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I N D E X03 INTRODUCTION

04 PURCHASE BEHAVIOR

05 THE MOST SOCIAL SHOPPING SEASON EVER

06 WHEN ARE PEOPLE SHOPPING? Making the Most of this Shorter Shopping Window

07 CONNECTING TO THE CONSUMER MINDSET

08 ADVERTISING AT EVERY STAGE OF THE PURCHASE FUNNEL Awareness Evaluation Conversion Loyalty

12 FIND SHOPPERS MOST SIMILAR TO YOUR LOYAL CUSTOMERS

13 SPEND MORE EFFECTIVELY WITH AUTOMATION

14 CONCLUSION

S U M M A R YThis year, nearly $650 billion in holiday revenue will be up for grabs, with social media playing a larger role than ever to influence what people decide to purchase, and with whom to do their shopping. To help you drive your sales home for the holidays, we’re excited to present the best practices you need to know to master your seasonal Facebook advertising campaigns.

HOLIDAY ADVERTISING ON FACEBOOKthe 2014 ultimate guide to

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INTRODUCTION

The 2014 holiday shopping season will consist of 26 days spanning from Black Friday to Christmas, just one more day than last year and 5 fewer than 2012. Yet, retailers are raking in more revenue than ever online, with almost 20% of annual sales occurring during this time of year.

In 2013, total holiday season sales rang in at $601.1 billion, and holiday commerce isn’t slowing anytime soon. Some experts are already predicting that 2014 spending will increase more than 8% from 2013 - That’s nearly $650 billion in 2014 holiday revenue.

A larger percentage of these sales than ever of was driven by online spending, as $46.5 billion of 2013 holiday revenue was the result of e-commerce.

HOLIDAY ADVERTISING ON FACEBOOKthe 2014 ultimate guide to

According to ComScore:

• Between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday, there were 33% more purchases made on leading retailers’ websites.

• Average Order Value (AOV) grew from 2012 - 2013, increasing by 13.96% to roughly $166.

• Smartphone and tablet-based sales alone raked in over $675 million on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

While these stats promise sizable revenue in 2014, the number of retailers fighting for a piece of the pie is increasing at an equally rapid pace, leaving many to wonder:

How can retailers earn their fair share of overall holiday revenue in 2014?

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PURCHASE BEHAVIOR

While spending habits vary by demographic, geographic, and a number of other factors, majority of consumers are doing some portion of their shopping online.

In 2013, online holiday sales saw significant increases across a broad range of product categories. In large part, this is not because there were significantly more people shopping online, but because shoppers are buying more online, across more verticals.

HOLIDAY ADVERTISING ON FACEBOOKthe 2014 ultimate guide to

Using social shopping behavior as one example, we can see how consumers are open to buying a wide variety of categories through digital channels. According to Shopify, an e-commerce software provider, the percentage of social orders originating from Facebook are highest for the following categories:

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THE MOST SOCIAL SHOPPING SEASON EVER

Retailers can expect an even greater portion of holiday purchases in 2014 to be influenced by social media. While the number of active social network users is increasing, it’s the evolution of the platforms themselves that is leading this e-commerce trend. Simply put, the advent of more sophisticated targeting options, and simplified purchase flows is making it easier than ever for advertisers to find audiences and drive them to buy.

A study presented by eMarketer found that, when compared to brand/retailer websites, search engines, and printable coupons, social media was more likely to influence users to buy products they’d never bought before, spur unplanned purchases, and

HOLIDAY ADVERTISING ON FACEBOOKthe 2014 ultimate guide to

spend more than intended. Specifically, around the holidays Nielsen projects that nearly half of shoppers get information about Cyber Monday sales through social media.

And among these influential sites, findings suggest Facebook is used more than twice as much as the next leading platform, by users who are intending to make purchase decisions.

With socially influenced spending on the rise, it comes as little surprise that competition for attention in the Feed is becoming a hot commodity. To find and activate users, marketers need to not only create compelling content, but also present it in a context that drives results.

