The Four Phases of Christmas Shop with the help of Meta

For the best enjoyment of the holiday season's shopping, our friends at Meta recommend splitting the festive season into four distinct parts:

1. The foundations for success need to be laid.
2. Reaching customers early.
3. Maximizing customer purchases.
4. Keep your thoughts in the forefront throughout the course of a purchase.

Big shopping days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) have become an essential part of the holiday shopping season and allow shoppers to take advantage of huge savings as well as merchants to reap the benefits of increased sales and new clients. But, deals aren't the only thing on people's wish lists.

Nowadays, consumers require a personalized experience that is entertaining, enthralling as well as helps them find the ideal present. If they can do that, they anticipate a frictionless route to shopping.

In this post in this blog, we provide an insight-driven guide along with practical "holiday recipes" to help you achieve your goals throughout the four seasons of the season.

Phase One: Establish foundations

The goal is toSet the right data and creative foundations and most effective practices before the sales event.

Data

One of the first steps in delivering personalized shopping experiences is to make sure you've got an accurate image of your customer. This allows you to deliver the right offers to the appropriate individuals at the correct moment. Marketing pixels on Facebook or TikTok are able to be integrated into your website in order to monitor advertising conversions and build audiences targeted. With the information generated by the pixels, you're able to then market to users who have taken the action on your site.

When retailers complement their existing information by incorporating social platform data, they learn to get familiar with their customers better , and increase their efficiency. In fact, those who utilize Facebook Conversions API (also called CAPI) as well as Meta Pixel Facebook Conversions API (sometimes known as CAPI) as well as Meta Pixel saw an 8 percent increase in efficiency. ₁

There are three ways to use information from your clients to help inform holiday ads you create:

1.     Capture what customers want in all the ways.    

Centralize customer data with adherence to privacy regulations regarding data as well as the customer' data preferences. Build a holistic view of your customer's preferences and habits to better tailor and optimize your marketing.

1.     Improve your data reliability.    

Improve data security by making the direct link to your marketing data along with the platform that you use. Collect and share data with secure APIs, safe pixels and offline conversions.

1. Verify the extent of connectivity to data.

Your ads should be available to the people likely to be most interested and increase results and lower cost per successful result. Meta can do this with the event match quality score. Try to get an overall score of 6.0 or more through:

• Increased coverage of information about customers parameters.
• Information is shared in real-time, as much as it is feasible.
• The monitoring of score is done in Facebook Events Manager. Facebook Events Manager.

Visuals and creative messaging

Shoppers understandably get tired of seeing the same ad in the same way over time This reduces effectiveness of the ad. To stop this from happening, businesses are able to create flexible visual assets that cater to the various motivations driving the purchase of gifts for the holiday season. A healthy mix of creativity for new customers could be beneficial in the crucial moment of sales. Businesses with a varied creative mix saw a 32% increase in their effectiveness, and an eight percent greater impact. ₂

For diversification of your advertising mix, you can:

• Create distinct messages to diverse audiences.
• Look into messaging that addresses main factors that impact the purchase of gifts for the holidays, including the cost, the quality, alternatives and authenticity.
• Utilize mixing formats (carousels or reels) as well as different kinds of media (video as well as static images) to reach out to audiences that have diverse viewing habits.

Phase two: Get customers to make purchases earlier

The goal is toFocus on recognition and acquisition. Take advantage of cost-efficient impressions that are early enough to get noticed by shoppers and create momentum for your shopping moment.

It's essential to connect with clients who , and at what times they like shopping, so it's important to be in touch with them at any time they want to shop. When it comes to the time of the holidays, customers have already started filling up their shopping carts during the months before major holidays like Black Friday.

Making people aware

Businesses can benefit from the less promotional times prior to key sales through linking their brand with performances campaigns to increase recognition through social media sites.

Make a buzz about the presale to get in touch with those who may be looking for the right products or services you can offer during the holiday season. 91% of people will likely test different brands over the course of the holidays and now is the moment to reach out to new customers who are ready and willing. ₃

Drive Acquisition

Get the most out of these interactions through:

• Inspiring direct responses with a focus on being aware of the customer and consideration.
• Optimizing middle-funnel features such as clicking links or page views on landing pages, as well as add-to-carts.
• Distinguishing video formats to convey messages from companies in a playful and entertaining manner.

Video is a fantastic discovery tool that keeps viewers engaged throughout the year We spend 50 percent of their time Facebook viewing videos. ₄

It is a more efficient device for people looking for gifts for family members and friends.

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It is a great way to advertise brands, their products and services in order that when peak time is upon us, customers are aware of the brand's name and more likely to make a purchase.

Mix short, fun video imaginative in Reels stories, Reels, and Feed as well as more in-depth storytelling for in-stream advertisements to increase the reach of your advertisements and align the consumer's behavior.

Short-form video

Engage with friends and acquaintances through fun short bursts on Facebook and Instagram.

The most effective practices are creating the experience for viewing vertically (9:16) Be amazed by smooth transitions and edits. Stay focused on motion by adding animation, graphics or text.

