Valentine’s Day. People love it or loathe it. There’s no other day in the year that stirs such strong emotions from consumers. Some completely buy in and look forward to showering their loved one with gifts, whereas others rue the commercialization (but in most cases still buy their other half something).
In 2018, in the US $19.6billion was projected to be spent on Valentine’s Day, with 55% of Americans planning on celebrating, and spending an average of $143.56 per person. The passion and emotion create a fantastic opportunity for advertisers. But the awareness of consumers about brands trying to cash in means advertisers must approach their Valentine’s Day campaigns strategically. Here are our tips for a love-in this year.
1.Keep it personal
Don’t just throw everything out there and see what sticks. In the run-up to Valentine’s Day users will be searching for the perfect gift. They may not know exactly what they’re looking for, or they may be entering specific search terms with a pre-existing idea of what they want to purchase. This is your opportunity to retarget these users and get your digital display ads in front of them.
Through search retargeting you can retarget users based on the keywords that they’ve originally searched for. This means your product, message or deal will be super-relevant and personalized to their needs. You’ll be assisting them in their search for a memorable present. Most importantly you’ll cut through the noise and serve them with an ad with something they may actually want.
2. Consider the customer’s mindset
It’s key to get into the mindset of your potential consumers. Are they organized? Are they last minute shoppers and beginning to panic?
Tapping into their thought-process and getting the timing of your ad right is crucial. Using the same ad creative and messaging whatever the time of day isn’t going to work or grab the attention of your potential customers. By using dynamic ads and dynamic creative you can ensure that your digital display ad changes based on external factors and data, such as time of day and day of the week.
This means that your sales message, promotion or content of your ad is automatically updated to be specific to that user in that certain moment. You can serve your users with brand awareness messaging well in advance of the day and when they’re browsing in the evening. It will then be time to hit them with deals and sales messaging when the panic sets in as February 14th looms.
3. Stay up-to-date
If you get your ad strategy right, you’ll no doubt be shifting a lot of stock in the run up to the day. But that brings with it its own challenges. A jewelry retailer serving ads on specific products will infuriate their customers if they click through only to find the product featured in the ad – the one they really wanted – has since sold out.
Feed ads rule out this frustrating scenario.
They work by connecting directly to your product inventory feed, whether the cloud, excel spreadsheets, Google docs, your hard drive, or directly from your website. Once you’ve created the feed (you only need to do it once), the process is completely automated with any changes to pricing, products or deals automatically updated in the ad in real time. Your customers will always see up-to-date products and deals that are relevant to their needs.
4. Stand out from the crowd
There’s so much noise around Valentine’s Day, it’s an increasingly hard task for advertisers to stand out and cut through. That means your messaging needs to be tailored and on-point to really speak to the needs of your potential customers. Will more image-based ads pique their interest? Will certain keywords or phrases encourage them to convert?
This is where an understanding of your users is key, with the answers lying in the data from your previous campaigns. Through our Advanced Insights Reporting you’ll get the data and insights to understand the type of deal, offer or creative that resonates with your audience enabling you to build key personas and demographics for your products and services.
By tailoring your ads to your audience in this manner, you’ll speak directly to them and shine through.
5. Engage with your customers
Valentine’s Day isn’t just about deals and products. Your customer may have an idea that they want to purchase from you. They may have seen a specific deal and like it, but the product may not be exactly right. You now have the chance to push them through your purchase funnel, but to do so you need to provide them with multiple opportunities to engage with your business.
Communicating varying messages to them in one digital display ad will grab their attention, but you’ll lose them to the crowded marketplace if you simply send them to the same landing page irrespective of their needs and intent.
By using multi-click digital ads, you’ll get so much more from your creative and spend. If you provide multiple-landing page options, your users can progress through their purchase journey with you. Most importantly you’ll hold onto them during this competitive time of year.
The Fluid Ads Platform provides an end-to-end solution for your digital display activity. Contact us today to learn more. Start your trial today and get our limited Valentine’s Day discount.