Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing is a fantastic way to bring in traffic during the holiday peak season. Even if you don’t use any PPC for the rest of the year, you still might want to look into using it just for the holidays. It can send you a rush of targeted holiday buyers who have their credit cards in hand, looking for products.

Here’s how to use PPC during the holiday season.

==> Start by Throwing Your Data Out the Door

Many businesses make the mistake of using their pre-holiday data to inform their holiday PPC campaigns. This is a mistake.

People behave very, very differently during the holidays. Just because one keyword didn’t convert for you pre-holidays doesn’t mean it won’t today. Just because one product didn’t sell during the rest of the year doesn’t mean it won’t sell today.

By and large, in the holiday seasons you have to throw out a lot of your data. You have to use your intuition as to what holiday buyers want and test the ideas that are most likely to succeed.

What makes this very tough is that the holiday season is very short. You don’t have a lot of time to test things and see what works.

That’s why during the holiday season, you more or less have to be constantly testing out different ideas. Split test constantly, especially if you have a lot of traffic going.

If you don’t get any sleep during the holiday season, you’re not alone.

==> Choosing the Right Keywords

How do you choose the right keywords for your PPC campaign?

Start with your product names. If you’re selling the “Easy Barbie Back to School” doll, bid on keywords like “Easy Barbie” or “Barbie Back to School.”

You can even try bidding on the main keyword, “Barbie,” if you think you can compete.

Try to get as many of your product-specific names out there.

Then bid on broader keyword terms geared towards people who’re ready to buy holiday products. For instance, keywords like “cheap toys” or “shipped gifts.”

Try to aim for people who’re already in a buying mindset, rather than have to convince people who aren’t in that mindset to buy.

==> Making High CPCs Profitable

It’s important to realize that the price per click during peak holiday season is going to be very high. You might get intimidated by seeing clicks going for double or triple their normal rates.

What’s important to remember is that your conversion rate will increase by a similar amount as well.

The key to making high PPCs profitable is to bid on only high converting keywords and to keep careful track of what’s working and what’s not. Shut off losing keywords quickly and turn up winning keywords once they prove themselves.

PPC is a fantastic way to bring in more holiday traffic. It takes a lot of work to set up and man, but the flood of traffic it can bring makes it more than worth the effort.