HOLIDAY MARKETING GUIDE 2019 - Marketing Idea Exchange
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HOLIDAY MARKETING GUIDE 2019
2019 HOLIDAY
MARKETING GUIDE
The holidays are among the most magical times What is magical about the holiday season is
of the year. For shoppers, the holidays centers the amount of opportunity to be found within
around finding the perfect gifts for loved ones. the season. The holidays are a great time to
This means marketers must obtain the right introduce your brand to new shoppers and
insights and employ the right tools in order to attract new buyers in volume. The season also
make this possible. presents the perfect opportunity to increase
engagement with your existing customers and
The perfect gift may seem magical, but in boost their lifetime value.
hindsight there’s never any real magic involved.
That “aha moment” came courtesy of a direct So how can you create this kind of magic for
conversation on Messenger. That present your business?
Grandma loved? Not unearthed by elves, but
rather discovered on Instagram. And that gift for Just keep reading. We’ve created this practical
dad? Found its way under the tree following a Holiday Marketing Guide to help make you the
seamless social checkout. hero this festive season.
Though the holidays may appear to be dusted You can also learn more about an
with magic, behind the scenes a different story is insights based holiday season on our site.
being told. The truth is, all kinds of businesses are
using Facebook to get the right products to the
right customers throughout the holidays and year fb.com/itsinsights
round in all the moments that matter.
2
Global Holiday Trends 4
Christmas Planning Calendar 9
TABLE OF Holiday Phases
Prepare
11
12
CONTENTS Build Momentum
Maximise Sales
21
27
Post-Christmas Sales and Retention 42
Peak Insights and Tactics 46GLOBAL HOLIDAY TRENDS
Six global trends from Facebook IQ
to watch out for this holiday season
1 Holiday shoppers are going bigger, earlier
2 Shoppers won’t tolerate bad buying experiences
3 Window shopping is shifting to Stories
4 People are purchasing in-store
5 Major shopping events have gone global
6 Messaging is fueling loyalty
1. Holiday shoppers are going
bigger, earlier
In 2018
43% of shoppers started
shopping for the holidays
in November or earlier1
The whole of Q4, and into Q1, is now a shopping season. Last year, “...we absolutely see an uptick in traffic
conversions visible to Facebook starting to increase as early as October.2 and retailer promotional activity that
By late-November, nearly 1 in 10 holiday shoppers had finished shopping.3 starts November 1.”4
—Marissa Tarleton, CMO of RetailMeNot
Source: 1. Facebook Global Holiday Study—A Facebook IQ commissioned online study by Ipsos, Jan 2019, 2. Facebook Internal
Data, May 2019, 3. A Facebook IQ commissioned online study by Ipsos, Jan 2019, 4. eMarketer, “Holiday Shopping 2018”,
October 2018. 4“Global shoppers buy earlier throughout 2. Shoppers won’t tolerate bad
Black Week*—50% of holiday shopping was buying experiences
complete by Monday, December 3 2018.”1
—Kate Walters, Executive Planning Director and Head of Strategy Shoppers are engaging with brands across multiple channels before
at digital agency Swirl McGarryBowen making purchases and are less willing to suffer any inconvenience,
* Black Week: Monday before Black Friday–Cyber Monday. or friction, when it comes to getting what they want. This is
especially true during the holiday season which, for many, is the
busiest time of year. Though mobile experiences may be improving,
businesses still have a long way to go: 85% of global holiday
shoppers have experienced at least one problem while seasonal
When people start and finish shopping on their mobile devices.3
their holiday shopping2
70% of consumers say
technology has made it
easier than ever to take
their business elsewhere4
Before October October Early November Mid November Late November Early December
“Convenience gave mobile shopping the
edge in 2018; brands and retailers are finally
Start Shopping Finish Shopping
removing the friction between inspiration and
purchase on the small screen.”5
—Kate Walters, Executive Planning Director and Head of Strategy
at digital agency Swirl McGarryBowen
Source: 1,3. Facebook internal data, May 2019, 2,4. “Facebook Global Holiday Study”—A Facebook IQ commissioned online
study by Ipsos, Jan 2019, 5. eMarketer, “Holiday Shopping 2018”, October 2018.
53. Window shopping is
shifting to Stories
During the 2018 holiday season, 63% of shoppers either watched or 4. People are
posted videos in Stories across platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook or purchasing in-store
Snapchat. In that same time period, more than a third of both millennials
and parents said videos created by social media “influencers” helped them Even though global eCommerce grew by 18% last year,
choose what to buy.1 the $3 trillion made in online sales is slightly above 15%
of the total retail market.3
The top reason for shopping in-store during the holiday
period was to see products in person, but brick-and-
69% of people find Stories on Facebook and
Instagram to be a great way to discover
mortar stores also provide emotional benefits that are
hard to reproduce online: 42% of US holiday shoppers
and become familiar with new products
or services2 said they shopped in-store for the holiday ambiance, and
27% of US holiday shoppers said they shopped in-store
to spend time with family.4
62% of people become more interested
in a brand or product after seeing it
“Brick-and-mortar retail sales
in Stories2
strengthened throughout 2018 and
continued to thrive during the holidays,
especially for those that invested in a
“Social is the new shop window: the place better customer experience.”5
that consumers browse to find ideas —Kate Walters, Executive Planning Director and Head of Strategy
and inspiration.” at digital agency Swirl McGarryBowen
—Deloitte Retail Trends 2019
Source: 1. “Facebook Global Holiday Study”—A Facebook IQ commissioned online study by Ipsos, Jan 2019,
2. Facebook IQ, ‘Facebook Stories’ conducted by Ipsos Oct, 2018, 3. DigitalCommerce360.com, “Global eCommerce sales
grow 18% in 2018” Jan. 2019, 4. eMarketer, “Mobile Commerce Is Trending” Sept 2018, 5. eMarketer, “US 2018 Holiday
Season Review and 2019 Preview” Feb. 2019. 65. Major shopping events
have gone global
Globally, shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday grew by 9% and
15%, respectively, between the 2017 and 2018 seasons. Singles’ Day,
which started in China and is now known as 11:11, grew by 25% in the
same period. The promotional season is spreading over a wider period,
with 11:11 growing across Europe (e.g. Turkey saw 6% growth yoy),
meaning brands risk missing out if they focus only on one or two
holiday peaks.1
To put these numbers in context, over $6.6 billion was spent in the US
alone on Cyber Monday in 2017, despite it globally being the smallest of
the three main holiday peaks.2 (11:11, Black Friday and Cyber Monday).
