Congrats on completing the marathon. What happens now? 

You might notice a drop in your RPMs and impressions. Don’t panic, it’s ok. You didn’t do anything wrong it’s the January blues. Remember that RPMs and internet traffic drive spikes but can also drive drops. As internet traffic decreases after the holiday, it is common to experience a drop in January. This is your RPMs returning to normal. This represents a new opportunity for you to focus on retaining the audience you gained and experiment with your AdSense account. 

How to retain your audience? 

Top trending January 

Users are still online in January but their searches are different. This could be the time of a year for a perfect match between their searches and your content. Users have many topics on their radar, such as lifestyle, health and travel.

Check Google Trends to find out what search queries were trending in your audience’s location last January.

What about the next few months?

January isn’t the right time of the year that matches with your content? Good news, there’s a lot of seasonal holidays to watch out for in the following months. Here’s a list of seasonal peaks in 2020. Let’s find yours.

New year - new ideas 

If you are thinking of starting a new site, make sure to take a look at these AMP-first tips. Creating an AMP-first site gives you a high performance - faster page load time, better user experience on mobile and more overall traffic. Review the WordPress themes that make creating an AMP site easy. Create the site, install theme and install the AMP plugin. 

Learn more about themes.

Experiment with your AdSense account

It’s time to have some fun and try out some changes. Is there a feature you wanted to test before the holiday but didn’t get a chance to implement it? Why not try it now? Visit the Optimization tab in your AdSense account. It provides you with bespoke recommendations that could improve performance, and A/B experiments to help you make more informed decisions for your site. 

Learn more about opportunities and experiments.

End of quarter tip

Take note of each end of quarter in your region. Why? Advertisers tend to spend more at the end of each quarter when they have budget leftover. Remember, an increase in advertiser spent also means potential increase of RPMs.

Holiday season is driven by users purchasing for themselves and for family’s gifts.

Don’t worry, even if your content is not related to the holiday season, a rise in internet traffic increases the probability of users landing on your page. Holiday season means an opportunity for all!

Create bespoke content

To attract and retain an audience, it’s important to tailor your content to your users’ needs. Here are some helpful insights to create engaging content during the holiday season.

• Think mobile size: Users are increasingly searching on their mobiles. Smartphones accounted for the majority of digital shopping traffic for the first time this holiday season with 51% of visits according to Adobe¹. Be mindful of the number of ads you show so users find it easy to digest on mobile. Keep your content short (and sweet). A recent Google study found that consumers ‘disliked mobile pages with ad densities greater than 30% and flashing animated ads². Click here to learn more about mobile ad format optimization
• Incorporate keywords into your content:
  - Mobile searches for “best” have grown over 80% in two years³.
  - The searches for Black Friday shopping increased by 1,150% on Google in 2018 from November to December⁴.
  - ‘Where to buy’ is a trending search phrase during the holiday season. For example, “where to buy cards,” and “where to buy gift boxes”⁵.
• Keep up to date with this season’s trends: The Google Trends tool will help you discover what are the big internet search topic of the moment for your audience. Check Google Trends tool. Internet users are also increasingly hungry for video content. For this holiday season, look at what’s trending amongst viewers with Youtube trends.
• Let’s talk SEO: Let Google Search find your site! Understand the basics of crawling, indexing, serving and how Google Search works. Get your site on Google.
• It's not over until it's over: Keep publishing content throughout the season. Users are searching right up until Christmas. With new gadgets to unbox and explore, plenty of users will be online on Christmas Day itself, downloading apps, updating drivers and registering their devices. In fact, searches for ‘download’ and ‘activate’ are 30% higher on December 25th than during the week prior⁶.

_Sources:

_{1. https://content-na1.emarketer.com/thanksgiving-day-is-now-the-no-3-online-shopping-holiday}

_{2. https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/better-ad-standards/}

_{3. https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/data/holiday-search-statistics-store-hours/}

_{4. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2018-11-01%202018-12-31}

_{5. https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/data/holiday-shopping-search-statistics/}

_{6. https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-gb/marketing-resources/data-measurement/gift-guide-for-marketers}

Holiday season is driven by users purchasing for themselves and for family’s gifts.

Don’t worry, even if your content is not related to the holiday season, a rise in internet traffic increases the probability of users landing on your page. Holiday season means an opportunity for all!

Create bespoke content

To attract and retain an audience, it’s important to tailor your content to your users’ needs. Here are some helpful insights to create engaging content during the holiday season.

