Valentine's Day Report Says "Flowers" Get The Love Over Other Searches

Searches on Key Valentine's Gifts Surge 50 Percent in February; "Roses" is Most Expensive Keyword, Soaring More than 150 times Right Before Valentine's Day

SAN MATEO, Calif – February 10, 2011 – When it comes to finding that special gift for that special Valentine, searchers are still most often looking for the tried and true bouquet of flowers, and marketers that paid five cents per click on February 1 will pay almost $8 two weeks later to rank highly on "roses," the most valuable cost-per-click (CPC) keyword for the Valentine's Day holiday.

These are just two of the findings in a report today from Performics, put together in association with BrightEdge, focusing on search marketing strategies for Valentine's Day.

Performics and BrightEdge analyzed the top 83 terms related to Valentine's Day last year and found that the majority of activity surrounded the top 10 terms, such as "roses," "orchids" or "Vermont teddy bear." These top ten terms made up almost 80 percent of all searches, and "flowers" and "Valentine's Day" combined to account for nearly half of all searches.  The rise in search volume primarily took off at the beginning in February, as terms like "Flower Delivery" increased nearly 125 percent month-over-month.

In the period leading up to Valentine's Day from February 1 to February 12, the average CPC for the top ten terms increased 32x. The most dramatically bid-up keywords were often directly related to terms that showed consumer intent to purchase, such as "delivery" or "cheap." In addition, branded keyword prices also increased, as leaders like FTD Flowers ensured that consumers looking for their brand did not get redirected to competitor sites.

"For some industries, Valentine’s Day is a holiday that can make or break a fiscal year," said Jim Yu, CEO of BrightEdge. "By using a combination of SEO and PPC, you can dominate the search pages for critical holiday keywords and, at the same time, maximize search efficiency. Brands can form long- and short-term search strategies that will give them a unique leg up on the competition even in a very competitive and cluttered market."

More information on the BrightEdge SEO platform can be found at http://www.brightedge.com.