With the midterm elections coinciding with the start of the holiday shopping season, brands and marketers can expect one guarantee in Q4 of 2022: pricey paid media inventories. Luckily, several solutions will keep your budgets manageable while ensuring good performance — here are three to get you started.

1. Plan as far in advance ASAP

When you’re deep in the weeds of day-to-day campaign management, preparing for the months ahead can seem impossible — but this early planning will be a massive game-changer once November arrives. When you have your creative, ad builds, and promotions lined up in advance, you can avoid expensive, last-minute paid media buys and enjoy more optimization opportunities to save on wasted resources.

If you haven’t already, start reviewing the performance of last year’s holiday campaigns. Which products drove the most sales? Which were your most profitable channels? What type of messaging captured the most attention? Once you’ve nailed a winning holiday campaign concept, get your ads produced and paid media mix finalized as early as possible.

2. Target last year’s customers

Acquisition is significantly more expensive than retention, so if it makes sense for your brand and products, consider leveraging your existing customers.

While email is a go-to remarketing tactic, you can also use your first-party data to build custom audiences for display, social media, search, and even OTT ads delivered on televisions. By targeting customers already familiar with your brand, you’ll save on the budget you’d otherwise spend attracting and educating broad audiences.

Want to take it a step further? Use purchase history and shopping behaviors to create more detailed audience segments, which you can then craft more relevant ads for. After all, one of the best ways to boost ROI is by designing more targeted ads.

Pro tip: Try to acknowledge and reward existing customers for their loyalty, whether through exclusive promotions or early access to doorbuster deals — it’ll go a long way in grabbing attention and encouraging a click.

3. Diversify your strategy with additional channels

Two of the many benefits of staying abreast of trending new channels are better cost-effectiveness and higher engagement rates compared to established advertising mainstays. An example is Facebook vs. TikTok — in 2021, the former’s daily active users grew by less than 2% and the latter’s by 45%. Despite its popularity and heavy investment in new ad capabilities, TikTok is still significantly less brand and ad saturated than its older counterparts.

Beyond platforms like TikTok, you can also diversify your paid media mix with affordable alternatives like these:

• Out-of-home (OOH) ads. With consumers returning to their normal, pre-pandemic holiday routines, there may be less screen time (and impressions), but alternatively, more opportunities to reach them in the real world.
• Podcast ads. Audio content is booming, with over a third of all Americans tuning in to podcasts regularly. As the medium continues to grow, podcast ads are a way to reach this growing audience.
• Over-the-top (OTT) streaming ads. Cheaper than traditional TV ads while still allowing you to reach a similar audience, OTT ads are perfect for brands looking to expand their reach on a budget.

Ultimately, to negotiate and unlock the best advertising rates, you’ll want to partner with an advertising agency that has established relationships with media vendors.

Get in touch with us today to learn more about how we can help you achieve meaningful results without having to ramp up your existing paid media budget this holiday season.