The Value of a Promotional Calendar for a Paid Search Campaign

Posted by Isiah Drake, Manager, Bid Strategy Team

A promotional calendar is very valuable in guiding bidding decisions during a paid search campaign.  It can be used to pull back on non-promotional keywords, push on current sales, and predict when a rise in conversions may happen.  A calendar also allows an advertiser to make better decisions regarding pulling back on product keywords if the program is over goal. 

Paid search managers create keywords designed to help drive sales around a promotion date.  These new keywords generally do not have any historical performance data. They need to launch optimally and push aggressively on these product keywords so that they have a better opportunity at converting in higher positions. Without pushing, it leaves these keywords/ad groups too low to acquire significant data.  An advertiser should understand that pushing may lead to a lower ROI overall, but will be balanced by insight gained into these new products.

The promotional calendar also provides better visibility into potential changes in conversion rate. If paid search managers can predict/anticipate a day when conversion will rise/drop, that bid strategist can bid accordingly. Knowing when future promotions are going to occur also gives an advertiser’s bid strategist the ability to make better decisions on allocation of the program’s budget .

Comments

[Remy]

I agree, we need to keep track of our paid search campaign. but sometimes paid search campaign does not start all at the same time we need to consider that promotional calendars can also extend to longer than the usual campaign date because of this.

[Isiah Drake]

Some advertisers do not create promotion specific (search) campaigns. They allow promotional copy to run more heavily on relevant ad groups. However, the need to create specific program promotions should be done when there is no chance after a specific end date that the searcher will convert. If a specific promotion is tied to a product launch, keywords and ads should be absorbed into the entire program and managed to an overall ROI goal. If the promotional calendar extends longer, then flighting budgets may be useful.

Thanks,
Isiah