Now is the time when marketers need to focus on peak planning. We share our handy five point guide for digital success

After two difficult years of retail trading, Google’s peak prep events have focused on one message: ‘This year, it’s all about getting ready for the rebound.’

We have put together a five point guide to steer your peak planning, from building awareness to some active ingredients from our agency playbook.

Predict as far as you can

Black Friday growth is predicted to accelerate after two moribund years. Google predict Black Friday (Fri 29th Nov 2024) query demand to rise +7% YoY, while Microsoft are more bullish with a 22% YoY rise. The point being - phase in enough budget, and don’t forget Microsoft’s potential for growth.

In terms of phasing out your budget, what we are looking at is a series of peaks: Diwali, and then Singles Day in China, followed by the sharp peak of Cyber Weekend, then last order dates for Christmas gifts, before the final long peak of Boxing Day and New Year sales. Each of these phases changes size in relation to the other phases, while the window of sales also moves - widening in the case of demand in the run up to Cyber Weekend. Most importantly, Christmas of course moves within the week, changing the phasing you need to plan for: the number of shopping days between Cyber Weekend and Christmas this year is 26 - down from 31 last year, and the lowest since 2019.

Be discovered, not lost

Across all categories, generic query growth is outpacing brand growth. This points to consumers comparing more, rather than relying on known brands.

People are more open to discovering new brands, or making comparisons with brands they already know.

Your retention strategy needs to be joined up with your digital campaigns: have you got the right pricing and the right messaging to attract your existing audience? And what will it look like to a new potential audience who find you through generic terms?

Brands are both challengers and incumbents - at risk of losing customers on the SERPs, while having the opportunity to gain a new audience. You need to make sure the flow between the two is positive, with a commercial and messaging proposition which is legible and has the right hooks for both audiences.

Build awareness

Building awareness and being present in the middle funnel is crucial for all digital - otherwise you will become stuck marketing to a highly converting but diminishing audience. Short term efficiency will become long term difficulty.

Trying to focus only on the lower end of the funnel will cut off potential. Research conducted for Google ahead of peak this year shows that consumers are more keen than ever to research before buying in 2024 - moving up 8 percentage points over the last two years.

Awareness needs to be built not just from broader keywords or Performance Max targeting, but via paid social awareness campaigns working alongside YouTube and the middle funnel wizardry of Google’s Demand Gen tech.

New ways to search

Google and Microsoft both emphasise how ‘search is changing’ - trying to argue that AI is the new equivalent of the ‘mobile revolution’ in search. Although gaining in power and popularity, AI search isn’t tracking a big impact yet, and we can predict it won’t do in time for holiday and peak season 2024.

Google’s ‘Circle to search’ functionality is another element touted to change the nature of search. It hasn’t begun a revolution yet, despite it being an overlooked element of 2024’s Brat summer (Charli XCX circles to search prominently at the start of her 360 video.)

Active Ingredients

Here are some tips from our peak period agency playbook:

Don’t just write Seasonal ad copy and upload - test it for activation and calls to action which really work i.e. not just ‘buy gifts’ but ‘Perfect stocking fillers’
Activate your promo copy - not ‘Weekend Sale Now On’ but ‘48 Hour Price Drop’
Lead with AI-led campaign types to build and follow demand; use demand-led budgets to make sure last minute surges and drops are factored in
Use Seasonal shopping labels to add new dimensions to shopping based on offers or gifts
Use dynamic ads in Google to show updated sale pricing and show discounts live
To push sales as soon as they go live, use Seasonal adjustments to bidding in Google Ads to let smart bidding know conversion rates have changed ahead of the observation - gaining crucial hours of optimised peak trading ahead of competitors

Get the most from Holiday peaks this year