Holiday advertising, while critical to year-over-year success, can be a daunting task for even the most popular brands. You’re not alone if navigating the holiday ads for your business feels like navigating a blizzard driven by a winter wonderland.
Fortunately, all major advertising platforms have released a holiday advertising playbook that anyone can refer to in a seasonal marketing pinch. We’ve compiled the best holiday advertising and marketing resources into this one handy list you can check twice (or more) to grow your business during the most festive time of the year.
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Holiday Advertising Tips by Platform
Here are the best holiday advertising resources from the top marketing platforms this season.
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Google Ads
To finish our list Holiday Advertising Resourceswe’re going with a platform that’s extremely popular at any time of the year: Google Ads.
This past August, Google Issued an article Title “Holiday Shopping: Unlocking the Modern Consumer’s New Value Equation.” This resource is basically a list of ways that Google recommends that businesses use Google’s insights to create and optimize holiday ad campaigns based on how consumers are making purchase decisions this season. If you’re trying to stay ahead of competitors this season, it also gives an indication of which ideas revolve around AI-powered Google Ads features.
Here are the main routes:
- Prioritize customer data and insights for better performance. According to Google, 72% E-commerce Business reports that advanced consumer insights are helpful in their vacation planning, so advertisers should factor this into their accounts. For example, you can try Performance Max or the Customer Acquisition objective in search campaigns for clearer tracking and better bid optimization.
- Use the latest holiday creative to increase sales during the holiday season. Google’s AI can automatically generate assets in Product Studio and beyond, allowing you to create and edit ad images, product images and more.
- Be prepared for seasonal shifts in performance. If you use Google Ads and/or the Smart Bid Recommendations section of Google Ads but expect your performance to fluctuate (throwing away what Google’s machine learning would normally recommend), you can apply. Seasonal adjustment For more tailored AI optimizations from Google.
- Consider how customers are progressing through your buyer’s journey. Research from Google has found that holiday shoppers are looking at three main factors when making purchase decisions: the cost of a product or service, the reputation of a product or service, and how easy it is to buy that product or service. Emphasize your brand’s unique value, reputation, and convenience factors, such as free shipping or nearby locations, in your holiday ads.
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Microsoft Ads
Like Google Ads, Microsoft Ads released The Holiday Advertising Playbook Here are Microsoft Ads’ top recommendations for this holiday season in September:
- Use multiple ad formats to gain exposure quickly. Microsoft has reported that consumers spend more when exposed to more unique ad formats. Advertisers should try CTV ads, display ads, videos, and native ads as early as possible to build brand awareness and consideration throughout the season.
- Advertisers should focus their efforts leading up to Cyber 5. The importance of Microsoft advertising is discussed Advertisement Before and during “Cyber 5,” also known as the time frame between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, includes Black Friday, Giving Tuesday, and Small Business Saturday.
Similar to the Google Holiday Ads article, Microsoft Ads encourages advertisers to leverage its AI-powered AD solution to develop AD assets and optimize campaign bidding and targeting. The resource also ends with a handy vacation checklist.
Meta Ads
Meta ads offer free downloads Guidance on holiday advertising It’s broken down into four basic pillars for holiday success, which are:
- plan: To get ready for the holidays, meta advertisers should pay attention Setting a budgetoptimizing for the conversion API, and simplifying their account structure.
- Experience: Meta Ads recommends that businesses A/B test using Meta Advantage+ features, and source inspiration from other successful brands to brainstorm experiments.
- Push: Use recommended best practices to effectively measure and develop campaign performance from meta ads to holidays.
- Maintain: Meta reported that Facebook ad spending is generally lower in the new year. By keeping holiday campaigns active longer, advertisers can maintain success at a lower cost.
The guide also covers customer engagement and strategy Lead generation Using Facebook Lead Ads During the Holiday Season
💡 look How Much Your Seasonal Facebook Campaigns Can Cost Using our free Facebook Ads Benchmark Report!
Yelp Ads
While Yelp doesn’t have a downloadable guide to seasonal marketing, it does offer a comprehensive article full of holiday tips. Yelp ad.
Here are some recommended best practices for holiday Yelp ads:
- Pay attention to the quality of your Yelp ads (from your audience’s perspective). Yelp places an emphasis on making sure your holiday ads are genuinely helpful to your target audience. This will help your ads stand out during such busy seasons. For example, you want your ad text to be relevant and personalized.
- Make it as easy as possible to convert customers with your Yelp ads. To solve any logistics problems for your customers during this time of year, you can mention options like “buy online and pick up in store” or “buy now, pay later”.
In addition to Yelp’s holiday article, the platform offers a free on-demand webinar cover Yelp Ads for the Holiday Season.
Tactic Ads
TechTalk publishes a holiday advertising guide each year, and This year Cover:
- The importance of using holiday hashtags. The platform recommends using these top tech hashtags to increase holiday exposure: #Thanksgiving, #BlackFriday, #CyberMonday, #Kristas, #Hanukkah, #Kwanzaa, #Nochebuena.
- Getting ahead of your holiday marketing plan is crucial to this The success of the Tektok campaign. Techtalk recommends creating content for Before, During, And After a holiday
- There’s a three-part formula for the perfect vacation treat. TechTalk encourages businesses to create videos that include a killer hook, unique selling points, and a lead within the first three to five seconds. Clear CTA (And consider partnering with an influencer).
For advertisers just getting started this season, the guide also includes some insight into the process of building an ad campaign in Tactic Ads.
Spotify Ads
Your source for the latest holiday ads Spotify may not be as popular as some of the others on our list of ads, but it still covers a ton of holiday marketing stats you can use to get ahead this season.
For example, did you know that festival playlists increase streaming? 59% in November and 85% in December? This means there is a large potential audience available for your business to tap into this time of year.
Here are some other quick tips from Spotify for seasonal advertising:
- Combine different ad formats for the perfect Spotify holiday campaign strategy. Spotify recommends using multiple ad formats to ensure your holiday ads are seen and heard at different times throughout the day.
- Use first-party data to build a Spotify audience you can count on this season. Whether you deliver a festive message through audio or video (or both), you can combine Spotify with your business’s first-party data to help your ads reach audiences when they’re most engaged.
Amazon Ads
A resource for holiday advertising Amazon Ads is a compilation of articles created to help brands grow during the platform’s busiest season on the site. This includes:
- A custom holiday ad objective template. You’ll want to make sure you’re running ads during Amazon’s high-volume shopping days, so first, Amazon made space within the guide for you to set goals and intentions for the season.
- Case studies and insights from thought leaders. Amazon refers to six different successful holiday advertising campaigns that businesses can learn from. It also includes a link to a marketing expert’s insight on the importance of incorporating Amazon ads into a cross-channel marketing strategy for maximum holiday success.
- A breakdown of your holiday ad structure on the Amazon platform. Amazon provides answers to key holiday advertising questions such as “What kind of creative variation does an Amazon ad have?” and “What metrics are most important for Amazon holiday campaigns?”
Use these resources to plan a winning holiday advertising game
No matter which marketing channels you decide to leverage this holiday season, there are resources available to help you navigate the festive rush.
These holiday advertising playbooks have one theme in common: Consumer engagement has been proven to increase during the holiday months. So, regardless of whether you’re promoting sales or services, you’re more likely to see campaign success when you enable campaigns throughout the holidays and throughout the winter. For more help with your seasonal marketing, see how our solutions can empower you to get the most out of your holiday campaigns.