YOUR NAME YOUR NAME YOUR NAMEYOUR NAME YOUR NAME

FACEBOOK ACCOUNTS FOR 55.18% OF UPSTREAM TRAFFIC FROM SOCIAL SITES TO RETAILERS

ON FACEBOOK, NEARLY A THIRD (30%) OF USERS HAVE PURCHASED AN ITEM IN STORE

AFTER SHARING OR LIKING IT

AND 28% HAVE PURCHASED AN ITEM ONLINE AFTER SHARING OR LIKING IT

FACEBOOK BOASTS AN AVERAGE ORDER VALUE OF $102.59

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MAKING THE MOST OF THIS SHORTER SHOPPING WINDOW

With fewer key shopping days, many advertisers believe they can run one continuous advertising campaign on Facebook all season long, however not all holiday advertising should be approached with the same mindset. As purchase frequency and channel ebbs and flows, the types of campaigns you run should also shift.

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HOLIDAY ADVERTISING ON FACEBOOKthe 2014 ultimate guide to

WHEN ARE PEOPLE BUYING?There’s little doubt that Black Friday and Cyber Monday will continue to ring in record sales this year. However, the online sales push that was once comprised of short 24 hour frenzies, has become a week-long phenomenon. In 2013, 10 days surpassed $1B in spending for desktop shoppers, transforming Cyber Monday into Cyber Week.

The best performing days for desktop sales in 2013 were:

Leading UpAs Thanksgiving approaches, plan the launch of an always-on strategy to create early awareness. Address holiday entertaining, encourage people to shop early, and establish top-line holiday messaging.

Thanksgiving & Black FridayThe turkey may be on the table, but your team should be in the social media war room. Major shopping days are unpredictable, so have staff at the ready to address potential issues and opportunities.

Black Friday Through The HolidaysRevert back to an always-on ad strategy to continually promote sales and products. Online shopping tends to peak on weekdays, while in-store shopping is higher on weekends - tweak ad creative, timing, and budgeting accordingly.

After The Holidays It’s easy to throw in the towel after the holidays are done, but remember that roughly 3 out of 5 people receive holiday gift cards. Keep campaigns rolling after the holidays to target these late spenders.

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CONNECTING TO THE CONSUMER MINDSET

Consider the following when crafting the copy and images for your holiday campaign:

Free shipping and online-only discounts are a big motivator for shoppers considering whether or not to buy online (increasing purchase intent by 68% and

58% respectively). Offer exclusive deals using Facebook only promotions, or sales that

require a special check-out code.

Think of who’s seeing your post, and in what context. Just as stores hang lights

and candy canes, your content should be dressed in it’s “holidays finest.” Include

images that mirror seasonal mindset, weather, activities, etc.

The holidays are an overwhelming time. Group products in a way that makes it

easy for shoppers to digest your content. For example, “Gifts for her,” “Steals under

$15,” and “Seasonal Sweaters” provide a lot of context in a few words.

Just as brands are rushing to sell, people are often anxious about getting the best

deal before a product is sold out. Create a sense of urgency by telling users when

sales end, or saying, “while supplies last”.

The holidays are about more than gifts. Focus on the special moments people want

to create as they entertain and spend time with family and friends. Use language that

focuses on “giving” not “buying.”

1. For every $10k of spend, have at least 4 ad creative variations2. For link, photo, and app posts, restrict message copy to 90 characters max3. For link and mobile ads, images should be 1200 x 627px, and for

photo ads, 1200 x 900px4. The aspect ratio for link, photo, and mobile ads is 1.91:1

HOLIDAY ADVERTISING ON FACEBOOKthe 2014 ultimate guide to

EXCLUSIVE OFFERS

CONTEXT

SKIMMABLE CONTENT

URGENCY

EMOTIONAL APPEAL

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NUMBERS TO KNOW

ADVERTISING AT EVERY STAGE OF THE PURCHASE FUNNEL

Properly targeted Facebook posts can be used to find and engage potential holiday shoppers at every stage of the purchase funnel. Vary your campaign by post type and targeting to find the right audience at any stage of the buyer’s journey.

AWARENESS

Don’t wait for Black Friday to start advertising. As key dates approach, set the stage for your larger advertising campaigns. During this time, establish your holiday messaging and test the water to see which products potential customers are engaging with most.

