Don't Get 'Spooked' - Get Ready for Halloween!

With the summer now over and Autumn here to stay, the next upcoming event in the social calendar is Halloween. As outlined by Google’s Insights For Search queries for Halloween related terms are already on the rise as people begin searching for products and costumes. In the last business week alone, the number of search queries for the term ‘Halloween costumes’ rose by 60% alone. Retailers in the Apparel and Gifts and Greetings industries will likely see an increase in traffic during this time of year as users begin their search for costumes, decorations and greetings cards.



With this in mind, we’d like to provide you with some quick tips on how to get the most from this rise in traffic.

1) Create separate campaigns for all your Halloween product ranges with relevant themed keywords and ad texts. Google’s Search Based Keyword Tool will help you identify more long tail keyword opportunities based on your site’s content.

2) Be sure to use language in your ad texts specifically referring to Halloween as well as using any USPs to highlight any promotions or competitive advantages you might have. If you are selling a range of different costumes then trial an ad text using the Keyword Insertion formula thus ensuring your ads as relevant as possible to a user’s search query.

3) Deep link to all your product pages. If you have a particularly large inventory for Halloween then try running Keyword Destination URLs. Searches that bring the user to most relevant landing page are more likely to convert to sales.

4) Be prepared to increase your bids, particularly on popular products at this time of increased auction intensity. Raising bids on your well performing keywords will result in higher positions ensuring you don’t miss out on potential traffic.

5) If you’re bidding on more general keyword terms then be sure to update your negative keywords to protect your Click Through Rate. You can use the Keyword Tool to identify any terms that aren’t relevant to your site, or if you ran campaigns before then now is the time to review a Search Query report for last year and filter out any unwanted traffic.

We hope you found these tips useful! Please email us if you have any feedback.

Posted by Ewan Aparicio, Dublin Retail Team