It’s December! Time for decorations, present buying and the chaos of holiday advertising. It’s the time of year where you can get the most bang for your buck with ads on Facebook, Instagram and Google (and other preferred platforms) – but also where you’ll find the most competition for attention. One thing we can be certain of is that the pandemic has changed the way people shop and more business is being done exclusively online than ever before, so best be prepared. We’ve put together our top tips to help you prepare your advertising so that your business can reach its full potential this Christmas, with a focus on social media

The Basics

First and foremost, before getting stuck into advertising, you need somewhere to send your customers! Whether you’re an eCommerce store, bricks and mortar, or a service provider, your website should be in tip-top shape to direct traffic. Ensure that any question your customer could ask is answered somewhere within your website and that your branding and imagery should be clean and fresh. You may consider featuring a holiday-themed home page banner or holiday-specific landing page for your advertising to direct traffic.

And onto the ads! Many brands still overlook paid social media advertising and could be missing out big-time as a result! This can range from creating full campaigns down to simply boosting or promoting posts that would otherwise never see an audience without such promotion. It can be hard to make the call to increase your outgoing costs, but dedicating the time and budget to set up an effective campaign is vital to cut through the noise in 2021. 

Facebook Ad Manager has a multitude of offerings that can be overwhelming, so take your time when making selections. For now, we’ll give you a brief overview:

• Advanced Targeting: You can target your audience through age, gender, location, device usage, job title, and even relationship status. Additionally, you can customise your audience by creating a ‘lookalike’ audience in which you input data about your current audience, from your website and social media traffic, and Facebook will find more people who fit a similar profile.
• Placement Options: You’re not limited to just the newsfeed and can place ads in Messenger, Instagram, Instant Articles and the side panel.
• Objectives: Here you choose your marketing objective whether it be conversions, awareness, engagement, traffic, or reach and Facebook will show your campaign to users who are more likely to commit to that action.

When Should you Start your Holiday Advertising?

The sooner you start planning your Holiday marketing, the better. From preparing imagery to campaign strategy, you must put in the time to develop the best strategic plan for your business. There’s no such thing as too early when it comes to planning and preparation, so try and start your process early in the year to make sure you’re prepared for the rush of the holidays. Once Summer rolls around, you’ll be ready to kick start your campaign! And don’t forget to take into account delivery time!

Test your Audience Setup

A large part of your early planning will involve testing. Increasing numbers of ads around December means that competition is high for social media ad space, and your budget will be pushed to its limit. Don’t waste precious advertising dollars figuring your audience out when it’s too late – start creating test ads now with various audiences set up to see what targeting garners the best results. If you can effectively refine your audience ahead of December, you’ll know that you’re getting the most out of your budget.

Social Media Giveaways 

Christmas is the season of giving, so why not treat your followers to a festive giveaway? If you’ve planned limited-time products or value gift packs, promote them to your existing customers through a giveaway on your Instagram page, or to your loyal customers with an email campaign. Have users tag or refer a friend to enter, or share on their profile for bonus entries. Not only are you spreading the cheer, you’ll have the opportunity to grow your organic reach and raise awareness for your Christmas product offerings. Just remember to select your winner at random, to remain fair and impartial. 

Keep it Fresh

Paid advertising is going to be the key to increasing your audience and finding new customers. However, don’t forget about your existing fans – your Organic content should be supporting all of your Paid content, and everything should tie together neatly within your branding.

Fresh, engaging copy and imagery are vital when people are being bombarded with the same holiday messages from every angle. Do something to stand out – advertising at the holidays should be fun! People are making purchasing decisions out of love and kindness for their friends and family, so stay away from gimmicks and cheesiness and stay on-brand. Show off the best you have to offer for the holiday season! 

It’s not too late to get your marketing plan in order. Take advantage of the holiday season to reach new customers and keep up with fresh content. If you’ve been struggling to decide how best to allocate your budget and time, get in touch with our team today. And don’t forget – it’s never too early to start planning for next year! 

If you have a question and want to get in touch, contact us or call us at 07 3198 4890. If you are interested in keeping up to date with Fuse, subscribe to our eNews.