Many retailers choose to begin their holiday efforts by building brand familiarity and trust. On Facebook, this effort is usually measured by an advertiser’s ability to serve a high volume of ad impressions at a low cost, while maintaining the most relevant audience possible. Luckily for retailers, it’s easy to make ad impressions count on Facebook, as the platform houses millions of the holiday season’s top spenders.

HOLIDAY ADVERTISING ON FACEBOOKthe 2014 ultimate guide to

AWARENESS

EVALUATION

CONVERSION

LOYALTY

Just who are these people?

• People with children in their household are 60% more likely than those without children in their household to make a purchase based on a friend’s social media post.

• People ages 18-34 are 70% more likely than those ages 45-55 years old, and 113% more likely than those 55-64 to purchase based on friends’ social media posts.

• Women are 40% more likely than men to purchase a product/services based on a social media post.

Create awareness with any of these demographics using ads across any placement, paired with CPM or oCPM bidding.

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EVALUATION

When focusing on consumer consideration, long-term ROI is determined by an advertisers ability to narrow down Facebook’s 1.3 billion active users to isolate highly-engaged segments of people. To do so, focus efforts on interest and behavioral targeting.

INTEREST TARGETINGInterest targeting can vary greatly in depth and detail, depending on whether a campaign is centered on specific products, or a retailer as a whole.

• For ads that promote specific products, find keywords that align contextually with the featured item.

• For general brand engagement, focus instead on the consumer, choosing keywords that describe your ideal shopper.

HOLIDAY ADVERTISING ON FACEBOOKthe 2014 ultimate guide to

BEHAVIORAL TARGETINGUsing information from third party data providers, isolate the specific in-store and online behaviors pertinent to your brand. For example, holiday retailers may want to focus on the following categories, available through third-party data partners:

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travel

CONVERSION

While awareness and consideration are both valuable in building consumer relationships and interest, direct response advertising is the most direct path to measurable ROI on Facebook. Using Facebook’s advanced re-marketing options, Facebook Exchange or Website Custom Audience (WCA) retargeting, advertisers can identify users who have entered the evaluation phase and ease them further down the sales funnel.

Although online traffic to websites is increasing, there’s still a considerable disconnect between site traffic and on-site

HOLIDAY ADVERTISING ON FACEBOOKthe 2014 ultimate guide to

conversions. Cart abandonment remains one of the biggest hurdles for retailers online, as 77% of shopping carts are ditched before customers make a purchase. Additionally, bounce rate has risen consistently since 2011, now averaging out to 33% on retail sites.

When re-marketing with Website CustomAudiences, focus on varying your targetingto capture people throughout their onlineshopping experience. Advertisers can createup to 250 rules when placing re-marketingpixels on their website, so don’t resign your efforts to capturing users who land on one specific page or take one specific action.

C A S E S T U D Y

To help a luxury retailer drive checkouts at a more efficient CPA, Brand Networks adjusted campaign targeting from a focus on interest/behavioral targeting, to one that

utilized Website Custom Audiences retargeting.

By targeting users who had already made a purchase on the retailer’s site, BN was able to considerably increase the conversion rate from 0.32% to 2.17%, while decreasing CPA from over $204 to just above $26. Average order value for this

campaign rung in at around $200, providing considerable ROI on the retailer’s media efforts.

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Mobile traffic accounted for nearly 40% of Black Friday online traffic last year, an increase of 89.46% since 2012. Similarly, on Cyber Monday mobile traffic jumped 53.19%.

Revenue from shoppers on tablets increased 152.68% YoY. This is followed closely by smartphones at 108.58% and desktops and laptops at 33.54% respectively.

While targeting actions exclusively on the check-out page of a site can be temping, advertisers should remarket to users throughout their entire shopping experience. Place separate pixels on the landing page for each product vertical you offer (electronics, apparel, toys, etc.), in addition to the general check-out page.

Targeting users from these landing pages

HOLIDAY ADVERTISING ON FACEBOOKthe 2014 ultimate guide to

also helps capture shoppers who may be browsing with the intent to purchase in-store, helping you to encourage those future actions.

