Seasonal campaigns create a common dilemma for businesses.
Start advertising too early and you risk spending budget before buyers are actively in the market. Start too late and the algorithm does not have enough time to learn, which can limit performance just as demand peaks.
For events like Valentine’s Day, where purchase behaviour concentrates around a specific date, getting the timing right can make a significant difference.
We recently tested this with Panache to understand how early seasonal campaigns should begin in order to capture demand while still giving Google’s algorithm time to optimise.
The objective
The goal for the Valentine’s campaign was to drive a strong increase in total sales volume.
We were comfortable allowing ROAS to drop slightly if it meant capturing more overall revenue during the seasonal window.
The campaign structure
Three business-as-usual campaigns continued running as normal.
Alongside these, we activated a dedicated seasonal campaign designed to capture Valentine’s Day specific searches.
This campaign focused on:
• Valentine’s specific keywords
• refreshed headlines and descriptions
• increased campaign budgets
• seasonal performance adjustments
Performance Max handled most of the heavy lifting, while the seasonal search campaign captured highly relevant demand from users searching specifically for Valentine’s-related products.
The results
Compared with the previous Valentine’s campaign, performance improved significantly.
Ad spend increased by 56%, allowing the campaign to capture a larger share of seasonal demand.
Conversions increased by 171.76% year-on-year.
Conversion value increased by 208.11% compared with the previous campaign.
ROAS improved by 97.56%, showing that the increased investment translated into significantly stronger overall performance.
Additional indicators also reflected strong demand growth.
Impressions increased by 160.51%, indicating significantly higher visibility during the seasonal period.
Clicks increased by 72.66%, demonstrating strong engagement with the expanded campaigns.
Average CPC decreased by 9.67%, allowing the campaign to capture more traffic efficiently.
CTR decreased slightly as the campaign expanded reach across a broader search audience, which is common when scaling seasonal activity.
What drove the improvement
Several changes contributed to the improved performance.
First, headlines and descriptions were refreshed to meet high ad quality standards and improve relevance.
Second, we reused high-performing keywords from previous years while expanding the list to include higher-volume seasonal search terms.
Third, we used seasonal adjustments within Google Ads to signal the expected uplift in performance.
Fourth, overall budgets were increased to ensure we could capture the additional seasonal demand.
Finally, we slightly lowered the target ROAS, allowing the algorithm more flexibility to spend and find additional conversions.
The timing challenge with seasonal campaigns
Seasonal campaigns require careful timing.
Budgets typically need to increase around key events to capture the spike in demand, particularly when launching specific seasonal campaigns.
However, starting too early can mean spending budget before enough buyers are actively searching.
At the same time, launching too close to the event can limit performance because the algorithm does not have enough time to learn and optimise.
This creates a narrow window where demand is beginning to build but the system still has time to calibrate.
In this campaign we found that beginning the ramp-up around seven days before the event gave the algorithm enough time to learn while still aligning spend with real buyer intent.
Key lessons from the campaign
Three clear insights emerged from this campaign.
Seasonal campaigns should begin earlier than many businesses expect.
Allowing at least seven days of ramp-up helps the algorithm learn before peak demand arrives.
Capturing seasonal demand requires investment.
Increasing budget allowed the campaign to reach a much larger audience and capture more search activity.
Optimisation still drives efficiency.
Refreshing creative, expanding keywords and giving the algorithm more flexibility all contributed to improved performance.
The takeaway
Seasonal campaigns are not just about the final few days before an event.
Launching too early risks spending budget before demand builds. Launching too late means the algorithm never fully optimises.
In this case, beginning the ramp-up around seven days before Valentine’s Day provided the right balance.
The result was 171.76% more conversions and 208.11% more revenue compared with the previous year.
Written: 17th March 2026
Updated: 20th March 2026
About the Author: Jordana Clarke
