It’s the most wonderful time of the year 🎄

The Christmas holiday shopping season is at its highest point now! 

Which means there is no better time than now to take the opportunity, as a marketer, and boost your profits with Christmas related offers. 

From the shopping foresighters on Black Friday & Cyber Monday, to the ones who wait until the last minute, the commercialization of the winter holidays is playing a bigger part each year on how much an individual spends on gifts & decoration. The average cost of the holiday season is increasing every season, and that’s good news for us marketers: it’s time to think about how to take part in this business. 

To start, I’d like to show you some interesting facts about Christmas shopping behavior that will surely encourage you to run some new offers this week! 

Some key points & interesting facts - Christmas shopping 

· Families are expected to spend an average of 1,536 USD during the Christmas holidays (Statista). Nearly 886 USD are expected to be spent on gifts & gift cards, while the remaining goes to entertainment, outfits, food and decorations. That’s more than what they spent in the last 20 years. 

· Over the last years, Christmas purchases over E-commerce platforms have significantly increased. Actually, more than 60% of people in the United States prefer to buy their holiday gifts online (Deloitte). Which is not surprising, knowing of all its benefits: it’s fast, easy, and allows people to avoid massive crowds, which is especially useful during this Covid-19 pandemic. ‍

· Online purchases are expected to increase, reaching 15% of the total.‍

· 32% of men want gift vouchers for Christmas. But only around 20% of them get them. What’s even more important is that gift cards are in high demand, even though they don’t totally fit with the Christmas spirit. On the other hand, 47% of women want to get jewelry for Christmas. A similar percentage, 46%, would like to get a break or a little holiday, and another 42% would also like to get a voucher or credit at their favorite shop. Take note. As an average, the average spend on gifts for spouses is 123 USD (CensusWide).

· 76% of US consumers used computers to buy their Christmas presents online. The use of smartphones increased by 11% last year, (Deloitte). Which means most of the people still rely on desktops in order to make online purchases, but it’s important to notice the rise in smartphone usage, while chances are that it will continue increasing in the upcoming years. 

· 62% of Americans buy their gifts during the week before Christmas (NRF). We can then think that most of them wait until special discounts appear, and that’s your time to shine. 

· Moreover, stats show that 19% of the population spend money during the holiday season on completely unplanned purchases. These indecise shoppers are a great target for your offers, and it shows the importance of investing in highly efficient campaigns(NRF).

There’s no doubt that those are great opportunities, so, what are you waiting for to start your campaigns? Take some notes because we’ll give you some ideas! 💡

The Christmas season is short, and that’s why instead of trying to scale your earnings and try multiple angles, it’s important to stay focused on your goal and strategy. 

Remember that buyers are often open minded and ready to buy or gift anything. 

Product ideas you can promote on Christmas

· Clothing: from the classical gifts to the newest trends, fashion has always been one of the top Christmas gifts topics everywhere. You can do your research about what items are trending in your target market, and remember that some of them are always good ideas: scarfs, gloves, warm socks and even ugly Christmas sweaters! 

· Christmas trees: it’s true that a great percentage prefers real trees, but every time it’s becoming more popular to buy fake or artificial trees, and that’s a great way of making money. Check out some affiliate programs that pay good commissions for each sale on Christmas trees. 🎄

· Christmas decorations are also a good product to offer, they’re often very affordable and perfect for this time. 

· Tech devices are always in high demand! It can be a tablet, the newest iPhone on the market, etc. 

· Special promos & coupons: you’ll impact the user easily by offering discounts in popular products. Ask your affiliate manager for some deals. Amazon vouchers are a good idea, as well as Netflix coupons, etc. 

· You can also use the fact that it’s the holiday season to run your dating campaigns. You’ll just need to change the angle in order to meet the audience’s needs.

Tips on running your Christmas campaigns

1. Don’t be afraid of increasing your budget - make a plan and define your goals, and if you do it right, your benefits will also increase. 

2. Optimize your campaigns constantly. Remember that the holiday season is short so it requires a big effort in a short time. You can use Automatic Rules to help you control your budget & performance. 

3. Do your research about which gifts are hot this season: even if the user doesn’t have the intention of buying that item, it will be easier to catch their attention with a popular one. Remember that around 20% of holiday purchases are made on impulse. 

4. If your offer is also suitable for smartphone devices, make sure to split test your campaigns into smartphone/desktop, and use the correct images in each different campaign. The majority of the people look for Christmas deals on their laptop, but every year there’s a greater percentage of people using other devices such as smartphones or tablets. 

As always, I’m giving you some ProTips:

#1. Use Christmas related keywords

#2. Remember to speak your audience’s language. Also remember that Christmas is not celebrated everywhere, but some other festivities are. You can use another language and instead of “Christmas” you can use “Holidays”, etc. Just dig a little bit into your audience’s culture and festivities. 

#3. Incorporate some seasonal topics into your marketing strategy, without the need of changing your angle. You can do it in the logo, the CTA button, the image or even change your colours. Remember you can also add emojis to the text on your creatives!

#4. Make sure you’re covering your audience’s needs

I also wanted to remind you that the Christmas season may end soon, but the holiday discounts and promotions are starting right after it. Take the opportunity to continue with your campaigns even if Christmas is over, that’s when some people will start looking for opportunities and big discounts as well! 

That’s all for today! I wish you great success with your Holiday campaigns! 💪🏼

See you next week end enjoy your holidays!