October is the New November

4 Min Read

Remember how many of last year’s Black Friday deals were blurred into a series of promotions across several weeks in October and November? Well, that’s a trend that’s sticking through to this year, too. Studies reveal that 36% of shoppers plan on spending more this year than in 2020, and 39% of streaming holiday shoppers who have consumed Connected TV content in the last three months, also intend to increase their spending this year. Overall, we can expect consumers to spend an average of $937 on holiday shopping this year – that’s a 5% year-over-year increase.

Supply Chain Challenges: The Price is (Not) Right

Earlier this week, CNBC reported that supply chains are in crisis, with bottlenecks causing disruptions worldwide. Research firm Capital Economics reported an average of 206 ships waiting outside Chinese ports, versus 82 before the pandemic – that’s 151% higher than usual. There’s also electricity outages in major manufacturing hubs like China and Europe, and factory shutdowns in Vietnam and South East Asia, affecting categories like food and beverage, electronics, automobiles and more. Shoppers can expect higher prices during the holiday season as the economic supply and demand pendulum swings – so what better way for shoppers to avoid this than by getting in early before stock runs low and prices go up?

Retailers Start Their (Sales) Engines Early

Amazon set the scene for many retailers by starting their Black Friday deals earlier this week. Target also wrapped up its pre-Black Friday ‘Deal Days’ promotion earlier this week, and Home Depot even ran out of inventory for Halloween items way back in August. 40% reported that they’ve already reached “peak” shopping levels this month – a clear sign that consumers know to get in early to make sure their presents arrive in time.

Your Holiday Campaign Checklist

If you’re an advertiser who had your eyes set on a campaign start date of November, don’t worry – it’s not too late to make some pivots and get your Q4 campaigns up and running now. Luckily, ad platforms like MNTN Performance TV make it easy for brands to go live in only a matter of days. Here are some reasons why you as an advertisers are better off getting a head start on your campaigns – sourced directly from our analysis of last year’s holiday activity:

• Advertisers who spent bigger and earlier built up a steady flow of site traffic, which resulted in stronger performance throughout  Q4.

• Advertisers who ran prospecting campaigns earlier in October reaped the rewards in both order value (+198% MoM) and site visits (+94% MoM) compared to September.

• Advertisers who switched on their Performance TV retargeting campaigns in October saw a 98% increase in conversions versus the first half of the month.

We know there’s a lot to consider when setting up a holiday campaign, but follow this checklist and get ready to welcome in some holiday cheer in no time:

1. Take heed of business hours and upload your creative a few days in advance – not the day of campaign launch. A rule of thumb is to aim for at least two business days in advance. This will give you sufficient time to make adjustments, and allow for approvals prior to your campaign live date.
   
   
2. Balance your prospecting and retargeting efforts. We suggest spending 60%-90% towards prospecting, to expand your audience pool and reach new customers. You should then spend the remaining 10-40% on retargeting your existing users. Target cart abandoners, 2+ page visitors, people who have spent X amount of time on your site, for starters.
   
   
3. On the topic of repeat customers…did you know your repeat customers spend 25% more per transaction during peak periods? MNTN Performance TV makes this process even easier via  CRM upload – meaning, you can serve your database of customers ads on Connected TV. Not only does this get around pesky spam filters and “mass delete” behavior if you were to go down the email marketing route to reach these loyal shoppers, your audience is most likely to be more receptive to your message on the big screen. 
   
   
4. Don’t forget to connect your prospecting / retargeting efforts to a KPI. The cardinal rule of performance marketing is that everything is measurable for true accountability. We suggest ROAS (Return on Ad Spend), Cost Per Visit, Cost Per Acquisition, Cost Per Completed View, and Customer Lifetime Value as some good goals to start with. You can also leverage many more metrics in real-time during your campaign here.
   

Visit our annual holiday guide for a more comprehensive approach to your campaign mapping and planning. If you’re not yet familiar with Connected TV marketing and want to learn more about how it can help you achieve your performance goals, reach out to us here.