“There may well be room for a (fourth)
manufactured shopping holiday in the US, and
Singles’ Day (11:11)—with its spirit of treating
yourself—fits nicely with other behaviors we
see from millennial audiences.”3
—Kate Walters, Executive Planning Director and Head of Strategy
at digital agency Swirl McGarryBowen
Source 1. “Facebook Global Holiday Study”—A Facebook IQ commissioned online study by Ipsos, Jan 2019, 2. eMarketer:
“Shopping Holidays Around the World” Nov 2018, 3. Adweek: “Singles” Day Is the World’s Biggest Shopping Day, Nov, 2018.
76. Messaging is
fueling loyalty
More and more customers have begun reaching out via
messages. In fact, 20B messages are now being sent every
month between people and businesses on Messenger.1 That’s
a tenfold increase in just three years. And, 65% of holiday
shoppers who used Facebook messaging apps indicated they’d
be more likely to buy from a business if they could contact it
through a messaging service.2
The top reasons why global holiday shoppers
message business2
find out more details
48% about a product
43% purchase a product
find out store
37% information
Source: 1. Source, Facebook internal data, April 2019, 2. “Facebook Global Holiday Study”—A Facebook IQ commissioned
online study by Ipsos, Jan 2019. 8HOLIDAY PLANNING CALENDAR
Keep key dates in mind and mark your holiday campaign flight dates with this calendar.
November 2019
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
27 28 29 30 31 1 2
Halloween
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
11:11
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Start Black Thanksgiving Black Shop Local
Friday Campaigns (US) Friday Saturday (US)
Black Week
*On shipping day mentions. ** Shipping day vary by location. 9HOLIDAY PLANNING CALENDAR (cont.)
December 2019
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Giving Tuesday St. Nicholas Eve
(US) (Netherlands)
Cyber Monday
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Last standard Free Shipping
International Day (mostly US,
post shipping day some UK & NL)
for Christmas
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
Last standard Last express Super Saturday
post shipping day post shipping day
for Christmas for Christmas
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Hanukkah Christmas Eve Christmas Day Boxing Day Sales
Starts (UK, Canada,
Australia)
29 30 31 1 2 3 4
Hanukkah New Years Sales
Ends Eve Official Start
(traditionally)
*On shipping day mentions. ** Shipping day vary by location. 10PHASE 1 PHASE 2 PHASE 3 PHASE 4
Prepare Build Maximize Post-Christmas
momentum sales
Start planning Kick off branding and Kick off sales campaigns Sales and Retention—
and prep for the acquisition campaigns Gear up your cross-sell
holiday season and up-sell campaigns
June–August September–October
November–December
January
Pre-holiday Peak holiday Post-holiday
11Start planning and prep for the holidays
(pre-holiday)
• Prep your tech
PHASE 1 • Think mobile-first
June-August • Partner up
PREPARE
• Deep dive into measurement
• Build your audience
• Test your creative
• Build your catalog
The key to a successful Christmas season is to get set up early.
In fact, we recommend you begin laying your foundation as early
as June or July. This means making sure you have implemented
the necessary tools you’ll need for measurement and optimization,
beginning to think about your creative journey and assuring your
audience strategies are in place. Holiday shoppers are going big
and earlier—you should do the same.
We also recommend that you do a thorough review of last year’s
performance in order to ensure everything you learned is being
applied to this year’s peak planning.
12PREP YOUR TECH Implement Offline
Conversions
Give your tech
If you have physical stores, Offline Conversions will help you
a health check measure when transactions occur in-store after people have seen
or engaged with your campaign ads. By connecting your in-store
• Ensure your Pixel and SDK integrations are working correctly
sales to Facebook, you can also build targeted Custom Audiences.
Learn more
This enables you to reach specific in-store shopper segments—for
• Implement Offline Conversions Learn more example, those who are your highest in-store spenders, your most
recent purchasers of a specific product category or even audiences
• Develop a strategy and establish your presence on Messenger
that are similar to those—with lookalike targeting. This can become
Learn More
particularly useful for measuring and optimizing campaigns for store
• Build toward a frictionless future Learn more sales as you go into November and December.
Learn more
Pixel and SDK Establish your presence
integrations on Messenger
When someone visits your website or app and takes an action Providing a personalized messaging experience for your customers
(such as buying something), the Facebook Pixel or SDK reports in Messenger has the potential to set your brand apart this festive
this action. This enables you to know when customers take action season. Beyond answering frequently asked questions, creating
after having seen your Facebook ad, and allows you to reach a guided shopping experience in Messenger can help educate
individual customers again with Custom Audiences. As more and customers on seasonal offerings through a series of automated
more conversions begin to happen on your website, Facebook questions and prompts. Encourage purchases by sending coupons
gets better at delivering your ads to people who are more likely to or offers and or share the location of your local store to drive foot
take valuable actions. traffic. Start talking to holiday shoppers at scale by partnering with a
platform developer who can build your Messenger experience.
Learn more
13Build toward a
frictionless future
Removing friction is no longer a nice-to-have option—it’s a must for every
business. Your ability to provide seamless experiences is what keeps you
relevant to today’s mobile-first consumer, who has not only increased
expectations but demands value, speed and ease at every stage of the
journey. Businesses that successfully identify friction and remove it will
gain a competitive edge. Visit Facebook IQ Zero Friction Future to learn Think mobile-first
how you can lay the foundation for seamless shopping. Learn more
+22%
With mobile holiday research and shopping on the rise, you want to Mobile holiday
ensure that your marketing, measurement and shopping experiences are shopping has
fully optimized for mobile. increased globally
year on year by1
Customers’ paths to purchase are increasingly complex and now span
multiple channels.
