Out With the Old, in With the New (Creatives)

Helping your customers with their 2009 resolutions

When the calendar clicks over to a new year, people generally start thinking about improvement, both for their finances and their bodies. We’ll probably start to see more searches for things like debt consolidation, weight loss and quitting smoking. So here are a few best practices for “new year” keywords, for advertisers who specialize in all those things that users may seek to improve now that 2009 is upon us.

The first thing we recommend is creating a distinct “new year” campaign (or campaigns) which will allow you to have unique new year ads with copy that appeals to people seeking a fresh start in 2009.

Lifestyle changes
Advertisers whose businesses are health-related, such as gyms, diet plans and exercise equipment sales, should consider the following rules of thumb:

• If you offer diet and fitness products on your site, be sure not to focus on just one or the other, especially with more general keywords (such as “health”). 
• If you sell and rent exercise equipment, be sure to put the focus on sales, since at the start of the year people are probably anxious to build up their home gyms and purchase equipment to own.
• Likewise, if you offer new and used equipment, put the emphasis on new in your “new year” creatives.
• If you offer multiple health services, such as weight training, tanning, tooth whitening (I know I know — when did tanning and tooth whitening become health services?) be sure to front-load the actual keyword in your ads. Someone searching for tanning information may not stick around long enough to find it if it comes at the end of a creative that focuses on several offerings.
• If you have multiple keywords mapped to one creative, keyword insertion can help to make sure that each keyword gets the necessary prominent placement in the creative.

Financial help
Businesses offering debt consolidation should avoid creatives that focus more on the person or firm offering the service than the service itself. Even though the provider may be a leader in the field, it’s still better to focus on what the customer needs first. Also, creatives for debt consolidation sites should avoid limiting their appeal by making it sound as though they only serve one geographic location when in fact they serve many, or that they only handle one specific area of debt when in fact they handle several. Additionally, avoiding “sales-speak” jargon is always recommended, especially when dealing with financial matters.

With these tips, you may be able to help you help your customers make their New Year’s resolutions. Of course keeping them is another story entirely, but hey – one step at a time. In the meantime, happy 2009 and we hope your new year is off to a great start!

— Noah Belson, Content Quality Analyst