Drive More Conversions This Father’s Day with Meta Advantage+ Audience Targeting

Father’s Day follows closely on the heels of Mother’s Day, giving brands another high-impact opportunity to connect with shoppers honoring the dads and father figures in their lives. For marketers, Father’s Day advertising on platforms like Facebook and Instagram comes with both potential and pressure, as holiday periods often bring increased competition and fluctuating ad costs.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to unlock better performance and cost efficiency using Meta’s Advantage+ audience targeting. Learn how your Father’s Day campaign can reach high-intent target audiences across Facebook and Instagram ads when it matters most.

Why Father’s Day Is a Key Moment for Meta Advertisers

Advertising for Father’s Day presents a valuable opportunity for brands, with 63% of U.S. consumers planning to celebrate. While that’s relatively steady compared to other holidays, 36% of those shoppers will be searching for Father’s Day gifts online, making it a critical moment for Meta advertisers to capture demand.

And while 40–42% of shoppers still plan to visit physical stores, Meta’s extensive platform reach allows your Father’s Day ad to shape purchase decisions long before shoppers step into a store or complete their online checkout.

Meta Ad Cost and Performance Trends Around Father’s Day Advertising Periods

As seen above, the bulk of the purchases occur just before or within June. Do you need to launch early or just in time for shoppers’ searches for Father’s Day gifts? Our Meta ads data tells us the trends for different funnel stages when planning your Father’s Day campaigns.

Planning Your Awareness Campaigns

Running awareness-focused Meta campaigns in April through early May helps build momentum while CPMs remain relatively stable. Facebook typically sees rising awareness costs about a month out from the holiday, while Instagram maintains stronger traction even closer to the date.

Expect the highest CPM spikes in the week leading up to Father’s Day, especially as more brands compete for the same target audiences. After the holiday, CPMs drop, opening up cost-efficient opportunities for re-engagement and early back-to-school promotions.

Immersive Engagement Campaigns

Consideration campaigns also see an early ramp-up, with CPE (cost per engagement) peaking in April and gradually normalizing by Father’s Day week. On Facebook, engagement becomes much more cost-effective during the holiday itself, showing a 65.2% decrease in CPE, suggesting it’s the best time to run interaction-based Father’s Day ad campaigns.

While slightly more volatile in April and May, Instagram maintains consistent engagement costs throughout the shopping window, making it a strong choice for Father’s Day engagement campaigns.

Lead to Conversion with Clicks Campaigns

For click-based objectives, Facebook and Instagram ads tend to become more competitive right after Father’s Day, as brands shift gears into early summer promotions. This uptick includes advertisers aiming to re-engage audiences, move excess inventory, or drive momentum for seasonal campaigns like the 4th of July. Some brands also take this opportunity for cause-based marketing efforts, such as fundraising events that celebrate fatherhood while supporting local communities.

CPCs (cost per click) remain predictable but are higher during this window. If you’re planning your Father’s Day promotion ideas, it’s best to launch conversion-focused ads earlier to beat the spike. Facebook ad costs are more stable here, while Instagram may need tighter pacing and creative testing to maintain efficiency.

Download the 2024 Facebook Benchmark Report

Looking to improve your Facebook ad results? This report uncovers key trends and patterns that shaped the most successful campaigns. Use these insights to guide your planning and optimize your strategy moving forward.

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Recommended Strategy for Father’s Day Meta Ads

What’s the suggested strategy, considering these Meta ad performance trends during the months before and well within the Father’s Day weekend?

How Advantage+ Audience Supports Your Father’s Day Advertising Strategy

Now that your Father’s Day advertising funnel is in place, how does Meta Advantage+ Audience fit in the equation?

Built with advanced machine learning, Advantage+ Audience analyzes patterns in user behavior across Facebook and Instagram, identifying people most likely to engage, click, or convert, even if they fall outside your original target audiences. This allows your Father’s Day ad campaign to go beyond your set parameters and reach high-value prospects you may have overlooked.

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Further Reading

Breaking Down the Meta Advantage+ Suite

Meta’s Advantage+ suite represents a full-scale leap into AI-powered advertising, designed to simplify campaign setup and boost performance. From automation to optimization, learn how each component works and how you can strategically combine them to boost your Meta ads strategy.

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Setting your audience targeting helps ensure that your Father’s Day ads are delivered to people who match your intended demographics and interests. While this can create precision, it can also unintentionally limit your reach by excluding audience segments that may still be strong prospects or potential buyers. What you initially believe isn’t your ideal audience could end up driving valuable results.

That’s where Meta Advantage+ Audience becomes a powerful tool in your Father’s Day advertising toolkit. It analyzes behavioral signals across Meta platforms, such as who’s clicking, engaging, or converting, and uses those patterns to expand your reach beyond the audience you originally set. Your defined targeting will still be prioritized, but Advantage+ dynamically extends delivery to users who mirror high-performing behaviors.

Here’s how this enhances your Father’s Day 2025 campaigns:

• The system automatically shifts budget and impressions toward audiences that perform better, ensuring your ads are always optimized for the highest likelihood of clicks and conversions.
• Advantage+ can adapt rapidly: if a particular creative or audience segment underperforms, the AI reallocates resources to what’s working best, often in real time.
• Meta’s data proves the Advantage+ Audience system can drive measurable efficiencies at every stage of the funnel, especially for time-sensitive, event-based strategies such as holiday campaigns:
  • Awareness campaigns: Achieve up to 14.8% lower cost per result
  • Traffic, engagement, and lead campaigns: Up to 9.7% lower cost per result
  • Sales and app promotion campaigns: Up to 7.2% lower cost per result

Meta Advantage+ Audience targeting proves to be a powerful ally for Father’s Day advertising campaigns looking to drive more awareness, clicks, and conversions under a tight timeline. Its AI-driven approach is perfectly suited for high-velocity, event-based campaigns that demand both speed and precision in reaching the best possible audience.

How to Set Up Meta Advantage+ Audience Targeting for Father’s Day Campaigns

You’ve defined your strategy—now it’s time to put it into action. Setting up your Father’s Day campaign using Meta Advantage+ Audience requires a balance: giving Meta’s AI the freedom to optimize while still keeping the right level of control over your brand’s audience and objectives.

Follow this step-by-step guide to set up a Meta campaign that blends automation with smart targeting:

1. Go to adsmanager.facebook.com and click +Create to begin your campaign setup.
2. Select the most relevant campaign objective for your Father’s Day campaign.
   * For Sales, Leads, or App Promotion, Meta will automatically enable all Advantage+ features.
3. Continue with your campaign level set up. At this stage, you can turn on Advantage+ campaign budget or turn it off for manual budget control.
4. Configure the ad set level.
   • Proceed with the usual setup (Ad set name, Budget & schedule, etc.).
   • For the audience targeting, take a closer look at the following steps:
     • Audience controls: Define your target Location, Age range, and add any Custom Audiences you want to exclude.
     • Advantage+ audience: This feature is automatically enabled. To maintain some level of targeting control:
       • Click on Audience Suggestion.
       • Add additional parameters (age, interests, behaviors, demographics) to help guide Meta’s expansion.
       • This allows Meta to prioritize your preferred segments while still finding high-converting lookalike audiences.
     • Tip: Watch the “Estimated Daily Results” on the right side of your screen as you build your audience. This helps ensure you’re not over-narrowing or over-broadening the reach.
   • If you want specific Meta ad placements, click Edit under Advantage+ Placements and choose Manual Placements. Otherwise, leave the default setting to allow Meta to optimize across all available placements automatically.
5. At the ad level, complete your setup. Name your ad, link your Facebook Page, and upload your ad creative and format.
6. Double-check the full setup of your Father’s Day advertising campaign, then hit Publish.

Ready to Build a Smarter Meta Campaign?

Learn how to achieve high-performing campaigns that blend automation with expert strategy. With real-time optimizations and 24/7 monitoring, your campaign can stay on track for both performance and efficiency, especially during peak shopping windows.

Plan your campaigns with Strike Social today

Simplify Your Father’s Day Campaign Strategy With Advantage+

Every peak season demands a fresh approach, and Father’s Day is no exception. With Meta’s evolving AI capabilities, setting up a campaign has become more streamlined, but success still depends on maintaining the right level of control over performance and costs.

While Advantage+ automation can drive efficient results, it’s crucial to stay proactive. Monitoring changes, making timely adjustments, and applying human insight remain key to maximizing ad costs and performance. To see how Strike Social can help you find the right balance between automation and control, contact us for a personalized walkthrough. 

The post Father’s Day Advertising with Meta Advantage+: Tips for Smart Audience Targeting appeared first on Strike Social.

Hop on to Higher Easter Day Sales with Demand Gen Ads

Easter 2025 is set to be one of the most anticipated holidays, ranking as the 4th-most popular holiday just behind Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Mother’s Day. With Easter falling on April 20th this year, consumers have extra time to plan their celebrations and shop for Easter promotions, providing advertisers with a unique opportunity to drive sales.

This extended shopping window opens the door for advertisers to implement targeted strategies and drive high-intent customers into the lower funnel. In this blog, we’ll explore how Demand Gen ads can maximize targeting, creative flexibility, and campaign performance. With proven strategies and creative options, you’ll be fully equipped to increase your conversions for your Easter Day sales campaigns.

Easter Advertising and Consumer Trends

Are Easter Day sale campaigns going to be a hit this season? Let’s explore the consumer behaviors and shopping trends to help guide your Demand Gen ads strategy:

What Do Consumers Buy For Easter?