The world is now omnichannel, which means your campaigns need to
follow suit. Omni-channel campaigns allow you to deliver your message
consistently, over a variety of channels. So, if you’re shooting a holiday
campaign for TV, why not adapt assets for mobile News Feed and
From the 2017 to the
2018 holiday season,
mobile-first shoppers,
+25%
grew by2
Stories? Expanding your reach into these types of placements will enable
you to reach millions of people on Facebook and ultimately give them
the opportunity to discover your work. It doesn’t have to be hard. Our
automatic cropping tool crops non-vertical video to the aspect ratio of
the advertiser’s choice (e.g., 1:1, 4:5, 2:3)—all at the push of a button and
within minutes. Learn more
Source: 1, 2. “Facebook Global Holiday Study”—A Facebook IQ commissioned online study by Ipsos, Jan 2019. 14PARTNER UP Consider Facebook Marketing
Partners for
You can choose from a range of partner
platforms to help you work on a variety of • Campaign management—scale and optimize your
specific areas. Everything from optimization and Facebook ad campaigns
creative automation, to adding scale and reaching
new audiences, to buying media more efficiently. • Collaborative ads merchants—run ads that drive sales of your
Learn more products on a merchant partner’s website or app, then measure impact
• Community management—help manage your community via Pages
and conversations
Deep dive into • Creative platforms—help with creating, curating or delivering content
measurement
• Feeds and integrations—simplify the integration of your product
Whether or not you’re working with a partner, we catalogs or feeds for use in ad products like Dynamic Ads
recommend taking the time to familiarize yourself
• Lead ad platforms—store and manage first-party consumer
with our measurement basics. Particularly how
information from lead ads in order to cultivate relationships
(and why) we use Sales, Brand and Audience
with customers
outcomes to help you measure the effect of your
campaigns on real people across all devices and • Measurement—track performance of your Facebook campaigns
channels. Learn more
• Messaging—manage conversations with your customers at scale
Leverage Facebook Analytics for insights into • Offline Conversions—connect your transaction data to Facebook in
consumer behavior across your website and app. order to easily enable Facebook Offline Conversions
Use this to help you optimize your campaigns in
later phases. Learn more • Website platforms—build and maintain the pixel directly on the
platform that houses your website
• Tag Manager—install the Facebook Pixel and events on your website,
then select and deselect various pixels in your site’s code
15BUILD YOUR AUDIENCE
Identify audience segments
Tips
Determine who you want to reach during the
holidays, and how you want to connect with • In order to assure optimal
them. For example, you may want to set up
performance, include some site
different campaigns for potential customers
visitors in your audience configuration
versus existing high value customers or
category purchasers. Once you’ve properly • Combine male and female audiences;
segmented your audience, you can tailor our system will optimize accordingly
your ad campaigns, creative and messages to
Consolidate audiences across multiple
resonate with each group. Consider leveraging
languages (leverage dynamic language
last year’s sales data to build an audience likely
optimization to automate language
to be interested in hearing from your brand.
selection across a multilingual audience.)
This can be used as an initial seed for this
Learn more
season’s prospecting campaigns. Learn more
Build your CRM audiences via
other channels. Learn more
Automated audiences
Use the marketing API to add these to
Dynamic Ads for Broad Audiences (DABA) your Custom Audiences. Learn more
targeting allows you to reach people who’ve
expressed an interest in your products even
if they haven’t yet visited your website or app.
When you target a broad audience, people in
this segment will automatically see products
from your catalog that are likely to be of
interest to them. Learn more
16Create Lookalike Audiences
• Chances are, you already have campaigns running on our platforms.
We recommend you look to your current campaigns in order to gain
further consumer insights that you can use to enhance your upcoming
holiday campaigns.
–– The Facebook Pixel can help you with this by enabling you to understand what
good conversions look like for you, based on customer behavior. Consider using
these insights to build Lookalike Audiences based on high value purchases, so that
you can broaden the targeting of your holiday campaign. Learn more
–– By connecting your in-store sales to Facebook, you can also build targeted
Custom Audiences to reach specific in-store spenders, and also create Lookalike
Audiences to target, including those that spend above a certain threshold or on a
particular product category. Learn more
Cross border business
Don’t limit yourself to regular markets. Holiday peaks are global events,
with potential clients everywhere. The Facebook IQ Cross Border Insights
Finder is a great tool for targeting potential new markets. Learn more
• Use Lookalike Audiences to sell anywhere in the world. Learn more
• Advertise to people in more than one language and create one
campaign in multiple languages. Dynamic language optimization
automatically optimizes your budget, enabling you to deliver your
ads to the right people, in the right language, at the right time.
Learn more
Commit and book
Use the Campaign Planner to build and test your media plan and reserve
your core audiences in advance with Reach and Frequency buying. Unlike
bidding in the auction, Reach and Frequency can help you secure a fixed
price that’s not likely to change, even as demand rises in the run up to the
holidays. Minimum audience sizes apply. Learn more
17PREPARE YOUR CREATIVE Video ads
Design mobile-first holiday branding and performance campaigns
•
•
Know your ads
Video ads
Viewers
retain 95% of a message delivered
via video compared to
10% delivered via text1
• Video creation kit
The rise of cameras on phones means that communicating
Know your ads with video has never been easier. However, the abundance of
content also means that attention has never been so scarce.
Our platforms allow you to both create and run campaigns using
We understand this paradox and have designed our video
simple self-service tools and track their performance with easy-to-read
advertising options to reflect the way people actually consume
reports. Facebook ads can be as simple or sophisticated as you want
video. We can help you with everything from bite-sized videos
them to be. However, no matter what you choose to do, the important
watched on the go to longer, ‘lean-back’ video styles meant for
thing to remember is that over two billion people use Facebook every
the sofa.
month. So, no matter what kind of audience you want to reach, you’ll
find them there. Learn more
Try it out by testing new videos, images and overlays. Be sure
to refine your creatives with each holiday peak in mind, keeping
them both fresh and appealing. Learn more
Source: Forbes.com “How To Incorporate Video Into Your Social Media Strategy” July 2017. 18Video doesn’t have to be complicated Video creation kit
• Creative tips Learn more
• Optimize for mobile Learn more Campaigns using static plus
lightweight motion video achieved a
17%
higher conversion
lift vs. static
images alone1
The Video Creation Kit is designed to allow advertisers to quickly and
easily adapt images and text into mobile optimized videos. Learn more
We’ve recently launched some new features, including holiday and
event-specific stickers and an Auto Cropping tool, which optimizes
videos to different aspect ratios with a single click.
