STOP Wasting Ad Budget This Holiday Season!

Last updated: October 29, 2024

Aaron Rudman-Hawkins

Aaron Rudman-Hawkins is a dynamic digital marketing expert and a driving force behind The Evergreen Agency's success. With a passion for technology and a deep understanding of the ever-evolving digital landscape, Aaron has become a trusted name in the industry.

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As brands prepare for the busy holiday season, many will significantly increase their advertising budgets. However, without proper strategy, this can lead to substantial waste. Here are five proven ways to ensure your advertising spend delivers maximum return during the peak shopping season.

Master your segmentation

Understanding who your best customers are – not just your most frequent customers – is crucial for efficient ad spend. This involves:

  • Analysing historical data to identify high-value customers
  • Understanding purchasing patterns and frequencies
  • Building detailed customer avatars
  • Identifying demographic and behavioural patterns

Rather than casting a wide net, focus your increased holiday budget on audiences that mirror your best customers’ characteristics. This targeted approach typically yields better returns than broad-reach campaigns.

Leverage retargeting effectively

With higher holiday traffic, your retargeting pools will naturally grow. Maximise this opportunity by:

  • Updating your customer lists regularly in advertising platforms
  • Building comprehensive first-party data audiences
  • Creating specific retargeting campaigns for different audience segments
  • Allocating adequate budget for retargeting warm audiences

Remember: The larger your retargeting pool, the better your campaigns typically perform. A retargeting audience of thousands will usually outperform one of hundreds.

Prioritise data collection

Don’t focus solely on immediate sales. The holiday season is an excellent opportunity to build your customer database for long-term success:

  • Implement email capture strategies
  • Offer early access to sales for newsletter subscribers
  • Create compelling lead magnets
  • Consider pre-season promotions to build your database

This approach ensures you’re not just driving immediate sales but building valuable audience pools for future marketing efforts.

Optimise ad placements

With platforms like Google’s Performance Max and Meta’s Advantage Plus campaigns becoming increasingly common, it’s crucial to understand where your ads perform best:

  • Analyse placement performance data regularly
  • Consider feed-only campaigns if shopping ads drive most sales
  • Test different placements across platforms
  • Focus budget on proven-performing placements

For example, if 70-80% of your Performance Max sales come from shopping feeds, consider running feed-only campaigns rather than allowing ads to show across all placements.

Align optimisation goals with business objectives

As you scale up holiday spending, ensure your campaigns are optimised for the right objectives:

  • Focus on conversion or conversion value optimisation
  • Avoid maximising clicks or reach if sales are your goal
  • Review campaign objectives before increasing budgets
  • Ensure algorithm learning aligns with your business goals

Common mistake: Many brands increase budgets while campaigns are still optimised for awareness metrics rather than conversions.

Implementing these strategies

Start by:

  • Reviewing your current customer data to identify your most valuable segments
  • Setting up proper tracking and measurement
  • Creating detailed customer avatars
  • Building comprehensive retargeting audiences
  • Reviewing current campaign optimisation settings

Remember, you don’t need massive budgets to implement these strategies. Even brands spending modest amounts can benefit from these optimisation techniques.

Key takeaway

The holiday season presents significant opportunities for increased sales, but simply increasing ad spend without proper strategy can lead to waste. Focus on these five areas to ensure your advertising investment delivers maximum return during this crucial period.

Would you like to learn more about implementing these strategies in your business? Reach out to discuss how we can help optimise your holiday advertising campaigns.

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