According to the National Retail Federation’s 2024 survey, candy and food are the top two purchases for Easter, a trend expected to continue in 2025. Additionally, Easter decorations are seeing a 7% increase, reflecting the growing enthusiasm for holiday celebrations. Gifts, traditionally associated with the Christmas season, also rank in the top three purchases for Easter shoppers.

Easter egg hunts remain a beloved tradition, securing the top spot in celebration plans for the season. While Easter events had waned in popularity in recent years, they’re back on top this year, with holiday meals and family gatherings taking second and third place, respectively.

When Do Shoppers Start Hunting for Easter Deals?

Easter shoppers typically begin searching for deals and inspiration about a month before the holiday but make their final purchases closer to the event. According to Numerator, purchase planning often begins 1-2 months in advance, with the most active buying period happening 1-2 weeks before Easter.

Timing your Easter advertising is essential so your campaigns align with your target audience’s shopping habits, capturing them as they move through the purchase funnel.

How Do Shoppers Engage with Ads Leading Up to Easter?

While 61% of U.S. consumers will be celebrating Easter, 33% of shoppers will be flocking to online stores, offering a prime opportunity for advertisers. Demand Gen ads, which can be presented across different networks, are an effective way to reach these consumers. Your Easter ads should focus on related items that highlight traditions, Easter activities, or promotions to draw attention.

Even for the 55% of consumers who say they are not celebrating Easter, many will still be engaged with Easter Day sale ads, eager to take advantage of the deals. This makes advertising during Easter a lucrative opportunity for brands looking to launch seasonal sales campaigns.

Aligning your Easter campaign strategy with consumer trends and shopping behaviors can help you boost engagement, drive sales, and optimize conversions this season. So, how will you make your brand stand out and be Easterrific this year?

Easter Day Sale Ads That Convert

Easter is a season of joy, renewal, and vibrant celebration. For some, it’s rooted in faith and tradition. For others, it’s a cheerful time filled with pastel colors, sweet treats, and springtime energy.

As such, how can your Easter Day sale ads stand out and convert? The key lies in aligning creativity, format, and urgency to inspire clicks and purchases.

Inspirations for Easter Ad Campaigns

• Creative Elements That Drive Engagement: Easter-themed campaigns come to life with soft pastel color palettes—think pinks, greens, yellows, blues, and purples—that evoke warmth, happiness, and the spirit of spring. Each color carries meaning: pink for joy, green for life, and white for light—making them ideal for crafting scroll-stopping Easter promotions.
  
  Take M&M’s 2024 Easter campaign as an example. Their limited-time “Easter Sundae” flavor ad featured their mascot donning a bunny headband alongside classic Easter colors like purple, white, and soft blue. The result? A visually engaging campaign that felt seasonally relevant.
  
  Here’s a sample YouTube Shorts ad that uses pastel shades of pink, blue, and orange while demonstrating how to make homemade carrot-shaped cookies is a great way to capture the festive spirit and drive engagement for your Easter Day promotion.

• Winning Ad Formats: Short-form video ads, especially on YouTube, are proving to be powerful tools in Easter advertising. In fact, YouTube Shorts holds an average engagement rate of 5.91%—beating out TikTok (5.75%) and Instagram Reels (5.53%). Easter promotions featuring product demos, festive recipes, or DIY crafts are perfect fits for this ad format.

• Urgency-Driven Marketing: Easter Day sale ads with a clear deadline or exclusive offer perform exceptionally well.
  
  Communicating urgency—whether it’s a flash sale or limited-edition product—pushes audiences to act fast. Brands that proactively announce Easter promotions can see conversion boosts of up to 400%.
  
  For instance, a carousel ad promoting bunny-shaped chocolates marked with “Limited Time Only” can drive faster decision-making. Use countdown timers, bold CTAs, and early-bird announcements in your Easter social media campaigns to encourage immediate engagement.

Easter Marketing Using Demand Gen Ads

YouTube advertising gives you all the tools to build a full-funnel strategy—from creating awareness to driving traffic and action. For your Easter Day sales, you can layer your campaigns: start with Video Reach Campaigns to spark interest, use Video View Campaigns for deeper engagement, and activate Demand Gen Ads to turn viewers into customers.

Why Use Demand Gen Ads for Easter Day Sale Campaigns?

With Google’s AI, Demand Gen ads use dynamic content and advanced targeting to engage audiences and drive action. The design is to deliver visually engaging, multi-format ads across Google’s most immersive platforms, including YouTube, YouTube Shorts, Discover, and Gmail. 

The focus is to create demand rather than relying solely on search intent, making them ideal for Easter advertising when consumers may not yet be actively searching for specific products but are open to inspiration.

Still new to Demand Gen ads? Check out our complete guide to setup and strategy.

Why YouTube and Google’s AI-Powered Audience Expansion Make Them Ideal for Easter Promotions?

Google’s AI ensures that ads are shown to users most likely to engage with Easter-themed promotions, whether they’re browsing for gift ideas or planning family celebrations. Since YouTube is a highly engaged platform, first-party data and behavioral signals are analyzed to identify users most likely to click, watch, and convert.

Demand Gen ads have been proven to deliver 2.3x higher ROAS than other paid social campaigns, making them highly ideal and effective for Easter Day sale campaigns.

How Can Demand Gen Ads Help Brands Scale Campaigns Efficiently While Reducing Costs?

Not only do Demand Gen ads optimize campaign performance by automating ad placements, but it also actively optimizes bid strategies. As Demand Gen identifies the most optimal placements to generate views or clicks, you benefit from improved cost efficiency because your ads are shown to viewers who are more likely to stay engaged or make a purchase.

Here are additional examples of cost efficiency achieved with YouTube and Demand Gen ads:

• A campaign promoting a movie’s theatrical release, primarily using Demand Gen ads on YouTube, achieved up to a 7.6% CTR with a 43% improvement in CPC efficiency.
• Rituals, a health and beauty brand, saw impressive results from YouTube Shorts placements; their Easter Day sale ads drove 145% more sales by leaning on current consumer trends.
• A marketing company that previously relied on Discovery ads shifted to Demand Gen ads, using multi-format YouTube video and carousel ads, and experienced up to 6.8x more clicks compared to their former strategy.

Seeing these results, Easter 2025 is definitely an advertising season that brands should not miss.

Download the YouTube Demand Gen Case Study

By allocating 99% of the ad spend to mobile placements and using Demand Gen ads on YouTube, the campaign delivered highly personalized content to affluent professionals, targeting high-intent audiences.

As a result, the campaign achieved a 3.3% link click-through rate (CTR) and 50% spend efficiency, demonstrating how Demand Gen ads can reach high-intent audiences while driving cost savings.

Download case study

Creating Effective Demand Gen Ads for Easter Promotions

To capture the attention of Easter shoppers, Demand Gen ads offer a creative solution. By combining trends and insights from this blog, here’s how you can build an effective Easter Day sale campaign:

• Use Google’s AI-driven audience insights alongside your own first-party data (e.g., past purchase history) to segment audiences effectively. Focus on behaviours like browsing for Easter gifts or engaging with spring-themed content.
• Demand Gen ads support localized targeting, allowing you to direct your campaigns toward users in specific store locations. Promote offers such as “Available at your nearest store” to increase foot traffic and boost in-store purchases during your Easter Day sale.
• Vertical video formats (9:16) on YouTube Shorts create immersive experiences that capture attention quickly. With Demand Gen’s multi-format ads, you can also use carousel ads to showcase Easter bundles or limited offers.
  • Bonus: Use Google’s creative enhancements for video and image ads to generate multiple ad variations tailored for different platforms.
• With over 75% of U.S. retail site visits coming from mobile devices, optimizing for mobile placements is always a smart move. While audience location is a key factor, Strike Social data shows that both CTV and mobile lead in ad retention rates, with 63% for CTV and 47% for mobile.

Demand Gen ads offer enhanced solutions for scaling 2025 Easter Day sales campaigns by combining AI-driven targeting with visually immersive formats across YouTube and Google platforms. By tailoring your creative approach to seasonal trends, you can drive higher engagement and conversions.

What’s your strategy for Easter advertising? Reach out below, and we’ll guide you through a personalized walkthrough of our ad activation and management tools to set you on the path to a successful Easter 2025 campaign.

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The post Easter Day Sales Strategy: Drive More Conversions with Demand Gen Ads appeared first on Strike Social.

Feel the Love With Our 2025 Valentine’s Day Advertising Guidebook

As the first major holiday following the Q4 rush, Valentine’s Day offers the perfect opportunity to kick off your 2025 advertising efforts with fresh ideas and dynamic campaigns. Known as a season of love and thoughtful gifting, it’s a time for brands to connect with audiences on an emotional level and celebrate relationships.

This year, we’re bringing you the latest trends and actionable strategies to lock in your Valentine’s Day ad campaigns capture hearts—and deliver results.

Top Valentine’s Day Trends for 2025

Before we discuss specific advertising insights, let’s first explore what consumers are thinking about this Valentine’s Day. Understanding what shoppers are searching for, where they’re shopping, and how they plan to celebrate provides guidance for shaping your paid social strategies.

Ideas for Valentine’s Day Gifts

When it comes to Valentine’s Day gift ideas, sweet treats like chocolates and candy continue to reign supreme, with 52% of consumers listing them as their go-to choice. Flowers and gift cards take second and third spots, hinting at celebrations that range from intimate dinners at home to outings at restaurants or bars.

