Director, Strategic Partnerships

Senior Account Manager

Beating Holiday Competition with Paid Social Advertising

For ecommerce brands on social media, this holiday season is going to be one to watch — literally and figuratively! With shoppers and brands now interacting in totally different ways than years’ past, this year is expected to generate more social media touch points than ever, at an even earlier start date. Check out the below for 3 paid social strategies to beat holiday competition, plus a YouTube bonus tip and how to effectively track your cross-channel, holiday plan!

Whether you’re using the holidays to seize more market share or recover lost revenue, being bold will only stand to benefit your bottom line during this critical time. With a creative and analytical approach to social media advertising across platforms, marketers can confidently reach their current and prospective audiences throughout the holiday season. 


Snapchat: Reality, but Make It Augmented

Snapchat’s investments in their camera technology have made it a social media platform turned tech company.  Their ad formats are unlike anywhere else, all while also being easy for marketers to adopt and even easier for consumers to use. The Snapchat AR Experience Lens is one of those ad types that will drive holiday results.  

Snapchat lenses create powerful moments that connect with consumers using augmented reality experiences. We get it, it seems like lenses would be really hard to make. However, Snapchat’s Lens Web Builder is a hassle free tool that allows anyone to build their own AR lens —  seriously, you don’t need to code, you don’t need 3D skills, and you don’t even need more than a few minutes. 

For Snapchat innovation that leads to results, layer their catalog-powered Shopping Lens onto the AR Experience Lens for shoppers to go right from experimentation to buying a product. 


TikTok: More Than GenZ

TikTok is a platform known for organic inspiration and authenticity. In 2019, digital marketers targeting Gen Z were also given the gift of TikTok’s own advertising platform and ad formats. SInce then, it has rapidly grown its user base to include:

  • Around 43% of TikTok’s global audience is between 18 and 24 years old.
  • 32% of TikTok users are aged between 25 and 34.

With TikTok now proven to be a viable contender to reach a variety of audiences, beyond Gen Z, we strongly recommend using this unique platform for your holiday success.


Reddit: Inform AND Convert

People use Reddit to be informed. This platform-specific proclivity opens the door for smart marketers to reach relevant audiences that are ready to learn about products through a variety of platform advertising strategies. On Reddit, you can ditch the sales pitch, and take a conversational approach — which only stands to strengthen your brand’s relationship with target audiences. 

You might be wondering, “Why test on Reddit now?” For products and services with a strong differentiator, Reddit is the ideal medium for urgently communicating with valuable buyers

Redditors make purchasing decisions 9x faster than other platforms, and have a whopping 15% higher AOV.


When it comes to holiday marketing strategies, Reddit can boost key traffic AND sales stats. If you’re looking for incremental revenue this holiday season and have historically relied on visual-heavy platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, we recommend testing on Reddit to see how you can connect with your audience in a new and authentic way. 


BONUS: YouTube Dynamic Lineups

YouTube continues to grow its ad creative and targeting capabilities on Google’s exploding digital video platform. They premiered Dynamic Lineups in 2020 to combine relevant content and customized audiences with placement automation. Powered by advanced contextual targeting, dynamic lineups find the optimal videos for your ads to run during, based on your chosen audience and overall brand sentiment. 

YouTube Dynamic Lineups Example: If you're a fitness apparel brand whose YouTube video ads focus on exercising, you can use dynamic lineups to show your ads in videos relevant to your business. These lineups may include videos of sporting events, competition shows, and health and wellness documentaries

Having the perfect commercial play during your favorite show is an ideal connection and conversion point in the digital video space. Add Dynamic Lineups into your holiday mix to successfully find new customers where they already are — watching organic YouTube videos relevant to your brand, product, or service.


Sophisticated Cross-Channel Marketing

We know customers don’t stay exclusively on social media while venturing around the internet. Successful marketers need to be able to quickly view and optimize cross-channel data in order to make the most of this holiday season. That’s where Connex® comes in. Rise Interactive’s proprietary, media optimization platform integrates your data from separate platforms and provides cross-channel optimizations, all in one place. It’s a one stop shop, ready to spread joy-filled results throughout the most wonderful time of the year. 

This holiday season is now yours to take if you approach it with a data-driven strategy and agility. For more information or to learn how an agency partner can turn these insights into revenue, reach out to Rise.

11/08/2022 at 10:27