We’ve all heard about the recent topic on seasonality and how it may affect affiliate earnings and sales. Ebay brought it to the height of attention in late February with their article “Seasonality and its impact on your CPC.”

Most affiliate marketers will have noticed the effect, at one time or another, that different times of the year can have on their website sales. Sales volume tends to peak around December-January when people are buying Christmas presents and then in January hunting for a bargain when product prices slide.

In the summer months, internet user numbers drop significantly which is usually blamed on the fact that most people like to take advantage when the sun shines (which, let’s face it isn’t that often in the UK) and get outdoors.

The trend generally follows this pattern every year, seeing a spike in traffic in the run up to the various holiday seasons, followed by a decline in conversions when that period hits or is over. It can, of course, also be determined by various other factors namely the type of products you are promoting and the marketplace differences inherrent in each country. Travel accessories, for example, would not have as high a conversion rate in November as they would in July/August.

When looking at the graph below we can see there are various differences over the year depending on the type of products a retailer sells. Shampoo generally seems to be a good all year round seller but doesn’t see much of a peak in its sales. Bikinis, however, are more widely searched for in the summer months, whilst the Nintendo Wii appears popular towards Christmas.

The great thing about the Shopzilla UK Publisher Program is that we look at seasonality over the course of the year and take it into account when evaluating your traffic quality. This means we keep the rates the same so our Publishers don’t actually feel the impact themselves when faced with minimal conversions in low season climates.

Although not a lot can be done to significantly increase sales during these time periods, there are a couple of things you can do to help yourselves in this volatile market.

Tips for optimising your ad campaigns:

1. Make sure that your shopping content corresponds as closely as possible to your website’s content- visitors looking for swimwear information aren’t necessarily going to click on an advert for computers.
2. Know your visitors - does your site attract new or loyal readers? Are they primarily looking for information or to purchase something?
3. Fine-tune your ads - research and choose the most relevant keywords to optimise your conversions
4. Use historical data to analyse your previous campaigns and try and establish the trend relevant to your particular case so you can plan in advance
5. Get familiar with the seasonal cycle - there are often other times of the year when demand is also high so take advantage of these, too.

If you want more information about Shopzilla’s dynamic approach to seasonality, please ask one of the Publisher team.

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