Split testing
• Optimization is key to campaign performance. Split testing ad formats
and strategies allows you to identify your best performers, which
in turn can influence your budget allocation. (Ensure they meet
guidelines with Creative Hub). Learn more
Source: 1. “Create to Convert MetaAnalysis” by Facebook, Mar 2018. 19BUILD YOUR CATALOG
Uploading your product catalog enables us to pull product information like images, price or supply
levels automatically from your catalog into News Feed ads on Facebook and Instagram. This enables
you to be sure that you’re showing the right products to your audience and is especially helpful
when using Dynamic ads for retargeting or Collection ads for prospecting with broad audiences.
Learn more
Upload your
holiday catalog
Tips Tips
• Maximize performance by including • For up-to-date product information,
product category information, rich consider updating your catalog based
product images and descriptions on recent pixel fires (this requires
microdata tags) Learn more
• Check which products outside of your
holiday offerings have resonated with • Bring your holiday catalog to life on
your audience and be sure to include mobile. Target shoppers who receive
these too your holiday catalog by connecting
your CRM data to Facebook. Use the
• Make sure your Pixel and SDK are set
collection ad format with Tabs for
up to capture key shopping signals
Canvas so that you can introduce your
on your site/app and have the correct
holiday catalog to mobile shoppers
content ID as included in the catalog
• If you would like to update your feed
based on recent pixel activity, add the
correct microdata tags
20Kick off branding and
acquisition campaigns
PHASE 2
• Ignite discovery
September-October • Scale your audience
BUILD
• Final health check
• Know your Instagram
MOMENTUM • Campaign templates
Take advantage of the change in season to begin laying
down the tracks for success. The end of summer can be
a great time to grow your customer base by introducing
your brand and products to early shoppers who have
already begun to make their gift-giving lists. This can
help you increase your remarketing audiences during
the peak holiday shopping months.
21Ignite discovery with
holiday shoppers
• Kick off omni-channel branding campaigns Tip
in order to stay top of mind in the run up
to the holiday season. Branding campaigns In general, most organizations begin
on Facebook also feed into your Custom their advertising efforts around Black
Audiences and prime consumers for Friday, the holiday season’s kickoff at
conversion further down the funnel. the start of November. This causes
a jump in most key cost metrics.
–– Create buzz around your brand online in the
However, by beginning prospecting
build up to Christmas
campaigns at an earlier time (for
–– A video-first focus will engage and wow your example, late September) it may be
audiences. Be sure to use engaging content for possible to keep relevant costs (CPM,
better brand recall
CPC, etc) lower, while still increasing
• Holiday shoppers do not fit typical audience the size of your prospecting pool.
demographics as many of them are gifting.
Ensure your branding drives awareness for
uninitiated audiences.
• Use mobile to drive store traffic. People love
to shop in-store, but not all digital ads provide Tip
the information shoppers need to find and
visit a store. The Store Traffic objective helps Take over the new storefront.
shoppers discover new products and find the Stories ads are incredibly valuable
nearest store to purchase them. Learn more because they allow you to reach
• Influencer marketing is a great way to increase your audience in a fullscreen,
brand awareness. Engage influencers to help vertical environment where they’re
spread your brand message. already highly engaged, immersed
in content and ready to shop.
Today, Stories ads are available on
Facebook and Instagram, and on
Messenger for select objectives.
22Scale your audience
• Use back-to-school campaigns to help build Custom
Final health check
Audiences for your holiday campaign.
Avoid unnecessary downtime by giving
• Use Dynamic Ads for Broad Audiences to reach people that your website a pre-peak health check
are interested in products similar to yours.
• Check that your Pixel and SDK’s are
• Build Lookalike Audiences based on (a) purchasers and (b)
working correctly
high value purchasers. These audiences will dynamically
update in real time based on pixel, offline events and app • Verify that your Facebook API
event activity. integrations are up to date
• Increase investment in prospecting to build Custom • Ensure capacity meets predicted
Audiences. Prospecting campaigns will have a lower ROAS; demand, as site speed and traffic
however, this will lead to overall lower costs with a higher volumes are essential over the
ROAS when retargeting closer to the holiday peaks. holiday season
• Remind people about the products that they’ve browsed • Make sure you have enough liquidity
on your website or in your mobile app but didn’t purchase, to meet needs over Black Week
with retargeting for Dynamic ads. When you retarget
–– Campaigns stalling over the holidays can be
people with Dynamic ads, they’ll automatically see the
disastrous. Check that your account is up to
products (or similar products) that they saw on your date and that contingency funds are available
website or in your app. so you can scale and adapt to demands over
the holiday peaks.
23Know your Instagram Shopping on Instagram
Instagram is the best place for brands to turn inspiration into From the moment of discovery to making a purchase,
action. The festive season is the ideal time to do this, with every part of the mobile shopping experience should
the percentage1 of Instagrammers who say the platform is be seamless. Enable easy discovery, consideration,
influential for the holiday season increasing from 39% last year saving and purchase of your products on Instagram
to 45% this year. through product tags and stickers in Feed and Stories.
Doing this means that once a shopper finds the right
item, they are just a few taps away from being able to
make a purchase.
39% 45%
Shopping on Instagram gives
people a simpler way to shop
2017 2018
Ready your Instagram assets for maximum
impact by ensuring that you include Stories
in the mix
130M Instagram users click
on a shopping story
every month2
With 500M accounts using Stories daily, Instagram is the perfect place to
reach a huge holiday audience2. Learn more
Instagram Stories Ad templates automatically transform your images into
attention-grabbing vertical ads for Instagram Stories. This means you can
reach your audience on Instagram Stories without having to invest a lot of
time and effort in designing new ads. Learn more
Source: 1. Facebook internal date, May 2019, 2. Instagram data, March 2019.
