Get your mobile ad campaigns ready for December

© goodween123 via Fotolia.com

Silly season seems to be in full swing with everyone tweeting, Instagramming, and updating Facebook statuses with their holiday plans and pleas for this year to just be over. It's been a long and tumultuous year at ClickMaven and we're wrapping up a number of projects in anticipation for our year-end holiday. This is the typical South African approach - to go all-out until your shop doors close for Christmas.

However, with the drastic increase in mobile device and data usage over the December/January period, can your business afford to shut down completely for the festive season?

Why you should pay special attention to mobile ads over December/January

While many South Africans will be stepping away from their desks during the holiday, that doesn't mean they're disconnecting from the internet. They'll simply be switching platforms and becoming fully dependent on their mobile connectivity.

Past figures for browsing and search are very revealing: desktop page views dropped significantly between November and December in 2011 and 2012, and desktop searches on Google fell between 40-50%. Currently, mobile trends go in the opposite direction, with browsing increasing by 40% and search also rising 40-50%. The trends also show that mobile data usage and search increases when people are waiting (for flights, travelling on the road, and while their other half does the Christmas shopping, etc.), watching TV (that infamous "second screen") and in bed.

What accounts for this dependence on mobile?

Mobile search will be in full swing as holidaymakers look for cheap flights, holiday accommodation, and car rental, the nearest restaurants, what to do with the family while on holiday, where to get replacement mobile phone chargers (because you can't go away without forgetting something at home), and of course, they'll be using map apps to get around in unfamiliar places.

With spare time on their hands, searchers will also have the opportunity to get their financials in order, so banking is a huge draw-card for mobile users. This is also true for medical aid sign-ups, home security subscriptions and home contents insurance, and - let's not forget the New Year's resolutions - gym contracts. These are just some examples.

When do people search and buy over the holiday period?

There are three peaks in purchasing that mobile advertisers should be cognisant of:

• When consumers are paid their November salaries and the holiday spending begins
  
• In the two weeks leading up to Christmas
  
• When the January sales and specials begin

How you should adjust your search and PPC campaigns to take advantage

The Ericsson Mobility Report shows that in South Africa there has been a drastic increase of 80% in mobile traffic between this time last year and now. Some of that increase is due to search and browsing, while a lot of it is accounted for by the number of people watching video content from their mobile devices (smartphones and tablets). This means that if you want to get your ads in front of the eyes of this captive audience, then it's worthwhile investing in Google Network Display (GDN) ads while also running targeted search campaigns.

That's just one example.

The practical way to take advantage of the increase in browsing and searching eyes is to start off by adjusting your ad campaign settings in Google AdWords. You can customise your specific ad campaign to target smartphones and other mobile devices for the holiday period. And don't forget that if you adjust your campaign to be mobile-specific, then you'll also need to ensure that your landing pages on your website are 1) mobile friendly, and 2) aligned with the ad message from your mobile campaign. If your ad says "read more", then your landing page should contain more information. If your ad says "sign up now for great specials", then your landing page should have an easy-to-use contact form. If your ad's call-to-action is to "buy now", then the landing page should be a product page of the amazing specials you've advertised.

It's important to note that B2C and B2B businesses need to respond differently to the increase in search and browsing traffic during December.

If you're a B2C business:

The holiday season is a veritable gold mine for B2C businesses because consumers dive head-first into that spending frenzy that takes place between November and January. You just need to customise your ad message to trumpet the benefits of your products and services, as well as the ease of transacting with you - consumers don't want to waste their precious holiday time struggling to buy.

If you're a B2B business:

Business search traffic does drop, but there are still business queries taking place in December (while potential clients are tanning on the beach and coming up with creative ideas while sipping on a cocktail, for example). Don't let these queries slip through your fingers or fall into your competitors' hands. Be there on Google search and the GDN and don't ignore your potential customers.

Prepare a landing page that speaks directly to your potential clients, informing them that you're closed for business, but they can leave their contact details (obviously provide the form to do so) and you'll get back to them with a quote. It will pay off to have someone monitoring your website leads for any business queries that arise during the holidays. Even if you only get 10% of your usual number of leads, that's still more leads than you would have had, had you not run any ad campaigns.

Mobile browsing and search is here. Are you?