How's the holiday 2012 marketing planning coming along?
In this Daily Golden Nugget I'm going to give you some exact strategies to build up holiday marketing strategy using Google AdWords Remarketing. With these ideas you can build your audience starting today but they will not see your ads until you activate them in November.
To accomplish this you will already need a Google AdWords account and to create an audience remarketing tag. I usually recommend multiple remarketing tags to better segment your audience, but in today's Nugget I'm only going to refer to a single tracking tag; let's call it the "Holiday Tag."
Google AdWords Remarketing uses a web browser cookie to track users. The cookie is activated by a small JavaScript, called a "tag." Since JavaScript runs almost everywhere, you have the ability to cookie almost any device including these:
a. Web browser
b. Email software
c. Tablet devices
d. Gaming consoles (like PS3 and Xbox)
e. Smartphones
As long as the device will accept a cookie you can target it for your ads. In preparation for the holiday 2012 season you need to create a Holiday Tag with a Membership Duration of 540 days and start using is like this...
1. Secretly include the Holiday Tag in every email newsletter you send out between now and December 2012. People who read email through their browser will be tagged.
2. Include the Holiday Tag on every landing page that your email links to. When they click a link from the email they will be tagged in their browser. This will work for people using email programs like Outlook, Thunderbird, and their smartphones.
3. Use a simple website address on your direct mail. The website address for your direct mail should be easy to type, and perhaps even easier than my normal domain name of http://www.perosijewelers.com. You should create an easier to use domain for your print ads; in my case I might choose "goperosi.com."
The landing page at goperosi.com should then be used as a changeable landing page that ties into the direct mail piece. It would also secretly contain the Holiday Tag.
4. Your billboard advertising should also have your website address, and again, that address shouldn't be your actually website, but rather, another traceable domain like goperosi.com with the Holiday Tag on it.
5. If you're using direct mail, newspaper, or magazine advertising you should include the traceable domain name that I indicated above, but if you want a better chance to track a smartphone you need to expand your advertising into QR Codes.
People who scan QR Codes are immediately taken to a web page that you designate. That page could be hidden deep within your website, and it would have the Holiday Tag on it. The smartphone would immediately be tracked.
With all that tracking in place you will start to build an audience of people who have looked at your ads and visited your websites with real interest. This is your secret list that you'll be able to use for your Holiday 2012, Valentine's Day 2013, and because you set it for 540 day membership you will even be able to use it during the Holiday 2013 campaign.
Create all your holiday banner ads ahead of time. I recommend creating sets of different ads that only appear on set dates throughout the holiday marketing season. You could base the ads on targeted days like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Small Business Saturday, or you can base them on specific dates.
It takes Google about 7 days to approve an ad, and it will take you several days to think through and create each set of ads. As soon as you get those tags set up you should start working on the ad creatives.
My final thought for today is that you need to give remarketing plenty of financial breathing room. Many jewelers I know will budget $6000 for AdWords for December, that's $1000 per week.
If you take the time to follow my 5 recommendations above then I recommend putting at least half of your budget into remarketing.
I'd love to hear how you guys put this to specific use. Let me know
