Introducing the ultimate guide to holiday advertising

The holidays are an important time for many of us. It calls to mind all kinds of associations: time spent with family and friends, opening presents by the Christmas tree, moments shared around the holiday dinner table.

The holidays are also a key moment for many businesses. Between Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas, the last months of the year are a crucial period for retailers and e-commerce businesses. If once upon a time these events were separate, today they are increasingly one major shopping event. To help you get the most out of your online advertising efforts all across this important shopping period, we’ve combined them into a single guide.

Putting it into perspective: some holiday statistics

Here’s something to put the holiday period into perspective: when Christmas is combined with Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Thanksgiving, and other events around this time of year, according to the National Retail Foundation (NRF), as much as 40% of yearly sales for small and mid-sized retailers take place within the last two months of the year.

Holiday spending also grows every year. Shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday grew by 9% and 15%, respectively, between the 2017 and 2018 seasons globally. And on Cyber Monday 2018, US consumers spent $7.9 billion in online sales, making it the highest online selling day in US e-commerce history.

Moving onto December, 86% of Americans plan to purchase at least one Christmas present this year! And those presents all add up: holiday retail sales reached reached the $1 trillion mark for the first time in 2018.

The holidays are also an increasingly important time for the travel industry, with around 112.5 million Americans traveling during the period of time around Christmas and New Year’s in 2018. And that number increases every year!

Our guide to holiday advertising

For businesses across industries, online advertising plays a crucial role. Advertising on social networks like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and Pinterest, combined with the reach and ubiquity of Google, gives savvy advertisers the ability to get their messages in front of the right people, at the right time—driving the actions that matter to them.

This eBook is a step-by-step guide to ensuring your online advertising is the best it can be across the period spanning from Black Friday through Christmas! As you read through, you’ll learn:

• What technical integrations you’ll need in place before you get started—and how to make sure they’re ready to go.
• Why it’s important to get started early.
• Where you should be advertising, and why you need to build a strategy that reaches across networks.
• How to build the right audience, and fully leverage retargeting to drive people down the marketing funnel.
• Why “keeping it local” matters, especially in retail, and how to do this effectively in your online advertising.
• What makes a great ad creative during the holiday period.
• How to optimize your campaigns as they evolve.
• Some practical tips on how to make the most out of your advertising at this crucial time of year.

Download your guide to holiday advertising today!