5 Back-to-School Advertising Strategies That Generate Sales

The winter holidays may be the biggest advertising event throughout the year; however, back-to-school marketing promotions come to a close second. Hence, competition can be fierce as school and college necessities are among the first items that back-to-school shoppers seek. But you should be good to go if you have the right back-to-school ad strategy to tap into those markets and appeal to those interests.

Whether you’re running a back-to-school weekly ad for college dorm furniture or recurring social campaigns for the trendiest school bags, these strategies for your back-to-school ad campaigns are designed to drive your audience from their screens to their shopping carts.

1. Develop Funnel-Focused Campaigns

Here’s a sample media plan that takes your audience from awareness to conversion:

To optimize your back-to-school ads timeline, here’s a comprehensive breakdown of our Facebook benchmarks spanning Q2 to the start of Q3:

Using Advantage+ audience targeting, you can expand the reach of your back-to-college ad campaigns while applying detailed targeting options such as age, gender, interests, demographics, and behavior. Custom audiences, such as lookalikes and those based on Meta engagements, can also be utilized with Advantage+.

2. Implement Advanced Audience Targeting

Expand the Summer Sales

Target “summer” searches and interests while integrating summer themes into your ads to blend with users’ searches and browsing activity.

Shoppers have already started as early as the 4th of July, with others waiting until Labor Day. These periods provide the best opportunities to capture shoppers’ attention and drive purchases for school and college supplies.

3. Excluding Negative Keywords and Topics

With regard to YouTube brand safety and suitability, it is imperative to remain informed about any potentially adverse issues that may arise, particularly when employing a specific geo-targeting strategy. It is essential to avoid any association with negative news or controversial topics, as such headlines can harm brand perception and reputation.

Video & Channel Placement Exclusions

You can exclude your ads from appearing on news channels. While news channels can be an effective way to reach parents, they can also negatively impact your brand if your back-to-school ads are shown alongside undesirable news. 

Additionally, exclude your ads from YouTube Kids channels to prevent unintended clicks that can skew your ad performance.

Negative Keyword Targeting

Similar to keyword targeting, you can create a list of negative keywords that you don’t want your ads to appear with. Set this up at the account level to apply a default set of negative keywords to all your back-to-school and back-to-college YouTube campaigns. 

You can also create negative keyword lists at the campaign and ad group levels.

Category Exclusions

Using category exclusions in YouTube ads gives you greater authority over the contexts in which your advertisements are displayed. By excluding categories like tragedy and conflict, profanity, rough language, sexually suggestive content, and other sensitive topics, you can ensure that your back-to-college and back-to-school ads appear alongside content that better aligns with your brand’s image and values.

4. Boost Your Sales Using Spark Ads and UGC

Spark Ads on TikTok allow brands to promote User-Generated Content (UGC) and their own organic content as sponsored ads within the platform. According to TikTok’s data, Spark Ads have a 20% higher landing page arrival rate than non-Spark Ads. Additionally, brand recall on TikTok increases by up to 27% when brands partner with TikTok influencers.

• Promote Trust: Utilize content from TikTok users who post about your product or service to build trust in your brand.
• Provide Authenticity: Showcase authentic experiences with your brand, enhancing credibility.
• Foster Collaborations: Develop good relationships and potential collaborations with TikTok users who can promote your brand to their audience.

For example, a mini printer brand showcased its product by demonstrating how cleanly it prints a skeletal system diagram, which the student in the video could easily stick to their notes.

Another example is a portable stove pot, where a college student shows how easy it is to prepare a quick meal without leaving the dorm bed.

5. Maintain Brand Recall with Proper Campaign Pacing

Utilize always-on advertising to keep your brand top of mind for back-to-school shoppers. While you don’t need to be the top bidder or show up constantly, it’s crucial to be visible during peak back-to-school sale days. With proper campaign pacing and strategic timing, you can maintain a consistent presence on users’ feeds, increasing your impact when they decide to purchase.

Take note of these peak retail events, during which 68% of shoppers plan to make their purchases for school and college supplies. These are the times to increase bids within your campaign duration:

• 4th of July
• Prime Day
• Labor Day

Boost Your Returns with Effective Back-to-School Sales Ad Campaigns

As you prepare, launch, and monitor your campaigns during the back-to-school marketing season, remember that while all funnel stages are important, the ultimate goal is to generate sales and keep the cycle going. To ensure your social media advertising efforts pay off, you must partner with experts who can help you maximize your profits by optimizing your campaigns for better results.

At Strike Social, our goal is to drive results for your campaigns. With over 10 years of successful campaign data, we help you achieve your goals by setting up tailored segments based on data science and ensuring transparency in outcomes. We can help you maximize your campaign performance on YouTube and other biddable social platforms. Contact us here to discuss how we can boost your sales campaigns.