2016 was the first year that globally, Facebook saw more mobile conversions than desktop conversions for the entire Christmas period. Similar figures have been reported in the Retail Excellence/StudioForty9 eCommerce Dashboard report with a 45.52% YOY increase in mobile sessions for July 2017. A recent study by Facebook on UK customers revealed that 30% agree their mobile device allows them to make more informed purchase decisions during the Christmas period. The same study indicated that 26% of people use their mobile for Christmas shopping because it’s more convenient than shopping in-store with 39% highlighting that social media is influential in their Christmas shopping.
With the festive period nearly upon us, you should have rich customer data and strong intent signals from your digital campaigns earlier in the year, as well as re-targeting campaigns running from the first phase of Christmas activity. These can be setup by using Custom Audiences and Dynamic Ads on Facebook. It is important to be aware of new shopping holidays across the globe such as Singles Day which is also called ‘11/11’ as it happens every year on 11th November. Singles Day started in China and it is now spreading to Europe. Another example being Amazon Prime Day which fell on 12th July this year with sales growing by more than 60 percent from the same 30-hour window in 2016, with a record number of Prime members shopping across 13 countries. the participants have their own individual Google assistant which is invaluable Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year which falls on 24th November. Up to 45% of Black Friday conversations across social media happen in the four days before the event itself. Look to sustain interest over a longer period of time with Black Friday gift guides brought to life via interactive online tools such as Instagram stories, Facebook competitions, Twitter polls and countdown timers. It is no secret that Black Friday is big for Millennials. Data also informs us that shoppers aged 55+ show more retail focused conversations across social media platforms in November than any other Christmas month. Make sure to focus on your audiences needs with specific messages, for example: Gifts for grand-kids etc.
The final week of November sees the last regular pay day before Christmas, driving a fresh wave of shoppers online and into stores. If you haven’t reserved a Black Friday audience using reach & frequency, you might want to switch to manual bidding to ensure you use your marketing budget efficiently at a point when many advertisers will be competing for core audiences like young women and mums. The online phenomenon continues with Cyber Monday on 27th November and it is important to consider how you can create differentiation across a long weekend of opportunity after Black Friday.