24PRE-HOLIDAY BRAND AWARENESS CAMPAIGN PLANNING
Campaign name Campaign goal
Objective Ad format Placements
Brand Awareness Video ads Facebook Feed
Reach Stories Facebook Marketplace
Video Views Collection (Facebook, Instagram Feed only) Instagram Feed
In-stream (Facebook and/or Audience Network) Stories
Carousel Messenger
Audience Network
In-stream video
Target audience Optimisation goal Measurement plan
Video views
Reach
Campaign launch date Campaign end date Estimated budget
Buying type Reach and frequency TRP (Applicable markets only)
25BACK-TO-SCHOOL DEMAND GENERATION CAMPAIGN PLAN
Campaign name Campaign goal
Objective Ad format Placements
Traffic Video ads Facebook Feed
Messages Stories Facebook Marketplace
Collection (Facebook, Instagram Feed only) Instagram Feed
Carousel Stories
Audience Network
Messenger
Target audience Optimisation goal Measurement plan
Landing page views
Conversions
Message replies
Campaign launch date Campaign end date Estimated budget
26Kick off sales campaigns
Remember that conversions happen on Facebook year-round
but may accelerate in Q4. Since the holidays are a major
focus for retailers, this is a highly promotional period on our
platforms. To help maximize holiday sales and make the most of
your holiday marketing budget, consider switching your focus
to sales campaigns at the beginning of Q4.
PHASE 3 To help maximize sales this festive season, we have six primary
levers you can pull when setting up campaigns and improving
November-December performance.
MAXIMIZE •
•
Inventory
Targeting Tip
SALES •
•
Bidding
Optimization
Tick the box for
Placement Optimization.
When combining
• Creative Facebook and the
• Campaign template Audience Network, some
advertisers have seen,
on average, 11% more
Crunch time is approaching for
conversions and 16%
demand generation and acquisition
more video views.
campaigns. If you have your final
creative, schedule time to get it Learn more
uploaded into Ads Manager.
Source: Facebook Audience Network internal data, ‘Analysis on the difference
between adding/removing Audience Network’, March 2018. 27INVENTORY
Build flexible campaigns to increase ‘supply’ for delivery.
Fewer constraints allow the delivery system to explore more opportunities and
find the best value according to the advertiser’s optimization and bid strategies.
We offer three key products that provide
flexibility for your campaign
Automatic placements. Lowest cost bidding.
When you enable automatic placements Our most flexible bid strategy type that offers
during campaign set-up, you elect to run ads the most scale. This strategy will always bid the Top tips to prevent
across the entire Facebook Family of Apps amount to minimize your cost per result while underdelivery
and Services. This enables you to deliver ad maintaining your budget. This allows us to get
content on the platform most likely to drive the most results for your budget, even as costs • Consolidate into fewer ad sets.
campaign results at the lowest possible cost at may rise through the duration of the campaign. Meet the minimum conversion
any given time. Furthermore, it gives you more optimization requirement of 50 ad
opportunities to reach more people while at CBO and automatic placements sets per week.
the same time maximizing your results. work together.
• Add more placements or switch
CBO works by giving Facebook the flexibility to
to automatic placements. Consider
Campaign budget optimization. let each pound of your campaign flow to the
using Marketplace, Messenger
Campaign budget optimization (CBO) asks ad set that’s providing the best outcome at any
or Stories.
you to set one central campaign budget given moment in time. Automatic placements
and then allows our system to continuously work the same way but at the placement level. • Choose a longer
distribute budget to the top performing ad Within each ad set, the delivery system doubles conversion window. Improve
sets in real-time. down on the winning placements. In some average costs per conversion for the
cases this means relatively little delivery on a same budget or drive more delivery.
Without campaign budget optimization, your given placement. That’s fine, and in many cases,
campaign-level budget is spent evenly across to be expected. The goal isn’t equal spend, it’s
• Use accelerated delivery.
ad sets. However, if you choose to enable this best possible spend. The key here is that by Spend a full budget quickly
feature, Facebook will allocate the campaign enabling both CBO and automatic placements without any cost constraints.
level budget to the best performing ad set in you’re allowing Facebook the most flexibility to • Please note: costs can be higher than
real-time, thus maximizing your value. move your advertising spend to where it will standard delivery.
provide the most value.
28TARGETING
Maximize audience size, but balance with quality.
Similar to inventory, larger audiences remove
constraints and allow our system the flexibility to
find the best opportunities.
Use broad audiences
With broad audience targeting, you can reach By scaling your campaign through the
people who’ve expressed interest in your implementation of a broad audience,
products, even if they haven’t visited your you’ll gain
website or app. When you target a broad
audience, people in your audience segment • Higher intent. Reach people with intent,
automatically see products from your catalog even if they have not yet visited your website
that are likely to be relevant to them. Target or app.
people beyond your usual client base and go • Ability to scale across borders.
even further by employing Dynamic ads with
Broad audiences will find potential
broad audiences (DABA). DABA helps your
customers across different regions.
products find consumers, instead of the other
way round. Combine male and female audiences • Effortless audience creation. Facebook
and our system will optimize accordingly. will do the heavy lifting in order to determine
who is most likely to convert.
29Use value-based lookalikes from your Optimize retargeting campaigns
web, app, catalog or offline events
By now, you should have rich audience insights and strong intent
Value-based Lookalike Audiences are powered by the Facebook signals from the campaigns you ran earlier in the year, as well
pixel or Offline Conversions. While setting up your campaign, as from the retargeting campaigns you ran in the first phase
tell us the value of each desired action or event. We’ll use these of holiday activity using Custom Audiences and Dynamic ads.
values plus Facebook Pixel signals and your offline conversion We recommend that you constantly optimize these campaigns
data to calculate the LTV (lifetime value) of your customers and based on recency windows and bidding strategies. Learn more
to create new audiences. These new audiences will be made up
of people who resemble your most valuable existing customers.
Your value-based Lookalike Audiences are continuously updated
based on new transactional data supplied by the Facebook Pixel
and Offline Conversions.
