Ringing up holiday revenueInsights for digital marketers

Holiday is the #1 retail season – and growingThe steady growth of online shopping is a significant growth driver.

Total holiday spending grew 3.8% from the $592.3 Billion spent in 2012.

E-commerce spend grew more quickly at 9.3% growth from 2012, totaling $95.7 Billion.

$601.8 Billion

Source: National Retail Federation 2013 Holiday report

Shoppers begin early and end lateAn earlier Thanksgiving means a longer shopping period before Christmas than last year.

Source: National Retail Federation Monthly Consumer Survey, Oct 2013

Before Sep-tember

September October November First 2 weeks of December

Last 2 weeks of December

12%8%

21%

39%

16%

4%

When people begin shopping for the holiday season:

Half the top shopping days occur the same week

Source: Experian.com, Jan 2014

Fridays are top shopping days.

Tip: Many of these days fall at the end of the month - if you have your budget set “monthly,” ensure you have enough to cover the top days like Black Friday Cyber Monday.

If you’re using “daily budget,” check in on these top dates and ensure your budget is larger – many marketers go dark on Black Friday or Cyber Monday by mid-morning.

Top 10 transaction days – Holiday 2013

Event Day Transaction rank

Cyber Monday Monday 1

Black Friday Friday 2

Thanksgiving Thursday 3Sunday after Black Friday Sunday 4

November 15th Friday 5Day Before Thanksgiving Wednesday 6

November 8th Friday 7

12 days until Christmas Friday 8

Day after Cyber Monday Tuesday 9

7 days until Christmas Wednesday 10

The party doesn’t stop post-holiday

Source: Experian.com, 2014

2 in 5Plan to buy gifts after the holidays.

47%Are looking to take advantage of post-holiday sales.

Tip: Highlight post-holiday deals, sales, and gift card redemption in ad copy.Consider opportunity post-holiday when planning your ad budget.

Source: Holiday Study by IPSOS and Yahoo, 2014

Making a list and checking it twiceThe average shopper planned to spend $738 on holiday gifts.

Flowers/Plants

Home decor or furnishings

Personal care or beauty items

Consumer electronics or accessories

Books, CDs, DVDs, videos or video games

Clothing or accessories

9%

19%

20%

23%

25%

33%

33%

44%

49%

59%

61%

Gifts people plan to buy this holiday season

Source: National Retail Federation Monthly Consumer Survey, Nov 2013

Gift cards are at the top of the wish list6 in 10 people would like to receive a gift card - the number one type of gift people would like this holiday season.1

Source: 1National Retail Federation Monthly Consumer Survey, Nov 2013, 2Experian, Jan 2014

Tip: Select keywords and write ad copy to include the term “gift cards.”

Top gift card types purchased2

Gift card type

% of adults who purchased in last 12 months

Average purchase amount

Restaurants/coffee shops 44% $76 Department/clothing/mall stores 40% $81 Discount stores 20% $68 Visa 19% $98 Bookstores 19% $52 Music/entertainment 18% $67 Home/home improvement stores 14% $97 Electronics stores 11% $78 MasterCard 5% $94 American Express 5% $114

Half of people plan to purchase gifts online

Thrift Stores/Resale Shops

Catalog

Other Specialty store

Crafts or fabrics store

Drug store

Electronics store

Clothing or Accessories store

Grocery store/supermarket

Online

Department store

Discount store

12%

13%

16%

19%

21%

30%

35%

51%

51%

56%

65%

Where people plan to purchase holiday items

Source: National Retail Federation Monthly Consumer Survey, Oct 2013

Tips: Ad Extensions, like Location Extensions and Call Extensions, can help your customers find you quickly – putting your business address and phone number right at their fingertips.

Product Ads allow you to showcase your product online, including an image and product details.

Showrooming one gift at a time

Source: Marketing Profs, Jan 2014

Tips: Highlight offers and deals in your ad copy and keywords – shoppers are often looking for a deal.

Consider using Bing Product Ads, which put online shoppers closer to a purchase decision in showing a relevant product image and product details while searching.

Thanks to free shipping and free returns, consumers compare prices offline before making a purchase online.

Some retailers are moving to embrace showrooming, integrating their online and in-store offerings, and sending location-based promotions to shoppers' smartphones

.

88% of shoppers have researched a product online, then purchased in a brick-and-mortar store.

or webrooming. x

Webrooming – naughty or nice

Webrooming is most common for clothing, electronics, and appliances since people prefer to see it, try it on, and test it.

- Highlight offers and deals in your ad copy and keywords – shoppers are looking for a deal.- Include location and hours in both your keywords and ad copy [ex: Santa’s Shoes hours].- Ensure your prices and promotions are the same online as they are in-store.- Help customers check availability of merchandise online – and then add items to their wish lists for them to purchase later or once they arrive in store.

