October 18, 2022
Google Premier Partner perks come in all shapes and sizes. This time, our PPC Manager, Laura, headed to their London Offices to take part in their ‘Peak Check-In Masterclass’ sessions, were Google's experts covered trend predictions for Q4, (especially in relation to the Luxury Goods markets) and in-depth training on how we can use these in the market and leverage our spend utilising Performance Max campaigns. Grab a cuppa, it's a long one!
Google HQ
Google Office
The day started off well; for once, I didn’t get lost in the endless sea of large buildings and traffic that's all too familiar in the capital.
The meeting room we were directed to had Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ on repeat (and whilst others huffed about Christmas music playing in October, I definitely wasn’t disappointed!), a reflection no doubt of what we were to soon speak about; Peak.
(Side note: I’m going to apologise in advance for any Christmas song puns you see as you read on)
Last Christmas
Do They Know It’s Christmas (Soon)?
Google opened with a lovely infographic highlighting several key dates coming up in October through to December; most will naturally be on most marketer’s calendars like Halloween, Cyber Week and the biggies - Christmas and Boxing Day, with some that may not be on your radar, like Single’s Day.
However, Google couldn’t stress enough that these events won’t just be individual days - no, the Peak Holiday events run over weeks!
Demand spread across Q4 in 2021, with higher YoY and Yo2Y Google Search growth in October and during the build up to Christmas.
Black Friday and Single’s Day represent concentrated sales periods - but interest in deals, gifts and last minute buys trigger throughout the Peak season, up to and even during the holidays themselves.
We’ve already seen queries for Black Friday since the end of September (which usually span all the way through to December) and searches for ‘Advent Calendars’ since July!
The World Cup
Unusually, there’s also another factor to take into consideration this year; the World Cup. Historically a summer event, this typically doesn’t have an effect on Q4 eCommerce, however with both England and Wales (and America, too) all playing on Black Friday, sales on Friday itself could be impacted!
Whilst events such as these usually drive up sales of items like televisions if your country's team performs well, it’s expected that due to the cost-of-living slump many are facing that tv sales may not benefit from the traditional World Cup bump.
There’s a lot of uncertainty in how the market will play out, especially when no one is sure how far England (come on Southgate, pull a miracle and get us to the final!) and Wales will go but the further they do will likely mean larger impacts, according to senior analysts at the British Retail Consortium.
There are just no comparable periods, with the World Cup never being hosted outside of the summer months in its 92 year history, so no one is certain for sure how this year will go!
2021 Look Back
In 2021, holiday online sales reached $1.14T globally (Nov-Dec), according to Google.
That’s a 5% growth vs 2020 (the main pandemic year where we were in lockdown and buying online was almost the only way to shop!).
In 2021, there was also a 26% increase in holiday queries in October YoY - indicating customers are looking at gifts already!
Cyber Week is… less important?
Google highlighted an interesting stat next - 2021 sales were also less concentrated in Cyber Week than prior years…
…and Google aren’t the only institution to indicate that customers aren’t buying as heavily on Black Friday, especially in the UK; both Sensormatic and Performance Marketing World indicate that dates in December will drive high online sales, with the Saturday and Sunday of the Black Friday weekend likely to dominate sales throughout the rest of Europe.
2022 Takeaways
Make Peak A Fairytale For Your Business
- Early preparation is KEY to advertiser performance as we see higher sales volume earlier than Cyber Week.
- The new digital-first behaviours learned in 2020 still carry through to 2022, blurring lines of online and offline retail.
- Categories continue to shift, so keep an eye on the latest trends and insights to inform your holiday strategy.
- Lean into automation to remain flexible at any moment.
Peak 22 Insights
Get Retail Ready
- Fashion Shoppers will start to research products well in advance of Christmas - with 50% already starting one month before Christmas in 2021.
- Demand for Luxury goods continues to grow - with Black Friday 2021 seeing the highest sales ever for this industry.
- Delivery and stock issues were the key worries for luxury Christmas shoppers last year - 60% of people were worried about delivery taking longer than usual, with 51% buying more personalised gifts for Christmas in 2021 than previous years.