• Think mobile size: 
  Users are increasingly searching on their mobiles. Smartphones accounted for the majority of digital shopping traffic for the first time this holiday season with 51% of visits according to Adobe¹. Be mindful of the number of ads you show so users find it easy to digest on mobile. Keep your content short (and sweet). A recent Google study found that consumers ‘disliked mobile pages with ad densities greater than 30% and flashing animated ads². Click here to learn more about mobile ad format optimization
• Incorporate keywords into your content:
  - Mobile searches for “best” have grown over 80% in two years³.
  - The searches for Black Friday shopping increased by 1,150% on Google in 2018 from November to December⁴.
  - ‘Where to buy’ is a trending search phrase during the holiday season. For example, “where to buy cards,” and “where to buy gift boxes”⁵.
• Keep up to date with this season’s trends: 
  The Google Trends tool will help you discover what are the big internet search topic of the moment for your audience. Check Google Trends tool. Internet users are also increasingly hungry for video content. For this holiday season, look at what’s trending amongst viewers with Youtube trends.
• Let’s talk SEO: 
  Let Google Search find your site! Understand the basics of crawling, indexing, serving and how Google Search works. Get your site on Google.
• It's not over until it's over:
  Keep publishing content throughout the season. Users are searching right up until Christmas. With new gadgets to unbox and explore, plenty of users will be online on Christmas Day itself, downloading apps, updating drivers and registering their devices. In fact, searches for ‘download’ and ‘activate’ are 30% higher on December 25th than during the week prior⁶.

_Sources:

_{1. https://content-na1.emarketer.com/thanksgiving-day-is-now-the-no-3-online-shopping-holiday}

_{2. https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/better-ad-standards/}

_{3. https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/data/holiday-search-statistics-store-hours/}

_{4. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2018-11-01%202018-12-31}

_{5. https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/data/holiday-shopping-search-statistics/}

_{6. https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-gb/marketing-resources/data-measurement/gift-guide-for-marketers}

Anticipation is key, start preparing now! 

Timeline to guide your planning process

Here is our seasonality checklist to help your AdSense account and site be holiday season ready:

1. Optimize your AdSense account

• Try the new and improved Auto ads: Focus on creating your holiday content, while Google places and optimizes ads for you. Auto ads now work through any AdSense ad code. There is an easy preview of how Auto ads look on your site before implementing. You can choose ad formats and the number of ads per page with the new Ad load control. We’ve also updated reporting so that you can see Auto ads and manual ad unit performance side by side for each of your sites. Learn more about implementing Auto ads .
• Make your ads more visible with Viewability: Did you know? If an ad is placed at the bottom of the page and the user does not scroll down to see it, the ad is not counted as a viewable impression³. Make sure you increase the number of viewable ad impressions on your site during the holiday season. This will likely lead to more clicks and higher revenue potential. Learn how to optimize your viewability.
• Increase your revenue opportunities by reviewing your Blocking controls settings: Take this as an opportunity to review blocked categories on your AdSense account. See and review ads that appeared on your site in the Ad review center. Learn more about ad blocking controls.

2. Optimize your site

• Go where your audience is: It’s important to understand where your audience is located. If a certain holiday is not celebrated in your region, it might be where your audience is. Discover where your users are by using the Google Analytics tool in AdSense. Click here to learn how

• Make a great first impression⁴: If visitors leave your site after looking at just one page, you've likely lost them and their potential AdSense earnings forever. Giving visitors a great first impression is important to keep them interested so they dig deeper into your site. Here are a few tips to do this:

• When it comes to design, remember that users are impatient. Organize your site so that it’s easy for people to navigate and browse through. 

• Focus your homepage and navigation on connecting users to the content they’re looking for.

• Offer site search to ensure users who are in a hurry can find what they need. 

• Make sure that every piece of content links to more pieces of content using the Matched content recommendations tool.

• Develop a traffic strategy: We’ve already seen how internet user traffic increases during the holiday season. Now it’s time to consider how you’ll make sure your site is seen to attract new users. Here are some tips: 

• Develop partnerships with other content creators and share each other’s content. 

• Have a social media presence. Consider using YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter to share your content on different platforms.

• Experiment with Google Ads. Use your performance report to understand the top countries where your audience is coming from and use Google Ads to ensure your content is visible in searches.

• Check your page speed: Use the Google PageSpeed Insights tool to check your page speed. Users who have to wait for pages to load or can’t easily browse will likely go elsewhere. Consider reducing your content to boost page speed. Videos and images that load can slow down your page as well. 

