There are a lot of factors that can affect your PPC advertising, but the most common one is seasonality. If you’re not familiar with what this means, it’s when there are certain times of the year where people buy more and other times when they don’t.
This affects how often someone clicks on an ad or visits a website during these different seasons. In this article, we’ll go over some tips for adjusting your ads to be successful in all four seasons.
Seasonality in PPC advertising is when there are certain times of the year where people buy more. Certain seasons have higher conversion rates and can be a great opportunity to get your ads noticed by potential customers.
There are three main effects seasonality will have on your campaign: cost per click (CPC), quality score, and conversions.
They all vary during different seasons because people are not all looking for the same things at various points in time, especially if they live somewhere that experiences four distinct seasons.
For example, let’s say that you’re selling boots. It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that more people will be interested in these products in the fall and winter months. However, people buy boots all year long.
By adjusting your PPC ads based on the seasonal influx of your products, you can ensure your ads are profitable year-round.
Analytics is a crucial tool in measuring seasonality. If you’re not already using analytics to measure your campaigns, this is an excellent starting point for understanding how changes can affect traffic and conversions.
You should use Google Analytics or another third-party program that has this feature set up on your website so that it’s easy to see fluctuations during different seasons. You’ll need to go into the Conversion section of Google Ads under Acquisition > Google Ads Campaigns & Keywords > Search Funnels » All Conversions » Channel Groupings.
This will help you scout the trends between different products in various months. Following this step is the first phase of determining whether or not you need to slow down, ramp up, or pause any campaigns in different seasons.
You should also be looking at the performance of your campaigns in previous seasons. This will allow you to see which types of ads are more successful during different times and if any changes need to be made for a new season.
There are many things that can help ensure success throughout all four seasons, such as adjusting bids, adding negative keywords, or even using retargeting techniques so people don’t forget where they left off with an abandoned shopping cart on your site.
The text in your ads can be a big help when adjusting for seasonality. Text is often the most important part of an ad, which means you should use seasonal copy that will work best during different seasons.
For example, if you’re selling Christmas decorations and want to advertise them as holiday gifts on social media, then it would make sense to create posts with “Now Available!” or “Cyber Monday Deals” messages.
In contrast, if someone was looking for something like furniture sale items in January (a time where people are less likely to buy), they might not find the message helpful at all because there isn’t much urgency behind it.
You can also try using messaging such as “Summer Sale!”. This subtle change will make all the difference in attracting more eyes to your ads.
It’s also important to look at what your competitors are doing with their ads. You can’t have a successful campaign without knowing what is currently generating the most traffic and conversions, so it makes sense to see which of those techniques you need to implement as well in order for your business to thrive.
For example, there might be an increase in conversion rates when using coupons or discounts during certain seasons.
You could also use negative keywords that target seasonality-specific products (such as snow boots) by excluding them from campaigns where they’re more likely not going to perform well (i.e., summer months).
This way, you’ll only pay for clicks on relevant searches instead of wasting money on irrelevant ones throughout all four seasons. Your competitors may be employing these techniques, so it couldn’t hurt to spy on them and figure out for yourself.
It’s also important to decide on a PPC budget for each season, which you can adjust as necessary based on metrics.
You should have an idea of what your break-even point is in order to know how much money needs to be made before ads stop being profitable. This will help give you more insight into where your marketing efforts are best allocated and if any adjustments need to be made throughout different seasons.
Depending on whether or not sales are up during certain times of the year due to seasonal influxes, this could change by adding or removing keywords from campaigns that may no longer perform well with lower traffic levels (i.e., Christmas decorations).
One thing to keep in mind before adjusting for seasonality is whether or not you have a team of people who can help with the work.
If there are employees available, then it might be worth delegating some tasks so that they know what needs to get done and when their input will make a difference.
For this reason, it’s in your best interest to work with a reputable PPC agency to save a lot of time in doing all of this work yourself.
Adjusting your PPC campaign for seasonality is a relatively straightforward process, but it’s best to hire a PPC agency to ensure that this work is done correctly. With that said, do you want to learn more about how we can help?
Contact us today to speak to a member of our team about configuring your PPC campaign.
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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.
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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!
