The Digital Marketer’s 2024 Holiday Success Guide

How to sleigh the competition, capture attention, and drive sales this holiday season.

Ready for it or not, we’re here again, at the pinnacle of the consumer product marketer’s year–Q4 holiday season. As the holiday shopping season approaches, we digital marketers find ourselves in a familiar frenzy, akin to a caffeine-addled elf on a mission to maximize ROAS. And with Black Friday and Cyber Monday looming like presents under the tree, you’ve likely read dozens of holiday “playbooks” or “guides,” all recycling the same insights we read each year – “start early, refine your messaging, leverage social media, build anticipation,” and the list goes on and on. While those tips are timeless as a holiday jingle, that’s where this article takes a detour to bring you some often-overlooked but essential tips for making the most of your holiday media planning.

Whether you’ve got your holiday plans locked in and are just looking for some inspiration to spice things up, or are scrambling to put together a strategy, this holiday success guide will have something for you!

In this guide, we’ll cover:

Top Seasonal/Sales Moments
Researching The Latest Consumer Trends
How To Win With Complementary Tactics 
Utilize Premier Social Platform Offerings
How To Leverage Influencers Effectively
Catalog Sales Are A Must
Creative & Messaging
Pulse + Phase Campaign Strategy

Key Seasonal Moments & Sales Days

First, let’s define the key sales points throughout the holiday season, outlined below. When planning your media budgets, be sure to plan for high-volume sales moments and increase budgets to scale up reach to meet those high purchase-intent days.

Feel free to download a full calendar list of these key dates to incorporate into your planning

Download

More on this below, under Pulse + Phase approach to media planning 😉. Keep reading to learn more about our list of often overlooked suggestions to make the most of your holiday planning!

Tip #1: Research The Latest Consumer Trends

Consumer trends change with the winds. Having done the right research leading up to Cyber Week and the holiday season can be the difference between trying to catch that wind with a kite or a rock. Proper trends research should be a multi-faceted approach that combines data analysis, listening tools, and industry insights. Use a mix of reliable third-party consumer studies and compare them to what you’re seeing across your own internal data trends. 

For example, not that we need a study to know this, but while optimism seems to be on the rise, continued economic challenges have led consumers to tighten their budgets and prioritize quality over quantity in purchasing decisions. How does this compare to your brand’s performance? This insight may lead you to dig into changes in product categories most purchased, shifts in average order value, and the like across your brand’s sales. Understanding consumers are trending toward value, this insight may prompt you to evaluate the types of promotions you run, aiming to maximize conversion value over conversion volume in your campaigns. 

Here are some top 2024 consumer trends we think are worth keeping in mind:

1. Social media as shopping hubs: Consumers are increasingly comfortable making purchases directly through social media platforms, with Facebook leading in trust for in-app purchases.
   
2. Influencer impact: About 21% of social media users are making purchasing decisions based on influencer recommendations, with millennials being particularly influenced.
   
3. Video content preference: Consumers are showing a strong preference for authentic and relatable video content.
   
4. Personalization at scale: Consumers expect personalized experiences, with personalization driving a 10-15% revenue lift for companies that implement it effectively.
   
5. Explore Self-Gifting Trends: 87% of TikTok users buy gifts for themselves during holiday shopping events, which is 12% more than users of traditional platforms. This trend presents an opportunity to tailor marketing strategies to cater to both gift-giving and self-indulgence.

Tip #2: Win With Complementary Tactics 

Any marketer worth their LinkedIn bio knows creating a holiday promotional strategy can sometimes feel like playing 3D Tetris blindfolded. And with the ever-increasing number of tactics, channels, and marketing guru advice out there, it can quickly become overwhelming (who hasn’t Slacked this meme to their work bestie at some point in the planning process?).

Rather than getting lost in the sauce, we recommend keeping these tactics in mind when building out your strategy.

Utilize Premier Platform Offerings

In addition to standard auction-buying type campaigns, many platforms offer a number of premium reserve-buy offerings and placements to run alongside active media or as standalone tools. Working with a partner that has direct relationships with the digital platforms is crucial to unlocking these innovative formats. Whether the end goal is to own a moment, increase share-of-voice, or drive conversions, consider how layering premium activations on top of your auction campaigns could enhance the overall strategy. Here are a few examples of premiere offerings AdParlor has executed on to drive client results.

