Last Minute Campaign Tips For Holiday Business
Management Summary
In the run-up to Christmas – which typically includes the months of November and December – retail generates around 20% of annual sales. Online trading is playing an increasingly strong role even without lockdowns and restrictions. Omnichannel shopping is the new normal because 81% of consumers look for inspiration digitally. 47% compare prices online before buying because price consciousness is stronger in 2022.
High competition for the user’s favor leads to high CPAs and poor reach for campaigns. Our experts for powerful data-driven campaigns share their know-how on how you can put your campaign strategy on the road to success now.
Expert tips for successful display & Paid social campaigns for Christmas business 2022:
Our expert for paid social campaigns Lukas Capek and our expert for programmatic campaigns share their recommendations for powerful campaigns for the holiday season.
Trust your data: A look into the past helps with planning and strategy development
What worked well for which channel? What worse? Analyzes of previous year’s campaigns and analytics provide insights into which approaches worked particularly well and help with action planning:
- Which formats or targeting brought the most users to the website?
- Which product categories sold best?
- Have all top-selling keywords been activated and enough budget allocated to avoid losing impressions during this busy time?
- Were there certain promotions or discounts that boosted sales?
- For which keywords were the costs too high?
By the way, these tips are also helpful for SEA campaigns – more SEA tips further down in the article.
Update now: It’s high time to implement the Conversions API
The Conversions API enables a direct, more efficient connection between marketing data and meta-ads to provide a clear overview of sales performance and reduce cost per action (CPA).
Give the algorithm more leeway: Use broader targeting to maximize the performance of social media ads
Through broad targeting, the meta advertising system can identify people who are most likely to increase the advertising brand’s sales. This way the campaign can be targeted at the right users.
Creatives are the new targeting: optimization focus on creatives
The optimization and testing focus shifts from targeting to creative. With broader targeting, the algorithm can more easily find the right users and scale the campaign. The creative finds the right audience.
Personalized creatives are still indispensable for programmatic campaigns in order to attract users’ attention with a variety of promotions and advertising messages in this highly competitive time. The ads should therefore respond to the needs and wishes of the users. A very good and sustainable option for this are dynamic ads, which allow you to test different messages, texts, actions or images and which can therefore also be used for various campaigns.
In addition to the classic display banners, videos or DOOH should also be used – this way users’ attention can be generated in very different ways.
Always important: Video content optimized for mobile
Users spend over half of their time on social media channels like Facebook and Instagram with videos. Our tip: Short, mobile-friendly video ads in portrait format create powerful, immersive experiences that drive more conversions and reduce cost per action (CPA).
In addition to videos, audio spots are also an ideal addition to mobile measures. Programmatic audio ads make it possible to reach users when the display is not present, e.g. while the smartphone is in your pocket or you are on the move. YouTube Audio or Spotify are just two of the many options that can be booked. Due to the many targeting options and the comparatively low prices, programmatic audio is an ideal complement to classic radio booking – especially during the holidays.
Test Test Test
Brand and conversion lift studies show their usefulness for critical questions; small variations are tested directly in the auction. Each company needs to find the most appropriate approach to reduce cost per result (CPR) by comparing ads with A/B testing that focuses on ad creation, targeting or ad structure.
Extra boost for optimized SEA Christmas campaigns with these tips:
Our search engine advertising expert, Katia Meleady, shares her know-how for effective campaigns.
Create a digital showcase for products
With over 60% of holiday shoppers buying their gifts online, it’s more important than ever to be present on Google and stand out. So what should you do to put Google Ads on solid footing heading into the holiday season?Communicate Christmas effectively – or: Is the ad text festive enough?These tips can improve ad copy and its accuracy:
- Revising and refining ad copy with seasonal messaging shows potential customers that the offer is current.
- “Holiday keywords” in the headings, descriptions and path 1
- Using ad extensions to offer holiday discounts and offers.
- Updating sitelinks for special offers, limited offers, and other benefits like delivery options. For time-limited Christmas promotions, it is also possible to use so-called countdowns in the advertisements.
Use the potential of dynamic search ads
If you have not yet used DSA campaigns (Dynamic Search Ads), you should add them to your account by Christmas time at the latest. They are a great and easy way to find customers who are looking for a specific offer, especially for online retailers with a wide product portfolio. DSA ads are displayed based on website content or product feed linked to Google Ads. Don’t forget to enrich the description and ad extensions with Christmas messages!
Keep an eye on the competition
Even though Christmas is still a while away, people are already in the shopping mood from October and are looking for the best bargains. The preparation of the campaigns must therefore begin early and, above all, the competition should be kept in mind in order to be able to react quickly and adapt the activities if necessary. The auction data report from Google Ads is suitable for this. This tool allows marketers to compare their performance with that of other advertisers participating in the same auctions. Metrics like impression share, top position rate, etc. can be used to determine whether a campaign is aggressive and powerful enough.
Conclusion
With these tips from our experts for SEA, display and paid social campaigns, successful data-driven campaigns for the 2022 Christmas business can still be achieved. Let’s get to it!
