A social ads strategy to drive results this Christmas

By Becky Dickinson

Yes, we’re quite aware summer has barely arrived, but the thing about Black Friday and Christmas is that it gets fiercely competitive. So, you need to have a plan!

Starting mid-summer will ensure you’ve got all your ducks in a row, giving you plenty of time to hit those numerous touchpoints customers need before committing to a purchase. If you start too late, it’ll be too expensive to enter the auction and your Cost Per Acquisition and Cost Per Click (CPC) will be higher.

A month-by-month breakdown of activity

July/August

Make sure your pixel and tracking is all set up correctly. Without this, you won’t be able to accurately measure results as you get further into the year – bad data makes for uninformed decisions, so it’s well worth double-checking.

Also consider whether you’re cookie compliant to the latest legislation. You could face hefty fines if you’re not collating data responsibly. We can get you set up and compliant, if you need a hand. 

Is your website generally performing well? Slow load times, clunky navigation and poor landing pages can cost you dearly in clicks that don’t drive results. Talk to us about conversion rate optimisation to find out where you can improve. 

September

This is where you’ll want to build brand awareness and website traffic while CPCs are low. Introduce your brand to potential customers, so you can really build out your remarketing list and ramp up that activity later in the year.

Create landing page campaigns with broad audiences and use engaging creative to attract attention and catch the eye before the competition gets stiff. 

October

The month before Black Friday, you’ll want to continue with landing page campaigns – but start testing conversion campaigns with lookalike and custom audiences.

Use this time to ensure you have a clear idea of the following:

• The images and videos that are bringing conversions
• Which CTAs are working best
• Which landing pages are driving results

All of this should ensure you go into Black Friday month with the best insights, allowing you to budget and spend accordingly on the campaigns most likely to drive conversions.

November

It’s here! Shoppers are going to be inundated with Black Friday messaging in-store, online, in their inboxes – everywhere! Good thing you’ve been doing a lot of brand awareness activity up to this point. Throughout the month, continue with your landing page campaigns and ramp up your conversion campaigns.

You’ll want to:

• Test out conversion campaigns with your new customers
• Test conversion types – for example, add to cart vs purchase
• Consider flash sales during Black Friday/Cyber Monday to push new customers over the line

December

People are in the habit of spending now, and they’ll be looking for the retailers that are not only going to give them the products they want, but the service they want.

Focus on conversion campaigns, as it’ll be expensive to get new customers with competition at its height. Be sure to keep your messaging fluid throughout the month – the closer you get to Christmas, customers’ priorities shift from price to speedy delivery, reliable service, gift wrapping options, and so on.

January

The big shopping period might be over, but you’ve worked hard to win over new customers. Now isn’t the time to ignore them! Re-engage them through the post-festive lull. Reach out to them with…:

• New products you’re launching
• Exclusive access shopping events 
• Special offers
• New Year sales

Campaign focus suggestions 

Your campaigns should adapt and evolve as the year progresses – that’s because most people won’t buy from you the first time they hear of your brand (sorry!). 

Below are our suggestions for your campaign focus through the latter half of the year.

• July – 90% Prospecting focus & 10% remarketing
• Aug – 90% Prospecting focus & 10% remarketing
• Sept – 80% Prospecting focus & 20% remarketing
• Oct – 70% Prospecting focus & 30% remarketing
• Nov – 60% Prospecting focus & 40% remarketing
• Dec – 50% Prospecting focus & 50% remarketing
• Jan – 20% Prospecting focus & 80% remarketing

You’ll notice that the remarketing portion gets upped the closer towards the end of the year we get. That’s because initially you need to focus on trying to attract customers, before shifting the focus to get them over the line with a conversion by purchasing from you.

Creative is key

This is really what separates social from other forms of advertising. Your ad creative has to be well and truly thumb-stopping to get the results you want. Remember, people are generally looking at social media in their leisure time, so you’ve got to give them something good to lure them in and capture their attention.

Try things like:

• GIFs
• Short video clips
• Beautiful imagery with supporting text
• Tailored ‘Story’ ads

Couple your ads with a solid social commerce strategy to boost your touchpoints and make it even easier to shop, and you should be onto a winner.

We can help!

Overwhelmed, understaffed, or just need a team you can trust? We’ll get your social ads campaigns firing on all cylinders for the holidays – get in touch with us today.