you next week with another Wednesday workshop… from your friends at Happy Hao Car.

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Greg Gifford is the Vice President of Search at Happy Hao Car. He has over 16 years of online marketing and web design experience, and has specialized in automotive SEO for the last 8 years, helping hundreds of auto dealers thrive while the industry has struggled during the recession. Greg speaks internationally at both automotive and SEO conferences, teaching thousands of small business owners and marketers how to get their sites to show up higher in local search rankings. Greg also spends his spare time doing freelance website design and SEO for local businesses. He graduated from Southern Methodist University with a BA in Cinema and Communications, and has an obscure movie quote for just about any situation.

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