Meta Moments Maker 

Meta recently launched Moments Maker (M3), a top-tier saturation media package to reach audiences where they are consuming content across the platform’s video surfaces. 

• The package includes a 3-day max reach custom plan to boost share-of-voice and own a major moment
• This package is a reservation buy
• M3 can ideally be used during peak seasonal moments in conjunction with longer campaigns to amplify brand message

Inspiration: See how AdParlor brought a recent M3 activation to life to own the moment and drive an 11x ROAS

Pinterest Premiere Spotlight

Pinterest’s newest Premiere Spotlight is a high-impact video ad placement to maximize reach on Pinterest. The format allows advertisers to showcase their brand in a premium, exclusive placement on the Search landing page (SLP) for 24 hours across all devices. ​

• Max width video highlighted on Search Landing Page 
• Best used for large-scale reach during big brand moments and launches ​
• ​Premiere Spotlight is shown on the Search Landing Page, meaning users are already in a unique mindset actively searching out inspiration

Inspiration: In early 2024, Adparlor launched a Premiere Spotlight activation for a women’s activewear apparel line, driving massive reach and share-of-voice while also seeing lower-funnel results

• 26.2M impressions
• 15.1M unique reach
• 0.44% CTR
• 6x ROAS

TikTok TopView

TopView is TikTok’s most premium video ad format that showcases a high-impact full-screen ad immediately when users open the app, being the first video they see

• This is the best placement on the platform to reach and capture the attention of audiences in an impactful way – think of it as a Times Square Billboard in your audience’s pocket
• In a Kantar study of ads across various platforms, 70% of users said they were more likely to share content about brands they discover on TopView compared to other ad formats
• TopView is based on a CPM buying basis, with varying minimum spends

Inspiration: In a recent product launch for a women’s activewear line, Adparlor used TopView as a high-impact driver to kickstart the campaign, resulting in a 13% increase in ad recall and a 149% increase in average watch time. 

X Trend Takeover

A Trend Takeover is a premium ad placement by X (formerly Twitter), designed to maximize visibility and engagement by placing your ad at the top of the Trending Topics list in the Explore tab. Running for 24 hours, this high-impact advertising solution allows brands to dominate trending conversations, capturing user attention when they are most engaged with trending topics on the platform.

• Ensures your brand’s message is prominently featured at the top of trending topics, reaching a broad audience and maximizing exposure.
• Drives higher engagement rates by placing ads where users are actively participating in trending conversations.
• Enjoy sole access to the top Trends list and Explore tab for a full 24 hours. Only one brand per day can utilize a Trend Takeover
• Trend Takeover is on a reservable flat-fee basis

Reddit Category Takeover

A Category Takeover on Reddit is a custom ad package that puts your brand at the forefront of chosen communities for 24 hours or more, ensuring visibility across the feed, banners, and conversations when Redditors visit those subreddits (+ first ad impression)

• 100% Share-of-Voice in relevant communities
• Cost-effective outcomes by increasing campaign reach
• Enhanced audience engagement through conversion placement

Inspiration: In a recent campaign for leading pet nutrition brand, Hill’s Pet Nutrition, AdParlor drove impressions over 75% higher than expected with CTR meeting the benchmark for the brand’s Animal Fans takeover activation.

All that said, these are but a short list of a number of premier offerings across platforms, each with its own set of unique advantages and limitations to consider when planning. The difficult part is analyzing which works best for your brand’s needs while managing the execution & platform planning. That’s where AdParlor comes in 😉 Our team operates from a channel-agnostic perspective, taking into account everything from brand alignment to measurement, ensuring your premier placement campaign is set up for success.

Tip #3: Leverage Influencers Effectively In Your Strategy

In 2024, influencer marketing is certainly not a novel concept, but a tried and true tactic to include in your planning (especially when it comes to major seasonal moments). UGC, or user-generated content, is a way for your brand to break through the noise and clutter of today’s newsfeeds and lead with authentic, compelling messaging. 

