I know July will be with us for another day and a half, but that doesn’t mean paid search professionals shouldn’t begin turning their attention to the inevitable arrival of the Holiday Shopping Season. Still too hot and too soon, you say. Truth is, now is a darn good time to begin thinking about it and, to prove the point, OptiMine’s CTO, Rob Cooley, penned a piece for PPC Hero called, “Christmas in July: Considerations for Holiday Planning”.

The traditional start to holiday shopping is Black Friday, but, if you follow the Rob’s advice, you may find your online season starts earlier. At the very least, analysis of your seasonal curve may reveal increased activity in October, giving  you an opportunity to capture early bird sales with appropriate keyword bidding.

With November and December being make-or-break months for so many retailers, doesn’t it make sense to do what you can to increase your odds of success? Start by reading “Christmas in July”. It’s not the final word, but it is a great first word.

@OptiMineInc

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In the ever-evolving world of paid search, Alex Cohen of Search Engine Watch has been keeping an eye on keyword-free PPC. In this non-traditional approach – which is especially relevant to e-commerce sites – your keywords in are replaced by attributes fed from your product catalog and ads are delivered as product search and product listing ads or text ads with product extensions. Cohen’s post breaks down the new keyword-free world, adding clarity with the use of several great examples.

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I’m willing to bet most of you have never considered the question. I know I hadn’t until I read the article on SFGate.com. According to the article, the concept “measures the digital footprint of 64 brands via 350 data points across four dimensions: Site, Digital Marketing, Social Media, and Mobile.”

Three brands, Macy’s, Victoria’s Secret and Nordstrom, achieved Genius level, but some of the more interesting findings include:

• Facebook is a key element, but only four brands have fully-functional storefronts
• 67 percent of the 64 brands have mobile sites – a threefold increase over last year – and 88 percent of those are e-commerce enabled
• Innovation is imperative. Resting on ones laurels is a strategy for losing

You can download the entire report here for free. It is gated, so you’ll have to give up a bit of information, but the tradeoff is well worth it.

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In the spirit of the upcoming Shop.org, I offer the following question to ponder:

Does Facebook perception equal Facebook reality?

Not according to a new study released by Forrester Research. I think it’s safe to say that most brands believe Facebook is a must-be place on the Web (here’s the OptiMine page), but Sucharita Mulpuru reports that brands enjoying the most success are small and have “unique demographics or marketing models”.

If it’s customer acquisition you want, more traditional methods like email and paid search still dominate. If you think about it for any length of time, that just makes sense. After all, how many consumers are going to “fan” a brand they have no connection to – commercial or emotional.

That said,Mulpuru points out that Facebook is home to a treasure trove of data advertisers should be taking advantage of:

Facebook’s “data layer” is probably one of the most under leveraged assets that exists with respect to F-commerce. There is myriad information about fans, what products consumers are liking, and competitive insights that can be gleaned from merchant and consumer activity on and off Facebook.

If there is a bottom line, it might be this: Facebook has potential, and lots of it, to be a big driver of customer acquisition. The pieces to the puzzle are there, waiting for someone to put them together.

Paid search is still leads the pack, and will for some time, but Facebook advertising will come of age. It may never equal and will never eclipse paid search, but Facebook will find its place in the world of  customer acquisition and digital advertising.

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