It’s the most wonderful time of the year! For brands, the holidays are an optimal opportunity to get creative with effective ad campaigns that boost engagement and sales while being a joy to look at.
How to Plan a Festive Holiday Ad Campaign on Facebook
For serious marketers, the holidays can quickly lose their charm as those sugar plums dancing in your head are swapped for KPIs and conversion rates. We’re here to point out that silver lining of the giving season: unique opportunities for growth!
People spend an increased amount of time online during Q4 holidays. Not only are people posting and enjoying vacation photos, but they’re also searching for the best deals and discounts to turbo-charge their holiday shopping.
This year, US holiday retail sales are expected to hit $1.3 trillion—up 3.3% from 2021. So, how can prepare your brand to grab a piece of that pie? In this post, we’ll go over our favorite tips for creating a successful holiday ad campaign.
Start Early
The early bird gets the worm—and the revenue. Marketers typically begin prepping their holiday ad campaign in October, if not sooner.
It’s important to get a jump on planning because the market will be oversaturated with plenty of high-quality campaigns from your competitors, and your campaign shouldn’t get lost in the mix. Plus, many consumers prefer to get their shopping done ahead of time, so it’s best to plant the seed early and nurture them with discount teasers.
Check Out Facebook’s Holiday Guide
Every year, Facebook releases an insightful holiday guide to better help brands with the busy season. You’ll find an interactive foresight report, tips to get you prepared before the holidays, during, and after, and even inspiring success stories from other businesses.
With so much useful info, we strongly encourage businesses to read through the guide in detail and take note of their compliances. The last thing you want is to deal with is getting getting your advertising restricted during the biggest shopping season of the year!
Use Merry and Bright Creatives
In such a competitive time, you can’t afford to skimp on the visual elements of your holiday ad campaign. Your Facebook ad creative should be on-brand and consistent with holiday hints like fun and bright colors, gift-wrapping edits, and a positive, warm tone—and don’t forget about video!
The creative minds behind Social Ktchn did a stellar job of drawing in their clients’ audiences with these campaigns:
1. Pure Fiji
Pure Fiji’s holiday ad is minimalist, and feels fresh and modern, adding a pop of spring-colored flair to a wintry season. It would fit in well with their audience’s timeline, as the sale promotes a sense of urgency in its countdown to Christmas.
2. Bridebrite
The brilliance of bridebrite’s video is how authentic it looks—exactly like a user-generated video—which boosts its feeling of authenticity and connection.
The traditional colors and cute creatives bring Christmas to everyone’s mind, the playful lightbulb underscores in a funny way that followers will have BRIGHT teeth if they use bridebrite’s product, and it’s clear that shoppers can enjoy a steep and satisfying discount. How bright!
Highlight Seasonal Offers
To help your holiday ad campaign really stand out, consider different types of offers that you can highlight, like:
- Discounts: Holiday shoppers love a good deal! To make an impact, discounts should feel timely and urgent. Think: Sale Ends Today or This Weekend Only! Also, don’t opt for a generic discount code but spring for a themed code that really resonates with your brand.
- Free Shipping: A shipping price can make or break a sale, so try offering free shipping to generate more incentive for your audience to purchase.
- Complimentary Gift: Everyone loves free stuff, so a complimentary gift can be a perfect way to drive more sales.
- Free Gift Wrapping: Consumers will need to wrap their purchase anyway, so it can be seen as a big plus to check that extra step off their list with the click of a button.
- Charity Donations: Consider pledging a percentage of sales to go towards a charity. You’ll be doing a good deed for those in need, while also allowing your consumers to be a part of it.
Build a Data-Driven Customer Journey
Don’t forget about data! It’s crucial to learn about your customers buying behavior and journey to improve ad campaigns for higher success rates.
The best way to do this is to build a funnel that will smoothly transition consumers from the brand awareness stage to becoming a happy customer. To do this, we recommend taking advantage of Facebook Dynamic Ads for retargeting purposes and Facebook Pixel to track user activity and create personalized ads for consumers searching for specific gifts that you can offer.
Optimize for Mobile
Most users will be scrolling on their phones when they come across your ad, so be sure to test your holiday ad campaign for both mobile and desktop views.
Here are some tips to help you optimize for mobile:
- Crop for Mobile. Opposed to desktop, our phones are vertical and a landscape Facebook ad won’t look as great. It’s best to crop your creatives to 9:16.
- Put Your Brand Name Upfront. People scroll fast, so try to place your brand name within the first few seconds of your ad to improve your chances of achieving increased brand identity.
- Adjust Headlines. Headlines with a handful of words can work well for desktops, but not so much for mobile. To make a better impact on mobile ads, keep your headlines short and sweet in order to fit on the user’s screen.
- Keep Videos Short. As mentioned above, your audience will scroll quickly without focusing too much on details. To keep up with fast consumption, trim your videos to about 15-30 seconds while featuring only the most important aspects of your ad.
- Create a Separate Ad. It’s usually best to just create separate ads for mobile and for desktop. With how many elements you’ll need to adjust for an optimized mobile experience, it’ll be more beneficial to create a mobile version of your campaign.
Unwrap The Best Holiday Ads this Season
Want a helping hand with your holiday ad campaigns? Social Ktchn is here to give the gift of better business without the stress!
Our team of marketing experts will work closely with you to zero in on your goals for the holiday season and craft creative and effective campaigns that stand out among the crowd. As the mom-and-pop shop of paid social media ads, Social Ktchn gives you the tools and guidance to grow your brand.