In the current economic climate, it’s easy to feel more like Scrooge than Santa’s Little Helper. The fact that the time period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is five days shorter than last year doesn’t help either. It feels like Christmas snuck up on us this year and now we’re left scrambling to get everything done. (Actually, that’s kind of how it feels every year so I’ve been relying heavily on that “5 days less” tidbit to justify my procrastination.)

However, even in the midst of our less-than-stellar economy and the feeling that there’s no time to buy the gifts we might not want to spend the money on in the first place, there’s a silver lining to be seen without ever leaving the house – the aggressively slashed prices and deals that can be found online.

According to marketing research company comScore, sales in the four-day period from Black Friday through Cyber Monday saw a 13% increase versus the same time period in 2007. So far, overall online holiday sales have remained consistent with last year’s sales despite consumers’ desires to cut down on holiday spending. In a comScore survey conducted the weekend before Thanksgiving to gauge consumers’ attitudes towards holiday shopping this year, 39% of respondents stated they planned to use the Internet to help cut costs.

So, what are advertisers doing to capitalize on the attention from these shoppers to boost online sales? After doing some surfing, it seems the popular online promotions include free shipping offers and other special online-only discounts. But are advertisers this holiday season bringing these offers to the consumer with search marketing or are they waiting for the consumer to discover their fabulous offers on their website?

To see which advertisers were more likely to end up under the Christmas tree, I assumed the mind of an ordinary consumer doing some broad searches to jump start ideas for a gift list. At the time of this post, Victoria’s Secret, who’s pretty good at aggressive holiday marketing, was offering free 2-day delivery on orders meeting a certain minimum. However, when I searched for “pajamas” and “lingerie,” neither paid ad that showed up had any mention of this offer, nor any other holiday special. (Inexplicably, they didn’t have an ad show up at all for the search “women’s underwear.”)

During a search for “books,” ads for Barnes & Noble, Amazon and Borders showed up. Each of the three ads made some mention of Christmas. Barnes & Noble and Amazon ads mentioned special deals they have running before Christmas; Borders only mentioned ensuring your shipment would arrive on time. Yet, when I went to Borders.com, I was greeted with five different holiday discounts and specials being offered, any one of which could have been worked into their paid search creative to draw searchers to their site.

A few advertisers, however, made Santa’s “nice list” for their holiday search strategy and are more likely to end up under the tree. A handful of advertisers chose to buy on general terms related to holiday shopping. Google, Ebay and Costco all had ads running on the term “holiday deals,” and ads for AT&T, HomeGoods and Tide showed up when for the search “cheap gifts.” Not only did these advertisers take advantage of the seasonal opportunity by buying on holiday-themed keywords, they incorporated holiday offers into their creative messaging as well.

Paid search is like the tree topper of a marketing program – the finishing touch (or centerpiece) that makes your holiday marketing “tree” complete. Even in times when holiday spending is down due to an increase in cost-conscientious consumers who are cutting back, advertisers, especially those that are providing an alternative to the traditional department-store shopping, should be using search strategically to make sure they are present and top of mind when the consumer decides to spend.

Is search playing a role in bringing your seasonal on- and offline marketing together? Santa makes his list and checks it twice; and advertisers should do the same when they review their  integrated seasonal marketing program. Otherwise, your lack of visibility will leave your stocking empty.