The majority of retail searches made over the Easter holiday will be made on mobile devices, new figures from Bing Ads have revealed, with Easter shopping queries set to increase 500 per cent in the week before Easter Sunday.

Almost three quarters of Easter-related searches will be made by women, continuing trends that have been seen on other key retail shopping days so far this year such as Valentines Day and Mothers Day. Over a third of all Easter searches (35 per cent) will be performed by Generation X (35 – 49 year olds).

Easter egg, Easter flowers, hot cross buns and Easter bonnet are all expected to among the top retail keywords in the lead up to the Bank Holiday weekend, as shoppers search for last minute items using smartphones.

Bing Ads advises marketers to ensure they have assigned enough budget to their Easter campaigns to last the extended weekend, which will see traffic levels higher than usual, and ensure their have used clear age and gender breakdowns to ensure they are targeting the right demographic at the right time.

“Our insights into online search behaviour around Easter gives brands the opportunity to hop into the lead and plan ahead to capture consumer attention ahead of Easter weekend,” said Minal Fofaria, head of EMEA insights at Bing Ads. “Brands must harness the power of search data to help inform their Easter campaigns by understanding when and what people are searching for. Through using these insights, we can empower marketers to make meaningful connections with consumers.”