Back-to-School Ad Trends for High-Conversion Social Campaigns

National Retail Federation data shows today’s shoppers have become “wallet-wise”. They stretch their budgets and demand real value from every purchase. For marketers, this shift is shaping new back-to-school ad trends, and the brands that adapt quickly will own the season.

Winning the 2025 back-to-school season requires understanding evolving consumer behaviors and building high-conversion social campaigns that resonate more deeply. This article maps out the ad trends and strategies that will set successful paid social campaigns apart from the rest of the feed.

When Do Shoppers Start Back-to-School Shopping?

While many think back-to-school shopping peaks in late August or early September, the reality is that buying starts far earlier, and each phase calls for a different marketing approach. Understanding these patterns helps brands align back-to-school advertising campaigns with when shoppers are most likely to convert.

Early Bird Planners (June-July) 

Some parents and students start early in May, aiming to avoid the rush and secure the best selection. 67% of shoppers browse and purchase before early July, often armed with detailed lists for back-to-school supplies, clothes, and even tech. They’re motivated by selection, quality, and early back-to-school deals.

Back-to-school ads strategy: Launch awareness campaigns on Pinterest and YouTube, where people plan and research. Highlight product variety, durability, and the advantage of shopping before crowds and price hikes. Capture these organized shoppers early and guide them smoothly into your sales funnel.

Peak Season Shoppers (Early-to-Mid August) 

This is the height of back-to-school sales activity, with about 84% of shoppers still finalizing purchases. Events like Prime Day spark price comparisons and deal hunting. Parents and students are weighing options, waiting for the right moment to check out.

Plan your back-to-school campaigns: This is peak conversion time. Run direct response ads on Meta and TikTok featuring bundles, limited-time promotions, and back-to-school sale pricing. Don’t hesitate to place your bottom-funnel ads right at the Feed to capture high-intent clicks and conversions.

Last-Minute Deal Hunters (Late August-September) 

As the first day of school looms, or has already begun, these shoppers are motivated by urgency. They’re seeking clearance items, quick deliveries, or last-minute store runs to complete their lists.

Securing back-to-school sales: Switch to “Final Days,” “Last Chance,” or “Clearance” messaging. Use retargeting for users who previously engaged but didn’t purchase. Drive foot traffic by promoting in-store exclusives and clearance pricing to secure those final back-to-school promotions.

4 Back-to-School Ad Trends Driving 2025 Conversions

Strong back-to-school ad campaigns in 2025 require flexibility: keeping pace with new ad tech, shifting shopper priorities, and the type of content audiences trust most. These four back-to-school ad trends are shaping high-conversion campaigns this year:

Trend 2: Creators Have Replaced Product Catalogs

Shoppers now look to trusted creators for back-to-school shopping inspiration. Authentic, relatable content from macro-influencers, micro-influencers, and niche creators helps parents and students visualize how products fit into their daily lives.

YouTube remains the leader in influencer marketing strategies, followed by Instagram and TikTok. While YouTube influencer ads can be more expensive, they often deliver higher engagement and stronger purchase intent.

Here are some ideas on what to partner with YouTube creators for:

• Haul Videos: “My College Dorm Haul” or “What’s In My Kid’s Backpack” provide instant social proof
• Day-in-the-Life Content: Show your product fitting into real student routines
• Authentic Reviews: Unfiltered thoughts from trusted voices beat any ad copy

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Further Reading

How to Match Your Brand With the Best Social Media Platform for Influencer Marketing

Every platform brings unique strengths in audience, reach, and content style. The same goes for influencers—whether short-form or long-form, macro or micro. The key is identifying which platform aligns with your brand and choosing creators whose content resonates with your target audience.

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Trend 3: “Value” Beats “Sale”

Shoppers still want back-to-school promotions, but “deal” now means more than a cheap price. Inflation and tariffs have made buyers more cautious, and products that don’t last beyond the semester are seen as wasted spend.

Adjust your messaging from price to total value. Instead of the usual discount deals, highlight:

• Durability: “The last backpack you’ll need to buy”
• Versatility: “One jacket for fall, winter, and spring”
• Sustainability: “Made with 100% recycled materials”

This approach reframes back-to-school sale campaigns as smart, long-term investments rather than short-term bargains.

Trend 4: Social-to-Store Shopping Rules

Consumers are moving more fluidly between online research and in-store purchasing. While 48% of shoppers complete their purchases online, 35–36% still visit discount stores and department stores for clothing, supplies, and accessories. For many, checking styles, sizes, and quality in person remains essential.

To capture both audiences, brands can bridge this gap by:

• Promoting “Buy Online, Pick Up In Store” to merge digital convenience with in-store options
• Using location-based targeting to highlight in-store events or exclusive back-to-school promotions.
• Run inventory-aware ads that showcase real-time local stock availability.

