Last month we shared tips and stats to help plan your Mother’s Day PPC campaigns; with Father’s Day fast approaching, it’s time to do the same for the men in your and your customers’ lives.

If you haven’t updated your ad copy or landing page yet, it’s not too late. A whopping 79% of shoppers won’t purchase gifts until a week before June 17th (18% even wait until the day itself). Compare that to Mother’s Day, where over half of shoppers purchased gifts more than two weeks prior.

And while customers won’t open their wallets quite as wide on Father’s Day as on Mother’s Day (when they spent an average of $152), the average person will still spend $117, 8.5% more than last year, according to a National Research Federation (NRF) survey.

The NRF also found that “online retailers will see their fair share of ‘traffic’ this year as well – nearly three in 10 (28.4%) will shop online, up from 22.1 percent who said so last year.” More money spent online creates greater opportunities to reach new customers. But how will you find them? And how will they find you?

1. Know what customers are buying.
Here’s the lowdown as provided by the NRF:

- Special outing, such as golfing, eating out or heading to a sporting event: $2.3 billion (vs. $2.0 billion last year)
- Electronic gift items: $1.7 billion (vs. $1.3 billion last year)
- Apparel: $1.7 billion (vs. $1.4 billion last year)
- Gift cards: $1.7 billion
- Sporting goods: $641 million
- Books or music: $645 million

2. Update ad creative.
Have any Father’s Day deals or discounts? Highlight them. Offer overnight shipping? Let customers know. As comScore reports, 30% of online shoppers expect overnight shipping options, and 42% abandon shopping carts because of too long delivery timing estimates.

3. Create a Father’s Day-centric landing page.
Centralizing specials and offers right on one page makes for a quicker and easieping experience.

Are fathers getting what they want? Despite increased spending on electronic gifts, one TechBargains.com survey, though perhaps a trifle biased, states that while almost half of dads want a tech gift, less than a quarter will get one. More helpful stats in this infographic:

In her article “PPC Ad Optimization: 6 Top Elements to Test” posted on Search Engine Watch Monday, Noran El-Shinnawy laid out some excellent tips for SEM managers to follow when testing a campaign:

1. Write Strong Headlines
2. Test Benefits vs. Features
3. Differentiate Your Offer
4. Speak to the Pain Points of Your Audience
5. Include Keywords when Appropriate
6. Include a Strong Call to Action

But that’s not all one can do, of course. Here are some bonus tips from our expert Account Managers:

7. Set up a separate, smaller campaign for the sole purpose of testing new keywords or sources. Allocate a fraction of your total budget to this, and when you find something that works, transfer it over to your primary campaign.

What some of our clients do is set up two test campaigns, one for new sources and one for new keywords, keeping them separate with small budgets for each, in order to discover new keywords or sources. By mixing and matching in these side labs, you can make sure you're getting legitimate traction.

8. Bid up to make sure you’re competitive.

9. Experiment with alternate landing pages to see which ones generate the most business, not just the most views. Because getting the clicks is good, but getting the conversions is better.

10. Don’t try to do too much at one time. A/B test, don't A/B/C…/Z test. Instead of trying to answer many questions at once, answer a simple question like, “What happens if I double CPC?”

For more advice from the adMarketplace team, or if you have any questions about the above or any other subject, leave a comment below or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .