There’s not much you can do about the changing seasons.
As the months progress, the weather changes. Holidays come and go. And if your business is seasonal, even in a small or indirect way, there will be times when your marketing and advertising efforts simply don’t work as well as they would in other seasons. Seasonal campaigns are particularly affected by these fluctuations.
Maybe you’re an HVAC company that sees significantly lower seasonal demand in fall and spring when compared to summer. Or maybe you sell pools, along with related equipment and accessories, and winter is practically a dead time for you. Understanding seasonal trends is key to planning for these dips and maintaining consistent campaign performance.
Whatever the case, you’re not going to see as much value during your slow times.
So how do you beat these PPC campaign seasonality issues?
Some seasonal patterns in business are totally intuitive and predictable. If you sell Christmas decorations or specialize in winter holiday apparel, you’re going to see sales spike in November and December – without much activity the rest of the year. If you own a landscaping business in an area with cold winter weather, you shouldn’t expect much activity until spring. Seasonal factors like these make seasonality adjustments a necessary part of your business strategy.
But some seasonal fluctuations are less predictable – and harder to understand.
Many businesses see significant and consistent drops in conversions, sales, and other KPIs at around the same time every year – despite little to no logical reasoning to support the trend. For example, you might notice plummeting sales at the beginning of February, with restoration to normalcy around mid-March, every year of operations. This could be tied to changes in consumer behavior or other unseen seasonal factors.
How do you begin to identify and understand these patterns?
The simplest analytics tool is to study a year-over-year chart (and preferably, several that cover different variables). Look at as many years as possible and watch for observable trends. Is there a month or series of months when you see a seasonal event causing a boom in sales? Or especially low sales? Take a look at not only sales and revenue, but conversions, ad traffic, organic traffic, and other factors.
At this point, you should be able to identify your biggest seasonal issues. It’s also important to review whether bidding strategies or landing page optimization can help mitigate the effects of wasted ad spend during slower months. It could be valuable to analyze the root causes for these seasonal disruptions, but that’s not always the case; sometimes, it’s enough to simply know that a trend exists. The good news here is that as long as you’re willing to experiment and continuously make progress, you should eventually close the gap between your best and worst seasons.
Here’s some additional good news; whatever seasonal issues you face are probably also affecting your top competitors. That means they’re struggling with the same things you are. It also means you have a critical opportunity to surpass their performance.
Part of your seasonal optimization strategy should be pushing your campaign to do its best during your peak busy season. When do sales usually spike? And how can you make sales increase even further?
The most straightforward answer here is to increase your spending. Assuming you can keep all other variables consistent, including the relevance of your audience, the quality of your landing pages, your conversion rates, etc., a bigger budget should lead to much better results.
If you face significant competition during the busy season, this may not be a viable option for you, as ad spending can become cripplingly exorbitant when there are too many people competing for the same group of keywords. Here, if you don’t have the budget to compete, your best strategy is some form of avoidance. That could mean targeting a different demographic, targeting people at a different stage of the sales funnel, or even offering a different selection of products and services so you’re not trapped in a pit with a bigger, more threatening competitor.
The bigger issue for most brands is finding a way to make up for seasonal slowdown.
Just as “everyone is a genius in a bull market,” every advertiser is brilliant during the busy season. It’s the slow season that’s a much bigger problem.
Many advertisers confront this problem by simply reducing their budget or minimizing their marketing efforts during this slow season. Intuitively, this makes some sense; if you’re not seeing adequately profitable results from your efforts, there’s no reason to spend as much as you did before.
However, you can get an edge over your competitors and create more value for your brand by adjusting your PPC advertising strategy specifically for the slow season.
These are the strategies that can help you:
Micro conversions aren’t as valuable as full conversions, but they’re much easier to get and they’re less expensive to manage. During your off season, micro conversions are a potentially lucrative way to keep your campaign running – and the real bonus comes weeks or months later, when you’re carefully nurtured early-sales-funnel micro converts eventually decide to purchase from you.
If you want to increase the effectiveness of your display ads, or make the most of a limited budget, it’s a good idea to take advantage of multiple networks simultaneously. Not only will you broaden your reach, you’ll also be able to take advantage of the most cost-effective advertising opportunities available. Microsoft and other secondary networks may not have the notoriety of Google, but they also have less competition and, in many cases, lower prices.
Are you looking for more advice on how to properly address seasonality issues in your PPC campaign?
Or are you ready to increase your budget for this powerful advertising strategy?
PPC.co can help you with everything from initial strategy to ongoing experimentation and optimization. Contact us for your free proposal today!
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When this apartment complex client partnered with PPC.co, their goal was clear: generate more qualified leads through Google Ads. In just 60 days—from January to March 2025—we transformed their paid acquisition performance. Total conversions more than tripled, jumping from 10 to 32, while the overall conversion rate soared by over 300%. At the same time, we drove down the cost per conversion by 44%, delivering significantly more leads at a much lower cost.
By strategically combining Performance Max and high-intent Search campaigns, we not only increased lead volume but improved overall efficiency and ROI. This rapid and measurable improvement underscores the value of data-driven optimization and expert campaign management.
This case study is a testament to what can happen when a well-structured campaign meets expert strategy and continuous optimization. Whether you're launching a new property or looking to boost occupancy in a competitive market, PPC.co delivers real results—fast.
Ready to grow your leads and lower your cost per conversion?
Contact us today to schedule a free audit and discover how we can help you achieve similar results.
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If you’re running an e-commerce or retail business, you already know that visibility is everything. The best product in the world won’t sell if no one sees it. That’s where paid ads for ecommerce comes in.
Done right, they drive traffic, conversions, and repeat customers.
Done wrong, they drain your budget and leave you wondering what went wrong.
Whether you’re spending $500 a month or $50,000, your goal is the same: profitability. Not just clicks, and certainly not just impressions. You want to turn ad dollars into real, predictable revenue.
So how do top-performing e-commerce and retail brands make their paid ads work?
What are they doing that you’re not?
This guide breaks it down step-by-step, so you can start running profitable ads with confidence.
Before you launch a single campaign, you need clarity on your audience and goals. Are you trying to boost first-time sales? Increase average order value? Each objective requires a different strategy and metrics for success.
Don’t fall into the trap of launching ads just to “see what happens.” Paid media works best when it’s part of a bigger strategy. So before you log in to Google Ads or Meta Ads Manager, get specific about what success looks like.
If you want to run profitable paid ads, knowing your numbers is the foundation of your entire strategy. Without a clear understanding of your margins, break-even points, and how much you can afford to spend to acquire a customer, you’re essentially gambling with your ad budget.
And in e-commerce, that can get expensive fast.
Let’s start with the most critical numbers you need to know:
Your break-even ROAS tells you the minimum return you need on your ad spend to not lose money. It’s calculated by dividing 1 by your gross profit margin.
So if your margin is 50 percent, your break-even ROAS is 2.0. That means for every $1 you spend on ads, you need to make $2 in sales just to break even.
For example, let’s say you’re running Facebook Ads and spending $1,000 on a campaign. If your break-even ROAS is 2.0, you need to generate at least $2,000 in revenue to avoid losing money. Anything above that is profit. Anything below that eats into your cash.
Once you know your numbers, you can reverse-engineer your ad strategy instead of throwing money into the void and hoping for results. For instance, if your AOV is low (say $25), you might struggle to profit from ads unless you have a very low COGS or high conversion rates. In that case, you might want to:
On the other hand, if your AOV is $150 and your margins are strong, you have more room to compete in ad auctions, bid more aggressively, and test multiple audiences and creatives without instantly wiping out your profit.
A lot of beginner advertisers focus entirely on immediate return from ads. That’s understandable – but short-sighted. If you’re breaking even or slightly losing on the first sale, that might still be a smart move if you’re building long-term customer relationships.
That’s where Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) comes in. If you know that your average customer places three orders a year, each worth $60, then their LTV is $180. If you spend $40 to acquire that customer with your first ad, but earn $140 more over the next 12 months, that ad was extremely profitable in the long run.
Top e-commerce brands build their paid strategies around LTV-to-CAC ratio – how much they earn over time compared to what they paid to acquire the customer.
A healthy ratio is usually 3:1 or higher. So if you’re spending $50 to acquire a customer, you want to earn at least $150 from that customer over time.
Once you understand your numbers, you can plan your ad spend with precision. You’ll know exactly:
Let’s say you want to make $5,000 in profit this month, and your product has a 50 percent gross margin. That means you need $10,000 in sales. If your target ROAS is 2.5, you can spend up to $4,000 in ad spend to hit that goal. With those numbers in hand, you now have a roadmap for campaign budgeting, not just a shot in the dark.
