PPCA Revealing Look at Top Valentine’s Day Searches – From Gifts to ‘Die Hard’

A Revealing Look at Top Valentine’s Day Searches – From Gifts to ‘Die Hard’

Ah, Valentine’s Day. It’s the beloved holiday full of hearts, flowers, candy, and of course searches and ads that hopefully lead to that perfect, meaningful gift or night out. Here's a look at the terms people searched for and advertisers targeted.

Ah, Valentine’s Day. It’s the beloved holiday full of hearts, flowers, candy, and of course searches and ads that hopefully lead to that perfect, meaningful gift or night out.

Needless to say, each year in the days leading up to February 14th, the pressure is on for many, retailers and the public alike.

In January, ads for Valentine’s Day terms overall were prevalent in both Google and Bing databases. In the Google database, the term “valentines day” has been searched for approximately 200,000 times and produces 303 million results. In comparison for Bing, search volume is approximately 45,000 searches per month and 205 million results:

valentines-day-google-keyword-summary

Some of the advertisers utilizing Bing for Valentine’s Day promotions include gifts.com, target.com, jcpenney.com, worldmarketing.com, and personalizationmall.com. Of all of these, gifts.com is a seemingly popular retailer who is taking a different approach and utilizing both Google and Bing for their Valentine’s Day advertising with the keyword “valentines day”:

valentines-day-adwords-historical

Bing Ads – Valentines Day

Going back historically almost always proves to be revealing, as we’re able to see who bid on specific keywords for the past 12 months.

For the keyword “valentines day” in Bing, there were quite a few bidders over the course of the entire year. Websites such as Yahoo.com, Ask.com, Zazzle.com, and Gifts.com were employing Valentine-related ads in the month of July. But as could be expected, many domains were bidding on the “valentines day” keyword in Bing back in February of 2012 (as well as in January of this year).

On February 10, 2012, the popular Nicholas Sparks movie based on his book “The Vow” came out just in time for Valentine’s Day and the movie website was also bidding on the keyword prior to the movie’s release:

valentines-day-bing-keyword-adwords-history

One year later, yet another popular romantic movie based on a Nicholas Sparks novel called “Safe Haven” is being released along with “A Good Day to Die Hard” (certainly violence, explosions, and Bruce Willis’ witty humor are what I think of on Valentine’s Day – yippee-ki-yay!). However, unlike last year, neither of these movie websites been taking advantage of any Valentine’s Day keywords.

Google Ads – Valentines Day Gifts

valentines-day-gifts-google-keyword

In looking at a simple overview for the keyword “valentines day gifts”, one thing is obvious right away: the volume of searches for “valentines gifts for him”, with approximately 22,000 per month and 169 million results.

Apparently we ladies must make gift-giving a bit more simple, as searches confirm that it is a bit more difficult to choose a gift for a man than it is for a woman. Bidders for the keyword “valentines day gifts for him” include Gifts.com, JCPenney.com, Ugiftideas.com, leadingedgegifts.com, and llbean.com.

valentines-day-gifts-adwords-historical

In the Google database, there are also quite a few ads over the course of the year for the keyword “valentines day gifts”, yet why would retailers continue to bid on a keyword that is really only searched for a month or two?

Amazon.com, Zazzle.com, and Potterybarnkids.com are among those who spent the most on ads last month. The results above show just a fraction of the substantial amounts of data available, but serve to provide an idea of how some retailers have been modifying their PPC habits in preparation for Valentine’s Day.

Summary

So do whatever your heart desires this February 14th; dine out, indulge in some chocolate and champagne, or be a bit more unconventional and go see the new action-packed “Die Hard” film.

What keywords did you search for this Valentine’s Day?

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