With the clocks slowly ticking toward Christmas Eve, Americans, if they haven’t already, will scout for items to purchase for their friends, family, and loved-ones. Copious amounts of money will be spent nationwide, and, if you implement the right strategy, copious amounts of money could be spent on you. If you want to increase your sales this holiday season, you should follow the top eight tips for holiday advertising listed below.
1. Create Mobile Friendly Ads
If you want to reach your potential customers, then you must create mobile friendly ads. Studies show that more users access their social media through their mobile phones. This year, Facebook has accrued 989 million daily active mobile users—that’s 989 million people you can potentially reach. Not only does advertising on mobile unlocks a treasure trove of potential customers, but it also raises your chances of generating sales. According to Google’s Inside AdWords blog, mobile may drive 43% of all traffic to retail sites this holiday season. The NRF also claimed that 55.7% of smartphone owners will shop through their phones.
Because mobile phones are an omnipresent object in people’s lives, advertisers must strive to reach customers through mobile. They can achieve this by creating mobile friendly ad designs. To do so, you can follow Facebook’s ad specs. To serve ads on Facebook mobile, you can go to “Edit Placements” on Ads Manager and choose “Mobile” in the options given to you.
2. Instill a Sense of Urgency
Phrases that instill a sense of urgency jolt most shoppers into action. This is a common strategy widely used for its effectiveness. Phrases such as “Buy now before this deal expires!” or “for a limited time only” may inspire shoppers to make a purchase lest they lose an opportunity to snag a good deal. This season, try using a countdown-to-Christmas deal.
3. Offer Discounts
A successful ad contains a value proposition, or the benefits your ad offers. Value propositions may be a solution to your customer’s problems or a discounted offer, something that makes conversion worthwhile to your customers. This season, try offering discounted items, buy-one-get-one deals, or free shipping to attract customers to your products. Remember to offer your deals in a strong, clear, and concise language, matched with the correct landing page.
If you want to offer deals to your customers on Facebook, you can create an Offers ad.
4. Leverage Social Proof
Successful ads also contain social proof, the proof that people are engaging with your ads. This proof includes the amount of shares, likes, and comments listed on the bottom of the ad or a statement on the ad’s text such as “5,000 people have sworn by this product.” Social proofs are important elements to your ad because they function as peer recommendations. A study conducted by MarketLive found that 30% of respondents made a purchase because of an ad’s amount of engagement on social media. Also, 33% said they would make a purchase based on whether or not a friend has “Liked” a product.
5. Drive Customers to Your Brick-and-Mortar Store
Although e-commerce is growing, brick and mortar stores still generate over 90% of sales. Some customers, 5.96%, to be exact, will research products online before visiting a brick-and-mortar store. To ensure that you do not miss the opportunity of driving customers to your store, create local awareness ads. With local awareness ads, you can target people near your business locations, make it easy for customers to find you using proximity-based store maps and proximity based call-to-actions, such as “call now” or “get directions.”
6. Target Late-Night Shoppers
Never underestimate the power of procrastination. While some early birds shop weeks or even months in advance, some wait until the last minute when all the brick-and-mortar stores have flipped their “open” signs to “closed.” These late shoppers will then frantically shop online instead. Because procrastination is a flaw that exists within almost every human being, you must be prepared to make your products available during closing hours. Thus, when scheduling your ads to appear online, also schedule them to appear later at night for the procrastinators.
7. Speak to Self-Gifters
The words “treat yourself,” which has been used and overused by millennials, encourage people to indulge in their materialistic desires. Advertisers must tap into this culture of self-indulgence, must encourage this behavior with ads that speak to self-gifters. Try using words such as “you’ve earned it this year” or “treat yourself” to entice shoppers into splurging on themselves.
8. Advertise Post Holiday Deals
Shopping does not end with the holidays. In fact, many shoppers shop after the holidays to snag some post-holiday deals. Take advantage of this by keeping your customers engaged even after the holidays have passed.
