Holiday advertising strategies to drive in-store traffic and online sales
It’s that time of year again. While many consumers won’t start holiday shopping in earnest for a couple months, nearly a quarter are in the holiday-buying spirit by September. And if recent years are any indication, consumer spending is likely to be big between now and the new year—last year holiday sales grew 5.3% to $936.3 billion. To earn your piece of that (very large) pie, you need a strong holiday advertising strategy—and one that starts soon.
To create an effective holiday ad campaign, you’ll want to prioritize two main goals:
- Being genuinely helpful to your target audience
- Creating a strategy designed to get results
This article will cover some of the main tips you need to achieve both so you can enjoy your slice of the holiday pie.
‘Tis the season to be helpful
The holidays are usually a time of celebration, but they can also bring stress as many are trying to navigate long to-do lists and time-sensitive tasks. The best way to appeal to potentially frazzled consumers is by designing ad campaigns that emphasize helping—not just selling.
Here are three useful strategies for making an ad campaign that’s genuinely helpful (and also generates sales).
1. Make it relevant
Consumers are bombarded with ads year-round, but especially during the holiday season. If your campaign looks like just another intrusive ad trying to sell them something, you won’t earn their attention, much less a sale.
Personalization helps you speak directly to what consumers actually need. Many online platforms provide sophisticated targeting options that allow you to reach consumers who are interested in your products.
But we’re not simply talking about demographic targeting, or even targeting based on general interest groups like “techies” or “home chefs.” While categories like that can be useful for targeting in some contexts, when it comes to holiday advertising, you still risk being part of the noise. Just because a consumer is a techie doesn’t mean they’ll be interested in an air fryer or precision cooker for making the Thanksgiving turkey—how can you use more specific targeting to truly find the right audience?
To deliver genuinely helpful ads to high-intent consumers, make use of unique targeting options offered by platforms like Yelp for Brands. That includes:
- Ad targeting based on search data: That means you aren’t targeting a broad audience hoping a few of them are interested in the product you sell—you’re targeting people that have specifically gone looking for what you offer. Someone looking for new kitchen appliances in the leadup to Thanksgiving is much more likely to see your ad for a new air fryer as a solution to their problem.
- Cross-platform ad campaigns: Consumers often do product research before they’re ready to buy. Even if your ad is relevant to their needs, they may not be ready to click on it right then. Running an awareness campaign that educates buyers on their options can help you stay top of mind for when they are ready. Yelp’s off-platform advertising solution, Yelp Audiences, shows your ad to consumers beyond Yelp and across the web based on their Yelp search activity, page visits, app engagement, and more. Give consumers multiple chances to view your turkey-themed air fryer ad, and they’re that much more likely to make the purchase before Thanksgiving rolls around.
- Targeting based on adjacent categories: Delivering ads for products people already know they want is basically the gold standard for relevance. But sometimes people don’t know what they want until they see it. You can capitalize on potential interest using adjacent categories for targeting. By using data to recognize life events—think a recent marriage or a baby on the way—you can tailor your ads to target things people might need, even if they don’t realize it yet. A newlywed couple hosting their first big holiday celebration may be stressing about how to get the house clean enough for guests. A well-timed ad for carpet cleaning services or a robot vacuum could be precisely the solution they didn’t think about.
2. Make it easy
Your ad could present the exact solution someone needs, but if you make the purchase process too difficult, you may lose the customer. Consumers today expect convenience.
More than that, they want the option to buy products on their own terms. Some will always choose an easy online ordering process with fast-enough shipping options. Others find it more convenient to swing by a nearby store to pick an item up in person.
There are a few steps you can take to empower consumers to shop the way they choose.
- Use Dynamic Yelp Content Ads (DYCA): Dynamic ads let you combine the messaging of your marketing campaign with useful, up-to-date information pulled from your Yelp Page. DYCA targeting can be based on search data as well as location. For businesses with locations around the country, that lets you combine your national messaging with useful local details.