Now it’s time to grow your audience by focusing on content. Next week we’ll provide you more tips on working with your content during the holiday season.

_Sources: 

_{1. Google Internal Analysis, 2018, Categories Apparel, Beauty & Personal Care, Computers & Consumer Electronics, Food & Groceries, Home & Garden, Occasions & Gifts, Toys & Games (DE, PL, UK, FR, IT, ES, GR).}

_{2.https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/four-types-holiday-shoppers}

_{3.https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/data-measurement/5-factors-of-viewability/}

_{4.https://www.google.com/adsense/start/resources/best-shape-to-boost-your-earnings/}

Anticipation is key, start preparing now! 

Timeline to guide your planning process

Here is our seasonality checklist to help your AdSense account and site be holiday season ready:

1. Optimize your AdSense account

• Try the new and improved Auto ads: Focus on creating your holiday content, while Google places and optimizes ads for you. Auto ads now work through any AdSense ad code. There is an easy preview of how Auto ads look on your site before implementing. You can choose ad formats and the number of ads per page with the new Ad load control. We’ve also updated reporting so that you can see Auto ads and manual ad unit performance side by side for each of your sites. Learn more about implementing Auto ads .
• Make your ads more visible with Viewability: Did you know? If an ad is placed at the bottom of the page and the user does not scroll down to see it, the ad is not counted as a viewable impression³. Make sure you increase the number of viewable ad impressions on your site during the holiday season. This will likely lead to more clicks and higher revenue potential. Learn how to optimize your viewability.
• Increase your revenue opportunities by reviewing your Blocking controls settings: Take this as an opportunity to review blocked categories on your AdSense account. See and review ads that appeared on your site in the Ad review center. Learn more about ad blocking controls.

2. Optimize your site

• Go where your audience is: It’s important to understand where your audience is located. If a certain holiday is not celebrated in your region, it might be where your audience is. Discover where your users are by using the Google Analytics tool in AdSense. Click here to learn how

• Make a great first impression⁴: If visitors leave your site after looking at just one page, you've likely lost them and their potential AdSense earnings forever. Giving visitors a great first impression is important to keep them interested so they dig deeper into your site. Here are a few tips to do this:

• When it comes to design, remember that users are impatient. Organize your site so that it’s easy for people to navigate and browse through. 

• Focus your homepage and navigation on connecting users to the content they’re looking for.

• Offer site search to ensure users who are in a hurry can find what they need. 

• Make sure that every piece of content links to more pieces of content using the Matched content recommendations tool.

• Develop a traffic strategy: We’ve already seen how internet user traffic increases during the holiday season. Now it’s time to consider how you’ll make sure your site is seen to attract new users. Here are some tips: 

• Develop partnerships with other content creators and share each other’s content. 

• Have a social media presence. Consider using YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter to share your content on different platforms.

• Experiment with Google Ads. Use your performance report to understand the top countries where your audience is coming from and use Google Ads to ensure your content is visible in searches.

• Check your page speed: Use the Google PageSpeed Insights tool to check your page speed. Users who have to wait for pages to load or can’t easily browse will likely go elsewhere. Consider reducing your content to boost page speed. Videos and images that load can slow down your page as well. 

Now it’s time to grow your audience by focusing on content. Next week we’ll provide you more tips on working with your content during the holiday season.

_Sources: 

_{1. Google Internal Analysis, 2018, Categories Apparel, Beauty & Personal Care, Computers & Consumer Electronics, Food & Groceries, Home & Garden, Occasions & Gifts, Toys & Games (DE, PL, UK, FR, IT, ES, GR).}

_{2.https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/four-types-holiday-shoppers}

_{3.https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/data-measurement/5-factors-of-viewability/}

_{4.https://www.google.com/adsense/start/resources/best-shape-to-boost-your-earnings/}

This guide is here to help you learn about the importance of seasonality as well as provide you with tips on how to get more from your Google AdSense account and site during peak seasonal traffic. This guide is filled with easy, actionable insights you can start implementing today.

Here’s a sneak peek of what will be posted over the next couple of weeks to prepare you well for this busy time of the year. Let’s get holiday season ready!

• Pre-holiday season: How to prepare? 
• During the holiday season: How to maximize the opportunities 
• Post holidays: Looking at 2020 

Defining seasonal periods 

What is seasonality?