Video with long-form

Connect with your customers through longer stories regarding brands, like instructional videos for products or live streaming.

Good practices: Crop close to main characters, enhance effect by using text and design for sound on.

Third phase: Maximize purchasing

The day of Black Friday, the returns typically outstrip costs, which is why this a critical moment to make the most of the peak retail time.

The objective is toMaximize holiday sale purchases with the flexibility of budgets and bids to allow seamless shopping and targeting shoppers who have high-intent.

Budgets that can be adapted and bids

Sixty-three percent (63 percent) of buyers who visited the day of sales that saw huge numbers make an unplanned purchase. ₇ Businesses can reap the benefits of shopping habits and get in touch with the people most likely to purchase by implementing an flexible budget and bid strategy. Instead of making budgets means to reduce expenses, think about using bids when you pair the restricted bidding strategy with budgets that are high.

Forms to make seamless advertisements

73% of shoppers surveyed made a surprise experience while shopping online along with a quick and fast way to buy is a good way to convert that discovery into the sale. ₈

To encourage purchases, consider ads that have intuitive and non-fussy format. In Meta platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram This means that you can promote ads that include tags to promote products, Advantage+ catalog ads (formerly called dynamic ads) Digital circulars as well as collaborative advertisements.

Re-enable shoppers and drive discovery through different advertising formats:

• Reaching wider audiences in order to communicate with potential customers through Advantage+ catalog advertisements.
• The expansion of reach and the accessibility of your content shoppable via advertisements using product tags.
• Finding new customers using shopping lookalike audiences.
• Local inventory can be highlighted to increase sales in stores by using circulars that use digital technology.
• Facilitating the shopper-led approach to marketing through advertisements that are collaborative to encourage purchases on your application or site.
• Return customers to their experience as a buyer through AdvantageCatalog ads, along with collaborative advertising as well as buying custom audiences.

Retargeting cart abandoners

A cart that you've abandoned does not mean that it's an unintentional loss. In some cases, abandoned carts need some encouragement to make them buyers. Pre-sales campaigns do the bulk of the work, businesses are able to leverage technology and resources to concentrate on personalization. They can target those who have indicated curiosity.

Fourth phase: Keep your mind on top

The goal is toCapitalize the lower cost-per-impression rates through compelling advertisements that inspire loyalty, and keep your business well-known to customers.

It's January. The holidays are wrapping up and retail stores are probably waiting for some much-needed downtime after an extremely busy Christmas season. But before getting back to business as usual retailers need to take advantage of this time of year to get the attention of the 41% of shoppers who say that their purchases are continuing even after Christmas, as well as re-engage with those who are new customers. ₉

The customer journey doesn't end once they've made the purchase. In order to convert one-time purchasers into long-term customers Merchants need to keep in touch to drive purchases and build trust with their customers.

Maximize the value of your campaigns for the holidays with Meta

Being able to fulfill the demands of consumers for the holiday season can be difficult however, companies are adapting to meet changes in the market during the biggest shopping seasons of the year. Through Meta products and services, managers can deliver custom and engaging, seamless and quantifiable shopping experiences for every factor leading to the high-sales celebrations.

1. Based on 15 global studies in H2 2020 across various verticals (Ecommerce, Tech/Telco, Financial Services, Education, Restaurants, Professional Services, CPG) 2. Meta case study, Dec 2021.
   2. Internal Meta test which compares the effectiveness of identical and distinct (creatively diverse) creatives drawn from 2703 ads set across all verticals, between 04-04-2021 and the 26th April 2021. 2. "Meta Christmas Study" by YouGov (Meta-commissioned online survey of 3,130 individuals aged 18 and older across CA and US). Minimum N=1500 for each market. Dec 2021.
   3. "Meta Seasonal Study of the Holiday Season" by YouGov (Meta-commissioned online study of 3130 adults 18plus who reside in Canada and in the U.S.). A minimum N=1500 in each market. the deadline for this study is December 20, 2021. 2. Meta Data internal to the auction. Auction Experts Cyber5 Analysis May 2022 4. Meta case study, Jul 2021.
   4. Meta internal data
   5. "Meta Studies on the Seasonal Christmases" by YouGov (Meta-commissioned online study of 3,130 individuals aged 18and older across Canada as well as those in U.S.). Minimum N = 1500 for each market, December 2021.
   6. Driving long-term and short-term sales by using Facebook and Instagram advertisement, Nepa, Oct 2020. Based on MMM performance of six retail clients from Sweden.
   7. "Meta The Seasonal Holidays Research Study" was conducted by YouGov (Meta-commissioned online study of 3130 adults 18or older within Canada as well as The U.S.). 2. Auction expert Cyber5 analysis conducted by Auction Experts in May 2022
   8. "Meta The Seasonal Holidays Survey" carried out by YouGov (Meta-commissioned online study of 3,130 people aged 18and over in Canada as well as The U.S.).
   9. Source: BMRI 2021 Holiday Research, 2) Meta case study, Aug 2020.

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