Make the most of your Mother's Day campaigns with this PPC checklist

With many Mums around the UK currently living on their own during the pandemic along with a host of other challenges, a dedicated day to remind your Mum how much you love them and how you can’t wait to see them again will do wonders for their mental health - and a surprise gift would be the icing on the cake.

Mother’s Day largely follows the same principals for any other seasonal event so the blueprint below will outline the key details to a successful Mother’s Day campaign:

Mother’s Day 2021 PPC blueprint

The Types of Retailers Most Likely To Benefit:

• Home and Garden
• Florists
• Fashion and Apparel
• Gift and Greeting

Not every retailer will feel suited to Mother’s Day, however gifts can cover a whole range of niches so not everyone will go for the traditional route of flowers.

Add your audiences

These include:

• Mother’s Day Shopping
• Flowers
• Greeting cards
• Your niche audience categories

Also adding in your first party data from last year’s promotion will be highly effective if you have it.

Use smart shopping where possible

Smart Shopping is a great way to link together your search and display efforts to capture interest at all levels of the customer journey. This will allow you to take advantage of all the placements Google has to offer (including YouTube and Gmail) and will let you use dynamic retargeting and prospecting; the fact that all the data and signals are contained within one campaign allows Google to make well-informed decisions on where a consumer is likely to convert in the journey.

Capture interest at least 1 month in advance with videos & blogs

For typical Mother’s Day retailers: As more consumers turn to the internet for research, videos are becoming important for brand awareness. Use video content to tell your brand story and capture early demand for retargeting efforts later. Older demographics tend to plan sooner so make sure you layer your audiences accordingly.

For more niche retailers: The search term “unique Mother’s Day gifts” has been increasing 56% year on year and can begin as early as the second week in January; this will form the top of your conversion funnel and contribute to your remarketing efforts closer to Mother’s Day. Identify search terms that users are making to identify one-of-a-kind gifts and layer in your affinity audiences to reach those undecided shoppers.

Contextualise your ad copy

Knowing your audience’s needs/interests will help you maximise the impact of your messaging, and remarketing campaigns will require separate ad copy too, so make sure you’re standing out to grab the user’s attention. Cater to more non-traditional shoppers with incentives such as free delivery and add-ons to drive conversions further.

Begin remarketing campaigns & promotional campaigns 2 weeks before Mother’s Day

This is done for 2 reasons:

• To guide the consumers you captured at the top level down the conversion funnel
• To reach those shoppers who are most likely to convert

Typically, you would be fine to start your campaigns a week before but it’s important to take possible delivery disruptions into account and allow that extra time for deliveries. Consumer behaviour has shifted throughout the pandemic, so many shoppers will be buying earlier this year.

Have a strategy for last-minute buyers

A huge uplift in revenue will come in the final days leading up to Mother’s Day, so having last-minute purchase options will capture these shoppers. Emphasising things like “click and collect” or “next-day delivery” if you have it should be the focus of your ad copy to reassure last minute buyers that their product will arrive in time and taking advantage of Local Inventory Ads will give you the edge on the click and collect purchases.

Summary

1. Add your audiences
2. Use Smart Shopping where possible
3. Capture interest at least 1 month in advance with videos & blogs
4. Contextualise your ad copy
5. Begin remarketing campaigns & promotional campaigns 2 weeks before Mother’s Day
6. Have a strategy for last-minute buyers

This simple but effective blueprint for your paid searches should lead to an uplift during the Mother’s day period; how successful you are will depend on how well you can execute these core principles. And if you didn’t implement these steps this time around, keep these principles in mind for future promotional events.

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