Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months, you’ll be well aware that the World Cup is now upon us! I’ve seen this as a shameless (considering my own love of the beautiful game), but also quite useful example to support just why companies should always be looking to take advantage of seasonal trends in PPC.
Searching for the term ‘World Cup’ on Google this morning presents the following paid search results:
Adverts 1 and 5 are by television broadcasters. A well done to Sky and Virgin for trying to take advantage of those looking for World Cup information to promote/cross-sell their HD services.
Adverts 2 and 4 are by bookmakers. There is bound to be a huge market for those gambling on World Cup football matches during the tournament. BetFair and William Hill are both looking to capitalise on this market, so that’s another well done for them! (Although we’ll ignore that William Hill give no mention of the World Cup in their advert – tut tut tut!)
Adverts 3 and 6 represent paid adverts by two huge global brands, Budweiser and KitKat. Both of these companies are currently running large offline advertising campaigns to take advantage of the World Cup. Supporting these with well-constructed and brand-orientated PPC campaigns to reinforce their message makes perfect sense, so that’s a further tick for them!
Finally, adverts 7 and 8 represent two smaller companies looking to promote banners and wall charts. Again, a good use of PPC in this instance, with both companies looking to advertise World Cup merchandise.
Who am I surprised NOT to see bidding on the term World Cup?
- Competitors of some of the above companies. It is quite a short-tail generic term, but I would have thought a number of competitor bookmakers would also be bidding on it, to trial and test the results.
- Companies such as Carlsberg and Nationwide. Like Budweiser and KitKat, both are running large offline campaigns at present, so it is surprising not to see them reinforcing these messages online too.
- Television manufacturers/suppliers – surely the need for new televisions during the tournament will be huge. A lot of potential here!
- Sports stores – again, surely the desire for the latest football shirts, football boots and equipment will be huge at this time.
There could be many more… but you get the idea!
Taking advantage of seasonal trends or one-off events is something a successful PPC advertiser should always be looking to do. Adapting to the market changes or spotting keyword opportunities that your competitors may not have identified will always give you the competitive edge. If you can get ahead of the crowd, or find that niche, then the results could well be very positive for your campaign.