For example, a consumer that’s been looking for holiday sweaters for their pets can see an ad that not only promotes your pet store’s holiday deals but also provides them information on the closest location. If that consumer prefers to do all their holiday shopping from the couch, they can follow the ad to your website and place a delivery order for the perfect Hanukkah sweater for their dog. If they want the chance to make sure the fit is just right first (can’t risk making Buddy uncomfortable), they know where to go to check out their sweater options in person.
- Let customers buy online and pickup in store (BOPIS): As convenient as delivery is, many consumers prefer the speed and cost savings of picking orders up in person. In 2022, nearly a third of U.S. shoppers had opted for BOPIS with their most recent e-commerce order. And the option is popular around the holidays when people don’t want to risk shipping delays. BOPIS orders accounted for 25% of all online orders made on Black Friday last year. Don’t just offer BOPIS as an option this holiday season, let customers know about it. Consumers who prefer a pick-up option are more likely to go with a vendor they know provides it. To win their business, put that information right in your ads
- Provide the option to buy now, pay later (BNPL): All those holiday purchases add up, creating hard spending choices for families on a budget. You can ease some cost concerns by instituting BNPL options, which spread out payments over time. Someone who can’t swing a $100 payment for those winter boots this month can still get them in time for the holidays by paying a portion of the price later. Beyond just offering BNPL at checkout, highlight the option in your ads. 65% of consumers in one study said they’re more likely to shop somewhere that offers BNPL. When potential customers on a tight budget know it’s available upfront, it makes the decision to buy from you that much easier.
3. Solve holiday logistical problems for customers
When a consumer sees your ad and decides they absolutely want what you’re selling, that should be a win. But if they click only to find that the product is out of stock or can’t be delivered in time, you’ve spent money to disappoint a potential customer.
To avoid an outcome that’s bad for both of you:
- Stop ads once a product sells out: Work with your product and logistics teams to develop a system for stopping ads as soon as a product sells out. Make sure someone is tasked with keeping track of inventory issues relevant to each ad campaign so you don’t overlook any.
- Build delivery deadlines into your ads: The holiday season comes with clear deadlines. Gifts that arrive even a day late can be a huge disappointment. To help people make their purchases in time—and create urgency that can boost sales—put those deadlines right in the ad. Let people know the last date to place an order if they want it to arrive before their celebrated holiday.
- Create a “post-shipping” campaign to drive in-person visits: Once the shipping deadlines have passed, consider a “post-shipping deadline” campaign to drive in-store sales. Many customers searching on Yelp are looking for businesses in their area. For shoppers that missed the delivery deadline, knowing they can get what they need at a store nearby is useful information. And there’s proof that online ads, like those on Yelp, do drive in-store visits. One department store used Yelp Ads to promote their holiday food and beverage sales. They were able to connect 822,000 store visits to the online campaign, at a total cost of about $0.12 per visit.
Give yourself the gift of more effective holiday ads
Arguably, the biggest challenge of holiday advertising is the amount of competition you face. You’re not just up against the ads of direct competitors. Everyone ups their advertising budget this time of year to try to claim their share of holiday spending. Creating holiday ad campaigns competitive enough to drive meaningful results is no small task.
Following a few smart strategies can help you stand out in the crowd, and Yelp for Brands can work with you to more effectively achieve some of them.
1. Include brand awareness in your strategy
With so many people in buying mode this time of year, you may be able to capture some impulse buys with your ads. But many customers prefer to buy from brands they’re already familiar with.
Ideally you want to do brand marketing all year long so you’re already on consumers’ radars before the holiday season starts. But if you haven’t yet, it’s not too late to get a brand awareness campaign started now—the sooner the better. Yelp for Brands has advertising solutions that can be run as awareness campaigns, particularly with Yelp Audiences. Let consumers in your target audience know who you are both on the Yelp platform itself and elsewhere around the web.
