Build broad brand awareness with Facebook campaigns
When activating campaigns on Facebook, start by advertising 1–2 months before the first day of the campaign period. Begin by creating broad awareness and then sharpen your focus towards more specific offers and product highlights as the start of the campaign period approaches. This creates a narrative thread that sustains consumer interest over time.
To drive high engagement, consider integrating live streaming and polls into your brand messaging, which can be followed up with more sales-driven messages on the actual sales day(s).
Capture attention with Instagram campaigns
Just as on Facebook, it is essential to activate ads on Instagram well in advance. Start by creating broad awareness and gradually tighten your focus towards more detailed offers and product highlights as you approach the start of the campaign period. This helps build sustained brand awareness that engages followers over time.
Leverage the platform's formats
Incorporate interactive formats such as Stories and Live videos to boost engagement. As the campaign period draws closer, you can use formats like Shopping Posts and Highlights to drive direct sales. This creates a smooth transition from engagement to purchase decision.
Inspire with Pinterest campaigns
Leading up to seasons and holidays, the number of searches on Pinterest increases significantly, making it an interesting platform to utilise during precisely these periods. Pinterest appeals to users seeking inspiration and ideas for everything from home décor and fashion to cooking and travel. With its visual nature and ability to function as a virtual pinboard, Pinterest is ideal for long-term planning campaigns. Users on Pinterest are often in the early stages of the buying process, making it an optimal channel for building awareness and influencing potential buyers' decisions early on.
When should you get started?
To fully leverage Pinterest's potential, we recommend activating ads at least two months before the start of the campaign period — and ideally even earlier. This gives users time to discover and save pins related to your products, which can increase the chances of conversion as the first day of the campaign period approaches. Ads should focus on inspirational content that motivates users to make a purchase.
Reach the younger audience with TikTok campaigns
TikTok has quickly established itself as a platform that favours creative and engaging content with particular appeal to younger audiences. With a unique blend of short video formats and an algorithm that prioritises virality and user engagement, TikTok is the ideal place for brands to launch eye-catching campaigns — especially with a focus on brand awareness.
When should you get started?
To maximise the impact of TikTok in the lead-up to major campaign periods, we recommend activating ads no later than one month before the start date. This timeframe provides sufficient room to leverage the platform's viral nature and ensures that content has time to achieve maximum reach and interaction.
Adapt your content
It is important to tailor content to the trends and soundtracks that are popular on the platform in order to improve the chances of viral success. Brands should consider collaborating with influencers who already have an established audience on the platform, which can give campaigns an additional boost.
Integrate your social media campaigns into the marketing mix
To achieve a cohesive and effective campaign effort, it is essential that you think of your ads as part of an integrated marketing mix. Cross-platform strategies create synergy across different media channels, where each individual medium plays a specific role based on its strengths and the target audience's preferences.
Consider the different touchpoints in the customer journey
The biggest mistake many make is thinking of the customer journey in isolation within a single channel. That way of thinking rarely reflects reality. Data shows that customers go through multiple touchpoints before deciding to buy — especially during major campaign periods.
Think carefully about how you want to shape your presence towards those who have engaged with you on social media but have not yet purchased:
- Where do they go next?
- Are you present there, and with what messages?
In answering these questions, the various channels can contribute to reaching your audience at different points in the customer journey:
- For example, you can launch eye-catching visual content on TikTok to capture the attention of a younger audience. Once users have engaged with the content on TikTok and visited the webshop, data from this interaction can be used to retarget those same users with shopping ads on Instagram. By combining TikTok's ability to generate viral interest with Instagram's powerful shopping features, a streamlined path from interest to purchase is created.
- Another example is using Pinterest to inspire consumers early on through planning-related pins. Once users interact with content on Pinterest and have visited the webshop, data from these interactions can be used to target them across other platforms such as Google, Facebook or Instagram. Here, the audience can be presented with more direct purchase-related messages that bridge the gap between inspiration and buying decision.
Implementing cross-platform strategies not only improves overall reach, but also the effectiveness of each touchpoint. By presenting a consistent brand message across different platforms, a stronger brand identity and a more cohesive user experience are built. The integrated approach is the key to unlocking the full potential of your social media campaigns and ensuring that your target audience is engaged and ready to act when the campaign days arrive.
Get the maximum out of your budget
During e-commerce peak periods such as Black Friday, Black Week, Cyber Monday, the Christmas sales period or other peak times, competition increases significantly, which is reflected in both the number of ads on social media and the costs associated with them — particularly cost per click. Here is how you can navigate these challenges effectively:
- Advance budget planning: During periods of high competition, cost per click can rise considerably, meaning it may become expensive to achieve the same volume of traffic as in the off-season. It is therefore important to plan your budgets with this increased cost in mind, so you can maintain visibility without exceeding your budgets.
- Dynamic bidding strategy: Use advanced bidding strategies that automatically adjust bids based on real-time performance and market conditions. Tools such as Google Ads and Facebook's automated bidding systems can help optimise ad spend by adjusting bids to match targets for cost per acquisition (CPA) or return on ad spend (ROAS), even when prices fluctuate.
- Early and creative intervention: Start your campaigns early to build awareness and engagement before noise levels reach their peak. Also think carefully about creative and engaging content strategies to stand out from the crowd and achieve greater reach for your money.
- Segmentation and targeting: Use advanced targeting to reach the most relevant and valuable customer segments. This ensures that your marketing efforts are focused on the users most likely to convert, which can improve both efficiency and ROI during competitive periods.
- Permission collection: Consider starting early to collect permissions to send emails or recruit members to customer clubs. By focusing early campaigns on obtaining permissions, you create an effective connection between your social media and your own channels such as email and SMS. This allows you to build an audience that is not only cost-effective to reach, but also effective to engage on the actual sales day.
- Focus on cross-channel: Coordinate your efforts across all channels. This includes synchronising messages and campaigns between paid search, social media, email marketing and other digital channels. A harmonised approach ensures a consistent and comprehensive marketing effort that can increase your overall visibility and effectiveness.
- Intensive monitoring and adjustment: During major shopping events such as Black Friday, ad budgets can be depleted quickly due to increased competition and higher cost per click. It is crucial to have a clear plan for ongoing monitoring and flexible adjustment of your campaigns. Make sure to set automatic alerts for budget spend and price changes so you can react before they negatively impact your campaign. Prioritise your efforts and be prepared to reallocate resources quickly if market conditions require it.
Plan well in advance
Regardless of platform, it is essential to have a clear plan for content production, ad optimisation and targeting well before the campaign period begins. This includes having a detailed content calendar, budget allocation and a plan for measuring and adjusting campaigns based on real-time data.
In this way, you ensure that your social media campaigns are well-planned, targeted and optimised to achieve maximum impact leading up to and during the key campaign periods. This proactive approach enables you to better engage your target audience with the right messages at exactly the right time and place — leading to higher engagement, better conversion rates and ultimately greater sales success.
