Emma Spivey
Last month, we attended the Google Retail Ready event in London, where we met with industry experts and product leads who shared fantastic insights around preparing for this year’s peak.
With a whole lot of knowledge and tips to choose from, we’ve picked out some of the key things advertisers need to be aware of as we move into this busy period.
Peak is known as the key shopping season of the year, starting around October through to January, and includes major sales events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the lead-up to Christmas. This is the time when consumer spending surges due to gift buying and seasonal promotions making it an important time of year for marketers within the retail sector.
Marketers have faced a challenging few years during peak e-commerce season, with various external factors impacting both consumers and the market.
The pandemic led to supply chain disruptions alongside an early surge in demand.
Rising cost-of-living pressures affected consumers and businesses, leading to a slower Black Friday.
Marketers were under pressure as retailers sought growth, with 53% launching Black Friday deals earlier than usual.
However, despite recent challenges, Google shared that there is reason to be optimistic for 2024, with market indicators pointing to a rebound driven by GDP growth, declining inflation, and rising consumer confidence. This coupled with the increasing brand agnosticism among consumers, with 45% more open to trying new brands, is a great sign that we can expect positivity during the e-commerce peak. Therefore, it’s important for your strategies to align with this expectation.
Check out our podcast with Sarah from KEF where market expectations and consumer behaviour towards a brand are discussed.
As market conditions improve, tapping into Google’s newest capabilities will enable advertisers to maximise their potential during peak shopping season and drive growth effectively. Using tools such as Performance Max, automation, and advanced audience targeting, means that advertisers can enhance their reach and engagement with increasingly brand-agnostic consumers. These innovations allow for more personalised and efficient campaigns, aligning with evolving consumer behaviours and preferences.
Automation and AI have transformed the industry, with new Google products offering exciting opportunities for this year’s peak shopping season. For many months now, we have seen a shift in focus to more automation-first campaigns which allow AI signals to adjust in real-time to market conditions, enabling advertisers to stay competitive as demand and consumer behaviours adjust.
One example of how to utilise automation is by using Performance Max: a full-funelled campaign that runs across all of Google’s inventory including search, shopping, display etc. from a single campaign, maximising reach across channels. During high-demand periods like e-commerce peak season, Performance Max uses AI to continuously optimise bids, targeting, and ad placements, ensuring ads reach the right users at the right time for maximum impact.
Google has also introduced Demand Gen campaigns which may also be a good option for utilising automation during this peak shopping season because they focus on capturing high-intent audiences and driving engagement across key platforms like YouTube, Gmail, and Discover. These campaigns are designed to deliver visually rich, immersive ads to consumers who are already exploring products, making them highly effective in creating brand awareness and inspiring action during the critical buying period.
Coupling demand gen with performance max ensures a fully-funnelled strategy that will be key for driving maximum awareness to feed your high-intent campaigns during a time when demand is at its highest.
To find out more about the importance of a full-funnel approach, head over to our blog.
Another focus area discussed was the use of broad match within search campaigns. Previously, it was difficult to consider broad match as efficient, because the scope was often too wide to capture the most relevant terms and usually resulted in higher cost per clicks. However, as this match type has now evolved with intent being considered, it’s a great way of expanding activity to attract wider audiences ultimately driving more awareness, traffic, and conversions.
Whilst there is a lot to be optimistic about, it’s worth noting there is still a level of cautiousness that needs to be considered when coming up with the right strategy. There has been a shift in the way people now search based on previous years, as well as the growth of new channels, so this must be factored into channel and campaign selection.
With the longstanding experience of inflation and the cost of living crisis, consumers may still be carrying over the mindset of financial stress. Looking for deals may be enticing, but alike to during COVID, people are taking longer within the research period before committing to a product. Focus needs to be placed on branding through a variety of channels where people research brands, which include TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. Here we see a wide range of product reviews and trials, and with the boom of the TikTok shop, leveraging these channels means the research phase is going to be more beneficial for your business.
This year the peak holiday season falls in a way that means there are five fewer shopping days post-cyber. There will be fewer delivery days, so optimising the time you have is crucial.
The season is earlier this year due to the date in which Christmas falls. Being ahead with your strategy is crucial to hitting the peak season correctly. During the Retail Ready event, the panel shared their experiences and it was noted that people are already searching for advent calendars, with the peak e-commerce period getting earlier every year. Ensuring you have a solid generic keyword strategy in place for the months when people are researching is key here.
With 79% of conversions occurring between 14th and 25th December, taking advantage of this period is beneficial for your business. Make sure you use your budget in reflection of the purchasing behaviour this year to make the most of your spend.
From the event, we gained a lot of information to share with the team and implement into our current strategies in preparation for a great peak holiday season for our clients. Here are some recommendations to take you into the e-commerce peak this year.
Peak shopping season begins earlier than you may think – October, when 24% of peak festive shopping is completed. It is no surprise that with Black Friday, November is for deal seeking, and December and January constitute 40% of shopping. To make use of the time outside of the deal-seeking period, demonstrate your value through a full set of creatives, and generate demand through marketing. 47% of a brand’s short-term growth stems from salience so being present is key.
Current search statistics are showing increased demand across multiple categories, with consumer searches being broad. Due to consumers showing less loyalty towards specific brands, 80% of searches are now more generic, therefore it’s important to ensure your generic strategy is in the best place possible – using different match types, including broad match. Show up where your consumers are and catch them in the discovery phase, find your USP, and communicate with your customers on the channels they use the most.
Although promotional discounts provide you with short-term wins, differentiating your brand within your market supports your business in the long term, increasing buying power within your market.
We had a great time attending the Retail Ready event and came away with some useful insights and considerations to share with our team for the peak season ahead. If you would like to discuss the benefits of paid media for peak 2024, get in touch.