Top tips to prevent
By implementing a value-based Lookalike Audience to under-delivery
scale your campaigns, you’ll gain
• Expand existing targeting. Use expanded
• Higher ROAS. Get more for your ad spend by reaching people interests and increase the size of your interest
who are most likely to spend more with you, both online and based audience.
in-store. • For Website Custom Audiences, leverage
• Effortless audience creation. Facebook does the heavy lifting detailed targeting (if WCA targetsBIDDING
Under bidding can limit our algorithm’s ability to maximize your
exposure, engagement and return on investment. By bidding the true
value (what you earn from an average order for a particular item) of
a conversion from the beginning of the campaign, our system will be
able to connect your product with the right audience at scale.
An important step in maximizing your results is properly combining
your customer signals and brand content with our insights. This allows
you to reach the right audience across the Facebook Family of Apps
and Services.
Bid higher than in non-holiday seasons
• Conversion rates increase—so do CPMs
• Bid higher to win the auction at key peaks
• Increased conversion rates will likely offset higher CPMs
Maximize delivery at any cost
• Lowest cost (no bid cap) allows our system to bid as
needed to spend full budget
–– Although bidding is flexible, there is a ceiling to the internal bid
so as to prevent unreasonable pricing
• Highest value (for value optimization only)
31Achieve maximum delivery with
minimum ROAS goal
• Set minimum ROAS at least 25% below historical average ROAS.
Delivery will stop if we can’t achieve this.
• Achieve predictable delivery at a specified cost.
• Target cost. Maintain a stable average CPA as costs increase.
Top tips to prevent
under-delivery
• If using lowest cost with a bid cap, switch to a
lowest cost bid strategy without a bid cap. This allows
for more flexibility to spend the full budget
• If using lowest cost without a bid cap, it is
possible our internal auto bid is not high enough. We
recommend switching to a bid cap with a ‘high’ value
• If using a bid cap, increase it. This is likely to increase
delivery—it will allow us to bid more
• If using minimum ROAS, adjust it. This provides
a degree of control to ensure we meet or exceed
specific business objectives
32OPTIMIZATION Choose the right optimization to
help you hit your goals
Meet minimum conversion requirements and optimise for your
success metric. The delivery system needs a minimum amount of It’s important to weigh the considerations of each ad
data to reliably predict conversion rate and maximize value. The more delivery optimization to ensure you’re selecting the
closely correlated the optimisation goal is to the actual business goal, right one for your business goals. App event, value,
the better performance the system can deliver. conversion and Store Sales optimizations are all
powerful tools; however, they differ in the outcome
they are trying to achieve.
Targeting + Optimization = Audience
• App events optimization is best suited for app and
game goals such as installs, inapp purchases, or
driving more use
Once you have shared your objectives and targeting preferences, • Value optimization is best suited for marketers
our machine learning algorithm factors your inputs along with the
seeking to maximize their return on ad spend or
engagement and actions of people on Facebook in order to deliver
value per purchase
your message to the audiences most likely to take your desired actions.
• Conversion optimization seeks to drive more volume
without regard to transaction value
• Store Sales Optimization helps your Facebook
campaigns reach people more likely to
convert in-store
• Store Visits Optimization helps your Facebook
campaigns reach people more likely to visit your
stores (to use when Store Sales Optimization is
not available)
33OPTIMIZATION OPTIONS
App Events Conversions Value ThruPlay Store Sales Store Visits
(completed view)
Drive volume for the Maximize volume of Maximize ROAS or Allows advertisers to Reach people around Reach people around your
in-app actions you website or offline highest purchase value optimize and choose your store locations and store locations and optimize
care most about at the actions you care most per sale to pay only for ads optimize towards people towards people more likely
Goal
lowest possible cost about at the lowest that are watched to more likely to purchase to visit your stores
per outcome possible cost per completion, or for at in-store
outcome least 15 seconds
Requires mobile SDK, Requires Facebook Requires Facebook Video content Requires that business Requires that business
large target audience Pixel Pixel or mobile SDK. locations be setup, locations be setup, and
Requirements 2M+ audience size or and store sales data is businesses are eligible for
~3% Lookalike shared through Offline Store Visits reporting (speak
Conversions to your Facebook partner)
Higher CPI/CPM and Easier to scale than Eligibility requirements Available for feed/ When joined with Pixel If data can be passed back
lower volume. Consider value optimization for VO. Consider stories/In-stream. Likely and SDK, provides cross- via Offline Conversions, then
testing for eComm, testing for eComm, will have higher VTRs, device visibility optimize for Store Sales
Considerations
gaming, retail, or travel gaming, retail, or travel. but lower reach and
Higher cost higher CPMs
per outcome
34Case Study
Driving Holiday sales in-store with
Store Sales Optimization
Ashley HomeStore wanted to drive incremental sales
by attracting more shoppers to its physical locations increase in
and enticing them to make a purchase. Learn more 35% sales among
prospecting
audience
higher return
8x
on ad spend
among
prospecting
audience
increase in
13% sales among
retargeting
audience
Source: Ashley HomeStore, April 2019, Case Study. 35Top tips to prevent
under-delivery
• Change the conversion event. Start with
the conversion event closest to the true KPI
and move up the funnel as needed.
• Consider landing page optimisation.
This optimization is ideal if website visits
are a key objective, and requires a base
pixel code and “page view” event to
decrease the drop off rate from clicks.
36Danish luxury footwear brand Roccamore
ran a conversion campaign using the highly
engaging collection ad format.
CREATIVE Learn more
Make content that is relevant to the people you want to reach in order
to achieve your desired outcome. Creative can have a significant impact
It increased sales by
on conversion rates, and a low conversion rate may result in campaigns
under-delivering.
3.7x 3.6x
Create to convert
at around a third increase in
of the cost per revenue from
Adding lightweight motion to static assets creates more compelling
acquisition of in-store sales
and effective performance ads previous campaigns
• Campaigns using static plus lightweight motion achieved a higher
conversion lift vs. static images alone
• Campaigns that combine both static and video assets achieved a
higher conversion lift vs. static images alone
Custom assets for placements
Select ‘edit placements’ to ensure your ad displays where and how
you want it to appear, according to your strategy across placements.
Advertisers who choose to manually select their placements can use asset
customization to specify which ads are shown in specific placements as well as
to ensure that their ad displays in the manner they desire. Asset customization
allows organizations to easily choose the ideal image or video for specific
placements within one ad set. This option may also work best for them if they
have a particular content strategy that requires particular assets to appear in
specific placements.
