Joshua Dreller
Sr. Director, Content Marketing @ Skai
Welcome, Marketers! Every year around this time, each of our publisher partners provides internal research with helpful data & tips that can shed some light on some of the forces and factors that might come into play during the all-important fourth quarter. This post is part of a Skai 2021 holidays series that shares these publisher insights to help you make any last-minute adjustments to your holiday shopping season advertising plans. Click the links within the content below to visit the publisher sources to get even more information.
Pinterest is an incredible treasure trove of consumer trends. After all, its users create “vision boards” of their aspirations, including prospective vacation spots, future personal fashion & home decorating ideas—and of course, holiday gifts either to buy for themselves or others.
Pinterest Ads has been one of Skai’s advertising partners for some time now, and their team always puts out excellent holiday guides to help marketers plan better for Q4—not just on their ads platform but just great seasonal trends in general. This year, Pinterest has a page on its site dedicated to Holidays 2021.
After you get done reading these holiday insights, you might want to bookmark The Point, Pinterest’s research and insights feature section, to stay on top of market trends.
People on Pinterest start their holiday browsing early
Because Pinners use the platform to keep track of ideas for future purchases, the platform has always been an excellent way for advertisers to reach consumers much earlier in the holiday season than most marketers generally assume.
The following chart shows indexed holiday searches on Pinterest, compared to a leading search engine. As you can see, the holiday searches start in August but spike much sooner on Pinterest. “And every year, the majority of sales influenced by Pinterest are complete by Cyber Monday. In 2020, 60% of sales happened by that time.”
This year’s holiday guide is explicit about the impact that campaigns that take advantage of this timing perform better: “Brands who start their holiday campaigns earlier in the season see better results on Pinterest.”
- +6% incremental sales lift for brands who advertise early
- 4.7x more conversions when people are exposed to Pinterest ads earlier in the holiday season
Your Pinterest Ads holiday timeline
Pinterest suggests sequencing out your strategy to take advantage of its longer-than-average holiday season.
Here are Pinterest’s recommendations by phase:
- Launch and inspire (September–October)
- Budget: Prioritize your budget for awareness campaigns, so you’re top of mind as people start planning.
- Creative: You can start running holiday messaging now, but you don’t have to. Even an increased presence at this time will help set you up for seasonal success.
- Shift into high gear (November)
- Budget: More people are ready to spend, so move more budget to conversion campaigns. Keep running awareness and consideration campaigns, too, to start finding new prospects.
- Creative: Start running holiday visuals for most (if not all) of your creative. Make sure you have strong CTAs so people can act now.
- Stick the finish (December-January)
- Budget: You’ll still see lots of purchases in December, so make sure to keep spend up and focused on performance.
- Creative: At this point, people are searching for utility and convenience. Feature last-minute sales and label your shipping cutoff dates. Include clear, effective CTAs to help them check off their shopping list.
Pinterest’s 6 types of holiday shoppers
Pinterest’s insights team identified six different types of holiday shoppers with some tips on how to best engage them for advertising success.
The Early Bird. Always looking for bargains, they’ll pull the trigger on deals when they see them, even if it’s at the beginning of the holiday season. They might even be shopping for next year if they get a bargain.
The Traditionalist. These people follow the same holiday customs and rituals every year. They stick to the familiar, and you can count on them to buy old favorites.
The Self-Gifter. Knowing that the best deals are in Q4, they wait and pick up holiday deals for themselves. They might even eat the cookies that are put out for Santa.
The Rookie Host. These are newbies to entertaining the big feast or party for family and friends. They need many new things they’ve never bought before, such as wine glasses or decorative lights.
The Shipping-First Shopper. They do it all online. They’re probably the ones on their phone on a bus or at a ball game shopping away. Why spend time away from family and friends when you could simply order it all instead of braving the long lines at stores?
Next-Level Party Planner. Unlike #4’s Rookie Hosts, these folks are pros at hosting. They have everything they need but are always interested in upgrading. For example, they might be willing to “go over the top” on their house decorations.
Skai Retail Media solutions can be the foundation for your holiday advertising success
Gain access to prime cross-retailer ad inventory from Walmart Connect and other retailers to meet your customers where they are.
- Full cross-retailer support all in one platform — one login, one interface
- Continuously investing in our platform to expand our retail media network
- Robust cross-channel campaign attribution support across Retail Media, Search & Social
For more information, visit the Skai Retail Media solutions page.
You can also reach out to schedule a quick demo to see all of these great features in action.
