The holiday season is upon us, and so is the end-of-year advertising push. And why not? Consumers spent nearly $789.4B during the 2020 holiday season despite the pandemic, and are projected to spend even more this year, so marketers are looking to secure this increasingly large piece of the pie.
But how can you make sure your ad spend doesn’t get lost in this year’s holiday shuffle? It’s simple: Give your campaigns the gift of location-based audiences. According to the NRF, consumers are planning on spreading out their holiday purchases this year at a variety of offline destinations, including department stores, discount stores, fashion, electronics, and more. Offline audiences can be the perfect addition to your campaign, as they’ll allow you to target consumers based on their interests in the real world and drive them to store.
Here are four ideas to help you get the most out of this year’s holiday campaigns.
1. Stay Top of Mind
It’s important to start targeting well before Christmas to ensure you reach the eager, in-market shoppers during this brief buying cycle. Activate your campaign by connecting with consumers who made verified visits to retailers in your vertical, or complementary verticals, in the past 15 days, which signals they are on the hunt for holiday purchases that fit your campaign goals.
2. Capitalize on Holiday Travelers
This holiday season, more Americans will be traveling over the holidays. Using location-based audiences, you can reach those who traveled during the 2019 holiday season, based on historical data. These audiences can be comprised of those who were seen at rental car locations, airports, or hotels. You can target these audiences with advertising to inspire them to choose your travel brand, convenience store, or gas station brand while they’re on the road again this year.
3. Gain and Retain Customers
The holiday season is the last time of year you want to lose out to competitors, but by using cutting-edge, predictive audiences, you can make sure you don’t. Predictive location-based audiences allow you to target your at-risk customers who show signs of straying from your brand. They also provide you with the opportunity to capture your competitors’ weaker customer base. The ability to gain and retain customers during the largest spending quarter will be sure to make you jolly this holiday season — especially once you see your return on ad spend.
4. Make It Relevant
Want to really cut through the noise? Make it relevant to consumers. Location-based audiences are based on data that’s collected throughout the consumer journey, so you can slice and dice metrics to create your perfect segment to target those on your “nice list.” Combine metrics such as frequency of visit, lifestyle habits, specific locations, time frames, and more in order to deliver a truly relevant and personalized message to your consumer, resulting in a stronger relationship and brand affinity.
Have any questions or want to learn more about these targeting tactics? Feel free to reach out to our audience team or check out our 2021 Holiday Audience Targeting Guide.