Shopping Destinations

Online retailers remain the top choice for Valentine’s Day shoppers, with 36.55% favoring Amazon for gift purchases. However, physical stores are not far behind, as 36.37% of consumers still prefer shopping in-store.

Interestingly, even with a projected rise in overall spending, about 3 in 10 U.S. consumers prioritize affordability, opting for lower-cost gifts. This trend makes discount stores, alongside department stores and local businesses, a key destination for Valentine’s Day shoppers.

Choice of Celebrations

Will your audience be staying in or heading out this Valentine’s Day? According to Statista, more than 20% of U.S. consumers plan to celebrate with a home-cooked meal. Interestingly, many celebrations are expected to occur before or after February 14, as consumers aim to avoid crowded restaurants and high costs associated with peak Valentine’s Day activities.

Valentine’s Day isn’t just for couples. In 2024, 29% of Valentine’s Day spending was dedicated to celebrating with friends, coworkers, and classmates. This growing trend of “Galentine’s Day” or group celebrations highlights that love comes in many forms—romantic, platonic, or professional.

Love is indeed everywhere, and this just proves that advertising during Valentine’s Day is not just for flowers and chocolate brands, right?

Valentine’s Day Advertising Insights on Paid Social Media

Even if your brand doesn’t offer traditional Valentine’s Day gifts or experiences, there’s still ample opportunity in social media advertising. Whether you’re a sports brand or an industrial service company, your Valentine’s Day ad campaigns can be tailored to resonate with a wide audience.

As mentioned earlier, Valentine’s Day is not only about romantic love. People celebrate various forms of love, making Valentine’s Day ad campaigns highly versatile. Check out these insights and trends to guide your advertising strategy this year:

YouTube Ad Trends for Valentine’s Campaigns

As with other major holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day sees a significant spike in activity, particularly during the week of the event. But how much of a spike can you expect? Let’s take a look at our YouTube data for Awareness campaigns:

If you’re mainly advertising on YouTube for your Valentine’s Day 2025 ads, expect higher CPM (cost per thousand impressions) during the event week. CPM starts to rise during the last two weeks of January, stabilizes for a short period, and then spikes back up on Valentine’s Day week.

For YouTube bumper ads, the optimal period for awareness campaigns is two weeks before Valentine’s Day, continuing through the first week of March.

Views-focused campaigns follow a similar pattern during the week of Valentine’s Day. The cost-per-view (CPV) trend favors Video View Campaigns more, showing steady movement during Q1. 

Early spikes are also seen by the last week of January. As February progresses and into March, YouTube VVC shows more stable results.

Facebook Advertising Insights for Valentine’s Week

With online shopping dominating this Valentine’s Day, Facebook, the largest social media platform in the U.S., should definitely be part of your advertising strategy. If you’re considering launching your Valentine’s Day ad campaigns on Facebook, our data indicates you’re in good hands.

During Valentine’s Day Week, Facebook campaigns tend to show relatively stable performance in both top and mid-funnel efforts. Let’s take a closer look at the data:

Last year’s Valentine’s Day campaigns proved successful, with both awareness and click-focused campaigns performing well during the event week. Our Facebook advertising cost benchmarks for CPM ranged from $2.78 to $9.60, and our Q1 data shows an average of $3.51 to $5.91. For the Valentine’s Day week specifically, our Campaign Lab insights show CPM levels between $3.95 and $5.82.

Click-focused campaigns also showed positive trends, with Q1 CPC ranging from $0.14 to $0.72 (vs. $0.14 to $0.72 benchmarks). We expect Valentine’s Day 2025 trends to exhibit an identical pattern, especially with the 8.5% increase in ad spending as 2024 closed.

As we previously indicated from our Valentine’s Day 2024 trends, being specific in the target audience interest may raise costs. However, Valentine’s Day ad campaigns on Facebook show that February sees a lower cost level right after the mid-January peak. Costs stabilize as we approach March Madness and the end of Q1, creating an optimistic outlook for Valentine’s Day campaigns on Facebook.

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Case Study:

Our Valentine’s Day advertising insights show a typical uptick in ad costs a week or two before the holiday. However, our recent campaign for a CPG brand promoting specifically for Valentine’s Day revealed a different trend.

The goal of this Valentine’s Day campaign was to acquire 88 million impressions over a one-month period on Facebook. While we did observe the usual CPM spike in late January, the weeks leading up to and including Valentine’s Day showed more controlled and optimized CPM levels.

With the help of Strike Social’s team in continuous campaign optimization, we achieved a 31% improvement in CPM efficiency. Additionally, by optimizing campaign pacing during the key weeks of Valentine’s Day, we reduced costs by up to 36%. This approach helped the brand meet its target number of impressions within the campaign’s timeframe while keeping ad costs under control.

While it’s common to see high peaks in ad activity during the event itself—just like any other holiday—this shouldn’t deter you from focusing on your campaign goals and driving more traffic or sales during Valentine’s Day.

Stay ahead of every holiday event by knowing the best times to ramp up or scale back your campaigns. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest advertising news, trends, and updates on paid social media.

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Leap Into Success with Your Valentine’s Day 2025 Advertising

It’s a given that paid social media advertising is not for the faint of heart. Thus, your Valentine’s Day ad campaigns should also be resilient and adaptable to make sure you get the best results at the best costs.

Strike Social offers a data-driven approach to maximize the effectiveness of your paid social campaigns. With over 10 years of machine learning combined with our proprietary tool, Campaign Lab, and the expertise of our media buyers, we’re here to help you surpass your Valentine’s Day 2025 campaign goals. 

Schedule a demo with our team to discuss your campaign targets and how we can help you succeed.

The post Inspiring Insights for Your 2025 Valentine’s Day Ad Campaigns appeared first on Strike Social.

How to Plan Your Christmas Advertising Strategy on YouTube

The Q4 holiday season is here! For YouTube advertisers, this quarter is one of the busiest times for YouTube app and TV advertising, with Christmas presenting a high-stakes opportunity to boost performance while maintaining cost efficiency. With strategic planning, your Christmas ad campaigns can set the stage for a strong finish to 2024 and an even stronger start to 2025.

Read on to discover how to optimize your YouTube ads strategy for the season’s unique demands and ensure your ads make a memorable impact this Christmas and beyond.

When To Start Your YouTube Christmas Advertising

The final quarter of the year is a peak period for holiday advertising, covering Halloween, Thanksgiving, Cyber Five, Christmas, and New Year. For Christmas in particular, the buying season begins early, with many consumers planning purchases over three months in advance, yet a significant wave of last-minute shopping continues right up to Christmas Eve.

Timing is a key piece of your Christmas advertising strategy to effectively capture this demand. According to Numerator’s Q4 Holiday Survey, 70% of holiday ad viewers will use online channels for their Christmas purchases, and 44% plan a blend of online and in-store shopping, making it essential to reach them wherever they are.

Moreover, holiday spending expectations are high: 79% of shoppers plan to spend over $200 on Christmas alone, while the NRF projects an average holiday expenditure exceeding $900 per consumer. This makes the holiday season an even opportunity for YouTube advertisers to drive brand visibility and impact through well-timed and optimized video ads.

Mapping Out Your YouTube Advertising Timeline for the Christmas Rush

With Christmas just around the corner, how should you map out your strategy for the season? Here’s an ideal timeline to guide your Christmas advertising as you finalize your Q4 and look ahead to Q5. And if you’re not starting now, it’s never too early to prepare for 2025!

September: Build Brand Awareness with YouTube Campaigns

We mentioned that customers start looking into holiday purchases three months or more before Christmas. That’s precisely why September is the ideal time for your awareness campaigns for your YouTube Christmas advertising to be riding high.

A prominent YouTube advertising format for reach campaigns is bumper ads, which show consistent, year-round performance based on Campaign Lab data.

Further, we analyzed the performance of bumper ads by month, and the data shows that September offers the most cost-effective opportunity to build awareness before transitioning to your YouTube Shopping campaigns. As awareness campaigns typically increase in cost during October and November, it’s essential to establish a strong presence in September.

October: Engage Audiences with Views Campaigns

October is the perfect time to focus on driving engagement and views through Video View Campaigns. YouTube highlights that 91% of viewers connect with video content on both a technical and emotional level. Thus, aside from effective audience targeting on YouTube, driving views also involves heartwarming ad creative to keep audiences engaged. 

According to Strike Social’s Campaign Lab data, YouTube video view campaigns’ cost per view (CPV) has improved by 10% year over year (2023 vs. 2024). As Halloween advertising wraps up, be ready to transition smoothly into your Thanksgiving and Christmas campaigns.

October stands out as the most cost-efficient month for VVC, with November also showing favorable CPV. This lets you stretch your Video View Campaigns and maintain a consistent, always-on holiday advertising strategy.

Download the YouTube VVC Case Study

By effectively using YouTube Shorts and the AI functions of Video View Campaigns, Strike Social achieved 5M+ total video views and 59% cost efficiency. For an HVAC brand advertising during Thanksgiving week, a peak moment in Q4, this campaign was a total success.

