mortiz077

From June to September, there will be an estimated 1.2 million weddings in the US. And if you’re like me, you have 2 or 3 wedding invitations stuck to your fridge, serving as reminders of the plans I need to make, dress I need to buy and, of course, gifts I need to buy. Most people think of wedding season and think about the billions spent on planning - the venue, food, flowers, DJ, etc. However, don’t forget this is also a billion dollar opportunity for retailers selling wedding gifts. According to The Wedding Report, Inc.’s 2012 US Wedding Market Insight Report, in 2010 the average number of guests for a wedding was 141. This was up 10% over 2009 where the average number of guests was 128. It’s expected this will jump to between 135 and 145 guests for the 2012 season. That’s more than 170M people shopping for wedding gifts this Summer. Outlined below are The Knot’s spending recommendations for gifts according to degrees of friendship to the couple: Co-worker and/or distant family fri...

An unusually mild winter this year (along with with a recovering economy) resulted in an earlier jump in search queries for garden, patio and outdoor equipment. For example, by Mid-March 2012, query volume on Google for the outdoor & patio category had already reached May 2011 levels. Many advertisers benefited from this earlier spike in interest though more sales earlier in the year. Those who succeeded most were the ones with competitive search bids and daily budgets that were already set up to capture demand when it occurred, regardless of the time of year. It is not uncommon for advertisers to lower their bids and budgets in their off-seasons, only to raise them when demand is historically higher. The problem is that by doing this, advertisers unintentionally remove themselves from consumers' consideration sets when consumers are in the research phase earlier in the season. This is particularly true for high-involvement consumer durables with longer purchase cycles (such as...

(cross-posted from the Inside AdWords Blog ) Earlier this year, we introduced the Learn with Google webinar program , and we were delighted to see thousands of you show up to learn about a variety of Google advertising products and solutions. Today, we’re happy to announce the continuation of our series with 10 new webinars over the next few months. During each webinar we’ll share tips and how-to’s to help make the web work for your business. Check out our upcoming live webinars below: May 23 at 10am PDT: Getting Started with Google Analytics May 24 at 9am PDT: Building Blocks of Digital Attribution May 31 at 10am PDT: Introduction to TrueView for YouTube June 5 at 10am PDT: GoMo: Mobilize your Site with Quick and Easy New Tools June 6 at 10am PDT: Our Mobile Planet: Understanding U.S. Smartphone Consumers June 7 at 10am PDT: Introducing Mobile Apps Inventory in AdWords June 12 at 10am PDT: Get Local with ZIP Code Targeting to Increase Sales/Leads June 14 at 10am PDT: Search Op...

Globally, more people have mobile phones than electricity or drinking water ! With so many consumers in the market for phones, Google commissioned research to better understand how consumers shop for cell phones in the U.S. We have grouped some of our findings into a variation of the 4 phases in McKinsey’s Consumer Decision Journey: 1) Stimulus: What triggers consumers to shop for a phone? Upgrades and new devices are most likely to trigger consumers to start shopping. 48% of consumers purchased their phone because they were eligible for an upgrade while 31% purchased because they wanted the latest & greatest device. Consumers were less likely to purchase because they wanted a better deal or wanted to switch to a faster, more reliable network. While devices prompt consumers to shop, consumers said they care most about network reliability, cost & data plan structure when shopping for a new phone. Recommendations: Prioritize device/OEM messaging & search to drive sales High...

With over 20% of Google searches now containing a location element, rising to over 40% of mobile searches, retailers are becoming increasingly focused on using online mapping to their advantage. We’ve just launched a new site www.whenisamap.com/retail aimed at showing the ways in which mapping can be put to work for retailers, and have found it interesting to see the varying ways retailers have chosen to use Google Maps for Business. The site has examples of great implementations ranging from classic store locators, to promoting in-store events, and even indoor mapping. As well as showcasing the best uses of Google Maps we’ve seen from retailers, the website also includes a Little Book of Google Maps for Business. The online book gives tips and examples to help your company benefit from online mapping such as: Locate key store information on the map, such as opening hours, stock inventory, special offers Customize the map in your store’s colors Visualize store performance over time an...