The Christmas holiday season marks the birth of many exciting opportunities.
For consumers, Christmas usually means spending time with family, celebrating holiday traditions, gift-giving and decorating their homes. But for businesses, Christmas is the golden period for advertising their brand, attracting new customers and promoting seasonal offers.
However, due to COVID-19, there’s no doubt that Christmas shopping will look much different compared to the previous years. Consumer trends, attitudes and shopping behaviours will inevitably shift due to this unexpected pandemic. More than ever, people are looking to come together and share gifts with their loved ones.
It’s important for businesses to adapt to this post-COVID marketplace by leveraging their online presence and building their digital marketing strategy before the jolly season hits. Facebook is a powerful tool to help them achieve this. In saying that, let’s take a look at some key tips and insights for advertising on Facebook during Christmas!
Rapid Growth of Mobile Shopping & eCommerce
Due to the immense impact of COVID-19, the potential crowds at shopping malls may deter some consumers from visiting physical stores. Instead, they’ll be turning to eCommerce platforms to shop for the best holiday deals.
Additionally, the growth of mobile shopping has accelerated over the past decade, with Gen X and Boomers leading the pack. Global mobile purchases made by these groups have grown by over 50% annually during the Christmas season. The influence of COVID-19 is also undeniable – over 80% of these demographics have shopped online during this time.
So, how can you advertise your brand on Facebook during Christmas? The answer: create a seamless mobile experience! You should use Facebook Messenger marketing, use interactive chatbot sequences, optimise your mobile page loading speed and connectivity, integrate videos, minimise content clutter and reduce user inputs.
Desire for Mega Sales in the face of Economic Challenges
With COVID-19 affecting many families, job prospects and finances, people will be more sensitive to price amid this worldwide recession. This means that peak Mega Sales days like Boxing Day after Christmas, Black Friday and Cyber Monday will be hugely prioritised.
Globally, people who shop on Mega Sales Days tend to spend more than those who don’t; they also shop more on mobile and buy gifts for themselves. So again, how exactly can you take advantage of this consumer trend via Facebook marketing? Well, you should begin to appeal to shopping preferences and accelerate buying with automation and machine learning.
By making your sales process automated during the peak period, you can avoid any disruptions and create a better customer experience. Facebook’s Automated Ad feature will allow you to make personalised ads to those price-sensitive consumers during the Christmas shopping season.
Self-gifting and Seasonal Shopping Give Relief in Difficult Times
Despite these challenging times, people try to stay hopeful and motivated, while rewarding themselves with little gifts of self-indulgence. The boom in online retail shopping during COVID-19 has demonstrated this. In past recessions, affordable luxuries such as cosmetics and ice cream have been quite popular, and this is projected to be similar for COVID-19.
The Christmas sales season also offers the ideal opportunity for self-gifting, with 74% of global Christmas shoppers researching gifts for themselves. This means that you can harness the power of Facebook dynamic ads, which automatically displays tailored products to people who have expressed interest, whether this be on your business’s website, app or anywhere else on the Internet. Through this, you can connect the right products to the right people.
Additionally, Facebook’s carousel ads can allow you to showcase up to 10 images or videos within a single ad. For selective gift-shoppers, you can highlight different products and their specific features. You can even optimise the order of the carousel images, based on each card’s performance.
Disruption Fuels Receptivity to New Products and Services
Even though COVID-19 has disrupted many lives and massively changed our consumer buying patterns, there are some good business opportunities ahead. People are becoming more receptive to trying new products or services, such as grocery delivery, resistance bands and blue-light blocking glasses.
This Christmas in 2020, people will likely be even more receptive. According to Facebook holiday insights, 64% of global Christmas shoppers say they explore new products more during the shopping season than the rest of the year. Many consumers will obviously prioritise price, but quality and safety are also highly regarded attributes.
A great way to introduce customers to new products and services is to use Facebook’s collection ads and carousel ads. Collection ads let people move from new discovery to purchase in a clean, immersive experience. Established in a grid layout and optimised for the best mobile experience, each collection ad has a video or image with four smaller accompanying images below. Customers who tap on the ad to browse or learn more will be taken to a fast-loading visual experience – all without leaving Facebook.
Brand authenticity & Social Responsibility
While price and quality is an important factor for many shoppers during the Christmas season, many people also care about the brand image and corporate social responsibility. Many global shoppers increasingly look for brands whose values align with their own, and seek brands who actively support causes they care about.
Even more importantly, COVID-19 has only heightened expectations with 82% believing that brands should give back to the community, such as by providing free services. This transparency can be converted into creating authentic, informative content from businesses. In your Facebook ad campaigns, you should be sharing more than just deals and bargains – share values, promote social issues and fundraisers, and take action!
Need help with Facebook Advertising?
The jolly season will arrive quicker than Santa can deliver all the presents around the globe. To help prepare your business with its special Christmas promotions, OMDIGI Group provides a flexible range of Social Media Marketing services.
We tailor all our services – ranging from PPC, email marketing and analytics – to your business, delivering the best results for your Facebook advertising campaigns. This includes lead generation, sales conversions, brand awareness and more. Why not unwrap this gift of digital marketing opportunities during Christmas? Contact us now!
