The 2024 holiday season has kicked off with a bang, as retailers waste no time in launching their Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions earlier than ever. With shifts in consumer behavior and the ever-expanding landscape of emerging platforms like CTV, marketers face a myriad of challenges in executing their holiday strategies effectively.
Throughout the past year, YouTube has remained a cornerstone of media buyer strategies, offering a versatile platform to drive full-funnel performance and achieve business objectives. Recently, the video streaming behemoth introduced video action campaigns for TV Screens, an updated ad format finely tuned for direct response marketers seeking to engage consumers via the primary screen in households.
While social commerce continues its ascent in the U.S., with eMarketer projecting sales to soar to $79.64 million by 2025, YouTube’s latest move underscores its commitment to innovation and providing marketers with cutting-edge solutions across the marketing funnel.
As the holiday frenzy ensues, YouTube remains a vital component of any marketer’s seasonal playbook, attracting audiences in droves. According to eMarketer, YouTube’s U.S. viewership is poised to surge by 4.4% in 2021, reaching 223.5 million viewers, with a significant portion tuning in via TV screens.
In light of these trends, integrating YouTube into holiday marketing strategies is paramount, ensuring brands can capitalize on the platform’s expansive reach and engaged audience base. With viewers increasingly embracing YouTube as a go-to destination for entertainment and information, savvy marketers stand to leverage its potential to drive impactful results throughout the festive season and beyond.
Here are three best practices that marketers must keep in mind to maximize results on YouTube this holiday season:
- Stay Agile With Ad Formats
As Q4 gains momentum, it’s crucial to reassess your ad formats to avoid a potential performance downturn during this bustling time of year. Focus exclusively on ad formats that directly align with your business goals and objectives, while also fine-tuning your bid strategies and adjusting expectations accordingly.
For instance, the cost of Discovery ads has been on the rise annually. We advise against deploying this ad format unless your specific aim is to bolster brand consideration, boost subscriber numbers, enhance content sharing, encourage viewers to watch additional videos, or foster incremental engagement on your YouTube channel. If your objectives differ, exploring alternative ad formats may yield more favorable outcomes for your strategy.
- Test, Test, And Test Again
Embrace creativity! During the holiday rush, exploring new creative strategies and targeting tactics can yield significant dividends. Here are some tactics that have recently proven successful for us and are worth exploring to determine their suitability for your strategy:
- Consider loosening frequency caps for short campaign flights or compelling promotions/offers to ensure your ads have ample exposure to your target audience.
- Broaden your targeting tactics and contemplate utilizing audience expansion to extend your reach and connect with your audience on a larger scale.
- Test shorter creative assets whenever possible to optimize efficiency, as longer assets have been observed to potentially inflate CPVs and CPMs.
- Experiment with various bidding strategies; for instance, explore CPM bidding with TrueView for Reach ads to potentially lower overall CPMs, or contemplate transitioning from Maximize Conversions bidding to Target CPA bidding with Video Action Campaigns to drive more cost-effective actions.
- Tap into Q5 Potential
Also known as the “hidden quarter,” Q5 is the period immediately following Christmas until about mid-January, when people are on vacation or slowly returning back to work. This is the best time to utilize any remaining annual budget while ramping up your Q1 planning. We typically see a drop in CPMs between December 19th and January 10th. While many advertisers slow their spend down around New Year’s Eve, it’s in fact an optimal time to take advantage of lower costs, and after all, audiences are still watching YouTube.
Interested in delving deeper into YouTube best practices? Reach out to us – we’re eager to connect with you and guide you through VuePlanner’s strategy for driving actionable results on YouTube and Connected TV during the holiday advertising season. Let’s start a conversation!