4 ways to optimize your digital ad strategy for the holiday season
Analysis of user behavior during the last period of the year and tips to get the best results out of your investment
How do Internet users behave during the holiday season?
During the last quarter of the year, the advertising industry as well as many others go through a particular phase, since advertisers invest huge amounts of money to win the race and get as many sales as possible while users are in the search for presents or planning vacations.
Publisher’s efforts to get attention from online buyers today is more relevant than ever with online sales already consolidated worldwide. Only in September this year, 83% of all Internet users worldwide searched the web to buy a service or product and that number is expected to rise as December gets closer.
During the holidays, mobile devices boost their reach as advertising channel, since users increase the time they spend interacting with them. Mobile devices are more and more used every year to shop for the holidays and it’s estimated that 46% of all transactions during that period are completed via mobile, according to a report by Smaato. And it’s expected that the volume of mobile orders will grow 33% during 2018 in comparison with the previous year.
Gamers also use more their mobile devices during the holidays for entertainment purposes. During this period, gamers spend 80% more time playing than in other times of the year and 43% of them download 2 or more games.
It’s clear that this is a very busy and highly relevant time of the year for the digital marketing business, and it’s necessary to keep in mind several aspects of the industry to safeguard the investment and optimize operations. Keep reading to find 4 tips to improve your advertising strategy during the holiday season.
✔️Buy media in advance
Those who to expect to work with programmatic buy should bear in mind that, during these months of the year, demand of ad spots is higher than ever. Therefore, inventory sold through ad bidding can get very pricey and surpass the budget allocated. If not done in advance, it’s even possible for advertisers to miss the chance to buy ad spots or only get low-quality placements.
By means of a previous agreement with publishers, advertisers guarantee spots for their ads and set a fixed price for them, which usually is lower than the one they’d get if they entered the bidding during the holidays.
One way to avoid high costs and guarantee access to inventory consists in buying media in advance. By means of a previous agreement with publishers, also known as programmatic guaranteed, advertisers make sure to have media available for their ads and agree upon a certain fixed price before the dates they’re interested in. Usually, their price settlement grants them a lower price than the one they’d get if they entered the bidding during the holidays.
✔️Include engaging creatives
Publishers usually answer to the increased demand of the last period of the year crowding the media with hundreds of ads to capture prospect clients. However, the abundance of advertisements reduces the attention people pay to them (whether intentionally or unintentionally), and marketing efforts may lose their potential.
In order to stand out from the competition, advertisers can choose rich media creatives, which include all those creatives that allow users to interact with the content in a different way, or more immersive formats, such as in-game advertising, interactive ads, playable ads and virtual or augmented reality options.
✔️Implement a retargeting strategy
Retargeting, the digital marketing strategy that consists of showing ads to users who previously interacted with the brand, can be a very useful strategy during this time of the year. For those who have access to technology that allows access to it, it could be great to collect data from all users who contacted the advertiser in key dates during the year and target them. For example, a shoe brand for women should pay special attention to Mother’s Day, Teacher’s Day, Black Friday and other relevant dates for that particular segment.
In this way, the advertiser takes advantage of whatever knowledge the user has from previous contacts with the brand, whether they searched for their brand products, made a purchase in their online store or clicked on any of the company’s ads. The retargeting works as a reminder and improves the brand awareness in the prospect client’s mind, which can eventually turn the advertiser into one of the first options if the user looks for similar products in the future.
✔️Bolster up operational planning
For Operations teams, the last period of the year usually entails some difficulties related to workload planning and organization. For instance, the lack of communication about last minute deals can impact priorities and increase the amount of work due in the short term as well as bring a higher error rate during campaign settings.
If the teams start working with a calendar that includes tasks and deadlines which the different teams have agreed upon together, those problems usually can be eased.
If Sales Executives, Advertising Creatives, Ad Operation Specialists and other members of the team work together to coordinate efforts, the end product is prone to improve and client discomfort will minimize. Besides, overtime can be reduced.
