In summer, it’s best to stop advertising on all platforms, as people are on holiday anyway, not shopping. You could even think that way, but then you’d be losing out on a lot of potential future converters (buyers). So what can you do to stop your PPC campaigns feeling like a waste of money in the summer? We’ll show you the steps you can take to ensure your Facebook, Instagram and Google Ads ads perform at their maximum in the summer!
But there’s no magic bullet, so you’re likely to feel a dip in the summer, you don’t necessarily need to feel like the summer months are a “dead period”. Even if selling pools, fans and air conditioners is not our main profile.
Remember, a well-constructed marketing strategy takes time: if you start building your campaigns over the summer, start branding, and have everything tested, by the time autumn comes, your Facebook, Instagram and Google Ads ads will be up and running. Try our tips and reap the summer laurels while your competitors are hanging out on the beach. 🙂
How can Google Ads, Facebook, and Instagram PPC campaigns be effective during the summer?
1. Don’t stop!
PPC (PPC: pay per click, we mainly use the term for Facebook, Instagram and Google Ads/Adwords ads) campaigns are the best part of a carefully constructed strategy, so if you interrupt this and pause your campaigns, chances are they’ll perform worse than before the pause. Although results will be retrospective, you should expect future results to be affected.
One reason for this is that Google and Facebook use complex algorithms. Such as choosing which ads to show alongside searches or in users’ news feeds. Therfore they are also constantly looking at user behavior in relation to your ads. If you stop collecting data, the data used for your ads will become obsolete within a few days, while your competitor’s ads will continue to run the same way, so you’ll be at a disadvantage, and when you relaunch your ad, the optimization process will start almost from scratch. So keep an eye on market changes, competitor bids and keyword trends throughout the summer.
If you don’t want to have to start building your PPC campaigns all over again when autumn arrives, it’s a good idea to run your campaigns in the summer at a minimum cost so that your data doesn’t become outdated.
2. Launch of summer special PPC campaigns
It’s a good time to focus on special offers and promotions that will help your customers buy and spend more with you. A good promotion is hard to resist, so you can even encourage visitors to make a purchase who hadn’t otherwise planned to spend their money. We’ve provided some examples to give you an idea of what promotions to focus on:
- 50% off the price of the second product,
- 50% of the second purchase (upsell: i.e. offer a related product to the purchase),
- X+1 product is a gift when you buy X products in a given month,
- Free delivery,
- Extended guarantee.
Remember: most of the market and even some marketing agencies are just spending their energy on acquiring new customers. But there are two other fantastic – and cheaper – ways to increase revenue: get your existing customers to buy again, and increase the basket value, i.e. the value of a purchase.
3. Targeting marketing by location
With geo-targeting, you can set exactly which countries you want your ads to appear in, and also exactly which regions within each country. In the summer, it’s worth thinking about the suitability of the geo-targeting you’ve been using: where in the country you want your ads to be delivered in the warm weather. It may not be a good idea to target the area around Lake Balaton and Lake Velence, as many people go there on holiday in the summer. If they are your target group, and you want to reach holidaymakers and people in these areas with an ad for a local restaurant, for example, then go for it. But whatever effort your marketing agency puts into it, it is unlikely that people will be buying vacuum cleaners or cupboards while on holiday.
Instead, it’s better to pay more attention to national targeting: monitor individual marketing performance in different areas, and if results are deteriorating, take action! The key is to think about what might be the ideal targeting during the summer months from a shopper’s perspective. Of course, you don’t necessarily have to exclude areas, it’s enough to give positive bid adjustments to areas where you expect more clicks and conversions.
4. Advertisement scheduling
By setting up ad scheduling, your online marketing agency can make your PPC campaigns appear only at the times you specify. And if you’ve already thought about how you should target geographically, you should also consider how much people’s schedules can shift during the summer. During the summer, the usual peak search times may change (depending on business activity), and you may want to pay attention to the results.
Set your ads to start later in the morning and run longer in the evening, if this is relevant to your business, as people get up later and are active longer in the summer. You don’t need to exclude whole days or times of day here either, but your agency should set bid corrections for periods. It is important to know your target audience’s habits and be able to adapt to them as the seasons change.
5. Seasonal keywords and ad copy
Your marketing agency should use seasonal keywords during the summer period, as this will help you to target the service or product you are looking for. Carry out a summer keyword research and see how relevant “summer” keywords are for your target group. As the seasons change, it’s also worth making sure that your ads are constantly renewed (it’s a common mistake to advertise a Christmas or spring promotion in June).
You should also ask your PPC agency to produce ad copy to reach people with a more precise and tailored message. This is also a good solution if you offer the same service or product every season.
Also ask your marketing agency to run summer style and traditional ads side-by-side, as a test! You’ll know which of your ads perform better when you see the first results. If you have the capacity, you can also make these changes on the landing page, even using a summer-themed banner.
6. Use of extensions: promotional extension
It makes sense to use extensions in all seasons, as they make your ads more eye-catching and provide more accurate information to your visitors. In the summer, in the same way that you update your ads and keywords with summer terms, it’s worth changing and summer styling your extensions.
And if you’re using one of the promotions in tip 2, use a promotional extension to further highlight the discount and help potential customers find current offers.
Not sure where to set the above? Or do you simply not have the time or energy to go to such depths in your ads? Contact us and we’ll help!
Got some extra ideas or thoughts? Share them with us!
