A warning to retailers who are preparing their paid inclusion campaigns for the holiday shopping season: It's later than you think.
Consumers begin online holiday shopping two weeks before the traditional Thanksgiving weekend start, search engine marketing firm iProspect said last week.
Paid inclusion conversion volumes historically start climbing two weeks prior to Thanksgiving weekend, according to data from iProspect's paid search advertising tool, iSEBA.
IProspect, Watertown, MA, advised retailers to complete campaign testing by Nov. 11.
“In order to fully capitalize on peak holiday conversions, marketers must be locked and loaded with a solid strategy sooner than many have anticipated,” Fredrick Marckini, CEO of iProspect, said in a statement. “Creative and landing page testing must begin now — today — and must be ready well in advance of Thanksgiving. Search marketers who wait until Thanksgiving will get a late start and will miss out on a good chunk of holiday season sales.”
This early push differs from offline marketing, where the U.S. Postal Service now sees more ad mail sent later in November and even into December because late holiday orders still can be delivered in time.