Download the report

November: Target Shoppers with Video Action Campaigns

As November approaches, following the conclusion of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, it’s time to shift focus to sales-driven holiday ads. Target shoppers during the Thanksgiving period and Cyber Five, with 67% of consumers expected to make purchases during Cyber Week. Salesforce projects that online stores will capture 7% of in-store sales on Black Friday, underscoring the need for a more aggressive approach as the month winds down, ahead of the Christmas advertising rush.

YouTube Video Action Campaigns are designed to prompt viewers to take action, such as making a purchase or visiting your website. By linking your ads to your Product Feed and leveraging YouTube’s short-form content with Shorts Ads, you create a powerful combination for driving sales.

CPC trends for YouTube VAC ads show that you can kick off early Christmas campaigns in September at a cost-efficient rate. Although CPCs may peak in October, by November, you’ll be well-positioned to capture conversions again.

December: Boost Conversions and Reignite Reach Campaigns

Alas, the holiday advertising season’s culmination all boils down to how you will end your year. We recommend keeping your conversion campaigns going, and, even better, hitting the budgets harder, especially during the final weekend before Christmas. With only five days between Black Friday and Christmas Eve this year, expect a noticeable increase in YouTube ad views as shoppers ramp up their buying activity.

As highlighted earlier, December’s CPC for YouTube Video Action Campaigns saw a slight 2% increase, which is typical for the busiest time of holiday advertising campaigns. Meanwhile, in preparation for Q5, Reach campaigns focusing on bumper ads see an 8% decrease compared to November and a 6% reduction compared to the overall CPM from 2023.

Best YouTube Placements for Christmas Advertising Videos

As you plan your Q4 holiday advertising strategy, you should focus not only on when to launch your Christmas ads but also on where to place them. Selecting the right YouTube ad placements can make all the difference in driving the views and clicks you need to succeed.

In-stream Skippable and Non-Skippable

With a reach of over 3 billion users, placing your ads within prime YouTube video content is a surefire way to get audiences to stick around and create strong brand recall. Non-skippable ads, in particular, are proving highly effective, especially across YouTube’s mobile and Connected TV (CTV) formats. The combination of mobile and TV screens during Q4 boosts visibility and ad retention, making it an ideal placement for holiday campaigns.

In-Feed

In-feed ads are perfect for capturing the attention of users actively searching for holiday-related content. These ads appear when users are looking for gift ideas or researching Christmas shopping options. By utilizing the right holiday keywords and contextual targeting, you can ensure your Christmas ads appear in front of the right audience, driving traffic directly to your product pages and increasing the chances of conversions.

YouTube Shorts

YouTube Shorts, with 50 billion views daily, is one of the most versatile ad placements for your Christmas advertising strategy. Whether you’re running a Video Reach Campaign (VRC) or a Video View Campaign (VVC), YouTube Shorts video ads offers an excellent opportunity to increase visibility and engagement. Its short-form, vertical video format is perfect for delivering festive, attention-grabbing ads that resonate with today’s on-the-go consumers.

YouTube TV

YouTube’s Connected TV (CTV) platform has grown significantly since Q4 2023, and, according to our YouTube benchmark report, it’s become a top placement for high ad retention and view rates. 

According to LG Ad Solutions, 43% of CTV audiences report that ads help them decide on their holiday purchases. Moreover, 72% of viewers will likely scan a QR code featured on CTV ads, further engaging with the brand. With more consumers watching TV through YouTube, this is an essential placement for holiday advertisers seeking to drive both awareness and conversions.

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Further Reading

Introducing Performance Max Ads

As Google TV grows, you may wonder if it’s worth adding to your brand or client’s advertising strategy. Before making a decision, it’s important to weigh the benefits of incorporating Google TV into your advertising mix.

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What is The Best YouTube Advertising Strategy for The Christmas Season

A well-rounded Christmas marketing strategy involves a combination of creative approaches, targeted ad formats, and real-time optimizations to deliver the best possible return. Here’s how to refine your YouTube advertising strategy for your holiday ads this 2024:

Real-Time Optimization with Expert Support

• You must make quick adjustments based on real-time data to stay competitive with your Christmas advertising strategy. Partnering with a specialized YouTube ads agency like Strike Social, allows you to free up your time as our team optimizes campaigns 24/7, ensuring your ads perform at their best throughout the holiday season.
• YouTube CTV ads tend to have higher engagement rates and cost efficiency, as evidenced by our data showing a 6% increase in view rates compared to 2023 benchmarks. By working with a YouTube CTV agency, you can reduce your CPV by up to 18%, improving the overall cost-effectiveness of your Christmas campaigns.

Spreading Holiday Joy with YouTube Ads

A successful YouTube campaign when advertising for Christmas involves optimal timing, placements, and creative strategies. All those combined with the help of an expert YouTube ads agency can bring out the biggest smiles to your brand’s viewers and stakeholders just as Q4 ends and Q5 draws near. 

For expert planning and support in executing a winning YouTube Christmas advertising strategy, get in touch with our team today. We’ll help you with a personalized walkthrough of our AdTech solutions to help you through your 2024 holiday ads to a prosperous beginning for 2025.

The post Planning a Winning YouTube Christmas Advertising Strategy appeared first on Strike Social.

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Partnering with a Meta Ad Agency for Optimized 2024 Holiday Advertising Costs

The peak 2024 holiday season is fast approaching, and with Meta restricting political ads a week before the election date, the ad space is again available for brands to compete.

Some brands may have paused their ads in October in anticipation of the influx of 50% of the political ad budget. We previously recommended against pausing your ads during this period; instead, it’s better to maintain an always-on approach while guiding your Facebook and Instagram audiences through awareness, engagement, and conversion campaigns.

To help you achieve peak performance during this busy season, here’s why a Meta advertising agency is key to optimizing your Q4 2024 holiday advertising costs.

How A Meta Ad Agency Can Improve Your 2024 Holiday Advertising Costs

In addition to assisting you in activating and managing your holiday ad campaigns during Q4 2024, partnering with a Meta ad agency to enhance your holiday marketing offers numerous advantages. Even with limited time for the learning phase, the expertise of a Meta advertising agency can serve as the foundation for steering your holiday ads toward success.

Expert Knowledge of Meta Holiday Ad Costs

A key priority for a social media advertising agency is making sure your ads deliver results and keeping your holiday advertising costs within your campaign budget—or even lower.

Strike Social’s service promise is our commitment to achieving your desired outcomes—whether that means hitting specific CPM or CPV targets or reaching a particular number of impressions or views within a set timeframe. With our expertise as a Meta ad agency, we establish benchmarks based on current rates, allowing us to devise effective strategies that meet your financial goals.

Strike Social’s Campaign Lab data for Q4 2024 indicates a trend of rising CPMs as the year progresses, underscoring the importance of proactive planning.

Consequently, we recommend building awareness in the months leading up to Q4, specifically in September and October. Then, ensure that you guide these audiences toward your lower-funnel campaigns, such as post engagement campaigns and traffic and conversion efforts. By October, shoppers are already searching for brands to consider for their holiday purchases.

However, awareness campaigns should follow an always-on strategy, as CPM levels tend to stabilize at a lower rate when Q5 begins at the start of the year. Meanwhile, lower-funnel campaigns show positive trends from Q4 through Q5, making this an ideal period for your holiday advertising efforts to shine, including capturing last-minute shoppers.

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Further Reading

Boost Your Q4 Holiday Ad Conversions with Facebook Engagement Campaigns

As the holiday season heats up, it’s an ideal moment to drive audiences further down the funnel and maximize conversions. Facebook engagement campaigns excel in turning brand reach and visibility into meaningful interactions, positioning your brand for impactful results throughout the holiday period.

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Hypergranular Targeting for Audience Segments That Drive Engagement

Just as you can utilize Facebook Audience Insights to identify target demographics such as age, gender, and location for your paid ads, a Meta ad agency leverages extensive insights gained from hundreds to thousands of previous successful campaigns.

An experienced agency specializing in Meta advertising possesses extensive knowledge from managing numerous Facebook and Instagram campaigns. Historical data from past campaigns is a valuable reference for understanding which audience segments perform best for specific industries and determining the optimal breadth or narrowness of targeting to achieve your desired views and clicks.

With over a decade of campaign experience on Meta and other social media advertising platforms, we have access to billions of data points that inform our decisions about ideal audience sizes and costs for precise targeting.

One of our recent successes involved a local fitness club aiming to drive digital sign-ups through a Facebook advertising campaign. Through link-click campaigns and precise location-based targeting, we ensured that ads reached the right audiences within the club’s service area. This strategic approach resulted in over 300,000 sign-ups, 1.5 million link clicks, and 700 million impressions, significantly enhancing the club’s digital presence.

Download the Facebook Health and Fitness Case Study here

Knowledge of Effective Ad Formats and Strategic Placements

With a deep understanding of Meta’s most effective ad formats, a Meta ad agency customizes options like Reels, carousels, and Stories to enhance engagement and performance. As Meta continues to expand its diverse array of ad formats and Advantage+ placements, it’s worth exploring which aspects of the Meta advertising network will drive traction for your holiday advertising campaigns.

For your Q4 2024 holiday advertising, Meta has introduced a new AI-powered feature within its Advantage+ shopping campaigns, allowing promotions to be showcased within the same ad. For instance, a promo code can be prominently displayed as a spotlight feature on a Reels ad:

Based on insights from Strike Social’s Campaign Lab data, here are our recommendations for the top Meta ad placements and advertising formats for your Q4 2024 holiday campaigns:

24/7 Execution of API-led Bid Optimization

To enhance this process, our Campaign Lab technology facilitates continuous campaign monitoring every two hours. Notifications are sent to the designated media buying team, making sure there is always vigilant oversight on your Facebook and Instagram holiday campaigns.

