Q4: A Time For the Holidays and Preparing your B2B Digital Marketing Plan

The fourth quarter of the year is a really big deal in B2C retail circles with Black Friday, Cyber Monday and all that goes with the December Holidays. The general thought is that it is not so much with B2B companies. But maybe it should be.

Let’s take a look what the fourth quarter is the perfect time for.

1. Updating your ads, both text and image ads. 
Expanded Text Ads are officially rolled out to Google and Bing. This new ad format allows for more characters which lets you write better descriptions and stronger call to actions. Plus, you no longer need a separate ad for mobile devices! See more about this new text ad format in our recent blog post: Winter is Coming, So Are Expanded Text Ads

When was the last time your display ads were refreshed with new images and an updated message? If you cannot remember, this is a great opportunity to have some new ads created. Think about creating 4-6 sets of ads that may be rotated throughout the coming year so your ads are always “fresh” to your audience.

2. Reviewing your PPC Budgets for Google and Bing.

When was the last time you reviewed your monthly media spend with the search engines? Is your current budget allowing the maximum number of impressions for your keywords and ads? Or are your campaigns being limited by budget. Does is make sense to run the same budget all-year round?

It’s important to keep a strong brand campaign running all year. This way your company will be top of mind for potential new customers.

3. Review the Lead Cycles for your Business.

What is the typical time it takes for a prospect to become a lead? Just because it is the 4^thquarter does not mean that process comes to a halt all of a sudden. Try to understand the needs of your clients – perhaps they are in the B2C world and this is the time of year they really need you, your products and your services. Understanding this will also aid in reviewing you PPC budgets.

4. REMARKETING.

Now is the time to concentrate on those people who have visited your website and never converted. Or, if you provide consumable products, look at those clients who have not re-ordered lately. It could be a great time to give them a little nudge with a well-thought-out remarketing strategy and boost off-season sales.

Also, this would be a good time to review your current audience segments.

• Are they the right segments?
• Is the duration the right amount of time to capture the audience you need?
• Are the ads the right ads to drive those prospects back to your website?
• And probably the most important, are you directing them to right page with the right message?

5. Use this Time to Plan for the Upcoming Year.

Q4 is a great time to sit down with your marketing team or agency partner and take a good hard look at your goals for the upcoming year to ensure everyone is on the same page moving forward.

In order to start out 2017 on the right foot – follow these tips to help maximize your digital campaigns. Taking the time now to review your Digital Marketing efforts can help ensure a productive and profitable new year. Download our free 2017 Marketing Calendar and schedule a free current state evaluation with our team to make sure your team is off to the right start!