Welcome to the Wednesday WindUp. It's the 25th! The Wednesday weâve all been counting down to.
Happy holidays! To whichever holiday you celebrate!
The holidays are a paradoxâa collision of abundance. Presents pile high, yet honestly, sometimes, presence itself can be scarce.
Weâre so consumed by the performance of traditionâcapturing the perfect picture, finding the perfect gift, making the perfect mealâthat we forget to ask: Why? Why this picture? Why these gifts? Why this relentless push to turn fleeting moments into something curated and permanent?
What is the point of all this? The traditionsâpresents, pictures, foodâwhat are they all for?
They orbit something central, something essential, something we often fail to name. Call it connection. Call it heritage. Call it meaning. Call it love. The label doesnât matter. What matters is that without that center, the rituals lose their gravity. They become rote. Empty.
So what now? You stop. You decide.
You name your center.
Is it family? Faith? Heritage? A connection to something greater than yourself? Maybe itâs all of these. Maybe itâs something entirely your own. But once youâve named it, you orbit it.
You let it guide the picture, the gifts, the mealânot the other way around.
You let go of the need to control every detail, to perfect every tradition, and instead focus on the one thing that matters: being there.
Because when the holidays are overâwhen the lights come down and the wrapping paper is tossedâwhat remains wonât be the pictures or the presents. Itâll be the presence. Yours. Theirs. The way you chose, just this once, to sit still long enough to savor the only 2024 holiday season youâll ever get. There wonât be another. Not like this. Not with these people, in this place, at this time.
Rarity is what makes something valuable. The fleeting nature of time is what makes it beautiful. And devastating. And worth paying attention to.
Time doesnât slow down, and neither will your Google Ads campaigns, but for now, maybe take a second to pause. Next week, weâre back to PPC.
For now, though, happy holidays. However, you celebrate.
Until next week...
âTime flows in one direction, memory in another.â
â William Gibson
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Seasonality Bid Adjustments
A practical strategy for advertising...
I've written about Seaonality Bid Adjustments before but this is a reminder...
Seasonality bid adjustments are one of the most overlooked tools in Google Adsâeven by seasoned advertisers. But at our agency, itâs a go-to strategy when we need to take control and guide the system. Hereâs a breakdown of how it works and why itâs more than just a safety net during the holidays.
The Basics: How Google Intended It
Seasonality bid adjustments are designed for short-term events like a 3-day sale or a flash promotion. Smart Bidding typically needs time to adapt to changes in conversion rates, but these adjustments act as a manual override. Youâre essentially telling the system, âWeâre expecting a 50% spike in conversionsâadjust bids accordingly.â
Once the event ends, Googleâs algorithms seamlessly revert to normal, so you donât miss a beat. Itâs a simple yet powerful tool to align your campaigns with predictable shifts in performance.
How We Hack It
But we donât just stop at the basics. Seasonality bid adjustments are like a hidden lever, and we use them to nudge Smart Bidding when itâs not behaving as it should.
- Scaling Issues: Sometimes, Google hesitates to scaleâeven when your campaigns are exceeding ROAS targets. This happens when the system lacks confidence in conversion rates. A small adjustment can reassure Google and give it the push to spend more, unlocking additional volume while maintaining efficiency.
- Post-Event Overspending: After major shopping days like Black Friday, Google often overestimates how long the conversion frenzy will last. By applying a downward adjustment, we manage spend more effectively as things settle.
- Holiday Closures: When businesses shut down temporarily, pausing campaigns can disrupt Smart Biddingâs learning. Instead, we set a seasonality adjustment (e.g., âExpect a 90% drop in conversionsâ) so spend decreases without damaging performance once things ramp back up.
Why It Matters
Seasonality bid adjustments let you communicate directly with Smart Bidding, giving it the clarity it needs to perform optimally. Itâs not just about reacting to eventsâitâs about proactively steering the system when itâs off track.
For a comprehensive approach to running profitable digital advertising campaigns, I highly recommend you check out the Ultimate Digital Advertising Library. Just saying.
Isaac Rudansky
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