With the advertising space so congested during the holidays, competition for YouTube views gets harder and harder — which means costs skyrocket and there’s little room for error.

For advertisers looking to get it right, this YouTube data report offers several key insights as well as an action plan. In it, you will find YouTube campaign data for five key retail days: Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Some of the most surprising findings? YouTube advertisers aren’t following the money when it comes to optimizing their holiday campaigns and are ignoring parents — a crucial audience during this important time of the year.

Based on this evidence, here’s how advertisers can do better.

Why Mom and Dad should matter to YouTube advertisers

Parents engage with YouTube ads more than non-parents do during the holidays, our data shows. In spite of this, advertisers invest more budget trying to reach non-parents for most of the season.

Parents are also big spenders. Overall, shoppers invest $900 on holiday gifts, but parents alone dish out $422 per child, with some spending more than $500. And when it comes to online shopping, parents spend on average 61% more than non-parents do.

So why are YouTube advertisers focused on parents mostly just around Thanksgiving and Black Friday? It appears due to the assumption that parents have all their shopping wrapped up very early in the season.

To the contrary: 68% of people start purchasing gifts after November, according to the National Retail Federation.

View rates drop closer to Christmas, but parents still have the edge

While it’s true that overall view rates do drop at this time in the year, parents still outperform non-parents. Parents also display higher click-through rates for all of the five days we analyzed.

Improve your YouTube targeting

So, if you’re a YouTube advertiser wanting to get more bang for your buck this season, we offer several suggestions to help tweak your strategies. Download your free YouTube holiday data report now to learn:

• What days to specifically target each audience segment
• Which audience you should be focused on based on your industry
• The day when most advertisers are really missing the mark
• When and how you should be spending your money