Tips:

Source: Mobile Commerce Daily, Nov 2013

Shopping with mobile brings holiday cheerSmartphones generate more online traffic, but tablet shoppers spend more time, money, and make more purchases.1

Tip: Set your mobile bids high enough so your ad shows in location #1 or #2, which can help you show on mobile.

76% of smartphone owners plan to use their device for holiday shopping.

1/5 of Cyber Monday and Black Friday online sales came from mobile - 50% growth since last year.

39% of smartphone owners have made a purchase on their smartphone, compared with 63% of tablet users who’ve purchased2

Source: 1Mobile Commerce Daily, Nov 2013, 2eMarketer, Apr 2013

Mobile users get their holiday shop on

55% Check availability of items before going to the store

50% Track sales at stores and find items on sale

49% Research gift ideas

Source: iab, Nov 2013

Even Scrooge cannot resist a holiday dealShoppers are willing to spend the time looking for and redeeming coupons.

Tip: Highlight post-holiday deals, sales, and even gift card redemption in ad copy.Consider post-holiday opportunity when planning your ad budget.

How do you want to receive deals/promos?

25%

Mobile

43%

Online

47%

Offline

41% Will spend more time shopping for holiday offers and promotions.

37% Will use online coupons more this year.

27% Will only buy gifts at places where they have a coupon.

Source: Holiday Study by IPSOS and Yahoo, 2014

By August, most marketers start Holiday planning

Source: Experian.com, Oct 2013

Nearly 70% started planning their campaigns by August, with June being the top month to begin gearing up for Holiday.

When marketers begin planning their Holiday campaigns:

June July August September

18%

11%12%

13%

Half of holiday campaigns kick off in November Most marketers started their campaigns after Halloween and prior to Thanksgiving.

When marketers launch their initial holiday campaign:

Oct 15-31st Nov 1st-15th Nov 16th-30th

18%

27%

21%

Source: Experian.com, Oct 2013

Source: IBM Core Metrics, 2013 Holiday Season Report

Tip: Thanksgiving sales spike later in the day around 5pm – ensure your budget won’t allow you to go dark toward the end of the day when sales peak.

Move over turkey, Thanksgiving’s for shopping

Thanksgiving Day 201324-hr real-time sales chart

Online sales grew nearly 20% from last year and peaked at 7:25pm.

Tip: Black Friday sales speak early in the morning – ensure your budget won’t allow you to go dark right when sales peak after 9am.

Source: IBM Core Metrics, 2013 Holiday Season Report

Black Friday is not dark for retailersOnline sales grew 19% from last year and peaked around 9AM.

Black Friday 2013 24-hr real-time sales chart

Source: IBM Core Metrics, 2013 Holiday Season Report

Tip: Cyber Monday sales peak later in the evening – ensure your budget won’t allow you to go dark by the end of the day when sales peak.

Cyber Monday is king of online shopping daysOnline sales grew nearly 21% from last year, peaking later in the evening.

Cyber Monday 201324-hr real-time sales chart

.Source: IBM Core Metrics, 2013 Holiday Season Report

Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday all increased their daily retail sales about 20% from last year.

The top three shopping days continue to grow

1Microsoft partnered with Mercent to compare Product Ads to text ads on the Yahoo Bing Network [4 advertisers involved in the study], Q1 2014.

2Source: Microsoft internal data, May 2013. Performance study based upon beta testing data on Bing O&O only and is not a guarantee of performance. Increase in clicks is dependent upon a seasonality and advertiser vehicle.

Reaching your holiday shoppers online and offlineWith the lines blurring between online and offline, Bing Ads can help you reach your shoppers effectively online and on the go.

Want to drive online shoppers to your store front?

Ad Extensions, like Location Extensions and Call Extensions, can help your customers find you quickly – putting your business address and phone number right at their fingertips. Drive in-store traffic with features like store locator, click-to-directions and click-to-call for mobile searchers.

Product Ads allow you to showcase your product and attract more qualified clicks by including images, promotional text, pricing and your company name. Shoppers have a good idea of what they’re clicking on, putting them that much closer to a purchase decision.

Up to 9%higher click-through rate with Location Extensions than with standard text ads2

Up to 29% Lower cost-per-click with Product Ads than with standard text ads1

Want to drive shoppers to your website?

Compared to Google, the Yahoo Bing Network audience is:

Source: comScore Plan Metrix, U.S., Nov 2013, custom measure created using comScore indices and duplication. November was chosen to reflect the beginning of the holiday season.

