Last week we spoke about the season of SEO and why it is so important to start preparing you campaigns ready for online dating’s peak season – which runs from December 26th until the end of January. Each year, the industry sees a huge, natural uplift in organic traffic as singletons sign up to new dating sites for a “New Year, New Me” approach.
However, it isn’t only SEO that is important this time of year. Yes, a strong seasonal SEO strategy is an integral part of boosting profits as your dating sites experience the huge influx of free, organic traffic, but, if you haven’t prepared and optimised your paid campaigns, you could be missing a trick. We know this source can be competitive, particularly over the festive season, so we’ve prepared a few tips to help keep your CPC’s (cost per click) down…
Img 1: A Christmas PPC meme because, well, everybody loves a meme
Our top PPC tips
Analyse your historical data
To analyse trends, seasonal variations in traffic and conversion rates we recommend using Google Analytics. This year, yet again, we have the caveat of Covid-19. However, looking at historical data will still be pivotal in helping you to explore which times of the day and days of the week you saw the best ROI and so on. How did you ads perform last year?
Check your maximum budgets & set aside a little more budget
If you know your target CPA (the amount you can afford to spend on each member that upgrades on your site) you should try to bring in as many new members as possible. With a natural uplift in dating traffic and more importantly, traffic that has a high propensity to pay, you should aim to capture as many subscribers as possible. If you don’t, your competitors will. If you aren’t sure how to calculate your target CPA, get in touch with our Partner team.
Img 2: Where to find your Max. CPC in your Google Ads dashboard
Review and revise your maximum bids
This is something we can often forget about when creating new campaigns. You want to be sure that you won’t be capped unexpectedly. Plus, it’s important to bear in mind that over the festive period, ads can typically cost a little more per click, so you’ll need some more budget behind your campaigns. But don’t worry, this will be made back from an increase in upgrades in December and January if your campaigns and landing pages are prepared (to get some tips on how to prepare your landing pages, check out our recent SEO blog here).
Test your campaigns early
Campaigns are almost always the most successful when they are planned well. Aim to make sure you test the campaign a week before you plan to turn up your spend. This means you should be preparing them now! Testing will help you iron out any creases. Check your ad copy, your landing page copy, the signup process, your members area assets – is your logo clear, are the colours clear? You get the gist.
You want to present online daters with polished, valuable dating sites. In a competitive dating market, there’s no room for slack.
So where does Boris come into this blog?
Ok, you got us! It was mainly for the alliteration. BUT, pretty topical – don’t you think? Our CEO put out an email last Thursday about the recent government update on 15th December announcing a covid lockdown in all but name. Boris and his team are encouraging people to limit their social interaction and work from home where possible.
We covered exactly what this means for your dating business, and don’t worry, it’s not all bad! If you missed our recent blog, you can check it out here.
Don’t forget, we’re always here to help
The White Label Dating team will be working between Christmas and New Year to ensure you have everything you need to maximise campaign performance. If you would like some support in getting prepped, please don’t hesitate to reach out by clicking here.