Typically over the summer months as people go away on holiday and spend more time away from their computers, conversion and the volume of available traffic can drop.
To help you prepare for the seasonal trends, here are a few tips on how to optimise your campaigns over the summer months…
Schedule your ads
Make sure your ads are visible at the times when people are most likely to see them – it can be unprofitable to run them 24 hours a day.
Use the Dimensions tool within Google AdWords to monitor the performance of your ads at each hour of the day to identify when you get the highest click through rate. So that your data is accurate, use a data set that spans at least a month or two. Then you can filter the data by hour.
Once you’ve identified the times of day when your click through rate is the highest, set your ads to be visible during these hours. By scheduling your ads to be visible at the most popular times of day for your business, you’ll maximise your chance of improving your conversion rate.
Make sure your site is mobile optimised
As the weather improves, so does the number of people spending time outside away from their desktops. When people are on the go, dating on their mobiles becomes a much more appealing option, allowing them to find love and enjoy the sun at the same time.
To remain competitive, it is crucial to ensure that your sites are optimised for mobile. Google’s ‘Mobile-Friendly Test’ can help to analyse your mobile site and report if your landing page has a mobile-friendly design. The tool will help you identify any changes that need to be made to improve the mobile experience.
It also shows you what users can, or can’t, see when using your sites on their mobile. This is particularly useful as it shows you how the registration form looks to mobile users. You should always make sure the registration form is clearly visible and the focal point of the page.
Tailor your campaigns
Seasonal campaigns can perform well when you pitch them right. Create a tailored campaign around that’s relevant to activities that single people enjoy during summer.
For example, many singles like to go on holiday over summer so they are likely to search for ‘singles holidays’. You could take advantage of this by creating a display advertising campaign with holiday-themed banners.
Once you’ve built your campaign, you should also add related keywords to your ad group. The more specific you can be, the better quality the traffic you receive will be.
It’s also worth updating your landing page design to match the look of your summer banners. This will show consistency and could add credibility for your brand.
Plan ahead
If you’re going away on holiday, make sure you let your Partner Manager know who to contact when you’re not around. If you don’t have anyone keeping an eye on your campaigns, tell your Partner Manager in advance so that you can plan for this before you go away to ensure everything runs smoothly in your absence.
We’d also recommend that you take advantage of the summer lull and start planning for online dating’s busy season. Traffic typically picks up in September and continues to improve all the way through to December.
If you have any questions about how to optimise your campaigns during summer, get in touch with the Partner team today.