Expand Display Ads to Capture More Holiday Shoppers

The holiday season means big business for retailers, and this year looks to be cheerier than last. The National Retail Federation (NRF) projects holiday sales will increase 4.1 percent this year to a staggering $586.1 billion and the NRF’s Shop.org projects online holiday sales will increase 12 percent to $96 billion. These projections point to a prime opportunity for display marketers to leverage holiday campaigns to great success, but knowing how to take advantage of a great opportunity is harder than identifying one.

A number of factors will impact how successful display campaigns can be this holiday season including ad types, content and location. A recent Search Engine Watch column notes "Eighty percent of users' time is spent outside search engines...," increasing the importance of re-targeting campaigns and diversifying where ads are being served. With all of this in mind, the following five tips can help ensure display marketers enjoy a successful holiday season:

• Set advertising budgets to at least a fixed percentage of sales: as sales figures increase, ad budgets need to follow suit.
• Determine how and where to adjust stock by closely examining your retail sector and product mix .
• Extend budgets for downloadable gifts through Christmas Day: downloadable gifts are becoming more popular, with Booz & Company projecting that 45 percent of consumers will gift an e-book, music, movie, etc. and consumers can buy them any time.
• Similarly, extend tablet and mobile ad budgets too. Use the mobile channel, particularly mobile phones, to promote last-minute sales as consumers rely heavily on these devices for in-store shopping.
• Prepare online and mobile technologies to handle an influx in demand and usage; crashing apps frustrate consumers.

These strategies should be at the center of each display campaign this shopping season, but there are a few other items to consider as well. Remember that free shipping remains a major online sales driver, and be aware that major brands with physical retail locations have pledged to price match some of the major online retailers. Marketers that prepare for the season with these factors in mind stand to do well and reap some rewards of the growing holiday and online economy.