Platform-Specific Strategies for Back-to-School Conversions

To build highly converting back-to-school campaigns, you must tailor your approach to each platform’s unique environment. Here’s how you can adapt your paid ads strategically:

Meta (Facebook & Instagram)

This remains the ideal platform for targeting parents, who hold the primary purchasing power for K-12 students.

• Tactic: Use Broad Audiences to let Meta’s AI find users interested in back-to-school supplies, even if they haven’t visited your site. Use catalog ads to showcase a wide range of products in a single, swipeable format.
• Audience: Create detailed custom audiences. Go beyond simple demographics and target parents based on their children’s ages and past purchase behavior. If your products or brand are more niche, use Advantage+ Audience to expand your audience further.

TikTok

When primarily targeting Gen Z audiences and younger millennials, authenticity rules in TikTok’s discovery hub.

• Tactic: Promote using Spark Ads to put paid media spend behind high-performing organic videos from your creator partners. This combines the authenticity of UGC with the targeting power of the ad platform. Jump into trends such as trending audio and challenges related to going back to school.
• Case Study: Using creator-led videos and tailored targeting strategies, a skincare brand drove high-quality traffic while achieving up to 69% greater CPC efficiency. The campaign combined TikTok’s native interest targeting with site retargeting and lookalike audiences, resulting in video completion rates as high as 96%, proving that the right audiences were reached and actively engaged.

YouTube

YouTube is now the modern research library for shoppers. From product reviews to “study with me” videos, your brand needs to be present during these key consideration moments.

• Tactic: Employ a full-funnel approach. Capture attention with 6-second Bumper Ads and YouTube Shorts. Drive consideration and conversions with skippable in-stream ads that target users watching relevant content like “best laptops for college” or “first-grade classroom supplies haul.”
• Ad Specs: Stay within the safe zones, especially in the vertical format, where YouTube Shorts have bigger areas that can be obscured by UI elements. If you will be using a creator ad across different platforms, follow each platform’s safe zone guidelines, as well.

Pinterest

While Pinterest isn’t among the largest paid social platforms, it offers strong engagement opportunities for students and parents. Many users start planning months ahead, creating boards for ideas like “dorm decor” or “lunchbox recipes.”

• Tactic: Develop visually compelling Idea Pins and Video Pins that provide authentic back-to-school promotions or inspiration. Every pin must be shoppable and link directly to the product page to shorten the path from inspiration to purchase.
• Creatives: Eye-catching visuals are key to standing out in this season’s back-to-school ad trends. Follow Pinterest’s specific ad specs for each format to ensure your creatives display effectively as users scroll through their feeds.

FAQs: Back-to-School Ad Trends for Marketers

However, a “good” conversion rate is highly relative to your vertical, product, price point, and other factors. Instead of chasing a generic number, focus on profitability. A lower conversion rate on a high-margin item can be more valuable than a high conversion rate on a low-margin one.

Global YouTube Advertising Trends and Performance Insights

Explore how brands across APAC, EMEA, and North America adapted to rising demand, evolving formats, and shifting regional costs in YouTube advertising.

Our campaign data uncovers when and where advertisers gained efficiency across key formats, while also tracking how user engagement evolved throughout the year. Get the full report for strategic benchmarks, regional performance patterns, and actionable insights from Strike Social’s global YouTube campaigns.

Download the full global report

Back-to-School Sale Campaigns and Beyond

The 2025 back-to-school season might just be the most competitive yet. Brands must pay attention to data, adapt to consumer behavior, and embrace new ways of building trust and demonstrating value. Align your strategy with the shopping calendar, lean into authentic creator voices, and tailor tactics to each platform to build campaigns that drive real conversions.

Ready to build your high-conversion back-to-school campaign? Contact Strike Social today.

The post Back-to-School Advertising Ideas to Secure Sales During Shopping Periods appeared first on Strike Social.

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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

Within the Meta platform, Facebook has allowed brands to effectively promote their back-to-school ads, from raising awareness and building consideration to ultimately driving conversions.

By creating a well-structured funnel-focused campaign, you can guide your Facebook audience from becoming aware of your brand to increasing brand recall by targeting those who engage with your brand and similar brands.

The next step is to present them with engaging back-to-college and back-to-school ads that build trust. By featuring information about educational resources and specific programs, you can attract students who are looking to choose a college major, ultimately converting them into leads or buyers.

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

Just as you can target sports audiences for a non-sports brand, you don’t need to be a back-to-school supplies brand to succeed during the back-to-school advertising season. YouTube, combined with Google’s advertising ecosystem, reaches up to 600M+ users and devices. While this reach is excellent for brand awareness, the ultimate goal is to narrow it down to funnel your audience toward conversions.

By leveraging YouTube and Google’s advanced targeting capabilities, you can optimize audience targeting to maximize your sales during the back-to-school and back-to-college season.

