US: What marketers need to know to plan their holiday campaigns

‘Tis the Time to Plan yourHoliday Campaign

It’s only October, but your shoppers are already thinking about holiday shopping. Last year, shoppers spent more during the holiday season than they did in 2014, which is good news for both retailers and e-tail marketers as we expect 2016 to be an even bigger year! While shoppers spent an average of $1,221 at brick-and-mortar stores last year, the average online shopper spent $418 between November 1st and December 26th. Capitalizing on the influx of in market users during key dates can mean more money for your brand.Media iQ explored user shopping behavior during key time frames in 2015 to see how the holiday season affects not only our retail clients, but how it affects our clients in other verticals such as travel and automotive. Our team analyzed multiple data points such as browsing behavior, time of day, geo

1 https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/news/holiday-market-research/

location, device usage, purchase intent, competitor overlap, among other data signals to see what implications the holiday season has on all consumers.First, our team broke down the US into three tiers based on available impression volume in those states (i.e. Tier I = states with the most available impressions, Tier III = states with the

Even though conversion volumes are higher in Tier I regions, Tier II regions have the highest conversion rates (as compared to the average yearly conversion rates) and show the most

least amount of available impressions). When drilling into more granular regions, we found that users behave differently in certain regions of the country in regards to purchase intent than in other parts of the country during the holiday season. Here are some ways to take advantage of the holiday shopping season no matter what vertical your brand is in!

#1 Holiday shopping patterns are different amongst regions:

potential for uplift during the holiday season. Building core targeting strategies around higher converting audiences, allows your team to drive incremental sales and engagements.

TIER 2TIER 1

TIER 3

1.2times

1.3times

conversion rate

New York

Pennsylvania

Texas

California

than

than

&

TIER 3

9timesthan

&

TIER 1TIER 2

2.5timeshas

conversion volume thanColorado

Arizona

Oregon

Washington

#2 Consumers engage with auto more during the holidays,depending on the weather

Engaging auto intenders during the holiday time frame when temperatures are warmer could lead to an increase in

conversion volume.

FLORIDAAv.Temp

70 F°

TEXASAv.Temp

65 F°

1.4x1.6x

Black FridayConversion Uplift

Cyber Monday

1.4xBlack Fridayconversion uplift

1.6xCyber Mondayconversion uplift

Tier I Auto conversions during Black Friday & Cyber Monday

Leverage weather patterns when targeting auto intenders during the holidays whether that is through triggering ads during certain conditions or triggering different creative during certain weather conditions

Marketing Tip

Leverage competitive conquesting tactics during the holiday shopping season. Consumers who are in the shopping mind set are more likely to purchase from competitor brands during this time (especially if the price is right), so let’s take advantage of the larger user pool.

Marketing Tip

#3 Holiday shoppers are fashion conscious

Fashion brands in particular see sharp increases in Black Friday and Cyber Monday performance as compared to average days of the year. Tier II

regions saw the biggest uplift in Health and Beauty brands during the same time frame (1.6x uplift).

3.8xonline trafficduring Black Friday

& Cyber Monday

Fashion sees

1.5x conversion upliftduring Black Friday

& Cyber Monday

Florida experienced

conversionuplift

for fashion brands

9x

Reaching users in the retail specific vertical allows your brand to capture more users close to purchase.

2.0uplift

Most travel plans during Q4 happen around the Thanksgiving holiday.Travel advertisers as a whole see an uplift of 1.6x during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Understanding travel desti-

nations and arrival/departure information allows advertisers to be smarter with their audience segmentation and take advantage of the increase in holiday travelers.

Flight Travel

CruiseCar Hire III III

3.4uplift

0.9uplift

Average uplift of conversioneduring Black Friday & Cyber Monday

#4 Air travel ticket purchases increase during the holidays

as compared to normal days

3.4x increase in online traffic for Air Travel

Placing an ‘Advanced Pixel’ or Media iQ Capture pixel allows advertisers a view into arrival/departure information along with more traveler intent data points. Being able to segment out users more granularly allows advertisers to reach users with more relevancy in the end increasing conversion volume.