Why include influencers in your tentpole planning? According to a recent study from BazaarVoice, 64% of audiences trust influencer-generated content (IGC) more than brand-provided content. In addition, 73% cited they felt more confident in a purchase driven by IGC over Cyber Weekend. Utilizing influencers in your strategy adds a level of authenticity that consumers are, in general, more accustomed and receptive to, with promoted IGC ads often outperforming brand content.

Here are some considerations when planning to incorporate influencers:

• Leverage influencers on both an organic and paid front, using the influencer’s following to increase incremental reach and discovery while utilizing paid partnerships to amplify their content to a wider, targeted audience.
  
• Consider timing and have an organic and paid plan in place well before the activation. With the holidays fast approaching, influencers should have been vetted and contracted by October to ensure there is time to brief them on the activation, leave room for revisions, and organic deployment ahead of paid amplification.
  
• Consider how your influencer’s audiences across platforms align with your strategy and where to amplify the content. For example, while Instagram still remains supreme when it comes to promoting influencer content, TikTok (utilizing Spark Ads) is quickly gaining ground – in fact, in a 2023 study, 56% of brands surveyed reported using TikTok in their influencer marketing efforts.
  
• Consider where in the funnel your influencer plan comes into play and have an amplification strategy in place. While influencer marketing is generally considered more of an upper and middle-funnel tactic, AdParlor specializes in utilizing influencers across the funnel to drive not only awareness and engagement but also bottom-line sales and brand loyalty. 

Check out this recent case study where AdParlor leveraged influencer messaging to increase awareness and engagement, while driving actual foot traffic for a major pet adoption event!

Learn more about how AP manages the influencer program process, from strategy and selection to management and amplification.

Tip #4: Catalog Sales Are A Must

If you’re a brand or retailer with a sizable collection of products to promote, catalog sales are a must-have objective in your seasonal strategy. While to some, it may still feel like dark magic to have a product you viewed online yesterday suddenly pop up in your Instagram feed (looking at you, dad), we digital marketers and the chronically online know that is just the work of effective dynamic retargeting.

Catalog Sales is a fantastic way to complement your other funnel tactics, driving cost-effective lower-funnel conversions, re-engaging previous viewers with personalized dynamic product placement and messaging, and increasing relevant product discovery, just to name a few. In our experience, we’ve even found that paired against non-dynamic conversion-focused campaigns, catalog sales tend to outperform, driving lower costs and higher ROAS.

Keep these in mind when looking to incorporate dynamic ads into your plans

• Utilize dynamic product ads (DPA): Remarket to potential customers who have previously viewed a product or abandoned their cart, dynamically promoting the product(s) viewed. Be sure to incorporate a personalized CTA in your retargeting ads (example: Left something behind? Grab your gear before it’s gone!).

• Enhanced product discovery: With catalog sales, you can display a wide range of products in a single ad unit, giving users the opportunity to discover new items they might not have initially searched for. This increases product visibility and encourages exploration of your product line. Keep this in mind when segmenting your product sets.

• Customize creative for the moment: Take advantage of card customization options to align with a seasonal moment.
  
  • Platforms like Meta include the ability to layer on static frames to dynamic carousel ads. Consider using a frame to customize your dynamic ad units to the season or incorporate your branding in a holiday-themed creative addition.
    
  • Similar to frames, leverage custom overlays to highlight sales pricing, percentage off, or free shipping

• For a more personalized dynamic ad experience, AdParlor offers a proprietary product, Creative Blueprints, that adds an additional layer of card creative customization at the feed level. Reach out to our team to learn more about Creative Blueprints!

• Product catalog considerations: While catalog sales campaigns can be a low-lift method to drive sales and personalize the ad experience to each viewer, it’s important to make sure your catalog is up-to-date and meets the required product minimum as well as the recommended size.
  
  • Catalog size minimum requirements vary across platforms. Meta, for example, has a four-product minimum to run a catalog sales campaign, however, it recommends a catalog size of at least 20 products (pro tip: variants do not count as individual products).
    
  • Catalog sales may be best suited for brands and retailers with a wider product assortment, while single and low-product advertisers may be more suited for non-dynamic strategies.
    
  • Audit your data feed to ensure your product catalog is up-to-date and error-free prior to launching your catalog sales campaign.
    
