By: Carson Bodnarek

Happy (early) Holidays from your account leads at Basis! For many sellers, the end of summer marks the opportunity to begin having holiday marketing conversations aimed at driving that all-important Q4 revenue. Before we get into 2022 recommendations, let’s take a look at some of the trends we saw in 2020 and 2021:

After the tumultuous 2020 shopping season, many holiday shoppers in 2021 wanted efficient and convenient experiences—and turned to e-commerce to fulfill those needs. However, while retail ecommerce sales have increased since 2018, non-ecommerce sales are still forecasted to contribute 4.5x more than ecommerce to 2022 holiday shopping.

With forecasts of continued shipping delays in 2022, consumers are expected to shop earlier this year, which presents a challenge for local retail advertisers: Figuring out the optimal time periods for advertising. As audiences flow in and out of the buying funnel this holiday season, leveraging a consistent programmatic strategy throughout Q4 will be key to driving awareness.

For sellers, having in-depth conversations to establish campaign goals will be as important as ever this holiday season to best execute on campaign strategies and secure renewals for 2023. In addition, when paired with effective targeting, tapping into streaming audio and connected TV formats can be a great way to extend holiday advertising messages to younger audiences.

As you begin meeting with holiday advertisers, here are some targeting methods to keep in mind:

  • Audience Targeting: Reach holiday shoppers through these data segments: Black Friday/Cyber Monday Shoppers; Affluent Holiday Shoppers (mobile & desktop), In-Market Holiday Décor Shoppers
  • Contextual Targeting: Reach shoppers by targeting specific types of holiday content, i.e.: holiday online shoppers, Predictive: Gift Giving, Shopping; Shopping Apps (mobile); Holidays and Celebrations
  • Mobile Location Retargeting: Reach users who have shown they are holiday shoppers or heavy shoppers based on their past locations. You could also reach users who have been to specific big box stores such as Best Buy, Macy’s or Target.
  • Hyperlocal Mobile: Reach users while they are actively shopping by targeting malls, shopping centers, and Christmas Markets.
  • First Party Audience Targeting: Reach users within an advertiser’s CRM database to reactivate past shoppers and grow repeat purchases; use emails and/or physical addresses to activate audience segments within LiveRamp to create opportunities for cookieless audience reach.

Need some examples in context? Check out this sample strategy:

Client: Hef’s Holiday Home Décor (furniture)

KPI: Awareness (CPCV) Video

Budget: $10,000 Monthly Media Spend (wholesale)

Audience

  • Target affluent holiday shoppers, furniture shoppers, and:
    • In-Market Holiday Décor Shoppers
    • Black Friday/Cyber Monday Shoppers

Contextual

  • Holiday online shoppers
  • Predictive: Gift Giving,
  • Shopping content; Shopping Apps (mobile)
  • Content related to Holidays and Celebrations

Hyperlocal Mobile

  • Target the local shopping mall and retail centers
  • Target the local Christmas Market

RON

  • Target DMA and leverage DSP technology to bid on impressions predicted to best deliver on completed views (awareness)

Retargeting

  • Target individuals who have visited the Hef’s Holiday Home Décor website and promote the upcoming sale event