Every ad platform has strengths. But if you try to use them all at once, you’ll burn through your budget without learning much. Instead, pick one or two that align best with your business model and customer behavior.
If you’re selling visually appealing products like apparel, skincare, or home goods, platforms like Instagram and TikTok can deliver strong returns – especially with the right creative. If you’re focused on high-intent buyers, Google Search and Shopping Ads are goldmines. And if you’re targeting professionals or B2B retail buyers, LinkedIn may offer surprising results.
Test channels strategically. Start with the one that matches where your customers spend their time and scale from there. The best platform for you is the one where your ideal customers are already shopping, scrolling, or searching.
One of the biggest mistakes retailers make is casting too wide a net. You don’t want everyone to see your ad – you want the right people to see it.
On Google, this means targeting high-intent keywords that signal buying behavior. Focus on terms like “buy,” “best,” “free shipping,” or product-specific searches. On Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, you’ll want to dial in your custom audiences using demographic data, lookalikes, interests, and behavior.
Don’t forget retargeting. Most people won’t buy the first time they visit your site, but retargeting brings them back when they’re ready. Set up ads that follow people who viewed a product, added to cart, or engaged with your brand but didn’t check out.
The more relevant your targeting, the more efficient your spend and the higher your return.
Creative is the make-or-break factor in most e-commerce ad campaigns. You can have perfect targeting and the right product, but if your ad doesn’t grab attention in the first two seconds, it won’t convert.
Your creative needs to do three things quickly:
Use high-quality product photos or videos. Show your product in action. Highlight a clear benefit or solve a specific problem. Incorporate customer reviews or user-generated content to build trust.
For paid social, test multiple creatives at once – video vs. image, UGC vs. branded, short-form vs. long-form – and let performance data guide your iterations. On search platforms like Google, focus on copy that’s compelling and packed with relevant keywords. Test different headlines and descriptions to see what gets the best click-through rate.
Sending paid traffic to your homepage is a rookie mistake. You want every click to land on a page that’s designed to convert. That means fast load times, mobile optimization, and a clear call-to-action.
If you’re promoting a specific product, send users to that product page and not your full catalog. If you’re offering a bundle or a seasonal deal, create a dedicated landing page with copy, visuals, and layout tailored to that offer.
Remove distractions. Reduce friction. Make it stupid-easy for people to buy. The less effort it takes, the more sales you’ll see. And don’t forget to A/B test. Sometimes a simple tweak to your headline or CTA can double your conversion rate overnight.
Once your ads are live, your job isn’t done. In fact, this is where it really begins. You need to monitor performance regularly, looking at more than just the surface-level metrics.
Click-through rate (CTR) tells you how well your ad is capturing attention. Conversion rate shows how well your landing page is sealing the deal. ROAS tells you how profitable your campaign is. And CPA helps you compare efficiency across different products or audiences.
Watch for early indicators of success – or failure.
Treat your campaigns like living systems. Tweak, test, and improve them continuously.
Once you find a winning combination – an ad, offer, and audience that works – it’s time to scale. Increase your budget gradually while keeping an eye on performance. Scaling too fast can tank your results, so go step by step.
Duplicate high-performing campaigns to test new audiences or creatives. Experiment with upsells, bundles, or time-limited offers to increase AOV. Layer in email or SMS marketing to retarget paid traffic and drive repeat sales.
And just as importantly, don’t be afraid to kill underperforming ads. If something isn’t working after a reasonable test period, cut it. Your budget should be flowing to what works – not what you hope will work.
One of the biggest mistakes in paid advertising is chasing one-off sales without thinking about the bigger picture. Winning e-commerce brands think in terms of customer lifetime value.
If your first sale breaks even, that’s fine. (As long as you have a plan to turn that customer into a repeat buyer. ) You can use post-purchase emails, loyalty programs, and retargeting ads to bring people back.
At the end of the day, when you view paid ads as the beginning of a customer relationship – not the end – you unlock real long-term profitability. And at PPC.co, that’s where we want to help you! We offer industry-leading PPC management services for ecommerce and retail brands who want to stop wasting ad spend and start generating real ROI.
Contact us today to learn more!