Don’t just set and forget WCA campaigns. Remember to update creative regularly. The more traffic your ads are seeing, the more often your copy and images should be refreshed. To start with, consider swapping out creative every two weeks.

If you choose to target these users, be sure your shopping experience is optimized for mobile.

Target ads to users who have a signal strength of at least 3G to ward off frustratingly long load times and poor overall user experiences.

DON’T FORGET ABOUT FACEBOOK’S 650M ACTIVE MOBILE USERS

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LOYALTY

How retailers interact with customersafter they have made a purchase is just as important as how they interact with them before. Re-engage your most valuable customers with Custom Audiences to drive repeat business and brand loyalty.

For holiday campaigns, create audiences using internal data like:

CRM Databases

Coupon Distribution Lists

Loyalty Card Users

Email Recipients

Historical Sales Data

HOLIDAY ADVERTISING ON FACEBOOKthe 2014 ultimate guide to

When using Custom Audiences, be sure to re-pull data as close to the start of your campaign as possible to ensure user information is up-to-date.

FIND SHOPPERS MOST SIMILAR TO YOUR LOYAL CUSTOMERS

Although Custom Audiences are extremely powerful, they’re also limited in size. Using lookalike audiences, marketers can increase their reach, while maintaining the relevance of the users seeing their ads. Using 1st party data in conjunction with Facebook self-identified data, marketers can find users similar to any Custom Audience or Website Custom Audience.

• When creating lookalike audiences for specific category pages (apparel, electronics, toys, etc.) select a larger percentage of similar users (5-10%) and layer on behavior and interest targeting to refine your user-base.

• Be prepared to test different lookalike audience sizes. Begin by creating audiences with similar to the top 1, 2, 5, and 10% of your root audience.

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SPEND MORE EFFECTIVELY WITH AUTOMATION

Holiday shopping habits are predictable to a large degree. We know what days people spend money and what types of products they’ll likely buy. But, as calculable as the holidays are, there are some things that marketers cannot foresee.

Turn predictable consumer behaviors and potential road bumps into opportunities with programmatic advertising. Using our award winning Open Signals API advertisers can apply real-time and historic data from a wide range of sources to trigger, target and automate social media ads in real-time. During the holiday’s this enables brands to leverage factors like:

MANAGE INVENTORY Make the laws of supply and demand work in your

favor by using store inventory levels to trigger ads.

SurplusYou hedged some pretty big bets on this years

“hottest” toy, and now your shelves are stocked

and it’s not selling. Trigger an ad that shows mom

what she’s missing.

ShortageWho’d have thought a new blender model would be

so hot! Trigger ads to show eager shoppers which

stores still have them in stock.

HOLIDAY ADVERTISING ON FACEBOOKthe 2014 ultimate guide to

BOOST IN-STORE TRAFFICAre some stores drawing larger crowds than others?

Using historical data, compare YoY store traffic to

heavy up media spend in the markets, cities, or

individual stores that need help attracting visitors.

Geo-targetFor retailers who maintain a single Page on Facebook,

use geo-targeted Unpublished Page Posts to scale

messaging by market.

Individual StoresFor retailers with multiple store Pages, set ads to

trigger for specific stores.

INTEGRATE WITH OTHER MARKETING TACTICSSync other advertising silos with your social efforts.

Email ActionsWhenever a user receives, opens, or clicks an email

- serve them an ad that mirrors the content they just

saw to double down on message exposure.

Circular DistributionCreate unpublished page posts that mirror regional

circulars, promoted to heads of households during

the days following circular distribution.

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In just 26 days, consumers across America are predicted to spend almost $650 billion. Don’t let your lack of social media prowess leave you out in the cold.

The first step to creating a effective holiday campaign on Facebook is understanding exactly who it is you should be talking to on the platform. From there, success lies in crafting compelling content, then targeting those posts to the correct audiences, at the right time.

Planning and executing a first-rate holiday advertising campaign on Facebook can still be a tall task for even the most experienced of marketers. While we may not have a workshop of elves, our software and services can help make the holidays happier for you and your brand with data-informed campaign planning and execution, increased workflow efficiency, and greater holiday ROI.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT US AT:

bn.co/contact | info@bn.co