2024 holiday marketing: Top SEO and PPC tips for a short shopping season

This year’s shopping season is unusually short. Instead of the normal four and a half to five weeks, we have just 27 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. On top of that: 

• Hanukkah starts on Christmas, and Kwanzaa is on the day after. 
• Christmas and Hannukah are on Wednesdays, eliminating the ease of shopping retail over the weekend for last-minute gifts. E-gifts and gift cards may be in demand.
• It’s an election year in the U.S.
• The previous election was during the pandemic, so shopping habits and promotions are not comparable

The shorter shopping period means the last shipping day deadline is earlier, there’s less time to clear inventory for 2025 and fewe ad space and promotions available will increase costs. 

There’s also good news that will make your life easier as a marketer.

• You don’t have to separate holiday campaigns this year, saving time and money. They can use an all-encompassing message with each religion in one, including Solstice, which occurs on December 21 this year.
• Your email campaigns apply to all holiday customers, so there is less design work, split testing and fewer deadlines. 
• The last day to ship is the same for everyone saving you additional calendar reminders.
• Media will matter and markups haven’t started because many people haven’t realized it’s a short year yet, so you can get solid deals by reserving space now.

Here are a few ways you can prepare for the holiday season by marketing channels: 

• Niche sites, influencers and publishers.
• PPC and paid social.
• SEO.
• Affiliate and influencer.

(Note: I left out SMS, email and social media because they can benefit from a combination of the above.)

Niche sites, influencers and publishers

Niche sites, influencers and media companies create content for small business Saturday, have round-ups sharing the best of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as well as listicles of the best XYZ. 

The ability to share specific products is limited as you only have so many videos that can be filmed and placements to publish without chasing fans away. With fewer days until free shipping and time to publish, now is the time to line up the lists. 

Consider the following when planning your editorial calendar.

• Which niches or industries take more time to ship, as free shipping is a huge part of the consumer decision process. Line those up sooner in the season. This includes furniture, made-to-order gifts and print-on-demand products.
• With limited time to publish shopping lists, send email blasts and do social media posts, try increasing your pricing because you have to make up for the lack of quantity this year.
• Pay attention to trends and interests earlier this year to line up sponsorships based on consumer demand. The “it” toys and gifts will always be included. Find the unique ones with similar or the same audience demographics and mix those in. 

The uniqueness of your lists will stand out compared to the big media companies that mostly feature big brands, as the big brands may be paying big bucks to be featured. 

By targeting a similar buyer base and including products they want, rather than relying on big brand budgets, you can achieve more conversions with affiliate and paid sponsorship links, encouraging them to make another media purchase.

PPC and paid social

You’re already expecting costs to increase with the holiday season and even more this year because there’s less time to shop, so budgets need to be spent. That’s why messaging is my tip here.

(Note that nothing about this section is political, and I do not recommend promoting politics with your messaging. It is about the tone and voice of the words you use. You want to meet the potential customer in their current mental state.)

Look at the top counties and, ideally, ZIP codes your customers live in and segment out the top 30 to 100 or more if you can. Once the election happens, look how each one voted, as America is very purple. Now, modify your messaging based on voting patterns into three categories.

• Supportive: The side that loses.
• Upbeat and excited: The side that wins.
• Standard holiday: When votes are close to a 50/50 split.

The beauty of PPC and social media advertising is that you can target where they are using inclusions, exclusions and geographically. Politics is intense, so you can say the same thing differently depending on how the election goes with the votes.

Let’s pretend you sell water heaters. Here’s how you could phrase the following based on the three bullets above.

• Supportive: There’s enough stress in the world. Replacing your water heater now keeps your escape running clean so you can have that well-deserved “me time” when you need it most.
• Upbeat: Don’t let an old water heater ruin your “me time” this winter. Replace it now and keep your shower, bath and systems running hot this holiday season.
• Standard: Don’t get stuck with cold showers this winter. Now’s the time to replace your water heater, and you can save XY% during the holiday event.

You can always test standard with upbeat or comforting messaging using the ad rotation tools to see if modifying based on election results and how counties or ZIP codes voted has an impact.

SEO

Search engines have entered the shopping process. Some have created shopping experiences that feature brands and filters, and others display things of interest like coupon codes. 

It is also likely that they’ll show when products are available nearby for last-minute gifts, so now is the time to get your tech stack in order.

• Learn to use the promotions feature in Google Merchant Center to try and get your deals to show up in your organic search results. 
• Keep your data feeds up-to-date, submit them to search engines like Google, ensure they’re working, and make sure local retail locations are doing the same.
• Track which products are expected to have high conversions and work with your PR and affiliate teams to get your products and services listed at the top. The links are not backlinks for SEO, but they can be crawled and help get your most important holiday tweaks found.

For national and international SEO, it’s usually too late to make changes by the time the season starts due to code freezes. Instead, be proactive with the steps mentioned to stay effective in SEO and benefit your company or clients.

Dig deeper: 9 SEO tactics for the holiday period

Affiliate and influencer

This is the one channel where time is not on your side, so you need to prepare now. Most of the year, a good affiliate manager works on building evergreen content that brings top-funnel traffic to the site. The holidays are about getting pushes and blocking competitors.

This year’s space is limited. Reserve the following now, get contracts with partners signed and get budgets approved as soon as possible:

• Influencer dates for promotions and products in their hands.
• Conversion phrases and wording by product and category to share with all content creators (YouTube, social media, niche sites, listicles, PPC partners, etc.).
• Email and newsletter features and sponsorships.
• Guaranteed inclusions in specific listicles and ad space in them.
  • Share which listicles have non-affiliate ads running with the social and PPC teams so they can advertise heavily on the ones that drive affiliate sales.
• Social media day and time promotions to block competitors and lock in the space.

Navigating a compressed holiday shopping season

With just 27 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas and the added complexity of multiple overlapping holidays, this year’s compressed timeline demands a strategic approach to SEO and marketing. 

By implementing the above strategies and remaining flexible, you can turn the challenges of the 2024 holiday season into opportunities for growth.

The key is to act now – the earlier you prepare, the better positioned you’ll be to capture your share of holiday sales in this condensed shopping period.