The Holiday Season

How does user intent change over the so-called British summer holidays?

There is some consistency in the world of consumer behaviour that allows us to predict user engagement and apply a data-driven marketing strategy to maximise the peaks and maintain profitability in the troughs. Some of our clients have a predictable high season, whether it’s the weather or perennial calendar events that bring with them an increase in user intent. But since COVID, we have seen a shift in such predictability.

Black Friday used to be as reliable a sales peak as my Grandad falling asleep on Christmas afternoon after a few sherries, but in recent years the market has been far less singular or consistent. Reuters reported a 1.6% fall in Black Friday shoppers in 2023 compared to 2022 and a 0.63% fall in online purchases.

According to Deloitte, with the UK climbing out of a technical recession, consumer confidence is beginning to improve. But, although technically things may have turned a corner, ‘data indicates that consumers remain frugal including trading down by buying cheaper brands or supermarkets own brands, buying goods on discounts, sale or promotion, buying groceries from cheaper supermarkets or making use of loyalty schemes or cards and coupons to save money.’

Therefore, putting all your eggs in one ‘Black Friday style’ basket may not always be the best for consistent success. Making your products & services appear of long-term value rather than merely cheaper will be optimal. McDonalds didn’t get its global reputation for being the best, cheapest food but rather a reliably consistent, good value service provider.

Stereotypically, Brits love to have a chinwag about the weather but I think we are all justified in being somewhat exasperated by the ‘summer’ of 2024. Spring of 2024 was not only very wet but also one of the warmest on record. What if your business is predicated on the cold snap actually being a cold snap? Digital agencies and companies need to be more agile and respond to the fact of the UK experiencing 20% more extreme days of rainfall now.

How do we do this? By being more careful, more vigilant, more ‘on it!’. Complacency has no place in digital marketing anyway, but those days of lazy broad brush strokes that were commonplace around such reliable peaks – namely throwing more budget at summer promotions and letting the targets smash themselves – have gone. Barclays reported that the food & drink sector had a positive July this year due Brits getting busy with the BBQs with a handful of sunnier days seen that month. Therefore, agencies need to be ready to prepare and respond to such events.

What about the school holidays? A reliable peak for some and a noticeable trough for others:

• For those that experience a summer boom due to running a business buoyed by family spending patterns (i.e. school uniform retailers or travel insurance underwriters), PPC Geeks ensures budgets are paced effectively, messaging is refreshed and traffic is relevant. ***GCSE Maths trigger warning!*** We work hard to hit the overlapping centre of a three set venn diagram – namely the sweet spot in the middle of visibility, relevance and conversion
• Some experience a downturn in certain sectors, especially but not exclusively our B2B clients. Why? Reliably, user intent drops as soon as the schools wrap up for the summer as people go away in August and make the most of the Bank holiday weekend. And with less decision makers ‘in the office’ the customer journey extends and thus the purchase window gets longer. What we often do here (as the Geeks here do at Christmas) is manage budgets down to carefully reduce any wasted spend, but remain engaged and proactive, optimising towards the traffic that it is out there

For all businesses that have an online presence, but especially those that experience significant seasonal quietenings, what is essential is your preparedness for the role of mobile and micro-moments!

Micro-moments are site visits, app interactions for YouTube views. And the phone/tablet has blurred the lines between work and non-work life. Thus we work alongside all clients to ensure their site is as mobile friendly as possible. Page loading speed, optimised pages and providing access to these micro-moments may not initially lead to a conversion, but are key to enable that poolside enquiry concluding in a post-holiday office laptop search desk.

In short, the world, the climate and user intent are ever-changing and PPC Geeks use data insights and award winning practice to prepare and to respond. Reach out for a free audit today.