Strike Social’s Proven Success on Meta Advertising

We can confidently say that you should choose us to manage your holiday advertising campaigns this year, but what is our promise without the backing of our clients’ success?

How Targeted Meta Ad Placements Produce 34% CPLC Efficiency

As part of its anniversary collection, a luxury watch brand’s Facebook advertising campaign needed to introduce its new product line. While their brand represents luxury and prestige, the goal was to effectively reach a broad audience that would likely engage with their Facebook ad campaigns.

Results: The campaign successfully combined targeted placements to drive engagement and cost efficiency. Facebook overlay ads on Reels captured 77% of overall impressions and generated 48% of link clicks, proving highly effective in reaching a wide audience. Feed placements provided an additional 15% of impressions and accounted for 36% of link clicks, while Instagram Stories, though a smaller contributor, added 3% of impressions and 8% of link clicks. 

In terms of cost efficiency, each format demonstrated significant savings: Reels overlay ads reduced the cost per link click (CPLC) by 49%, Feed placements by 44%, and Instagram Stories by 38%. Altogether, this strategic mix resulted in a 34.69% reduction in overall CPLC compared to the projected rate, highlighting the advantage of targeted ad formats and thoughtful budget allocation for achieving high engagement at a lower cost.

Achieving 28x Facebook ROAS Through Data-Driven Monitoring

For a leading financial services provider, Strike Social executed a comprehensive campaign focused on acquiring conversions and leads, going through a meticulous approach from setup to ongoing optimization. It was a large-scale endeavor for a Facebook campaign and presented challenges, especially being far from the Thanksgiving and Christmas advertising surge.

Results: The conversion campaigns went live within 48 hours, swiftly generating impressions, clicks, and leads. Ongoing monitoring of the Meta Pixel was essential to maintain its effectiveness, allowing us to quickly resolve any issues in collaboration with the client. We also kept a close eye on cost per acquisition (CPA) and auction bids, which helped us meet our campaign objectives while staying within budget.

Thanks to this strategic approach, the Meta ad campaign achieved an impressive 28x Facebook ROAS, resulting in 66,000 leads and over 7,000 purchases through Facebook ads.

Your Go-To Meta Advertising Agency Partner is Just a Click Away

Choosing Strike Social as your Meta advertising agency means gaining access to unparalleled expertise, advanced tools, and proven strategies designed to optimize your Q4 holiday advertising costs.

With our focus on precise audience targeting, mastery of ad formats and placements, and proactive campaign adjustments, we are committed to helping you achieve both performance and cost-efficiency in your 2024 holiday marketing strategy.

Scaling your 2024 holiday advertising campaigns can be made easy. Fill out the form below for a personalized walkthrough of our ad tech solutions and discover how a certified Meta advertising partner can drive success for your campaigns. Whether you aim to reach new audiences or convert them into loyal customers, Strike Social is here to help.

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The post How A Meta Ad Agency Can Improve Your 2024 Holiday Advertising Costs appeared first on Strike Social.

Maximizing Q4 2024 Holiday Ad Results with Facebook Engagement Campaigns

The 2024 holiday season is all about reconnecting with audiences through fun, engaging content. After the intensity of U.S. election ads, Thanksgiving and Christmas campaigns focused on post engagement are a refreshing way to re-engage viewers from their Facebook feed. Shoppers are primed to engage, with Meta’s data showing that 55% of holiday buyers reported Meta technologies helped influence their purchases, and 77% of Cyber Five shoppers credit Meta ads for inspiring their purchases this season.

This peak holiday advertising season is the perfect time to move audiences down the funnel and boost conversions. Facebook engagement campaigns are a key strategy for transforming your brand’s reach and visibility into deeper interactions and conversions, making this holiday season your most effective yet.

Post Engagement Ad Formats for Your Q4 and Q5 Holiday Campaigns

Strike Social’s data reveals that Q4 post engagement campaigns achieve engagement rates between 8% and 12%, which is at the upper end of our previous benchmarks of 2.90% to 14.40%. Q4 holiday ad trends indicate an extended shopping period, creating the perfect opportunity to captivate audiences with memorable, interactive campaigns that not only drive purchases but also keep your brand top-of-mind for the holiday season.

Here are the top ad formats we recommend to maximize your Facebook post engagement campaigns this season:

Facebook Reels

Facebook Reels is Meta’s answer to YouTube Shorts and TikTok, aiming to compete directly with these popular short-form video platforms. This innovative format has already demonstrated a 35% higher click-through rate (CTR) compared to other video formats on Facebook.

U.S. users spend an average of 31 minutes daily on Facebook, with 60% of that time devoted to watching videos. As a result, Facebook Reels ads provide an effective means to engage highly attentive audiences.

✓ Facebook Reels ads currently represent 3.3% of total ad impressions on the platform. (Source: Hootsuite)

✓ A French retailer experienced a 51% increase in return on ad spend (ROAS) by focusing on Reels ads. (Source: wecantrack)

✓ The estimated audience size for Reels-focused ads in the U.S. is 139 million (excluding Advantage audience). (Source: Meta Ads Manager)

Facebook Carousel Ads

The Facebook carousel ad format allows users to swipe through up to 10 cards, each featuring images, videos, or a combination of both. By incorporating unique headlines and links for each card, your audience can easily browse your offerings and identify products or services that pique their interest.

Carousel ads are particularly effective for post-engagement campaigns, as they encourage viewers to interact with your ad before making a purchase decision.

✓ Carousel ads yield 34% more clicks than single-image ads. (Source: Lebesgue)

✓ A UK-based subscription box brand using carousel ads achieved a 3.24x ROAS. (Source: The Social Shepherd)

✓ 30% reduction in cost per conversion and cost per click compared to single-image ads. (Source: Hootsuite)

Reels + Carousel Holiday Ads

What better way to increase your audiences’ engagement than to be both on the consideration and conversion funnel at the same time? Using both formats together can create a powerful mix of brand storytelling and user interaction.

Nest Commerce’s Q4 2023 report indicates that brands advertising on Meta experienced a 35% increase in return on ad spend between October and November. Throughout Q4, conversion rates rose by 28%, peaking at 52% during Black Friday. This success is attributed to engaging audiences through awareness campaigns and subsequently guiding them to lower-funnel, conversion-based campaigns during the Q4 holiday peak periods.

By utilizing these post engagement-driven ad formats, you can fully maximize your brand’s performance, as 57% of holiday shoppers clamor online for their holiday shopping.

Overlay Ads on Reels

Another effective strategy to engage with the growing Facebook Reels feed for your Q4 2024 holiday campaigns is to incorporate image or carousel ad formats as overlay ads on Reels. 

These ads appear alongside related Reels content. For example, a department store brand promoting its holiday fashion finds can appear on a fashion content creator’s fit check video featuring a recent shopping haul. This integration allows your ads to blend with the Reels viewing experience, making them less intrusive than other ad formats.

As of July 2024, your overlay ads can also be displayed on Instagram Reels, further expanding your reach within the Meta advertising network.

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Further Reading

How a Meta Ad Agency Can Help Optimize Your 2024 Holiday Ad Spend

Collaborating with a Meta ad agency for your Q4 2024 holiday campaigns offers more than just ad activation and management—it brings strategic advantages that drive cost-efficiency and peak performance. Here’s why partnering with a Meta ad agency is essential to optimizing your holiday ad costs this season.

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Cost and Performance Insights for Your Q4 2024 Facebook Engagement Ads

Data is the best backup to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of utilizing a post-engagement objective as we approach the peak 2024 holiday campaigns. To help you establish benchmarks for this year’s holiday advertising, we have compiled key cost and performance metrics for Q4.

Cost-per-Engagement (CPE) and Engagement Rates (ER%)

In our Q4 2023 analysis, we observed a notable spike in CPE beginning in October, coinciding with the start of holiday advertising. Last year, key retail events such as Target, Prime, and Walmart launched promotions throughout early to mid-October, contributing to this trend.

As we transitioned from November into December, Facebook post engagement campaigns gained traction. We noted a downward trend in CPE alongside an upward trend in engagement rates. For Q4 2024, you can expect to align your holiday ad campaigns against Strike Social’s Facebook ad cost benchmarks, which range from $0.013 to $0.057 in November and decrease to as low as $0.012 to $0.038 by December.

Cost-per-View (CPV) and View Rate (VR%)

Video ad formats, particularly Facebook Reels ads, tend to have a higher view rate with lower costs compared to other formats, making them ideal for engagement during Q4. While view rates saw a slight decrease of 40% in December, they still remain elevated compared to October, reflecting sustained interest from engaged audiences throughout the Christmas season.

This year, Meta is testing a new ad feature that allows brands to showcase promotions and discounts directly within Reels ads. This innovation capitalizes on high shopping intent as viewers consume video content during the Q4 holidays. By highlighting promotions, brands can streamline the journey from consideration to conversion, making it easier for audiences to act on their interest.

Cost-per-Click (CPC) & Click-Through Rate (CTR%)

Click-based campaigns, like Carousel ad formats, provide solid performance metrics throughout the year. Q4 holiday trends indicate that these formats can drive high click engagement while maintaining lower costs. Although CPCs generally trend downward, we anticipate a slight increase of about 5% in December compared to November 2023 as more brands compete for ad space to get traffic and conversions.