If the task of creating brand awareness campaigns on top of all your other holiday advertising feels overwhelming, don’t fret. Yelp for Brands can help you get a campaign started fast. Yelp Ads can pull content that already exists from Yelp Pages, so you don’t have to make original creative for every single ad. Plus, with Yelp for Brands you don’t have to do as much work to set up targeting for your personas. You can focus on the people already raising their hand saying they want what you have. By skipping these steps, Yelp for Brands can help most businesses—even those with many locations— set up a brand awareness campaign in under a week.
2. Invest enough to stand out
Admittedly, “spend more money” isn’t advice anyone’s excited to hear. But to be competitive during the holiday season, there’s no way around it. If your competitors all double their ad budgets in the fourth quarter, the only way to ensure your ads will be seen is to increase yours as well. If you’re not sure what it would take to stay competitive, get in touch with a Yelp for Brands expert who can provide guidance based on the typical ad spend in your category.
3. Spend strategically
If you can’t increase your budget to the degree competitors are (or even if you can), the next best move is to think strategically about how you spend your ad budget. If you focus your spend on down-funnel platforms, more of your ads will reach customers who are gearing up to make a purchase. While brand awareness campaigns are valuable, ads that directly lead to a purchase earn a better return on investment.
Many consumers on Yelp are already planning a purchase. In fact, 83% of Yelp users purchase from a business they found on the platform. While many already know what product or service they need, they don’t know what business they’re going to get it from yet—8 out of 10 searches on Yelp don’t include a specific business name.* Putting more of your ad spend on down-funnel platforms like Yelp will help those high-intent consumers find you, helping you win more sales per dollar spent.
4. Get creative
Ad spend is a big component of staying competitive during the holiday season, but the content of your ad has a huge role to play as well. Customers experience a lot of ad fatigue this time of year, so finding a way to make your ads stand out is crucial.
One of the most effective ways to grab a consumer’s attention is with a tried-and-true method: offering a good deal. 67% of consumers said they expect to buy items on sale this holiday season.** Appealing to deal hunters is a great way to give your ads an advantage.
To make sure plenty of consumers see your offers, choose the right kinds of ads to properly promote them. On Yelp, Showcase Ads display the details of your offer directly in your ad, which is promoted above the organic search results, making it easier to capture consumer attention in spite of all the online noise.
For brands really wanting to stand out, Spotlight Ads put your business right on the Yelp app homepage, giving you the opportunity to share that offer with even more consumers. And Spotlight Ads are an exclusive ad option—there’s a limit on how many brands can run them at a time. That means those that snag those spots during the holiday months get a special competitive edge.
5. Improve your measurement
Accurate ad measurement is a challenge at the best of times, but the holidays add a level of complexity. People tend to move between various digital channels when researching gifts, food, clothes, and services. Add in time off from work and increased travel, and it’s much harder to pin down one person’s customer journey.
With the right technology and partners, you can still measure outcomes with confidence. Yelp has the ability to connect ad campaigns to online leads, in-store visits, and online and in-person transactions. When you can link specific ads to actual results, it helps you improve your overall ad strategy and tighten your creative.
Advanced marketers that have a relationship with a transaction attribution partner like LiveRamp and APT can connect sales to the advertising campaigns that influenced them. You can use a multi-touch attribution campaign to better track the specific steps a customer takes to reach the point of purchase. If that sounds at all overwhelming, you don’t have to figure it out on your own. An expert from Yelp for Brands can go over your current attribution plans with you and make customized suggestions to help you gain better visibility into your ad results.
Tidings of comfort, joy, and a boost in sales
The holidays bring joy to many but often come with an abundance of stress for marketers. With the right strategy, you can get your business in front of the right shoppers and ensure you can also take time to yourself this season. Think about how to help consumers in ways that boost your bottom line as well. And if you feel stuck or overwhelmed, the Yelp for Brands team is ready to help.