37Instant Experiences
Give people immediate access to your catalog through Instant
Experiences within Facebook and Instagram. This format captures
people’s attention by virtue of being fullscreen, easy to create,
immersive and fast loading. Learn more
Tips
• Use Instant Storefront to showcase products in
a grid layout so people can browse more of your
products in one place
• Add a store locator card and relevant
call-to-actions such as “get directions” to make
it easy for people to find your nearest stores
when using the Store Traffic objective
38Promote a product Describe a product
or service
Holiday templates
We are introducing a set of four holiday specific
templates. Whether you want to promote a product,
describe a product or service, show product benefits
or highlight a message, our holiday templates help
you create mobile-optimized videos—all with a
holiday twist.
Stickers. Stickers are a great way to quickly add
visually impactful messages and call-to-actions
within your video.
Show product benefits Highlight a message
Top tips to prevent
under-delivery
• Add new creative to ad sets.
When a new ad is uploaded, our
system will explore it and assign a
predicted conversion rate, possibly
one that is higher than the existing one.
This allows the ad set to spend
more budget.
• Try a new creative approach.
Try mixing video or different images
or play around with the copy.
39Estimated budget Poland’s leading online fashion platform
successfully ramped up its marketing activity
after Facebook Marketing Partner ROI Hunter
End-to-end solution
helped it automatically create dynamic ads for
a prospecting campaign.
Use Dynamic ads to promote relevant items from your holiday Learn more
catalog by either retargeting your recent website visitors or reaching
new shoppers with broad audience targeting.
Tips
9.5% increase in
conversion rate
• Create holiday-themed ads and highlight
limited-time offers in order to create the
urgency to buy
• Set your budget to account for anticipated
conversion rates during the peak shopping days
40DRIVE ONLINE CHRISTMAS SALES
Campaign name Campaign goal
Objective Ad format Placements
Conversions Video ads Facebook Feed
Catalog sales Collection (Facebook, Instagram Feed only) Facebook Marketplace
Carousel Instagram Feed
Audience Network
Messenger
Stories
Target audience End-to-end solutions Optimisation goal Measurement plan
Conversion optimisation
Value optimisation
Campaign launch date Campaign end date Estimated budget
41DRIVE CHRISTMAS SALES IN-STORE Tip
Campaign name Campaign goal Add a store locator card and relevant call-to-actions
such as “get directions” to make it easy for people
to find your nearest stores when using the Store
Traffic objective.
Objective Ad format Placements
Store traffic Video ads Facebook
Collection (Facebook, Instagram Feed only) Instagram
Carousel Audience Network
Stories
Target audience Optimisation goal Measurement plan
Store sales optimisation
Campaign launch date Campaign end date Estimated budget
42Keep the offers coming
While the holiday shopping frenzy may be over, your
opportunities aren’t. This gives you an opportunity to boost sales
among your holiday customer base.
Many customers will continue to shop into the first month of the
PHASE 4 year to take advantage of seasonal sales, with 44% of the people
citing these deals as their main reason for shopping in January.1
January Highlight your product lines for the new year and use special
offers to entice people to visit your website as well as your
POST-
physical stores. Facebook offer ads are a great way to create and
extend timely discounts and promotions to the people who you
want to reach and encourage.
HOLIDAY Stay connected to customers with
SALES AND •
•
Related offers
Post-purchase-only discounts on related products
RETENTION •
•
Customer feedback services
Branding campaigns
• Messenger
Gear up for your cross-sell and up-sell campaigns (Post-holiday)
• Keep the offers coming
Source: 1. “Facebook Global Holiday Study”–A Facebook IQ commissioned online
study by Ipsos, Jan 2019. 43Case Study
Driving Holiday sales in-store with
Store Sales Optimization
Ashley HomeStore wanted to drive incremental sales
by attracting more shoppers to its physical locations increase in
and enticing them to make a purchase. 35% sales among
prospecting
audience
www.facebook.com/business/success/ashley-
homestore
higher return
8x
on ad spend
among
prospecting
audience
increase in
13% sales among
retargeting
audience
Source: Ashley Homestore, April 2019, Case Study. 44POST HOLIDAY SALES CAMPAIGN PLAN
Campaign name Campaign goal
Campaign objective Ad format Placements
Conversions Stories Facebook
Catalog sales Video ads, Stories
Store Traffic Collection (Facebook, Instagram Feed only) Marketplace
Carousel Instagram Feed
Audience Network
Messenger
Target audience Optimisation goal Measurement plan
Conversion optimisation
Value optimisation
Campaign launch date Campaign end date Estimated budget
45The holiday season now stretches from late October all the way through
to the January sales. And, while it’s true that the season is a time of fierce
competition, it can also be an incredibly lucrative period—if you’ve plan
well and start early. As the season has grown, so have the main holiday
shopping peaks. These peaks give us new and exciting ways to reach people
and influence their holiday shopping habits.
