Best Practices

The Holidays are Coming. Are Your Campaigns Ready?

facebook holiday campaigns

For most retailers, holiday season prep begins in July.

 

This period is the most lucrative of the year. And the stakes are higher than ever before. Retail holiday sales are slated to grow more than 5% this year over 2017, according to Deloitte. This creates ample opportunity for retailers to gain market share.

However, consumers are faced with countless options for shopping – making competition high. In order to convert shoppers, your holiday campaigns need to cut through the noise. They must demonstrate value, resonate with folks, and look visually appealing.

Feeling like you’re down to crunch time and your Facebook & Instagram ads still aren’t up to par? There’s still time to create thumb-stopping, sales-driving campaigns.

Consider running these easy-to-execute ads to drive revenue in-store, online, and in-app this year.

 

1. Let dynamic video fuel an engaging experience.

Shoppers who view video are 1.81 times more likely to purchase than non-video viewers, according to Adobe. And people on Facebook view a lot of video during the holiday season. There were more than 450 million views of Black Friday related videos over the 2017 Thanksgiving shopping weekend.

Facebook recently launched its video creation kit – making it easier for businesses to create mobile-first video ads with limited resources. This capability pulls images from the product feed to create Instant Experiences (aka Canvas ads). This feature cannot be used across the entire product catalog for dynamic ads.

StitcherAds uses dynamic creative capabilities to create engaging videos for all of the items in your product catalog—instantly. Built from Facebook’s slideshow ads, this solution can even be used in dynamic carousel ads to catch attention and increase conversions.

Here are three ways to leverage dynamic video in your Facebook and Instagram holiday campaigns:

  • Create a colorful video of a product in every available color or pattern.
  • Flip through every angle of an item to provide a complete view. We’ve seen this work best for accessories or shoes.
  • Utilize user-generated content to provide styling recommendations for the products you’re promoting. Show shoppers how your brand brings happiness to different people during the holidays.

 

2. Pump people up as they get ready to tackle resolutions.

Some 40% of people make New Year’s resolutions, but it’s no secret that most do not accomplish their goals.

Create product sets featuring items that will help people achieve their resolutions: athletic apparel for people who want to work out more frequently; cookware for aspiring chefs; books for those who aim to read more; wellness products for people who want to lead healthier lives. The possibilities are endless.

This could work well from both a prospecting and retargeting perspective.

For prospecting, use broad audience targeting to reach consumers who have shown interest in products similar to yours, even if they’ve never visited your website. People in this audience will automatically see products from your catalog that might be relevant to them.

For retargeting, make sure your pixel is set up to capture the standard events: Add to Cart, Add to Wishlist, Search, and View Content. View Category is not a standard event, but if you set that up, you can retarget users who viewed certain categories of products.

Once your audiences are in place, feature resolutions-related products within carousel or collection ads. Don’t forget to include encouraging copy to pump people up.

 

3. Remind them that they deserve some holiday love too.

Roughly half of holiday shoppers buy gifts for themselves, according to Deloitte. Take this as an opportunity to remind your audience that they deserve to treat themselves, too.

Lookalike audiences would be a good bet here. Surface lookalikes of people who have previously purchased your best-selling items. Then, reach them with ads highlighting those products. Don’t forget to include copy that will compel shoppers to buy a little something for themselves.

 

4. Create a sense of exclusivity via Instagram Stories.

 

Is your brand launching any limited edition products during the holiday season? Use Instagram Stories ads to heighten the feeling of exclusivity. More than 300 million people view Instagram Stories every day, and seeing ads in this placement can feel more personal than it does in other settings.

For a winning ad:

  • Don’t overproduce the content. Your photos or video should be high quality, but still remain authentic to the platform.
  • Keep text brief. Instagram Stories remain on users’ screens for 10 seconds. Give your audience just enough to encourage them to swipe up and buy.
  • Use overlays. With Instagram Stories, you can add text, graphic elements, and emojis to your images. Take advantage of this as it lends itself well to the type of content users already see on Instagram.

It’s not too late to create winning holiday campaigns

Don’t let a poor strategy impede your ability to maximize sales this season. There’s still time to create stunning campaigns that will delight shoppers into choosing your brand.

 

Need a bit more inspo? Check out our last-minute holiday creative guide. Learn how top brands like Saks Fifth Avenue and IKEA use existing assets to create stunning digital experiences.