As we enter the last weekend of shopping before the holidays, it's nice to be able to look back and see how the promotions and extra marketing dollars of the past weeks have paid off.  How has your holiday marketing campaign worked so far?  Have you experienced a 30 - 35% increase in sales over last year?  If you haven't, Internet Retailer shows us how one company was able to pull it off nothing more than a simple budget shift.

RockbottomGolf.com knows the importance of the last two months of year for its bottom line.  To take advantage of increased holiday sales, the company has started shifting more of it's marketing dollars into PPC campaigns during the 25 day selling period between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  RockbottomGolf.com utilizes both Google AdWords and Yahoo search advertising to send traffic to the site by spending about a fourth of its yearly PPC ad dollars after Thanksgiving.

In addition, the company has been offering free shipping upgrades to customers once they reach the site.  Those shipping incentives, combined with a redesigned site and navigation have increased yearly sales by up to 35%.  It's an integrated system.  More PPC ad spending drives more traffic to the site.  Better navigation, a cleaner site, and a shipping upgrade help keep customers shopping and pull them in for the final sale.

While it may not be feasible for you to funnel a quarter of your marketing dollars into a small segment of the year, it's important to know when your prime selling periods occur.  Even if you don't make as dramatic a shift as RockbottomGolf.com did, it'd be worth the effort to maximize your spending to coincide with your busy seasons.