Class Is in Session

Start planning now for a good back-to-school season

 A new school year was always a new beginning for me. I’d have my all new clothes, new backpack and my awesome new Trapper Keeper, and every year was going to be the year I went from being that solid B-minus student to the A-plus student I knew I could be. Of course, by around October I’d already given up and decided to start fresh next year, but for that first month of September I was an academic whirlwind. I still had my cool new clothes and school supplies, so even if I had that B-minus average, I got an A in style.

It may feel like summer just got started and school is forever from now, but your customers are already thinking about school. Every year, our searches for back-to-school items like children’s clothing and supplies start to spike right after Independence Day. So if you’re an advertiser who sells those things, now’s the time to start your back-to-school campaigns. Here are a few hints to help your listings make the grade.

Listings for keywords regarding children’s clothes should try and keep the focus on children. Though you may sell items for mom and dad, users searching on keywords like “clothes for kids” and “boy clothes” are generally seeking for the young folks.

If you sell different varieties of backpacks, avoid listings that make it sound as though you only sell one type, especially for unmodified keywords like “backpack.” Users seeking to buy backpacks for school may be deterred by a listing offering a specialty backpack for mountain climbers. If you sell both types, why limit your audience by making it look like you only offer one?

While safety warnings are appreciated by parents, when your entire ad is one giant safety warning, you run the risk of leaving users slightly confused about the items you actually sell. Say you sell lunchboxes that happen to be lead-free. You may want to mention it, but you wouldn’t want your entire ad to be about it. Your search ads are valuable real estate, so it’s generally better to make what you offer their main focus.

Ads for sites that both sell and repair computers should put the emphasis on sales in their ads for non-sales keywords. Chances are people searching on keywords like “pc laptop” are looking to buy, not repair. Along similar lines, textbook sites that both buy and sell should consider putting the emphasis on sales in ads for general “textbook” keywords, since users searching on these terms are generally seeking to buy, not sell. Ads for textbooks should avoid referencing one specific text, unless the keyword itself contains the name of that particular book. If it doesn’t, it’s usually better to serve up more general results for general keywords such as “textbook.” Even slightly more specific keywords such as “biology textbook” should preferably bring back results that focus on biology textbooks in general, rather than one specific title.

The basics of best practice still apply: be sure to use keyword insertion to make sure your keywords appear in your ads, as well as alt text, to make sure those keywords appear just the way you want them to. Call out any promotions or deals you may offer, such as free shipping or coupon codes. Avoid overly “salesy” jargon or slogans, as well as gimmicky language that may deter users. Watch out for spelling or grammar errors and keep an eye on the general clarity of your listings.

Following this advice should help your listings go to the head of the class. And if your account is handled correctly, they may just stay there a bit longer than I ever did.

 — Noah Belson, Content Quality Analyst

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Claudia Snell.