Our audience is interested in corporate gifts

13%More likely to have been involved in corporate gifts business purchase decisions in the last 6 months

9%More likely to have researched corporate gifts online as a business purchase in the last 6 months

Source: comScore Plan Metrix, U.S., Nov 2013, custom measure created using comScore indices and duplication. November was chosen to reflect the beginning of the holiday season.

Our audience buys retail/apparel onlineCompared to Google, the Yahoo Bing Network Audience is more likely to:

Have bought women's clothing/shoes online in the last 6 months

Have bought greeting cards online in the last6 months

Have bought toys/non-computer games online in the last 6 months

Have bought jewelry/watches/accessories online in the last 6 months

Source: comScore Plan Metrix, U.S., Nov 2013, custom measure created using comScore indices and duplication. November was chosen to reflect the beginning of the holiday season.

31% more likely to have bought a stand-alone scanner online in the last 6 months

11% more likely to have searched online for a stand-alone scanner in the last 6 months

10% more likely to have searched online for an inkjet or laser printer in the last 6 months

10% more likely to have bought a CD burner online in the last 6 months

10% more likely to have bought a combination printer/scanner/fax online in the last 6 months

Our audience searches for and buys computer equipment onlineCompared to Google, the Yahoo Bing Network Audience is:

The Yahoo Bing Network packs value for retail

31M

Source: comScore qSearch (custom), US, March 2014; industry categories based on comScore classifications.

Total retail searchers

Total retail searches

of all retail paid clicks

65M

605M

31%

Retail searchers not reached on Google

Compared to Google, the Yahoo Bing Network audience is

“Very likely” to buy a new PC in the next 12 monthsSource: comScore Plan Metrix, U.S., Nov 2013, custom measure created using comScore indices and duplication. November was chosen to reflect the beginning of the holiday season.

Holiday searches grow the week of Thanksgiving

.Source: Microsoft Internal Data, 2013.Shopping category includes collectables, trades, antiques, gift registries, coupons, rebates, etc.

Searches

Time zone: Eastern Standard Time

Source: Microsoft Internal Data, 2013

Searches

Source: Microsoft Internal Data, 2013

Time zone: Eastern Standard Time

Searches

Embrace ‘Coupon’ and ‘Delivery’

tactics to advance your holiday search strategy. Coupons are searched for

most often the first few weeks of November. Searches for

delivery terms pick up in December.

Searches

Searches

Source: Microsoft Internal Data, 2013

26.9%

32.7%

40.4%

Click breakout over the 3 “Critical Hol-idays”

On the Yahoo Bing Network

Thanksgiving

Black Friday

Cyber Monday

Thanksgiving share of clicks grew 20% from last year, while Black Friday’s decreased.

Thanksgiving Day share of clicks is growing

Source: Microsoft Internal Data, 2013

Clicks

Time zone: Eastern Standard Time

Shopping category includes collectables, trades, antiques, gift registries, coupons, rebates, etc.Source: Microsoft Internal Data, 2013

Clicks

Time zone: Eastern Standard Time

Shopping category includes collectables, trades, antiques, gift registries, coupons, rebates, etc.Source: Microsoft Internal Data, 2013

Clicks

Time zone: Eastern Standard Time

Shopping category includes collectables, trades, antiques, gift registries, coupons, rebates, etc.Source: Microsoft Internal Data, 2013

Take advantage of pre-holiday, lower cost traffic as cost-per-clicks are on the rise from Thanksgiving through the last

shipping day.Toys and Jewelry see the highest increase in cost-per-click from pre-holiday to the post-Thanksgiving period (43% and

33% respectively).

Cost-per-click

Shopping category includes collectables, trades, antiques, gift registries, coupons, rebates, etc.Source: Microsoft Internal Data, 2013.

Source: Microsoft Internal Data, 2013.

Time zone: Eastern Standard Time

Cost-per-click

Top shopping days cost-per-click

Time zone: Eastern Standard Time

Cost-per-click

Shopping category includes collectables, trades, antiques, gift registries, coupons, rebates, etc.Source: Microsoft Internal Data, 2013

Click-through-rates for most categories spike the week before Thanksgiving and can increase up to 40% from

the beginning of November.

Click-through

rate

Shopping category includes collectables, trades, antiques, gift registries, coupons, rebates, etc.Source: Microsoft Internal Data, 2013

Already advertising online elsewhere?

It’s quick and easy to import your Google AdWords campaigns directly into Bing Ads with just a few clicks.

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The best new gift from Bing Ads this holiday seasonMeet Top Movers – a report that makes it easy to quickly identify performance changes and possible causes.

Spend less time diagnosing campaign changes and more time focused on growing your business.

Learn more about Top Movers here

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© 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.