Get on the Big Screens

With families spending time at home during the summer break, it’s the perfect time to utilize Connected TV devices, which are present in 83% of U.S. households. This year, the top back-to-school shopping destination remains online, with 57% of shoppers expected to shop from their desktop computers or mobile phones.

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.

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Further Reading

5 Winning Strategies for Your Fourth of July and Summer Ads

No matter your industry, there are countless ways to make your Fourth of July campaigns shine. Stay ahead of the competition this summer with our expert tips for creating engaging and impactful holiday ads.

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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.

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Further Reading

Promote User-Generated Content with TikTok Spark Ads

With TikTok Spark Ads, you can boost visibility for your own videos or those from content creators by turning them into promoted ads. Discover how to leverage influencer-generated content to reach a wider audience on TikTok.

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• 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.

The post Drive Customer Purchases with These 5 Back-to-School Ad Strategies appeared first on Strike Social.

The Latest Back-to-School Marketing Trends for Your 2024 Strategies

Before finalizing your 2024 back-to-school campaigns, review how the 2023 season unfolded to gather advertising ideas. Examine the trends and assess whether your media plan aligns with previous ad seasons, identifying the top strategies to implement.

Timing Your 2024 Back-to-School Campaigns

To successfully target shoppers during the back-to-school season, you must begin your campaigns well before the season starts in early July.

Statistics show that 55% of consumers start shopping around this time, making it essential to have campaigns up and running or in the learning phase before that. Additionally, many parents take advantage of Amazon Prime Day for back-to-school shopping deals, making it a strategic point to engage potential customers.

However, don’t exhaust your budget early on. Keep your campaigns running through the school season and even afterward. Despite the initial rush, 85% of shoppers still have half of their shopping left after the first weeks of July. Notably, one-third of US students return to school in mid-August, presenting further opportunities for your back-to-school advertising efforts.

What’s on the Back-to-School Shopping List

Spending per household is expected to rise, with electronics and computer-related accessories in high demand for up to 69% of back-to-school shoppers.

Additionally, big-ticket items such as dorm and apartment furnishings are popular this year, driven by a projected increase in college enrollment. Public college enrollments are expected to increase by 230,000, while private college enrollments are expected to increase by 80,000.

Drivers of 2024 Back-to-School Spending

In addition to higher prices, 43% of shoppers want to purchase new items this year, such as trendy streetwear-inspired back-to-school outfits for kids, or versatile footwear that complements any school look. By staying in tune with what your audience wants and aligning your offerings accordingly, your brand has the opportunity to attract new customers through innovative products and compelling campaigns. 

Moreover, big-ticket items and additional school supplies are major drivers of spending during back-to-school season. Hence, brands offering packages or promotions on these items should expand their advertising efforts to highlight them effectively.

How to Prepare Back-to-School Campaigns That Hit the Marks

Will your back-to-school advertising campaigns pass the checklist for effective ads that will excel this year? Here’s how your back-to-school social campaigns can pass with flying colors and achieve the metrics you’re aiming for.

Prioritize Mobile Optimization

In the 2022-23 school year, 47% of U.S. parents shopped exclusively on mobile devices. Use short-form videos for Meta Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok. Using the 9:16 ad format, you can take advantage of mobile-first placements and gain better visibility among mobile users. Check out the TikTok benchmarks for this time of year:

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Further Reading

Cross-Posting Your Back to School Ads on Short-form Video Ad Platforms

Ensure your back-to-school ad campaigns stay impactful by adhering to the safe zone requirements of each short-form video platform. Follow these guidelines to avoid underperformance—or worse, ad rejections.

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With 40.9% of YouTube watch time on mobile devices, YouTube Shorts is a prime spot for ads. The latest Google Marketing Live update allows landing pages to be viewed in-app, boosting user engagement.

Quick tip for your back-to-school campaigns: Ensure your landing pages and websites are mobile-responsive to maintain a consistent layout across all devices.

Maximize Reach with Cross-Device Targeting

In addition to the standard contextual or audience targeting options available for YouTube ads, you can also target specific devices such as computers, mobile phones, tablets, and TVs. Interestingly, despite desktop computers only accounting for 23% of retail website traffic in Q1 2024, they were responsible for 34% of all purchases in the United States.

Quick tip for your back-to-school ads: Use Product Studio to enhance the backgrounds of your back-to-school ad creatives without needing entirely new content. Ensure your Shopping ads are optimized for desktop viewing as well.

Engage Repeat Customers

Don’t neglect visitors who didn’t convert on their first visit. Retargeting on social media helps remind them of your brand, especially during peak shopping. According to Mintel research, dads primarily rely on brand familiarity (32%) and social media (33%) when shopping for back-to-school supplies. On the other hand, moms prioritize school recommendations (41%) and promotions or coupons (40%).