Any predictable fluctuation or pattern that recurs over a calendar year is defined as seasonality. It can be categorized into 3 types of events and holidays:

1. Cultural (e.g. Ramadan, Thanksgiving, Christmas) 
2. Commercial (e.g. Black Friday, Singles’ Day, Mother’s Day)
3. Ad-hoc events (e.g. Olympics, Elections, TV series) 

By spotting events and holidays impacting your audience, you can identify your seasonality opportunities to increase revenue and attract new users.

What drives seasonality? 

Publisher revenue is driven by two interlinked factors: RPMs and traffic.

Advertisers are willing to pay more for inventory, leading to higher RPMs. Increased traffic leads to more impressions. These two factors drive seasonal spikes and dips in publisher earnings.

Why is it important for publishers?

Seasonality offers publishers opportunities to attract new audiences and maximize revenues. The upcoming holiday season (October - December) is the biggest annual seasonal opportunity. Let’s explore why!

1. Large increase in internet traffic (higher query opportunity)
   Over the past 5 years, the holiday season internet traffic has grown as users flock online to purchase gifts for themselves and others.
   

2. Higher competition between advertisers (higher query opportunity)
   The holiday shopping season is the busiest retail period of the year. Advertisers spend more during this time to ensure their products and brands are well-positioned at key events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. For example, consumers around the world and especially in Asia reportedly spent more than $1 billion in the first 90 seconds of Singles’ Day in 2018. Advertisers are eager to be there for moments like this.

Starting the holiday season marathon

Let’s focus on the upcoming season. The October-December period is a global seasonal marathon offering the greatest annual opportunity to maximize your earnings. In fact, this seasonal opportunity is increasing all over. In 2018, the average global interest in Black Friday grew more than twice over the previous 5 years. 

Get your calendar open and mark the following dates:

Let’s see what you can do to make the most out of your site and AdSense account before, during and after the holiday season.

In the blogpost next week we’ll provide you with tips on how to prepare your site and AdSense account for the rush of the holiday season.

This guide is here to help you learn about the importance of seasonality as well as provide you with tips on how to get more from your Google AdSense account and site during peak seasonal traffic. This guide is filled with easy, actionable insights you can start implementing today.

Here’s a sneak peek of what will be posted over the next couple of weeks to prepare you well for this busy time of the year. Let’s get holiday season ready!

• Pre-holiday season: How to prepare? 
• During the holiday season: How to maximize the opportunities 
• Post holidays: Looking at 2020 

Defining seasonal periods 

What is seasonality?

Any predictable fluctuation or pattern that recurs over a calendar year is defined as seasonality. It can be categorized into 3 types of events and holidays:

1. Cultural (e.g. Ramadan, Thanksgiving, Christmas) 
2. Commercial (e.g. Black Friday, Singles’ Day, Mother’s Day)
3. Ad-hoc events (e.g. Olympics, Elections, TV series) 

By spotting events and holidays impacting your audience, you can identify your seasonality opportunities to increase revenue and attract new users.

What drives seasonality? 

Publisher revenue is driven by two interlinked factors: RPMs and traffic.

Advertisers are willing to pay more for inventory, leading to higher RPMs. Increased traffic leads to more impressions. These two factors drive seasonal spikes and dips in publisher earnings.

Why is it important for publishers?

Seasonality offers publishers opportunities to attract new audiences and maximize revenues. The upcoming holiday season (October - December) is the biggest annual seasonal opportunity. Let’s explore why!

1. Large increase in internet traffic (higher query opportunity)
   Over the past 5 years, the holiday season internet traffic has grown as users flock online to purchase gifts for themselves and others.
   

2. Higher competition between advertisers (higher query opportunity)
   The holiday shopping season is the busiest retail period of the year. Advertisers spend more during this time to ensure their products and brands are well-positioned at key events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. For example, consumers around the world and especially in Asia reportedly spent more than $1 billion in the first 90 seconds of Singles’ Day in 2018. Advertisers are eager to be there for moments like this.

Starting the holiday season marathon

Let’s focus on the upcoming season. The October-December period is a global seasonal marathon offering the greatest annual opportunity to maximize your earnings. In fact, this seasonal opportunity is increasing all over. In 2018, the average global interest in Black Friday grew more than twice over the previous 5 years. 

Get your calendar open and mark the following dates:

Let’s see what you can do to make the most out of your site and AdSense account before, during and after the holiday season.

In the blogpost next week we’ll provide you with tips on how to prepare your site and AdSense account for the rush of the holiday season.

During the holiday season advertisers have their busiest time of the year as users search for gifts and celebration ideas. Increased demand in advertising space leads to growing RPMs and surges in traffic. Make the most out of this busy season by preparing your site and ads for increased activity.