Michael Jackson, Balloon Boy, a Helpful PPC Campaign and Halloween

According to a recent report released by Experian Hitwise, Michael Jackson saw a resurgence in postmortem online popularity during Halloween and was joined by Balloon Boy, Tinker Bell and Cat Woman, among others.

“Michael jackson costume” was the top overall U.S. costume search during the four weeks ending Oct. 24, 2009, according to the company. “Balloon boy halloween costume” was second, followed by “tinkerbell costume,” “catwoman costume” and “poison ivy costume.”

For adult costume searches, “adult snow white costume” topped the list, followed by “adult cat costume,” “fairy costume adult,” “adult mermaid costume” and “adult care bear costume.”

For sexy costume searches, “sexy sailor costume” sat atop the list, followed by “sexy catwoman costume,” “sexy witch costume,” “sexy nurse costume” and “sexy queen of hearts costume.”

“The Web sites receiving the most traffic from the term "michael jackson costume" were BuyCostumes.com, Brandsonsale.com and Amazon.com,” Experian Hitwise’s press release noted.

BuyCostumes.com was the top visited online costume retail Web site, drawing 42.94 percent of all U.S. traffic to this custom category for the week ending Oct. 24, 2009.

Costume Express was second with 13.38 percent of the market, followed by Spirit Halloween with 10.50 percent, Halloween Express with 8.87 percent and Costume Super Center with 5.79 percent.

Costume Craze was sixth with 3.30 percent, trailed by Costume Hub with 2.54 percent, Anytime Costumes.com with 2.20 percent, Costumes 4 Less with 1.90 percent and Zoogster Costumes with 1.82 percent.

Laurie Sullivan at MediaPost Publications spoke with Brad Butler, the chief operating officer of Halloween Express, who said that the use of Google AdWords was key to the company’s holiday sales this year.

“Butler taught himself how to use AdWords. He dedicates about 35% of the overall marketing budget to AdWords, and attributes about 20% of site traffic to the campaigns,” Sullivan writes.

“During a typical Halloween season, about 40% of sales come from PPC campaigns, with more than 100% return. Butler never loses money on the campaigns. This year, he will have spent nearly $1 million on paid-search campaigns. Granted, Butler has been at it since 2004.”

The article also notes that Halloween Express spends more than 90 percent of its Google AdWords budget during the months of September and October. Its PPC campaigns are tweaked year-round.

Sources:</strong

http://www.hitwise.com/us/press-center/press-releases/halloween-2009/

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=116498