It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year: How to Make the Most of It


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Gone are the days when holiday season sales were associated only with ringing cash registers. Digital clicks are becoming new signs of holiday shopping.

For retailers, the end of year means their brick and mortar locations are overrun by shoppers throughout November and December. But having these locations is not enough in today’s digital world. It's becoming a necessity for retailers to be online as part of their marketing and sales strategy to grab a larger slice of the seasonal pie. Consumers are now more attracted to online shopping to avoid the hassle of waiting in line and scavenging for the perfect items.

But what about digital advertising? Let’s discuss some digital marketing trends and tips for the 2017 holiday season.

1. Mobile is the king

This year, mobile will continue to be the marketing hero of the holiday buying season. The majority of shoppers spend more time online on a mobile device than they do on a desktop or laptop computer.

Mobile devices were initially used by consumers only to do pre-buying research. With the ease of mobile payment methods and the emergence of eCommerce apps, retailers can now let their consumers purchase on mobile without using a larger device.

2. Programmatic is a good choice

With almost everyone now on mobile, app marketers have an opportunity to maximize the large volume of incoming traffic during the holidays. However, consumers are now looking for a better shopping experience. Highly engaging creative targeting the wrong crowd will not generate strong conversion rates. But appealing creative targeting the relevant audience and using location data will, and these are all necessary to produce the best advertising performance.

Have you optimized your ads for the high demand of holiday shoppers? Look to programmatic to solve this challenge. With the availability of more user behavioral data, app marketers are able to gain valuable information on what consumers most want to see in an ad. Through the improvement of targeting accuracy and the optimization of ads in response, app marketers can acquire the users they want this holiday season.

Strike while the iron is hot

Mobile app marketers have a great opportunity to monetize the holiday season. Insights on spend peaks and CPM should be taken into consideration.

  1. Mobile beats desktop during key dates (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year). Generally, from the end of December to early January mobile supply increases and new device activations are seen. However, a notable increase is also seen in CPMs which will surely affect ROI.
  2. The beginning of January is a great time for scaling programmatic campaigns - that’s when mobile supply stream is at its highest and when CPM decreases considerably. 

App marketers should start increasing their viewability with mobile programmatic campaigns and secure prioritized access to valued inventory and users this holiday season. This will not just ensure targeting the best audience but conclusively generating higher ROI.   

 

Topics: Marketplace Insights