Haunted by Low Conversions? Discover the Secrets to Better Holidays Results

The holiday season is right around the corner, and here are a few strategy recommendations to make sure you've got the best chances to drive desired outcomes.

Don't wait until the last minute to start planning your holiday season campaigns. The earlier you start, the more time you'll have to develop, test, execute and optimize your strategy.

Think about what your brand needs to achieve during the time of year. Are you looking to boost brand awareness? Or perhaps you want to increase the number of new customers or drive sales? Each of these goals requires a nuanced approach to get the most out of your ad spend. Notably:

• Brand Awareness: As a top-of-funnel strategy, consider who your desired audience or consumers are, and where they are. Focus on video across CTV and mobile devices. Have a few different videos and make sure they are holiday specific. If you don't have holiday oriented videos, you can wrap videos with overlays with focused themes.
• Adding New Customers: Standing as a more mid-funnel strategy, adjust your messaging and creatives to be more in line with an audience who is familiar with your goods or services, but have not yet become customers. Make sure there's a clear call to action that encourages your audience to convert based on your goals. As this demographic is likely familiar with the brand or solutions, look to reach them where they are, and make the path to conversion streamlined.
• Drive Sales: Focusing on conversions represents a bottom-of-funnel strategy; as such it's important to further adjust creative and messaging accordingly. For example, have a campaign's messaging be focused around your audience's pain points, or showcasing how your solutions provide benefits they never realized were important. Also include a strong call to action with persuasive language, and don't overlook the power of price reductions or results associated with your products to further increase conversions.

All that said, it's imperative to understand your existing and desired audience, their propensity to spend, and any other factors that can help you personalize your approach.

We've found the best performing creatives for products are usually focused around displaying the key aspects of it. Showcasing differentiation helps consumers remember your offering - that seems like a no-brainer but it's all too often overlooked. Additionally, make sure your creatives are interactive - it's great to include countdowns and “add to cart” mechanics. This really lets the consumer control exactly what information they want to see, and when. However, this year it's important to have expectations set in a realistic manner - with more price conscious consumers, brands should focus on the importance of their products and deals around the goods.

For example, a grocery store could make an in-app advertisement that lets viewers assemble their favorite holiday meal. In a drag-and-drop fashion, the consumer could select from a few items on screen to make their dish. As they select the items, the ad could display prices for the items, any discounts associated with that product, and a bit of information about it. There can also be another widget that shares other deals the store has going on, and a quick checkout feature that leads to grocery delivery options.

While that example is best suited for in-app environments, it wouldn't be the most optimal on different channels, like CTV environments. We're not saying you can't get creative with CTV ads! We've actually seen great results by making CTV interactive, too. For this, a brand could create a few standard video ads that are 15 - 30 seconds in length, and include a clearly displayed QR code that encourages consumers to engage with the brand beyond the CTV screen. From there, just like the example above, the brand can have a unique and immersive mobile ad experience that helps consumers find what they need. Again, doubling down on showcasing the benefits to the consumer will be important.

The coming months represent the fircest levels of competition when it comes to digital advertising. By using your campaigns to meet consumers where they are (both in terms of the channel they use, and also around their propensity to spend), you'll set yourself up to reach your goals. Additionally, by incorporating unique and engaging creatives for each respective channel, your campaigns will stand out from the pack and deliver more value to your key audiences.

For more examples of how you get extra creative with your holiday creative and messaging,  check out our Creative Showcase.