Winning the Holiday Season: New Tactics to Tackle Search Challenges and Drive Growth

That light you see in the distance is the holiday season freight train barreling towards us at full speed. If you haven't started laying out your strategy, you should get on it now because the train isn't slowing down. The Black Friday/Cyber Monday mania seems to begin earlier and earlier every year, and if you don't have a plan, you could get left at the station. 

This year, the tried and true tactics you've relied on in the past will likely have a different effect due to changes in online shopping behavior. That means you'll need to find new ways to reach buyers to have another successful holiday season.    

Growing Challenges to Traditional Search

Paid search advertising has been the foundation of a solid holiday marketing strategy for years. But that paradigm is beginning to shift, and if your 2024 strategy relies heavily on Google and Microsoft advertising, you might be disappointed. Here's why:

Near-Term Challenges

While Google owns 90% of the search engine market share worldwide, several intertwining factors are changing how people search. 

• Zero-click searches: A recent study by Rand Fishkin found that in the United States, only 360 of every 1,000 clicks go to the open web. More than 58% of queries are so-called zero-click searches, where users enter a search term once or twice but never follow the term to a website.
• Social media shopping: Many of those zero-click searches are likely finding the products they want on social media. Both TikTok and Meta created their own shops that enable customers to search and buy without ever leaving the platform.
• Political advertising: The fall presidential election is another near-term event that will take up a lot of attention between now and November. Political advertising will chew up impressions across display, social and connected TVs. Increased demand will increase cost-per-click (CPC) rates by 10-15%, with volume decreasing by 5% through the election.

So, we can expect more advertisers targeting fewer people between now and the holiday season. As a result, it will become more expensive for businesses to acquire new customers through search advertising.

Long-Term Challenges

Looking ahead, the future of search might become even more complicated. New technologies like artificial intelligence and chatbots could reduce search traffic by answering queries without following a click to a website. The management consulting company Gartner has predicted that these technologies could drive a 25% decline in search traffic by 2026. 

While the future of search remains uncertain, and the impact of recent antitrust rulings on Google's dominance still needs to be clarified, one thing is becoming impossible to ignore: marketers can't keep dumping money into paid search advertising and expecting the same results. 

Adjusting to Changes in Search Behavior

As search behaviors shift, increasing paid search budgets won’t guarantee the same returns. Instead, we need to find new ways to attract attention, measure our marketing impact and nurture new customer relationships. Here are a few places to begin that have the potential to drive significant results for your marketing efforts:  

Expanding Sales Channels

Given the shifting landscape of search behavior, diversifying your presence across multiple platforms is one of the most effective ways to adapt. By expanding into new sales channels, you can meet potential customers where they're already spending their time and attention. This approach not only reduces your dependence on traditional search advertising but also opens up fresh opportunities for growth. Here are a few places to begin:

Exploring Social Shops 

Platforms like TikTok generated more than $11 billion in gross merchandise volume in 2023 from 55 million shoppers. Meta has also developed its own shop, which lets customers store their payment information for quick purchases without leaving the platform. If you're not already leveraging these tools, you should start digging in and testing targeted content to see what resonates with users.

It's important to note that if you're entering a new social space, you can't just turn it on and expect sales to start rolling in. The recipe for business success on any social platform is threefold: investing in high-quality content creation, engaging influencers to talk about your products and paying advertising. Your results will only be recovered if any of those elements are included.

Raising Brand Awareness

In addition to broadening your social media footprint, you should look for opportunities to grow your audience share in the mid to upper sales funnel. For example, MNTN is a connected TV platform optimized for direct-response advertising. Expanding into relatively new channels like connected TVs could be a great way to augment paid search activities that no longer drive the same results.    

Don’t Forget the Rest of Your Funnel

If you're expanding into new channels and driving more potential customers to your website, you should also examine the other components of your marketing funnel. Is your website converting efficiently? If you still need to, you should consider investing in conversion rate optimization efforts to ensure the path from discovery to purchase is as smooth as possible. What about your abandoned cart technology? Tools like Live Recover can help brands recover carts much faster and work with existing email and SMS recovery tools.