Marketing Tip

Understanding what content users are browsing allows advertisers to align relevant advertising and build user pools of relevant users to target precisely on certain days. Leveraging content

consumption and rich media units earlier (even through Black Friday) can create an even bigger lift in site conversions on Cyber Monday within these categories.

Leveraging content consumption

Rich media units earlier than Black Friday

3.0x 2.0x

#5 Home & Garden and Technology sites show a stronger lift on Cyber Monday, NOT Black Friday

Building users pools and segmenting users around certain interests and content consumption habits allows advertisers to target consumers based on intuitive and non-intuitive cues leading to more efficient targeting.

Marketing Tip

Cyber Mondayconversion

uplift

&To boost conversionson Cyber Mondaywithin the categories

Black Fridayconversionuplift

#6 Black Friday festivities start Early

Advertisers are continuing to advertise earli-er and earlier in the year for holiday shopping deals. For Black Friday in particular, early morning hours make up a larger portion of total daily conversions.

Having a unique strategy to reach users on both days (in different ways) means that advertisers are able to capture incremental revenue.

Taking advantage of positive advertiser sentiment, negative competitor sentiment, and general hype around holiday shopping, allows advertisers to increase advertis-ing when users are talking about purchasing/deals on social media the most.

Marketing Tip

Chan

ge in

con

vers

ion

Black Friday conversions are higher

Cyber Monday conversions dip low

There is more than 4.0x uplift for BlackFriday in conversions around 12-3 AM

Black Friday conversions are higher

Cyber Monday conversions dip low

Cyber Monday conversions are higher

Black Friday conversions dip low

Cyber MondayBlack Friday

NormalDays0%

0 1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 19 20 21 22 239

10 11 12 13 1816 17

-10%

-20%

-30%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

3% of daily conversions transact at midnight Black Friday, which means that $90MM is changing hands in that hour alone (based on a $3B daily market).

#7 Multi device strategy is a must

Black Friday

Cyber Monday

Black Friday

Cyber Monday

Black Friday

Cyber Monday

Connecting users across device and understanding when these consumers are physically in store as opposed to at home. Leveraging MiQ’s in-store LOCATE solution in addition to cross device tactics allows advertisers to serve the most relevant and intent ads resulting in not only a better consumer experience but also in more overall revenue.

Marketing Tip

Black Friday conversions higher

12AM-4PM 10PM-6PM 10PM-11PM

Cyber Mondayconversions higher



9AM-1PM 3PM-6PM5PM-11PM


Black Friday conversions higher 62.7% conversion

37.7% conversion 19.9% conversion34.9% conversion

36.8% conversion

10AM-6PM

5PM-12AM



( by site domain categories )Device Conversion Trends

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are no longer one-day events, neither are they a one device option. Shoppers are con-stantly searching and researching on multiple devices throughout the day before they make their final purchases.

Tablet Trends

PC Trends

Phone Trends

Shopping habits of multicultural consumers show that Chinese, Spanish, and German-speaking individuals in the US shop significantly more on Black Friday & Cyber Monday than on average days.

Reaching users with relevant creative imagery, products, and language will allow brands to stay more relevant and at the end of the day drive incremental user engagements.

892% 319%BLACK FRIDAY

#8 Multicultural consumers purchase more during Cyber Monday and Black Friday

Rotating multiple creative versions with relevant products and imagery that con-nects with individual users, will drive incremental users to interact with brand sites and ultimately transact with the brand.

Marketing Tip

uplift

CYBER MONDAYuplift


uplift

CYBER MONDAYuplift


uplift

CYBER MONDAYuplift

The goal of this analysis was to delve into changing trends in shopping behavior in the U.S before the start of the holiday season. These actionable insights help marketers plan and build their holiday campaigns accordingly, to be able to reach the right consumers at the right time.

In order to gather the data, we analyzed network-wide AIQ data including site domain and advertiser categories as well as device data. However, to provide for more extensive and niche actionable insights to marketers, we dug into multivariable analysis such as looking at device by time, advertiser sub categories by geography and language trends. The analysis was conducted from October to December, 2015.

What we did

Retail

US: What marketers need to know to plan their holiday campaigns