Incorporate discounts and coupons in your retargeting ads. A discount can drive an initial purchase, and a coupon for future use encourages repeat business. Additionally, loyalty or reward programs should be offered to incentivize frequent purchases further.

Quick tip for your back-to-school advertising strategy: To effectively target dads and moms, consider incorporating discounts, coupons, loyalty programs, and rewards into your back-to-school retargeting ads.

A discount can encourage a one-time purchase, while a coupon for a subsequent purchase can increase customer loyalty. A loyalty program or rewards system for frequent purchases can be the cherry on top, further incentivizing customers to continue buying from you.

Additional Strategies for Your Back-to-School Ads

Promote Inclusivity in Your Back-to-School Campaigns

While Americans with disabilities constitute a significant consumer base, only approximately 1% of advertisements feature them.

Both students with disabilities (54%) and typically developing students (51%) spend over two hours on social media, highlighting the importance of inclusive advertising. Surprisingly, few back-to-school advertising campaigns highlight individuals with disabilities.

Creating inclusive ads demonstrating how your products or services benefit this demographic can help close this gap. By doing so, you’ll align with the values of diversity and inclusion and tap into a significant and often overlooked consumer base.

College students consider personal care items a significant part of their list, comprising 30% of their shopping. Hence, brands need to understand how to showcase inclusivity effectively. Benefit Cosmetics has set an excellent example with its ad featuring Kate Grant, a woman with Down syndrome, as the lead role. This ad garnered 5K likes and positive engagement on Instagram, demonstrating the importance of celebrating diversity and inclusivity in marketing campaigns.

Appeal to Price-Conscious Shoppers

With a consistent presence in the market, discount stores continue to attract price-conscious buyers, accounting for approximately 40-50% of shoppers for the past three years. Furthermore, up to 46% will purchase pre-configured back-to-school kits this year.

Your social media ad campaigns should emphasize discounted bundles and promotional packages to stand out and capture the attention of budget-minded shoppers. This approach effectively appeals to consumers seeking cost-effective and convenient shopping solutions during the back-to-school season.

Tap into the Millennial Parent Demographic

Millennials are now entering the phase where they have children of school age, which means they are a key demographic for your campaigns. 71% of millennial parents prefer to purchase back-to-school supplies online, with YouTube and TikTok being popular platforms for influencer marketing.

The convenience and wide selection of online shopping, coupled with the influence of social media, have made online shopping the preferred choice for many millennial parents.

Advertiser’s Notes for Your Back-to-School Social Campaigns

Don’t wait for the peak period to prepare your media plan and launch your back-to-school campaigns on paid social media. With the help of this Strike Social guide, we’ve compiled key takeaways to ensure your campaigns are a success this peak advertising season:

Keep Your Ads Active Before, During, and After the Back-to-School Season

With the right campaign pacing, maintain a balanced budget and ad delivery throughout the entire campaign period from early July to late August or early September.

Refresh Your Creatives Without Taking New Images or Videos

Google’s AI has made it easier for advertisers to keep their creatives fresh without constantly creating new content. With the Product Studio, you can optimize your back-to-school ads with captivating backgrounds and designs for desktop and mobile placements.

Refine Your Audience Targeting

Age and country demographics are just the beginning of audience targeting for paid ads. Use keywords, retargeting, affinity, and live events to refine your audience and improve ROAS and conversion rates.

Strike Social helps brands optimize performance without exceeding costs. Contact us now to learn more about Strike Social’s services and customized solutions and discover how our data-driven approach can drive measurable results for your campaigns.

The post Kickstart Your Back-To-School Advertising Campaigns This 2024 appeared first on Strike Social.

In conclusion, adapting to these changing trends is the key to a successful 2023 Back-To-School advertising campaign. An early start, careful monitoring, cross-platform optimization, and resonating with budget-conscious shoppers will be critical. As we move forward, businesses aligning their advertising strategies with these trends will likely see the most success during the Back-To-School shopping season.

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Check off the items on your 2024 Back-to-School Advertising checklist:

Read the full blog here

The post Score an A+: Key Insights for Your 2023 Back-To-School Marketing Strategy appeared first on Strike Social.

In July, our data scientists saw brands launch campaigns for back-to-school customers. Including an always-on campaign in your BTS strategy is a viable idea. Media buyers should consider a wide range of consumers, from the early bird shoppers looking for the best deals and late shoppers.

Even with costs soaring, data shows that parents will continue to spend on school-related products. Conversely, businesses invest money in ads and marketing to help empty their warehouses and fight rising inventories.

The Strike Social team has gathered the latest back-to-school advertising trends and insights to help marketers develop a cost-effective media plan and drive campaigns to relevant consumers.

Related Article: Summer Advertising Trends and Insights for Marketers

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The post Back-To-School Advertising Trends and Insights appeared first on Strike Social.