With Christmas fast approaching and Black Friday/Cyber Monday only a couple of weeks away, there’s a good chance that marketing departments across the world are now busier than ever. Between setting up campaigns, creating audiences, and getting your creative just right, you want to do as much as possible during this time to make the most of the increased demand for goods over the holiday season. But while you may be prepared for the Christmas rush, have you prepared anything for the post-Christmas period?
For many reasons, the post-Christmas period (from December 26th to early January) can be an opportune time for brands. In particular, this year, when global supply chain issues will mean not everyone will be able to buy the presents they need in time for Christmas, we can assume that the Christmas shopping period will stretch beyond December 25th. Here are a few reasons why you should have campaigns set up for the post-Christmas period.
While the holiday period can be quite a strain on us financially, whether it’s buying presents for loved ones, going out for food with friends, or heading on a day out with family, the theme of the holidays seems to be “spend, spend, spend.” However, this doesn’t mean that people have no money left after Christmas.
With the increasing popularity of Christmas sales over the last decade, people are putting aside more and more to spend on themselves after Christmas. People who avoided self-spending over the Christmas period to budget appropriately for presents and other expenses are now using their Christmas bonuses and paychecks to treat themselves. In addition, people who have been given gift vouchers or cash as presents will be looking for a place to spend those as well.
The time between Christmas and New Year can often seem like a bit of a blur. It’s a time without any real structure and where, unless you regularly check your calendar, you wouldn’t be able to tell what day of the week it is. Without work or other commitments, many of us use this time to relax and do, well — nothing. During this down period, a lot of time will be spent scrolling through our phones and other digital devices.
The nice thing about this is that your ads now have more opportunities to reach more people in more ways. According to one survey, people will spend up to 49 minutes a day “scrolling” on devices and up 49 minutes a day “using tablets.” Also added to this will be those who have gotten new phones, tablets, or laptops as presents.
While the run up to Christmas is a great time to advertise to make the most of increased demand, it can also be quite a costly time. With more and more brands online vying to get you to buy their goods in time for Christmas, this leads to increased competition for ad space in the ad auction, which leads to increased CPCs and CPMs online. In fact, CPCs and CPMs are at their most expensive in November and December, especially if you are trying to get new users to your site.
Brands will spend less on advertising as we enter post-Christmas, so CPCs and CPMs will drop dramatically. This means that during this time, more people will see your ads for much lower costs leading to increased gains from your marketing efforts.
As you are making the last touches to your Black Friday and Christmas campaigns to make sure that you are set up for success, also make sure that you have some marketing efforts set up for the post-Christmas period. This way, you can avail of this period's unique opportunities, including low costs, high demands, and an increase in ways to reach new customers.
Last updated on November 5th, 2021.