Make a List, Check it Twice: Your Monthly Timeline for Holiday Planning With Walmart Connect

Holiday marketing isn’t what it used to be. The old playbook of cranking up spend in November and hoping for the best died somewhere around 2019, buried under research showing that holiday shopping decisions now begin as early as July.

Recent data from Skai’s Q2 2025 Quarterly Trends report reveals a major uptick in retail media spending with Walmart this year. The reason isn’t complicated: Walmart Connect perfectly captures how people actually shop during the holidays now. The challenge isn’t finding places to spend your budget. It’s knowing exactly where to invest, when to invest, and which tactics will actually move the needle when competition hits its annual peak.

Read on for your month-by-month guide to sleighing Walmart holiday campaigns.

Why smart money flows to Walmart Connect during the holidays

Modern holiday consumers operate differently than they did five years ago. They research extensively online before purchasing, they value price transparency over flashy promotions, and they frequently buy multiple categories during single shopping trips.

Walmart leans into the modern consumer’s needs with everyday low price positioning that addresses budget-conscious consumers. It’s a one-stop shopping experience that prioritizes convenience. Its comprehensive search and discovery infrastructure supports those increasingly long research periods. Walmart consumers exhibit exactly the behaviors that drive holiday advertising success across every stage of the consideration funnel. 

But you need to plan correctly, and that means understanding the holiday timeline and how your strategy must change with the season.

October: When holiday shopping psychology takes shape

Price sensitivity drives everything in the early holiday season and October consumers are building gift lists looking for price points that provide psychological comfort during uncertain times.

The timeline matters here. 34% of U.S. consumers started their holiday shopping by July, which means October represents the tail end of early research rather than the beginning. Search impressions climb steadily, but purchase intent remains moderate.

October is your brand-seeding window. Mental availability is established now, not in December.

Sponsored search focus:

• Launch broad keyword campaigns targeting general gift categories (“holiday gifts,” “stocking stuffers,” “family games”) rather than specific product terms
• Implement aggressive brand term targeting to capture early research traffic and establish search result ownership
• Use automatic targeting campaigns to discover emerging seasonal search patterns, then harvest high-performing keywords to fuel manual campaigns with proven search terms
• Set moderate bids focused on impression share rather than conversion optimization (you’re building awareness, not driving immediate sales)
• Ensure retail readiness by verifying product availability, Buy Box ownership, and optimized detail pages before launching campaigns

Display campaign approach:

• Execute discovery campaigns with awareness objectives, targeting broad audiences like “category buyers” and “seasonal consumers” (these campaigns feed consideration traffic that converts through search campaigns later)
• Create holiday-themed creative assets that emphasize value positioning without aggressive promotional messaging, using family moments and emotional triggers to connect with customers
• Focus landing pages on category browsing and gift guide experiences rather than specific product detail pages
• Use retargeting campaigns to stay visible to early browsers who aren’t ready to purchase yet
• Segment campaigns into evergreen (steady presence) and seasonal (aggressive holiday-specific) strategies

Creative strategy:

• Emphasize value messaging with headlines like “Find Holiday Gifts at Prices You’ll Love”
• Feature family moments and gift-giving scenarios, recognizing that customers research extensively online even when purchasing in-store (37% will research online but buy in-store)
• Show multiple complementary products to inspire basket-building behavior among early planners. Remember that 41% will splurge on gifts for themselves beyond traditional gift purchases

How Skai builds your October foundation

October is your strategic planning window. Skai’s platform provides the intelligence and automation infrastructure needed to set up holiday success while you focus on strategic decisions rather than tactical execution.

Skai clients have a suite of powerful tools to ensure your early campaigns hit their mark. 

Celeste AI-powered historical analysis reveals performance patterns from last year’s holiday season to guide this year’s strategy. Ask Celeste: “Build a plan to guide me on restructuring my campaigns to maximize targeting precision. Review all campaigns and tell me which ones have more than 1 ASIN per ad group.”

Celeste analyzes your entire campaign history to identify structural improvements and optimization opportunities, creating a data-driven foundation for holiday planning that goes beyond gut instinct.

Competitive intelligence setup ensures market awareness throughout the season. Use Competitive Insights to establish baseline measurements on important keywords. This data cannot be fetched retroactively, making October setup critical for November and December decision-making.

Cross-channel media planning capabilities enable sophisticated budget allocation across sponsored search, display, and offsite media. Build comprehensive media plans that track planned versus actual spend, then use forecasting graphs to project performance metrics and identify opportunities before peak shopping begins.

Automated keyword harvesting preparation sets up discovery engines that will fuel manual campaigns throughout November and December. Configure automatic targeting campaigns now to begin capturing emerging seasonal search patterns.

November: When consideration becomes competition

November transforms browsers into active consumers. Convenience becomes the primary driver of platform selection as modern holiday consumers value time and simplicity above almost everything else. They’re comparing options, checking reviews, and building specific product preferences while seeking platforms that handle diverse shopping needs without requiring multiple destinations.

With 87% of consumers shopping major sales events in Q4, November becomes critical for establishing brand presence ahead of peak shopping moments. This is your brand-building and preference-shaping window.