To capitalize on this trend, your best strategy is to start your campaigns early. Target shoppers who begin their holiday shopping 1 to 2 months in advance to build momentum. By leveraging click engagement campaigns starting in October and November, you can position your brand effectively, ensuring you capture the attention of eager holiday shoppers before the competition heats up.

Download our Facebook CPLC Case Study

This case study details a luxury watch brand’s Facebook campaign that achieved a CPLC 34.69% below the guaranteed rate, highlighting the benefits of strategic budget allocation and ad format selection for maximizing engagement and controlling costs.

Download full case study here

Cost per Link Click (CPLC) & Link Click-Through Rate (LCTR%)

Optimizing for lower-funnel conversions during Q4 becomes easier with well-targeted and engaging post engagement ads focusing on link clicks. Ad auctions can get a bit challenging towards November as there is competition around Black Friday and Cyber Five in particular; thus, we can see quite a spike in CPLC at this time.

Maintain an always-on approach, as costs tend to decrease in December, aligning with predictions from the NRF that 58% of consumers complete their shopping during this month. By focusing your post-engagement campaigns on link clicks that drive conversions, you position yourself well for success during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday advertising periods this Q4.

Driving Strong Results with Post Engagement Campaigns for Q4 and Q5 Holidays in 2024

As Q4 intensifies, the key to holiday success is not just reaching audiences but engaging them. Post engagement campaigns on platforms like Instagram and Facebook empower brands to foster meaningful interactions that can lead to conversions. With increased competition and shifting consumer behaviors during the holiday season, prioritizing post engagement allows brands to scale efficiently, harness Meta’s extensive audience, and enhance performance through cost-effective, high-engagement ad formats.

Are you looking to quickly scale your campaigns this holiday season? Reach out to our team for a personalized walkthrough of our AdTech solutions and discover how you can achieve greater results while saving on your Facebook engagement campaigns.

The post How Facebook Engagement Campaigns Deliver the Best Results for Q4 2024 Holidays appeared first on Strike Social.

Planning Your Q4 2024 Facebook & Instagram Holiday Ads

As you prepare for the busiest shopping season of the year, Meta is gearing up to meet the surge in holiday ad campaigns across Facebook and Instagram. The Q4 holidays — Thanksgiving, Cyber Five, Christmas, and New Year’s — represent the most critical window for capturing audience attention and driving performance.

With ad spending peaking during this period, competition in the auction is becoming fierce, and the stakes are high. To maximize your campaign outcomes while managing costs, advertisers must stay ahead of the trends shaping consumer behavior, creative strategies, and targeting tactics. Here’s how to strategically plan your Facebook and Instagram holiday ad campaigns towards the end of the year.

Q4 2024 Holiday Ad Trends Advertisers Should Watch Out For

Before the celebration continues, let’s take a sneak peek at what to expect this year and how it’s different from previous years to fully prepare you for your holiday campaigns.

Key Peak Advertising Periods in Q4 2024

By anticipating shifts in ad spend and key peak periods, you can optimize your strategy and control costs while driving results for your Q4 2024 holiday ad campaigns:

As more advertisers vie for auction space during the Q4 holidays, we can certainly see spikes in ad spending during this time. Historically, Q4 sees the highest ad spending, particularly on Facebook and Instagram (Meta), with Google following a similar trend. TikTok, on the other hand, tends to have a more unpredictable and sporadic pattern. This heightened competition across industries inevitably drives up Facebook and Instagram ad costs. We’ll explore this further as we go along.

Online Shopping and Spending Trends

Adobe forecasts that U.S. online sales will reach $240.8 billion from November 1 to December 31, up from $221.8 billion last year. In addition, Mastercard’s Spending Pulse data indicates a projected 7.1% growth in retail sales during this holiday shopping season compared to 2023. The rise in consumer spending will likely kick off early, with shopping ramping up as early as Halloween and peaking through Christmas, driven by big-ticket purchases during the gift-giving season.

Further, Numerator’s research shows that many Christmas shoppers are starting as early as three months before the holidays. For advertisers, this means awareness campaigns need to launch well before November to capture early interest and effectively guide potential buyers down the funnel in time for peak holiday ad campaigns.

Meta’s Holiday Ad Trends for Q4 to Q5

Data from Meta’s campaigns affirm this, as 41% of consumers continue making purchases from holiday ads well beyond the peak shopping season. Last year, CPM-focused Facebook and Instagram ads peaked around Thanksgiving, while CPA-focused campaigns were more cost-efficient during the same period.

In Q4 2023, conversion campaigns saw a 20% year-over-year increase in performance and a 3.3x return on ad spend (ROAS) when using Meta Advantage+. Meta is heavily promoting Advantage+ to help advertisers streamline the process of diversifying ads and placements, ultimately improving campaign returns. 

This approach pays off during the holiday season, as consumers actively search for gifts through Christmas campaigns on Meta, creating a sizable audience that helps drive more efficient ad costs.

Download our Facebook ROAS Case Study

Discover how Strike Social achieved 66% more impressions than guaranteed and a 28x Facebook ROAS through precise execution and real-time campaign management for a financial services client.

Download full case study here

Insights for Effective Holiday Advertising Strategy on Facebook & Instagram

Now that you have a clear view of the holiday ad trends and consumer behavior for Q4 and Q5 2024, it’s time to review the actionable strategies that will drive results and deliver outstanding performance for your Facebook and Instagram holiday advertising campaigns.

Start Your Holiday Ad Campaigns Earlier

With fewer shopping days between Black Friday and Christmas in 2024, early campaign launches will allow for better positioning. October marks the start of the buildup, especially with the final weeks leading up to the U.S. presidential elections, where 79% of 2024 political ad spending is pouring on key battleground states. With political ads wanting to reach as many audiences as possible, this creates fierce competition for audience attention, making it harder for awareness campaigns to break through compared to previous holiday seasons.

Concurring with Meta’s holiday ad trends, our Facebook benchmark report confirms that CPMs will rise during peak Q4 periods, especially around Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Christmas promotions, as advertisers optimize to reach more markets. Average CPM for Q4 2024 is expected to increase, but campaigns focusing on engagement may benefit from higher engagement rates, particularly with the growth of new ad formats like Reels, which saw a 61% increase in 2023 compared to 2022. Thus, if you want to get a headstart on the lower CPM levels, an early start to your full holiday advertising campaign is necessary.

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Further Reading

How Facebook Engagement Ad Formats Win Holiday Advertising

Engagement ads on Facebook and Instagram allow brands to build genuine connections that can later convert into sales. As competition rises and holiday shopping behaviors shift, focusing on engagement helps brands reach Meta’s vast audience while maximizing campaign efficiency for scalable results.

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More Aggressive Holiday Advertising for Both B2B and B2C

The competition for ad space for Q4 2024 holiday ad campaigns is not limited to retail brands. Both B2B and B2C advertisers are aggressively vying for inventory, particularly on Meta platforms and Connected TV, as the holiday season ramps up with key events like Cyber Five and New Year’s advertising.

According to NRF’s 2023 Thanksgiving holiday weekend data, a record 200.4 million shoppers were active during the Cyber Five period, with 44% shopping online. Black Friday and Cyber Monday led online purchases, solidifying these events as significant revenue drivers for B2C brands while increasing competition with B2B brands vying for the same ad inventory.

For B2B companies, Q4 presents an ideal opportunity to reach decision-makers actively searching for advanced solutions for their businesses. It’s the perfect time to adopt a bold, action-oriented strategy, focusing on campaigns that drive clicks and conversions. With 76% of B2B buyers preferring to speak with someone before acquiring new services, Q4 is when many finalize their decisions on renewing or switching to new products or services.

Meta’s holiday playbook data supports this holiday advertising strategy, showing that CPA levels remain relatively stable throughout Q4 and Q5, compared to fluctuating CPM and CVR rates. Additionally, our data indicates that Facebook traffic campaigns targeting link clicks could see a 23% increase toward Q4, based on 2023 trends. Encouragingly, link-click engagement rates have been on the rise in 2023 compared to 2022, signaling a positive trend for engagement-driven campaigns.

Lead Customers from Top-to-Bottom Funnel Holiday Campaigns

By Q4, your awareness holiday ad campaigns from earlier in the year—starting as early as Halloween—should have built enough momentum to drive audiences into your lower-funnel holiday campaigns. While awareness ads are crucial, by this point in the holiday season, your focus should shift toward consideration and conversion campaigns to capitalize on the peak of the 2024 holiday shopping season.

Not only are lower funnel campaigns more cost-effective, but we’re also seeing high engagement rates, especially in Facebook advertising campaigns focusing on post engagement, clicks, and link clicks, aligned with Q4 holiday trends. Reels are particularly powerful, with short-form video content on Instagram reaching up to 30% of users, reflecting its growing dominance across Meta’s advertising network. 

According to Adobe Analytics, mobile devices are expected to drive 53% of online sales during the 2024 holiday season. Therefore, it is crucial to focus on mobile-first conversion strategies to achieve your campaign goals.

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Further Reading

Improving Facebook ROAS with Real-time Optimizations

Various factors can contribute to Facebook ROAS underperformance, from basic problems like inaccurate Meta Pixel tracking to more intricate issues tied to campaign management. Partnering with an advertising agency can provide the specialized knowledge and strategies to boost your Facebook ad ROAS. See the critical areas where an expert agency can make a difference in optimizing your campaigns and driving better results.