PEAK Online Conversion Data Visible to Facebook
During the 2018 Holiday Season (internal data)
INSIGHTS
Black Friday
11:11 Cyber Monday
AND
Last shipping day
TACTICS
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
19
8
8
9
9
9
7/
4/
1/
/1
4/
1/
8/
/1
2/
9/
6/
4/
19
/1
/1
/1
/1
/2
/3
/7
/1
/2
/2
/5
/1
/1
/2
/2
16
23
30
9/
10
10
10
11
11
11
11
12
12
12
12
10
1/
1/
1/
1/
46THERE ARE MANY PEAKS ACROSS THE HOLIDAY SEASON AND
EACH PEAK HAS ITS OWN UNIQUE CHARACTER
Peak Dates Region Priority
11:11 11 Nov Global High
Black Monday 25 Nov Global Low
Black Friday 29 Nov Global High
Shop Local Saturday 30 Nov Global Low
Global
Cyber Monday 2 Dec High
Giving Tuesday 3 Dec Global Low
Last Shipping Day 16 Dec Regional Mid
Christmas Eve 23–24 Dec Global Low
Boxing Day 26 Dec Regional Mid
New Year Day 1 Jan, 2020 Global Low
3 Kings 6 Jan, 2020 Regional Low
January Sales 1–31 Jan Global High
47The percentage of people
who shop on the holidays
1
Source: 1. “Facebook Global Holiday Study”—A Facebook IQ commissioned online study by Ipsos, Jan 2019. 48GENERAL PEAK STRATEGIES
• Extend each peak as much as possible by • Loyalty
starting early with big offers –– Use early offers for loyal and repeat customers
• Create sense of urgency with ‘limited –– Use remarketing discount code offers to entice
time offers,’ etc Black Week shoppers to return
• Flash Sales –– Offer a strong returns policy to build
customer loyalty
–– Massive flash sales can drive conversions and grow
your audience for retargeting over the rest of the • Run campaigns through your
holiday season Messenger bot for lower costs and
–– Hourly item sales over peak periods help keep a guided shopping experience
customers coming back and exploring your • Tackle cross border markets
sales offering
(US/CA, EU, Asia): Black Friday
• Threshold Sales is everywhere
–– Tiered threshold sales drive increased average order • Avoid frequent changes to budgets
value (AOV). Encouraging consumers to spend a
and strategy—everything should be
little bit more in order to receive a larger discount
locked down one month prior to
on their order enables you to drive incrementality
going live
–– Offer threshold free gifts or free shipping to
encourage sales. Everyone loves ‘free’ gifts • Be flexible with successful offers—
and shipping continue offers past peak if they
–– Offer discounts on bundled products. are performing
Bundle similar or complementary products • Keep a consistent discount message
together to increase AOV
across all sales channels
• Retail • Ensure discounts are competitive
–– Drive clients in-store with personalized ads focused All of the major shopping
on each of your retail outlets peaks grew in popularity
–– Offer an extra discount for ‘order and collect’ globally in 2018.
shopping experiences (order online, collect in-store)
to cut down on shipping logistics
49PEAK AD STRATEGIES
• Switch to performance campaigns with your
tested holiday creatives
• Increase your budgets to maximize
conversions over the holiday peaks
–– Target dates before and after main peaks for
high ROAS
• Ensure your creatives are reflected on
your landing pages
–– Are you using dynamic language ads? Is your landing
page localized?
50Set up campaign assets for
performance objectives
AD OPTIMIZATION
• Maximizing liquidity (CBO, AP, PAC, DLO, MMDA)
–– Consolidate audiences across languages (leverage Dynamic
Language Optimization and multi-country language feeds)
–– Leverage all placements to gain efficiency in a crowded auction
market place
–– Try to leverage Campaign Budget Optimization and use it to
streamline targeting (easier to manage and less budgets to adjust)
–– Include warmed up audiences (Page engagers, Instagram engagers,
time spent on website, Custom Audiences of discount users)
• Bidding and optimization
–– Switch to 1-day click optimisation over Black Week
–– Optimize towards your true business goal
–– Value optimization can work well for driving ROAS
–– Avoid reach and frequency buying (auction is cheaper and much
more reliable)
–– Don’t cap your bids and rely on automatic bidding
–– Test different funnel event optimizations to gain higher volume
(VC vs. ATC vs. Purchase)
–– Run automated campaigns to personalize your marketing efforts
51HOLIDAY PEAKS
11:11
11th of November, previously known as Singles’ Day, originated in
China. 11:11 is about buying yourself a gift. It’s popular throughout
Asia and is growing in importance in EMEA and NA.
Alibaba start celebrating 11:11 as a shopping day in 2009, and with a
turnover of about $6 million it’s now the biggest shopping day in the
world. In 2018, Alibaba did over $30 Billion in sales, with transactions
coming from over 230 different countries.1
• 11:11 starts gaining traction at the start of November and peaks
hard on the 11th
• 11:11 is singular in terms of the variety of goods sold; it hit records
in everything from phone sales to powdered milk and diaper sales
Over
40% of Alibaba’s 11:11
sales went to
international brands2
–– MAC sold 3,700 11:11 special edition lipsticks in one second
–– Buick, the US auto manufacturer, sold over 7,000 vehicles on the day
–– Apple iPhones outsold models from China’s major smartphone brands,
Huawei and Xiaomi
Source: 1. Salesforce Blog: ‘ Singles’ Day Stats You Won’t See Anywhere Else ’ November 2018), 2. Forbes, ‘Alibaba’s Singles’
Day Hits Another Record: 3 Takeaways Beyond The Big Number’, November 2018). 52Global
Online Conversion Data Visible to Facebook
During the 2018 Holiday Season (internal data)
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
11/ 8
18
18
18
18
18
18
10/17/18
10/18/18
10/19/18
10/20/18
10/21/18
10/22/18
10/23/18
10/24/18
10/25/18
10/26/18
10/27/18
10/27/18
10/29/18
10/30/18
10/31/18
11/10/18
11/11/18
11/12/18
11/13/18
11/14/18
11/15/18
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
11/ 8
11/1/18
11/2/18
11/3/18
11/4/18
11/6/18
11/7/18
11/8/18
11/9/18
1
/18
1/5/18
1/1
2/1
3/1
4/1
6/1
7/1
8/1
9/1
17/
18/
19/
20/
21/
22/
23/
24/
25/
26/
27/
27/
29/
30/
31/
10/
11/
12/
13/
14/
15/
1/5
11/
11/
11/
11/
11/
11/
11/
10/
10/
10/
10/
10/
10/
10/
10/
10/
10/
10/
10/
10/
10/
10/
11/
11/
11/
11/
11/
Global
Global
The spikes in conversions we see globally on 11:11 are being
driven by East Asian eCommerce websites pushing the new sales
day. There were more eCommerce conversions on 11:11 than any
other peak over the season.1
11:11 strategies
• Kick start your holiday campaigns with this important cross border
business shopping day
• 11:11 is growing in importance; check its regional popularity and
set campaigns to match local knowledge of the newest date on the
holiday calendar Break from tradition
• Leverage the popularity of 11:11 in Southeast Asia, Australia, Spain Beat the pack with significant 11:11 creatives
and Brazil to maximize ROI and performance campaigns and bolster
what is quickly becoming a staple peak of the
holiday shopping period
Source: 1. Facebook internal date, May 2019 53You can also read