- Lockdowns shifted consumer demand towards Home and Electronics as consumers worked from home. Year to date in 2022, the trend has been reversed in line with return to office, with consumers allocating more of their discretionary spending to Apparel.
- Consumers are more likely to buy new clothes rather than save despite challenging macroeconomic circumstances.
- 25% of people questioned say they will spend more for Christmas this year, 58% will spend the same amount and 17% will spend less.
- Luxury goods consumers increased the time they spent gathering inspiration last Christmas more than the average fashion consumer - 30% more time was spent looking for inspiration.
Brand Loyalty. To be or not to be?
Complexity Impacting Loyalty
This came as little shock to most in the room, but less than half (44%) of fashion consumers have a specific retailer or brand in mind when in the inspiration phase, with 75% of consumers buying from a new retailer or brand in the past 6 months.
We’ve seen Brand loyalty decline significantly since online shopping became a dominant way of how customers shop as the world is opened to them to buy from.
The vast majority of people who have tried new brands, retailers and marketplaces believe they’ll keep shopping with them in the next 6 months.
This in turn means that the inspirational phase grows more import - and leads to a faster growth for generic searches
Online Impacts Offline
Rockin’ Round The Stores
Several consumers browse online before going into store so that they can compare products and get inspiration:
- 47% compare products online before they buy in-store
- 39% go online first to read reviews before purchasing in-store
- 32% of people find it easier to choose products online
Using Google’s conversion actions to measure performance, including the likes of ‘Location Actions - Directions’ and ‘Store Visits’ can therefore give you a much more in-depth look into how your campaigns are truly driving traffic and sales.
Just because a campaign may not have driven strong sales doesn’t mean it’s not influencing customer’s decisions on purchasing offline.
Pandemic Behaviour Shifts
It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of the Year… For Online Sales
We’ve seen significant shifts in consumer behaviour online which was accelerated by the pandemic.
Google data indicates:
- There’s been a 61% increase in eCommerce holiday sales
- 73% of consumers say they’re channel agnostic - how they purchase has become less important…
- Which leads to the consumer journey becoming more complex - with 500+ digital touchpoints before some buyer purchases.
For me alone, I’ve just spent 4 days looking at earphones - I must have searched for variants of ‘wireless headsets’ over 30 times during this period through Google alone, getting more and more complex as I narrowed down what I needed to be included in the headset (true wireless, noise cancelling, 24 hours battery, in case you were wondering).
YouTube played a large part in my decision, listening to reviewers of products I’d deemed worthy of having a place in my ears and even reading comments below to find more insights from other viewers.
Within the hour I was bombarded on social media and other websites with banners of headsets similar to those I’d been looking into. And yes, I did click through to several which added even more products to my list of considerations.
This all leads to the customer journey no longer being linear.
And is now a complicated web of touchpoints which Google are calling ‘The Messy Middle’.
So, how can we ensure we succeed in ‘The Messy Middle’?
It’s pretty simple; meet consumers where they are and not where we want them to be, and lead customers to purchase through simple behavioural nudges (those display banners got me a LOT)
Final Thoughts
Key Considerations
Google covered a lot in terms of trends to be mindful of at Christmas; and this was only the first half of the meeting!
It’s clear to see that consumer buying behaviour has changed significantly in recent years - even before the pandemic.
Consumers are using online to both buy goods, but also to research before buying in store. Using Google Ads to only track customers who are purchasing online needs to be reviewed and an understanding of your customer’s journey is pivotal in knowing how your campaigns are truly performing.
But, most interestingly of all, is that the day of Black Friday itself is no longer as powerful as it once was; the whole month of November must be considered key to the customer journey of purchasing during your key sales periods. Research begins early - sometimes even in October or September. Making sure you’re showing ads to these customers in these months may not lead to direct sales at this point, but will lead to sales over the holiday period.
With Q4 planning well and truly underway, if you're looking for an extra pair of hands, or even transparency on how your campaigns are performing so far, get in touch with our team of PPC experts using the button below!