With so many sales channels available, putting all your eggs in the search engine marketing basket is no longer necessary. So, pick a new platform or two that makes sense for your brand and dive in. You might be surprised by what you discover.

Enhanced Measurement Tools

Of course, it's almost only possible to understand how your new channels perform with an accurate analytics system. In the past, many brands used Google's Universal Analytics tools to understand which activities drove customer purchases and to optimize their marketing efforts. However, Google recently phased out Universal Analytics to favor GA4, which is not as user-friendly. 

This switch has caused many marketers to be frustrated and left many searching for new measurement tools that can parse traffic data and first-party information like a customer's name, phone number or email address.

One potential alternative to GA4 is a platform called Triple Whale. They've created a user-friendly reporting tool that includes first-party data, offering valuable insights into the multiple marketing touch points consumers now interact with before buying. 

Tools like Triple Whale will tell you which traffic sources are actually driving revenue, which is invaluable information for optimizing your marketing efforts. While these platforms aren't typically free like Google's analytics tools, upgrading your analytics is worth the investment.

Customer Retention through Direct Engagement

As marketers, we've all heard the adage that acquiring a new customer is much more expensive than retaining an existing one. This dynamic will only increase as search marketing evolves. That's why developing strategies for effectively engaging existing customers will be essential in the run-up to the holidays. 

Optimize Email and SMS Programs

Email has always been a customer retention superstar thanks to its ability to target customers with personalized messaging based on their purchase history and behavior. Recently, SMS has become another very effective tool brands can use to provide additional value to their customers. 

As we approach the holidays, your email and SMS channels must function at their highest levels. This process includes segmenting your audience (for example, regular vs. holiday vs. gift buyers) and messaging them accordingly. 

While email and SMS tools are similar and often delivered within the same platform, they are very different and should be observed and measured separately.  

Reimagining Loyalty Programs

Loyalty programs are another opportunity to engage customers and bring them closer to your brand. VIP membership programs are an excellent way to provide added value to your most loyal customers. For example, Levi's RedTab™ member program offers perks like free shipping, discounts, free products and mystery gifts. 

Some companies have even launched paid membership programs that provide access to exclusive benefits. These programs enable fans to align themselves with the brands they love and can be very lucrative for the companies offering them. 

Not only will loyalty programs create strong relationships with your customers, but they can also serve as a valuable source of first-party data, such as birthdays, anniversaries, favorite products and more, fueling further activities across your marketing funnel. 

Harnessing Customer Insights

Existing customers can also provide insights about your products, offers and marketing efforts. All you need to do is ask. Tools like post-purchase surveys can help you understand brand awareness by discovering where a customer heard about your brand or products. Surveys can also provide information about purchase decision time so you can learn more about your typical sales cycle. 

TikTok offers post-purchase surveys as a component of its advertising platform. Other tools, like KnoCommercer, MailChimp or HubSpot Marketing Hub, offer survey templates that will help you understand purchase behavior, sales attribution and more across all your sales platforms. 

By implementing a survey system, you can query customers directly to learn about their purchase behavior and compare performance across channels so you can improve optimization efforts. More importantly, you will understand what motivates your buyers so you can begin providing more of what they want. 

Adapting Your Strategy for Holiday Success

The holidays are critical for businesses to attract new customers and drive the revenue that will keep their doors open. But every year, the season features a new challenge we must overcome. In the past, Google and Microsoft's paid search tools were the leading source for generating new customer traffic. However, changing user behavior, challenges from social media platforms, growing competition from new AI tools and an election season have reduced the effectiveness of these platforms. 

Fortunately, you can break free from your reliance on search engine marketing and create a robust marketing strategy that will power you through the holiday season by exploring new sales channels, fostering deeper connections with existing customers and harnessing analytics and feedback tools to understand buyer behavior.

Mastering the Evolving Holiday Landscape

The holiday season freight train isn’t slowing down, but armed with these strategies, you won't be left behind. Stay agile, embrace new technologies and put your customers at the center of your efforts. Adapting your approach as the digital landscape evolves will ensure your business keeps pace with the holiday rush and thrives in an ever-changing marketplace.  

About the Author: Ryan Garrow is the director of partnerships and client solutions at Logical Position, an Inc. 500 digital marketing agency. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

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