Sponsored search expansion:

• Shift to more specific, high-intent keywords while maintaining broad category coverage, using performance data to guide keyword selection
• Launch sponsored brand campaigns featuring custom images that showcase product bundles and holiday themes for deeper customer connection
• Implement competitor keyword targeting to capture comparison consumers researching alternative brands
• Increase bid multipliers for premium placements (search result top positions, buy box prominence)
• Analyze seasonal keyword trends and competitor research to identify untapped opportunities

Full-funnel display integration:

• Execute consideration campaigns with engagement objectives, targeting “brand buyers” and “custom audiences” built from October website visitors
• Create product-focused creative featuring specific holiday use cases and gift-giving scenarios that emphasize family moments and basket-building opportunities (85% of BOPIS consumers make additional purchases when picking up, reinforcing the value of one-stop shopping messaging)
• Direct traffic to detailed product pages and category shelves optimized for conversion
• Layer in social proof elements and customer review highlights to support comparison shopping (especially important since 89% of consumers say social media impacts holiday shopping decisions)
• Coordinate awareness campaigns to feed consideration traffic that converts through search campaigns

Advanced targeting tactics:

• Use expanded data targeting (brand term targeting for display) to reach consumers actively researching your product categories
• Implement daypart bidding to capture weekend browsing sessions when holiday shopping research peaks
• Create separate campaigns for gift buyers versus personal consumers, as these audiences exhibit different conversion patterns
• Leverage omnichannel research behavior (customers research extensively online even when purchasing in-store)

How Skai optimizes your November execution

November transforms October planning into active campaign optimization. Skai’s platform manages the complex coordination required during peak consideration season, allowing you to focus on strategic pivots rather than tactical firefighting.

Real-time automated actions handle optimization surge as search volume peaks and competition intensifies. Use multi-level conditions within advanced automated actions to manage ad status by product-level data, ensuring inventory prioritization for top-performing items during high-traffic periods.

Cross-campaign performance analytics become essential as you coordinate sponsored search, display, and video campaigns across multiple objectives. Skai’s unified reporting shows exactly how your October awareness campaigns now drive consideration traffic that converts through search campaigns.

AI-powered optimization scaling manages complexity that would overwhelm human oversight. Thousands of daily bid and budget decisions get handled automatically. Pause Skai portfolios and Budget Navigator before major events like Black Friday to allow flexible manual control, then use automated actions to adjust bids frequently during peak days.

Creative performance optimization identifies winning assets through near real-time testing as engagement patterns shift throughout the month. Use Creative Center to analyze asset performance and scale creatives delivering stronger results.

December: When urgency drives everything

December transforms consumer psychology from research-driven to urgency-driven. The extended research periods that began in early October finally culminate in purchase decisions driven by procrastination and gift-giving deadlines.

Consumers who’ve been researching for weeks finally convert, often making multiple purchases in a single session. The convenience-first mindset intensifies as time pressure mounts, making Walmart’s one-stop shopping experience even more valuable for stressed holiday consumers trying to complete their lists efficiently.

High-intent campaign optimization:

• Maximize sponsored product campaigns with aggressive bidding on proven converting keywords from your harvested keyword data
• Focus sponsored brand and video campaigns on bestsellers, limited-time deals, and gift bundles
• Implement rapid delivery and availability messaging to address last-minute shopping anxiety
• Use campaign objective optimization set to “conversion” to prioritize immediate sales over awareness

Peak performance tactics:

• Front-load budgets heavily to avoid campaign budget caps during peak shopping moments (monitor pacing indicators continuously)
• Monitor out-of-stock alerts continuously and pause campaigns for unavailable products immediately
• Create separate “emergency gift” campaigns targeting desperate last-minute consumers with guaranteed delivery messaging
• Implement bid multipliers of 150-200% for premium placements during peak shopping days
• Use AI-powered optimization to reduce manual adjustments and maintain campaign efficiency during high-volume periods

Creative messaging shifts:

• Emphasize urgency with headlines like “Last-Minute Gifts That Arrive on Time”
• Feature immediate availability and fast shipping capabilities prominently
• Highlight gift cards and digital products as instant solutions for last-minute shoppers
• Use countdown timers and deadline messaging to create purchase urgency
• Focus on family moments and basket-building creative to appeal to stressed holiday consumers seeking complete solutions

How Skai maximizes your December performance

December demands peak performance across all campaigns as urgency-driven consumers convert at unprecedented rates. Skai’s platform handles high-volume period complexity while capturing every optimization opportunity during the year’s most critical shopping moments.

Performance analysis with speed becomes essential as conversion windows compress and competition intensifies. Ask Celeste: “What are the top performing campaigns based on ad revenue for last week? Break down sales from my top 5 campaigns by campaign type and ad group.”

Advanced budget management prevents costly missed opportunities. Use automated pacing alerts and budget recommendations to ensure campaigns run at full capacity while monitoring pacing indicators continuously.

Revenue and trend analysis captures learning for immediate application and future planning. Ask Celeste: “Compare this week’s CPCs to the previous week and provide analysis on what drove changes in trends” and “Can you analyze trends week over week and provide insights into what caused them and what we can do to further optimize based on these results.”

Post-event measurement ensures insights survive the holiday rush. Use Celeste to create reporting summaries for stakeholders: “Can you give me a high-level summary of performance from this past week? What key highlights would you recommend we dig into further?”

Conclusion: Your holiday strategy starts with October planning

Holiday advertising success on Walmart Connect requires understanding consumer psychology and building strategic campaigns that align with how modern consumers research, consider, and purchase throughout extended holiday timelines. The three-month framework outlined here capitalizes on extended research periods, convenience-driven platform selection, and urgency-driven conversion behavior.

The brands that win during peak holiday shopping are already building momentum and establishing campaign infrastructure for December success. Budget consciousness, convenience, and extended research patterns create opportunities for advertisers who start early and execute strategically.

• For Skai clients, if you need any help or more information, please reach out to your Skai contact. 
• If you are not a Skai client, there’s still time to set up your holiday campaigns for success. Skai’s Retail Media solutions enable marketers to plan, activate, and measure campaigns across 200+ retailers as part of a broader commerce media strategy. 

Schedule a quick demo to discover how our platform can accelerate your holiday advertising success.

---