Posted by Cristina Lucero, Research Associate
Historically, there are two major spikes in mobile search traffic leading up to holiday. The first spike occurs on Black Friday, when searchers use their phones to find the best in-store Black Friday deals. The second spike occurs on the last weekend before Christmas, when shoppers have missed the Internet shipping deadline and must now turn to their mobile devices to find where they can buy in-store. The below graph from the Google Mobile Ads Blog nicely illustrates these two spikes for top retail brand keywords in holiday 2009 and 2010:
At Performics, we’re forecasting the biggest holiday ever for mobile paid search. We’re closing in on two weeks until Black Friday; so if you haven’t already, it’s time to make sure that your mobile paid search campaign is ready for the first big mobile spike (Black Friday). Follow this mobile search checklist:
- Use mobile-specific copy that highlights store locations, phone numbers and Black Friday deals
- Ensure you’re ranking first in mobile search for mission-critical keywords like your brand name and “[brand name] + city”
- Employ click-to-call to enable mobile searchers to easily contact your store if needed
- Get hyper-local by geo-targeting paid search ads based on the distance between your store and the mobile user; maximize efficiency by dedicating the most budget to locations where you have a large brick-and-mortar presence
- Separate smartphone and tablet campaigns; searchers are running around town with their smartphones while they’re at home with their tablets, thus ad messaging should differ by device
- Ensuring that you’re visible in mobile search for mission-critical keywords likely to be used by in-store shoppers. The Performics Social Shopping Study (Oct. 2011) found that 41% of mobile users have used their device to search for product information via a search engine while in a retailer’s store.
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