  • Use one catalog and have a match rate of at least 75% (over 90% is ideal)
     
• Dynamically reach last-minute shoppers to drive in-store sales with Meta Local Inventory ads – Local Inventory allows businesses to dynamically target users near their physical store locations with relevant product availability and pricing information. This feature is perfect for reaching last-minute gifters with buy online/pay in-store messaging to drive up in-store traffic.
  • Caveat: Requires integration of store location and inventory data feeds
    

Tip #5: Creative & Messaging

There’s a reason for the old saying, “Creative is king,” and the holidays are certainly not the time to be a scrooge about investing in it. In an overstimulating environment of holiday campaigns, discounts, promos, and the like, unique thumb-stopping creative and messaging is what sets you apart from every other brand vying for those consumer dollars. 

Creative

To capture the attention of early holiday shoppers in the discovery phase, consider creating personalized gift guides that cater to diverse audience preferences. Leveraging interactive ad formats, such as Pinterest quiz ads and Meta Messenger ads, enhances engagement by providing a more tailored shopping experience.

• Pinterest quiz ads invite users to answer fun questions, which then guide them to product recommendations based on their preferences, making it an ideal tool for helping shoppers find the perfect holiday gifts. 
• Meanwhile, Meta Messenger ads offer a direct, conversational approach, enabling brands to interact with shoppers through personalized messaging that can guide them to curated gift options.
  

These unique ad formats not only increase engagement but also help drive conversions by simplifying the discovery and decision-making process for consumers looking for holiday gift inspiration.

Messaging

Don’t forget to rotate in time-sensitive messaging in the final weeks of your campaign. Incorporate shipping cut-off date messaging into your ad strategy to remind shoppers of the deadline for guaranteed delivery by the holidays. This can create a sense of urgency and motivate them to act quickly before it’s too late. This type of messaging is especially effective in social and email campaigns, or website placements, where you can make the cut-off dates highly visible. 

And for brick-and-mortar storefronts, consider tapping into buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS), and curbside messaging to reach last-minute shoppers who have passed the shipping deadline. Highlighting BOPIS and curbside pickup as alternative fulfillment methods can capture procrastinating buyers, ensuring you don’t miss out on critical sales during the final holiday rush.

Tip #6: Flight Your Campaigns with a Pulse + Phase Approach

With all that said, it’s time to put it together. Whether your plan incorporates the aforementioned tactics or any number of other potential avenues, it’s important to take a step back and examine how they all interconnect. To fit these pieces together, we recommend a layered phase + pulse approach. This method aims to strategically layer each tactic across the promotion timeline so one feeds into the next, driving your target audience down the funnel without dark periods within your program. 

The example below illustrates how to layer your longer-phased tactics along with short high-visibility pulse activations for maximum SOV and coverage:

• In this fictitious campaign example, you’ll see we have upper-funnel campaigns on Meta platforms starting in October and running through the campaign, tapering down near the end. 
• Next, to kick off the holiday shopping season and drive max share-of-voice of the key BF/CM week, a Pinterest Premiere Spotlight is launched along with an initial influencer activation on Instagram and TikTok. 
• From there, conversion and catalog sales campaigns are phased in, running through to the holiday. 
• The previous influencer content is then amplified out to a larger targeted audience to support the lower-funnel effort (bonus points: this is also a great opportunity to test brand creative against creator content). 
• Next, shipping cut-off dates messaging is rotated into the conversion campaigns to entice customers who are yet to purchase. 
• Finally, Local Inventory ads are launched in the final week leading up to the holiday to capture the procrastinating gifters and drive in-store traffic.

Wrapping it up 🎁

While holiday planning may still feel like an impossible game of Tetris, with these thought starters, you’re well on your way to navigating the rush and setting the stage for a successful 2025. 

About the Author

With nearly a decade of experience in the industry, Chase is a seasoned marketing professional, adept in multiple disciplines from digital media planning & buying to account and project management. For the last three years, Chase has worked with AdParlor, first on the client account side, and now on the marketing side of the business.

When he’s not planning his next big campaign for a client or researching the latest trends, you can most likely find him in his CrossFit gym or out on the mountain biking trails.