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Diverse Creative Formats to Keep Holiday Ads Fresh

As competition heats up during the holiday season, brands often find their ads competing for the same audience’s attention. When users encounter the same ad multiple times, their engagement tends to wane, leading to missed opportunities.

When running top-to-bottom funnel holiday ad campaigns, Facebook and Instagram users can quickly become fatigued by seeing the same creative, sometimes after just two impressions. This leads to users scrolling past or swiping away from your holiday ads.

Incorporate a variety of creative formats in your strategy to avoid ad fatigue and ensure your Black Friday and Christmas advertising campaigns remain effective. Facebook and Instagram offer dynamic options such as Reels, carousels, and videos that can significantly boost engagement and keep your brand fresh in consumers’ minds. 

• Pro tip: Adhere to the Facebook and Instagram ad specs so your ads fit seamlessly within users’ screens.

Explore how to optimize your placements using manual selection in Meta Ads Manager to find the formats that best align with your brand messaging:

Shine Bright on Shoppers’ Lists with Twinkling Facebook and Instagram Holiday Campaigns

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year” – as it should be for both consumers and Meta advertisers alike. Indeed, the Q4 to Q5 periods can be a balancing act, where the need to scale budgets must align with the goal of achieving an impressive return on ad spend.

With Strike Social’s SWAS (software with a service) AdTech expertise, our aim is to deliver better results for you at lower costs for savings. Our proprietary tool, Campaign Lab, is designed to keep a close eye on your ads, ensuring that the full process from setup to campaign management is streamlined and optimized before your holiday campaigns even launch.

Learning the holiday ad trends and suggested strategies is just the beginning. Let us become an extension of your in-house team, helping you finish the year on a high note. Contact us today to request a personalized walkthrough of our AdTech service and see how we can enhance your holiday advertising performance.

The post Q4 2024 Holiday Ad Trends for Thanksgiving & Christmas appeared first on Strike Social.

5 Strategies to Fire Up Your 4th of July Advertising

This Fourth of July, regardless of your industry, plenty of strategies exist to make your ad campaigns sizzle. Here are 5 marketing ideas for the 4th of July to get you started:

1. Video Ads Are The Way To Go

You’re on the right track if you’re focusing on short-form videos in your 4th of July ad creatives. Short-form videos are highly successful because they mimic the length of TV commercials. Typically, these videos are about 60 seconds or less, allowing them to grab attention effectively and ensure your audience stays engaged throughout the ad.

What Advertisers Can Do:

According to HubSpot’s social media trends report, 32% of marketers use educational or informative content, with 57% finding it highly effective.

When using educational content for your Fourth of July ad campaigns, it’s important to consider the safe zones that won’t be blocked by platform buttons: like, share, and ad copies. This ensures your ad’s key messages are visible to your audience.

As you prepare your marketing campaigns for the upcoming 4th of July celebrations and the summer season, here are some TikTok benchmarks to guide you through:

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Further Reading

Which Short-Form Video Ad Platform Delivers the Best Results?

TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts dominate short-form video advertising, each powered by unique algorithms that tailor content to users’ preferences. As short-form content continues to thrive, the big question for 2025 is: which platform will become the ultimate go-to for social media advertisers?

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2. Create Tentpole Marketing Campaigns

Having control over your Fourth of July marketing campaigns gives you the flexibility to manage your budget and ad delivery strategically. You can allocate a portion of your budget to the pre-peak period to build anticipation and gradually increase your ad performance as the event approaches.

This allows you to maintain a solid ad delivery throughout the event and the post-event period while maximizing your impact during the peak sales period on July 4th. 

What Advertisers Can Do:

During peak Fourth of July advertising times, offer limited-time promotions (e.g., 48-hour sales). If you observe continued strong traffic or conversions during this period, consider extending the offer for 48 hours. This renewed sense of urgency reminds individuals who may have missed the initial offer to swiftly secure the deal before it ends again, further boosting results for your Fourth of July ad campaigns.

3. Strategically Funnel Your Fourth of July Ads

20% of Fourth of July consumers plan their expenditures in advance – as early as two months before the actual month.

This provides an opportunity to create a funnel that guides your audience from brand awareness to engagement and ultimately to purchasing your product or service.

What Advertisers Can Do:

Break down your Fourth of July ad campaigns into three stages: awareness, traffic, and conversion.

Awareness objective: Start with the awareness objective, targeting audiences who haven’t encountered your ads yet. Configure your YouTube ads to target individuals searching for “4th of July celebration” and related keywords.

Traffic objective: Engage audiences who have seen your ad but have not interacted with it. Implement a Video Reach Campaign with a Target Frequency to ensure multiple exposures for your Fourth of July ad without inducing fatigue.

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Further Reading

How to Set Up a Video Reach Campaign on YouTube

With the latest updates to YouTube VRC, advertisers have more tools to connect with audiences, utilizing YouTube’s diverse placements and devices to boost visibility. As part of Google’s video ad solutions, VRCs are designed to maximize the reach and effectiveness of your content across YouTube and Google’s video partner networks.

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Sales or conversion objective: Conclude your Fourth of July advertising with sales or conversion campaigns, utilizing audience segments from Google Analytics to retarget audiences who’ve visited your website but haven’t purchased.

4. Tap into Influencer Marketing and UGC

Did you know that 69% of shoppers trust product recommendations made by social media influencers? Capitalize on this by tapping into their established customer base and boosting your brand’s reach. You don’t need big-name celebrities to make a splash for your Fourth of July ad campaigns; micro-influencers with 10K-100K followers can be just as effective.

47.3% of all influencers are micro-influencers. If they have a targeted audience that aligns with your target market, they are an ideal choice for creating impactful Fourth of July ads to increase your reach.

What Advertisers Can Do:

With YouTube BrandConnect, brands can easily identify influencers who have tagged or mentioned their products in their videos. This feature simplifies influencer marketing by providing convenient access to potential partners for sponsored ads.

Watch the Google Marketing Live 2024 update and skip to 52:27 to learn more about how you can use YouTube BrandConnect for your Fourth of July ad campaigns:

5. Keep Your Fourth of July Ad Campaigns Fresh with Summer Themes

With the Fourth of July festivities in the heart of summer, incorporating seasonal themes into your ads can make your brand resonate with the season’s spirit. Here are some audience targeting options available on Meta and YouTube that you can utilize for your Fourth of July advertising campaign:

Gain insights into the performance of YouTube ads during the summer marketing season. Explore these benchmarks to optimize your Fourth of July and summer campaigns effectively:

Download the 2024 HVAC YouTube Case Study

By combining YouTube Instream Non-Skippable ads with Video View Campaigns, the brand successfully achieved a balanced strategy, driving impactful reach and high engagement with its target audience.

Download the report

Why 4th of July Advertisers Win Big with Summer Campaigns

The digital ad space offers ample opportunities to launch your Fourth of July ads during the summer. Completing your summer ad campaign involves deploying highly localized ads that remind people of the 4th of July events worth celebrating.

That’s why we’ve prepared this comprehensive guide to help you make a lasting impact before, during, and after the Fourth of July celebration. Here are the key takeaways on why the 4th of July advertising season is one you won’t want to miss:

Build a robust customer base for the rest of the year and the upcoming holiday seasons

• An awareness campaign is a solid foundation for collecting engagement and traffic, which can be utilized for Lookalike audience targeting in future ad campaigns.
• As we mentioned, even within this season, you can start building a funnel to transition your audiences from awareness to readiness to purchase.

Become the go-to brand for 4th of July celebrations and shopping

• The Fourth of July is an annual event, and your goal is to acquire new customers and nurture your existing customer base.
• Establishing customer loyalty can significantly increase your ROI, as repeat customers spend 67% more than first-time buyers. Thus, it’s essential to retain loyal customers by ensuring your Fourth of July advertising efforts continue to reach them and keep your brand in mind.
• Providing high-quality products or services is crucial simultaneously, as around 55% of consumers remain loyal to brands they have a positive experience with.

Maximize your ad delivery and budget throughout the entire summer campaign period

• By strategically placing your campaign and balancing your ad budget and delivery, you can maintain a visible presence during high-traffic periods like the 4th of July.
  
  This approach allows you to capitalize on the increased demand while extending your reach before and after the peak period, ensuring continuous visibility throughout the relevant timeframe.

At Strike Social, we optimize brand performance while keeping costs within budget throughout the campaign. Contact us to explore our services and tailored solutions. Learn how our data-driven strategies can deliver measurable results for your campaigns.

The post Ignite the Excitement with Your Fourth of July Ad Campaigns appeared first on Strike Social.

Businesses are equally affected by inflation, disrupting their supply chain. In the March McKinsey survey, 74% of retailers identified increasing supply chain fragility (raw materials, transportation, and warehousing) as the key trend shaping the industry over the 12-18 months. As a result, retailers are increasing their effort to deliver promotional messages across all channels.

Of all the challenges marketers face, two scenarios will continue to create an impact from today until the calendar rolls over to 2023: higher inflation and a possible recession. As consumers slowly paddle back to their old habits, marketers still tread the social advertising waters.

Related article: YouTube Holiday Advertising: A Gift to Marketers

How Overstocking, Inflation, and Other Factors may Affect the Auction

According to GroupM, by 2025, US e-commerce sales are expected to grow by 27%, outpacing global retail sales. Similarly, charts from InsiderIntelligence show that the retail industry will lead the list in digital ad spend growth this year, followed by the revived travel industry.

