Short Google Ads Campaigns for Events and Seasons

A short campaign runs for a few weeks and ends on a date that cannot be moved. It might be a Christmas buffet or an event such as a trade fair. Whatever an ordinary campaign gets a month to find out then has to work from day one.

The budget has to last for the right weeks and the bidding does not have much time to learn. The keywords also only exist for a short period, and local media are often part of the plan. This post goes through how we set up a campaign like this.

My recommendation is that you plan backwards from the date. Start when searches begin to rise and put most of the money into the weeks when people book. Keep the keywords narrow and read the search terms every day for as long as the campaign runs.

Searches come before the date

People looking for a Christmas buffet or an activity often search well in advance. Keyword Planner in Google Ads shows how many people search per month, and it is the first thing I open before a short campaign.

The Swedish Christmas buffet, julbord, is a clear example. According to Keyword Planner, searches for julbord in Sweden have in recent years started to rise in August and peaked in December. Searches for julbord företag (Christmas buffet for companies), on the other hand, have peaked as early as October and November. That is probably when many companies book.

People who search with a place name or a price are probably closer to booking than those who search broadly. So put most of the budget into the weeks when those searches peak.

Daily budget when the campaign is short

With an average daily budget, the campaign can cost up to twice the daily budget on a single day but no more than 30.4 times the daily budget in a calendar month. How this works is explained in the post on a budget that lasts the whole month.

For a short campaign there are two more things to know.

• A campaign that starts mid-month gets a monthly limit that only counts the days remaining in that month.
• If you change the end date, Google treats it as a budget change when calculating the monthly limit. This is stated on Google's help page on budget changes.

Google describes spend as evening out over a full calendar month. My assessment is that a campaign lasting a few weeks has too few days for that to happen. Individual days can therefore cost more than planned, which is why spend needs to be followed every day.

Split the period into phases instead of spending the same amount every day. An example: an association has SEK 20 000 to advertise a food festival that runs over a weekend. The campaign runs for four weeks up to and including the festival.

Phase	Days	Daily budget	Total
The first three weeks	21	SEK 500	SEK 10 500
The last week up to and including the festival	7	SEK 1 300	SEK 9 100
The whole campaign	28		SEK 19 600

The SEK 400 left over is a small margin for days when the campaign costs more than the daily budget. Change the daily budget on the morning the new phase begins and put the day in the calendar.

Bidding when time is short

Smart Bidding is Google's automated bidding that steers towards conversions. Conversions are the bookings or purchases you measure in the account. According to Google's help page on Smart Bidding learning, the bidding can need up to around 50 conversions or three conversion cycles to calibrate to a new goal. A conversion cycle is the time from click to booking.

My assessment is that a new campaign lasting a few weeks rarely gets that far. A bid strategy that steers towards clicks with a cap on the cost per click can then be a better choice at the start. More on that choice in the post on bid strategies in Google Ads.

If you already have a campaign with a long history, it can carry the period instead. If you expect a larger share of clicks to turn into bookings over a few days, you can add a seasonality adjustment. It tells Smart Bidding that the conversion rate is expected to change. According to Google's help page on seasonality adjustments, it works best for events of 1 to 7 days and less well for periods longer than 14 days.

Keywords for a short period

A short campaign has no time to pay for searches that lead nowhere. This is how we set up the keywords.

1. Start from the occasion and the place. Searches such as julbord with the town's name or boka julbord (book a Christmas buffet) say more about intent than julbord alone.
2. Use exact match and phrase match. A broad word in phrase match can also catch searches for the names of other venues.
3. Add negative keywords from the start. For a Christmas buffet that could be recept (recipe) and hemma (at home).
4. Read the search terms every day for as long as the campaign runs. How to do it is explained in the post on negative keywords as a daily routine.
5. Put the date and place in the ad so that readers can see it is for the right occasion.

Choose the location setting with care too. Presence shows the ad to people who are in, or regularly in, the area. Presence or interest also includes people who have shown interest in the area. The latter suits events where many visitors travel in.

Local media

A local newspaper often reaches exactly the people who might come. There are two ways to get there.

• Placements in a Display campaign. In Google Ads you can choose which websites the ad should appear on, and then it only appears there. How to do it is explained in the guide to creating a custom publisher list.
• Buying directly from the newspaper. This covers the printed paper and often the website too. Not every newspaper accepts advertisers from Google Ads, and for those it is the only way.

Add a new placement and check after two or three days whether it is getting impressions. If it gets none, the newspaper probably does not sell to Google Ads. Also read a couple of articles on the website before you choose it. It should have a real newsroom and its own photos.

Another option is the websites of large national newspapers with location targeting on your area. The ad is then shown to readers in the area. Use a responsive display ad, because according to Google's help page on responsive display ads it adjusts its size to the ad spaces available.

Check this before you start

1. The start date and end date are set in the campaign.
2. The ads are approved. According to Google's help page on ad review, most ads are reviewed within one business day, but if you need to start on a particular date you should submit the ads several days in advance.
3. Bookings or ticket purchases count as conversions in the account.
4. The landing page shows the date and price and makes it easy to book.
5. The daily budget for each phase and the day it changes are in the calendar.

Next step

We set up short campaigns in Google Ads with a budget per phase and follow search terms and spend every day for as long as the campaign runs. That applies to Christmas buffets and to other experiences and events.

Which week do searches for your next occasion start to rise?