Valentine’s Day 2024, the month of love and affection, is not just about roses and chocolates anymore. For media buyers and advertisers, it’s a season of ‘Roi and Roses,’ a time to blend romantic campaigns with solid returns on advertising investment. This Valentine’s week, an estimated 52% of adults are expected to celebrate, potentially pouring a little close to $26 billion into the economy, as per the latest projections.

TLDR? Jump straight to our comprehensive guide at the end.

2024’s Valentine’s Day Advertising Trends on Social Media

Valentine’s Day celebrations have evolved outside of mostly romantic and exclusive for couples. With the evolution of celebration, Valentine’s Day has gone from cherishing moments with family, friends, and even pets. Brands are taking the opportunity to connect through heartfelt paid social campaigns.

Expressing love can sometimes mean giving gifts or creating experiences during this season. And where does anyone look for Valentine’s gift ideas? Nothing short, almost everything is on social media platforms. Let us observe last year’s trend in ad spend and audience engagement to better prepare for the upcoming celebration.  

YouTube’s Valentine’s Cost and Engagement Dynamics Trend

Strike Social data recorded an early spike during early February, suggesting early ad placement is critical in setting up love campaigns. Interestingly, the Click-Through Rate (CTR) steadily climbed as Valentine’s Day approached, peaking on the actual day. This trend shows more consumers are engaging with ads as the day of love draws near.

Facebook’s Valentine’s Cost and Engagement Dynamics Trend

Facebook showed a consistently high CTR through the first half of February. Notable peaks of CTR appeared during the weekends. Together with the streak of CTR, a midweek spike in CPC has been recorded. This pattern suggests that advertisers actively engage audiences throughout the days before the big Vday. 

TikTok’s Valentine’s Cost and Engagement Dynamics Trend

TikTok experienced significant spikes in CPC, particularly on the weekday before Valentine’s Day, reflecting a competitive environment as advertisers vied for attention. Despite a relatively lower CTR than Facebook, TikTok’s dynamic platform remains a fertile ground for trend-driven and creative campaigns for the younger demographic and even the much older ones.

Marketers’ Love Language: Mastering Keywords

The art of using words in marketing transcends greeting cards and sweet nothings. For media buyers, it’s a key to unlocking the hearts of social media users. When used strategically, keywords attract and engage the right audience and help avoid unwanted content, ensuring brand safety and suitability.

This section will discuss keyword strategies to enhance your campaigns’ ROI and turn them into a blooming success.

YouTube Ads: Balancing Targeting and Brand Safety with Keywords

Selecting the right keywords for Valentine’s Day is more than just finding relevant search terms. It involves thoughtful thinking on keywords to use to reach and create a positive impact on audience perception. Specific keywords like “Valentine’s Day gift for her” target niche audiences, increasing ad visibility. Conversely, adding terms like “Cheap Valentine’s Day gift” to your Keyword Exclusion list prevents negative brand associations. Mastering this balance between visibility and relevance is crucial.

TikTok Ads: Diverse Keyword Usage for Creative Insights

TikTok’s dynamic platform offers a unique advertisers’ playground for keyword experimentation. The TikTok Creative Center inspires advertisers to craft compelling ads with diverse keyword applications. Using the inspiration tool, the Strike team searched for keywords related to Valentines that could influence the TikTok community to engage with ad creatives.

Based on the team’s observation, TikTok segments keyword usage into three types: ad text, overlay text, and voice-over. The top short-form video platform challenges traditional contextual targeting, primarily focusing on captions or hashtags.

The recent TikTok Creative Center data shows that the keyword “Valentine’s Day” positively impacted viewers, but results varied. Voice-over resulted in a median CTR of 5.06%, with 5 out of 10 ad creatives applications. Meanwhile, ad text delivered 4.61% engagement with 4 out of 10 ad creatives. Interestingly, a single ad creative using text overlay drove an impressive 8.53% CTR.

Facebook: Navigating Interest Targeting with Precision

While Facebook Ads Manager relies on interest targeting rather than traditional keywords, the principles are similar. With Meta’s extensive user base,3.05 billion users engaged on its platform, precise interest targeting on Facebook reaches specific audiences effectively.

Putting this into action, our analysis of various Valentine’s-centric interests revealed insightful cost metrics. For campaigns running from February 1st to 15th across North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, and Minnesota, targeting ages 25-65+ of all genders, we found that CPM for awareness campaigns ranged from $6.56 to $12.50. CPCs varied from $0.54 to $1.6 for action-centric campaigns with link-click objectives. This data highlights the importance of selecting the right interests to optimize ad spend and maximize campaign reach.

From YouTube’s strategic balance of targeting and brand safety to TikTok’s innovative use of diverse keyword applications, each platform offers unique opportunities for engagement and brand alignment. Facebook’s precision in interest targeting further underscores the importance of understanding and leveraging user interests to maximize campaign effectiveness.

Our analysis across these platforms reveals vital insights into optimizing ad spend and enhancing campaign ROI. For an overview of these strategies and to access the data, download our guide and bring out the full potential of your Valentine’s Day advertising efforts.

Valentine’s Day 2024: Evolving Synergy of Storytelling and Data Precision

For media buyers and advertisers, this season is a dynamic fusion of ‘Roi and Roses,’ where the art of crafting heartfelt campaigns intersects with the science of achieving returns on advertising investments. This year, with an estimated 52% of adults participating and nearly $26 billion at stake, the occasion is not just a celebration of romance but a great window of opportunity for savvy marketers.

Platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok each present unique opportunities and challenges, necessitating tailored strategies. YouTube’s fluctuating CPC and steadily increasing CTR highlight the need for timely, targeted campaigns. Facebook’s consistently high CTR underscores the effectiveness of interest targeting, while TikTok’s dynamic keyword trends call for creative, trend-aligned content strategies.

For advertisers and media buyers, mastering this blend of creativity and data analytics will be critical to unlocking the full potential of this opportunity, turning the month of love into a period of meaningful returns.