With inflation at the forefront of the mind of consumers, retailers and advertisers are forced to adapt quickly by kicking off their holiday promotions earlier than usual. emarketer.com survey found that 77% of the respondents admit that their spending is affected by rising inflation. In addition, 41% of small business owners identify inflation as their primary concern.

Based on Strike Social’s consolidated data of the past Q4 YouTube TrueView Instream Skippable CPV data, media buyers may expect a significant increase in ad spending this November.

Over the last few years, advertisers’ holiday rush began a month before December. Data shows a MoM median percentage increase of 13% occurs when most consumers are at their peak of the holiday shopping season. 

In November 2020, with the boom of eCommerce, the pandemic holidays pushed ad costs up,  jumping by more than 20%, and continued to rally closing the year. 

Media buyers may encounter another busy auction this Q4. Inflation impacts consumers’ buying behaviors while companies push all promotional buttons to try and normalize the supply chain entering 2023. 

Advertisers’ Tools for the Holiday

Brands can reach new sets of eyeballs and boost sales by leveraging holiday campaigns through the latest ad units to create a more native shopping experience. Social media giants offer new advertising solutions that allow a few swipes or clicks, allowing couch shoppers to purchase without leaving the app. 

Combining social commerce with relevant content creates a new form of shopping behavior that allows brands to create a seamless purchase journey. The recent advertising updates open opportunities for advertisers to promote their products or services.

Despite consumers flocking to stores’ doorsteps, social commerce has proven its value to shoppers as they continue to consider purchasing most on their shopping lists online. 

But among the top paid social channels, which of these helps media buyers get more value out of the budget? Understand the latest advertising updates and holiday trends.

TikTok Shopping Ads

Although it is new in the social commerce industry, TikTok is catching up by reinventing the traditional marketing funnel with an “Infinite Loop” of social discovery and creativity. TikTok has made its shopping platform more robust by adding shopping ad units like live shopping, catalog ads, and video shopping ads.

There are three new types of Shopping Ads:

1. Video Shopping Ads: Using shoppable videos, brands can provide dynamic experiences to drive shoppers to purchase.
2. Catalog Listing Ads: It enables brands to increase product exposure with shoppable listings without video assets. They can showcase their product catalogs across the app, including “Recommended” or “Related Products.”
3. LIVE Shopping Ads: Dynamic links to products or services are created and shared directly with a brand’s community in real time through live streaming

Through the three latest formats, it can help brands market and sell their products by promoting them on the profile page’s product showcase tabs. Aside from these three, other TikTok shopping ad units that are widely used, such as

1. Spark Ads – Creating native content is designed to scale engagement and draw in quality users. Spark Ads lets brands reuse other content creators’ most successful videos to ensure more users see them.
2. In-Feed Ads – 60 secs ads with CTAs of choice placed in potential buyers on For You page

Related article: TikTok Shopping Ads: Advertisers’ Solution to Creating Meaningful Digital Shopping Experience |A Guide on How to Set Up TikTok Product Catalog

YouTube Video Action Campaign

Video action campaigns offer a simple way to drive more conversions on and off YouTube. It uses different formats such as

1. Skippable in-stream- The video plays before, during, or after other videos. After 5 seconds, the viewer has an option to skip the ad.
2. In-feed video formats– It engagingly presents the video, inviting viewers to click, watch, and share through a thumbnail. In-feed video ads are delivered on YouTube search results, YouTube’s mobile homepage, and alongside related YouTube videos.
3. Non-skippable in-stream ads- Unlike skippable, the ad is 15 secs (or longer) and plays before, during, or after other videos, and viewers can’t skip it.
4. Bumper ads- Like Non-skippable, viewers can’t skip the ad that is 5 seconds (or shorter) and play before, during, or after another video.

YouTube is scaling its Video Action Campaigns and App campaigns to YouTube Shorts.Moreover, advertisers can utilize Google Shopping Ads that include Shopping Ads, Performance Max, and Shopping cards for YouTube. 

Related article: YouTube Makes Ads on Connected TV More Shoppable |YouTube Product Feed On Video Action Campaign: A Step-by-step Guide

Meta Shopping Ads

Facebook Shops is a collection of online shopping features that the social platform has released over the years, including:

1. Meta Advantage+ catalog- (previously known as Dynamic Ads) Automatically promote the entire product catalog to visitors without creating multiple individual ad sets.
2. Collection Ads– The ad includes cover images or videos with multiple products shown underneath that can be browsed instantly once the ad is clicked.
3. Collaborative Ads– It drives traffic or sales of the products on a partner’s website or app. Collaborative Ads connect brands that sell directly to consumers with retailers and merchants. The brand’s partner shares a portion of their catalog called a catalog segment.

Related article: Marketers’ guide to Meta ad specs | Sell More with Facebook Shops: Guide to Get Started

Table of Comparison: YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok Shopping Ads

While the holiday keeps everyone busy, it is an excellent opportunity for brands to keep consumers informed and engaged. Top social advertising networks, Meta, YouTube, and TikTok, have released a new set of advertising tools before the holiday shopping season to help advertisers better connect with consumers.

​​With inflation at the forefront of many people’s minds, retailers and advertisers should consider pushing their holiday sales with early promotions. An always-on campaign running throughout the holiday shopping season and a shopping ad solution can yield significant results. This allows brands to remain in front of many consumers, including early, traditional, and late buyers.

Top social networks have released new tools and updates ahead of the holiday season, just in time for media buyers to familiarize themselves and understand how they can help them create a more meaningful advertising experience for their customers. 

If you’re interested in the latest social advertising news and insights, sign-up for our weekly newsletter. 

Expand your expertise. Browse Strike Social’s latest blogs here:

• 
  Back-to-School Advertising Ideas to Secure Sales During Shopping Periods
• 
  YouTube Ads Statistics: Global Trends & Data for Your 2025 Campaigns
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  How to Combine YouTube and Google Search Ads for Better Results
• 
  How Facebook Feed Ads Achieve Efficiency in Meta Placements
• 
  Inside Strike Social’s Media Buyer Training 2025
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  Finding Cost Efficiency in Meta Ads: Advantage+ vs. Manual Campaigns

The post New Social Shopping Ads for an Ever Earlier Holiday Shopping Season appeared first on Strike Social.

The advertising industry took a whipping from the pandemic last year, slashing a 5.2% decline YoY during Q2 as brands halted ongoing campaigns. However, it did not take long for advertisers to bounce back as they closed with 12% and 29% increases in spending, Q3, and Q4, respectively. Although US digital ad spending suffered mid-year shrinkage, 2020 ended with a 12% YoY increase, $139.8 billion in revenue. This year, Dentsu projected a more positive outcome, 13.7% growth, and might outrebounded last year’s performance.

Peak of the Season, Peak of the Competition

As everyone turns their calendars to October, hundreds of holiday-themed ads start to arrive on consumers’ screens, targeting early Christmas shoppers watching YouTube product reviews. Based on a Statista.com survey, 38% of Christmas shoppers begin to check out their carts before November.

Looking at the last three years’ data from 2018-2020, month-to-month YouTube Holiday advertising CPV increased at an average of 10.79% during October, 15.70% in November, and 30.12% throughout the festive month of December. By knowing these data, advertisers can plan early on their digital advertising effort and spread the cost throughout the campaign period. 

CTV Advertising: The Power of Co-Viewing During Holidays 

The pandemic has stepped on the pedal in Connected TV growth, and there’s no sign of slowing down.  Mediapost reported, last August 2021, TDG found that 85% of broadband households use a CTV. In addition, six out of ten Connected TV users watch Advertising-based Video on Demand platforms. 

Looking at Campaign Lab data, Strike Social proprietary tool, Fraction of Views from mobile continue to take a considerable share of the advertising spends. In 2019, spending allotment on mobile saw a 12% jump from the previous year. However, the shift in the behavior of digital consumers created by the pandemic skewed the ad budget to CTV. As a result, desktop, Tablet, and Mobile devices ad spending allocation slowed down by 5%, 7%, and 10% each.

The transformation of “me” to “we” of video consumers is evident as eyeballs deviate from a small device to a bigger screen. As a result, the Fraction of View for Connected TV has seen a massive surge of 31% from 2018-2020. Additionally, consuming video content on CTV creates a whole new opportunity for advertisers as Nielsen stated that 47% of co-viewing happens with families and friends.

Seize The Holiday Opportunities

Strike Social perspective for 2021 Q4 will behave similarly to 2019. As clients move advertising money late this year, advertisers allocate budgets to platforms that absorb additional investment. As brands flocks to grab audience attention, this creates a rise in the auction. Therefore, the team anticipates Q4 CPVs to be 10%-15% higher than Q3 and potentially increase by December.

In addition, holiday advertising campaigns should consider co-viewing audiences. Research conducted by the Video Advertising Bureau shows that 71% of advertisements displayed to co-viewers generate a substantial emotional response compared to 37% of single viewers. At the same time, streaming video content has been a communal activity since the pandemic.

The learning from the previous holiday season creates adaptability and agility in the marketing strategy. But to further leverage the success, analyzing and understanding the data will create a higher probability of attaining campaign objectives. 

The post YouTube Holiday Advertising: A Gift to Marketers appeared first on Strike Social.