Top 5 Ways To Leverage CPA Campaigns During The Holiday Shopping Season by Amber Paul, DMS Senior Vice President of Distribution, October 19, 2022 The holiday rush is almost here! Are your campaigns ready? The holiday season is highly competitive, and getting the edge on the competition with CPA campaigns can help scale engagement and revenue. Ecommerce is forecasted to grow by “12.8% to 14.3%, year-over-year, during the 2022-2023 holiday season,” according to Deloitte, “reaching between $260 billion and $264 billion this season.” To make sure you are capitalizing on a brief window of opportunity, it’s important to hit the ground running by leveraging unique, fun, and effective creative and messaging, testing ahead of the major shopping holidays, and adopting audience-friendly trends when they are right for your brand. Position your campaigns for success during the holiday season by following the following five best practices. #1. Holiday Campaigns Should Be Tested And Ready To Go Ahead Of The Holiday Rush Just like personal holiday to-do lists, the sooner you start preparing, the more successful you’ll be. It’s essential to have your campaigns tested and ready to go in time for the holiday season so you’re ready for increased holiday traffic. You want to stay in front of the user with your campaigns, and should have testing and audience targeting (including messaging, creative and choosing the most effective platforms) completed by the end of October, so you’re ready to hit the next 6-8 weeks at full speed. #2. Creative And Content For Holiday Campaigns Should Be Compelling, Unique, And Appeal To Your Audiences At The Right Place And Time Content and creative are key. Make sure your holiday campaigns are unique – don’t just send out the same ads that you normally do. For example, holiday ads should create urgency with holiday-specific promo codes, connection with holiday imagery, and clarity with clear CTAs. A browsing shopper should be both excited to make a purchase and easily able to click through and convert. One size doesn’t fit all, so it’s important to also consider the channel, platform, and audience when designing creative. Additionally, it’s important to understand when certain creative content is most appealing. “Not all messaging throughout the holiday season is equal. In early November, you’re not going to want to do Christmas blowouts. But the last couple weeks before Christmas, you’re going to want to dial it up a little bit, and maybe the week before Christmas, you’re going to want to go all in. It’s literally the World Series of eCommerce, so bigger discounts, bigger promotions, and making sure the messaging and creative is really compelling,” explained Chris Pink, SVP of Sales at DMS. #3. Lean Into Trending Consumer Outreach Methods, While Still Optimizing Proven Channels The competition is fierce during the holiday season, so it’s important to stand out across platforms. When planning campaigns, consider outreach methods and channels, like video, that are capturing consumer attention, and you may be able to attract new customers and reach different audiences when and where they are shopping. And remember, video is more than just TikTok. Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram are major players during the holiday season and all year long. While emerging and trending digital channels are great, email is essential and reliable. It offers the opportunity for you to personalize your message for potential customers, re-engage prior shoppers and gain the attention of shoppers who are scrolling through their email looking for holiday deals. (Don’t forget to optimize your subject lines with time-sensitive offers, promotions, emojis, and discounts.) SMS, push and native content should also be considered, tested, and leveraged for the right campaigns at the right time. #4. CPA Campaigns Can Save You Money And Offer Predictable, Scaleable Results With CPA campaigns, you only pay for the results you want, and you don’t waste money hoping for results that never materialize. During the holidays, a CPA campaign can drive predictable outcomes, and with a partner like DMS, advertisers and publishers are able to monetize and maximize their results during the holiday season. “CPA campaigns are reliable and predictable compared to going out there with media spend with no real guarantee of generating sales. It’s a no-brainer. Even if you spend more during the busiest time of the season, it’s always going to be better than if you’re just going out there spending your own ad dollars,” explained Pink. #5. Roll Right Into Q1 Enthusiastically! Keep Momentum Up While Inventory Is Less Expensive Be prepared for post-holiday shoppers and opportunities in January. By hitting the ground running in Q1, you can capture new audiences, re-engage your holiday shoppers and save money since inventory can be much cheaper after the holidays. Tailored, “treat yourself” messaging heading into the new year, or creative that’s focused on resolutions and wellness, tend to resonate with audiences. Additionally, by partnering with DMS, your CPA campaigns can roll right from Q4 into the new year, be refreshed for relevancy, and continue to be effective, reaching audiences ready to buy. Want to learn more? Watch this DMS Live session, DMS Live: Setting Yourself Up For Success This Holiday Season With CPA Campaigns, featuring Amber Paul, DMS SVP of Distribution, and Chris Pink, DMS SVP of Sales. Seeking New Ways To Maximize Your Customer Acquisition Efforts This Holiday Season? Digital Media Solutions ®️ is ready to help you find new digital performance advertising solutions to scale success. DMS creates people-based advertising campaigns, leveraging our first-party data asset, proprietary technology, and expansive media reach to define and engage highly targeted audiences, attracting the consumers with the greatest likelihood to convert. Contact DMS today! Are You A Publisher Looking To Maximize Monetization Efforts For The Holiday Season And Beyond? The team at DMS is committed to the success of our publishers. From the simple touches, like being there when you need us, to more strategic support, we build relationships with our publishers and advertisers so we can align needs and deliver both audiences what they need to achieve their goals. Contact DMS today to learn how you can become a preferred publisher. Already Work With DMS? We’d love for you to take a moment to cast your vote for us as your favorite CPA network. Vote here! Filed under: Analytics, Article, Blue Book, Featured Tagged under: DMS About the Author Amber Paul, DMS Senior Vice President of Distribution Combining an entrepreneurial spirit with a well-versed affiliate marketing background, Amber Paul has established herself as an industry veteran in the digital marketing space. With her dynamic skillset – from marketing strategy development to customer acquisition and branding solutions to B2B marketing – Amber has spent more than a decade matching branded, high-performing offers, delivering quality traffic to elite advertisers, and maximizing ROI for customers and campaigns. She has delivered consistent results through each role she entered, including Vice President and partner of AKMG, Inc., GlobalWide Media (acquirer of AKMG), and Union Square Media Group. Bringing her passion and vision to Digital Media Solutions (DMS), Amber is the Senior Vice President of Distribution, where she intelligently distributes marketing campaigns through an expansive network of publishers across multiple online channels, while providing the technology, testing, analytics, process, experience, and people-power to help brands achieve their campaign goals profitably.