Should You Deck Out Your Ads For The Holiday?

The holiday season is upon us! Thanksgiving is over. Black Friday has come and gone. Christmas songs are playing — for better or for worse — on the radio. So what does that mean for your website? Should you customize your ad units (and the space around them) to be festive and holiday-oriented? Or is it just a waste of time, energy, and resources? Should you run festive ads? Or should the Grinch prevail?

There are two sides to this debate, both of which are worth considering.

Latest Trends in Holiday Ad Design

Maximize your revenue potential during the holiday season without sacrificing user experience or long-term profitability by keeping up with the following ad trends:

1. Interactive and Engaging Formats

Publishers are increasingly adopting interactive ad formats such as quizzes, polls, and gamified experiences that engage users and encourage participation. These formats not only capture attention but also enhance the likelihood of conversion during the holiday shopping season.

2. Ad Personalization

Personalized ads that reflect user preferences and past behaviors are gaining traction. Creating targeted campaigns right now with your GA4 insights is key to improved click-through rates and conversions.

3. Christmas & New Year Visuals

Holiday ads are shifting towards storytelling through visuals, utilizing rich media such as videos and high-quality images to evoke emotions associated with the season. This trend helps brands connect with consumers on a personal level, making their ads more memorable during a crowded marketplace.

4. Sustainability Messaging

As consumers become more environmentally conscious, incorporating sustainability themes into holiday ads is becoming a key trend. Consider promoting eco-friendly products or practices within their festive campaigns to align with consumer values and enhance brand loyalty.

Balancing Festive Ads with Traditional Monetization Strategies

Establishing direct partnerships with advertisers can lead to higher CPMs and more tailored advertising solutions. By negotiating specific terms for holiday campaigns, create mutually beneficial arrangements that enhance revenue while maintaining a cohesive brand message.

Optimize your ad inventory to capitalize on increased consumer spending and advertiser competition. This includes offering exclusive holiday placements and utilizing programmatic advertising to ensure that high-demand ad spaces are filled efficiently. By strategically managing inventory, you can maximize CPM rates while integrating festive themes into your ads.

Using AI-powered tools to set dynamic floor prices can help respond to real-time market demand. This approach allows for higher bids from advertisers during peak shopping times while ensuring that fill rates remain healthy. Experiment with pricing strategies that reflect the increased interest in seasonal advertising without alienating potential advertisers.

Incorporating festive themes into content can enhance user engagement and attract more visitors. Focus on creating holiday-themed articles, gift guides, and sales roundups that resonate with their audience. This not only drives traffic but also provides opportunities for higher ad rates due to increased engagement during the shopping frenzy.

Arguments for festive ads

Everyone loves Christmas! It’s the most festive time of the year. So why wouldn’t festive ad units drive more impressions and click-throughs?

Engagement Potential

The holiday season is traditionally a period of increased consumer spending and engagement. Festive ad units can capture attention and enhance click-through rates. Proponents argue that a little creativity can go a long way in delighting your audience, potentially translating into higher engagement metrics during this lucrative time.

Brand Affinity

Using festive themes can foster a sense of community and connection with your audience. By aligning your brand with the joyous spirit of the holidays, you may strengthen customer loyalty and improve brand perception. This emotional resonance can be particularly impactful when consumers are looking for meaningful connections during the season.

The Grinch’s Arguments

Unfortunately for the proponents of the festive ad unit, the math just doesn’t hold up. Even if your ad units receive more impressions and click-through rates thanks to your snazzy, festive redesign, it will not change your CPMs in such a condensed timeframe. A holiday season that lasts a few weeks is but a bleep on the radar as far as CPMs are concerned.

And to those who say that it won’t take very much time to redesign the ad units to be more festive: says who? Any designer who has redesigned any element of a project, big or small, knows that a redesign is not an easy endeavor. It’s a significant time commitment and not one to be taken lightly.

“Besides, who will even notice the changed ad units, anyway?” the Grinch would argue.

Resource Allocation

The argument extends to resource management; instead of focusing on temporary festive designs, businesses might achieve better results by investing in proven strategies like search engine optimization, targeted marketing campaigns, or enhancing user experience on their platforms. These efforts are likely to provide more sustainable benefits beyond the holiday season.

Which side prevails?

So…which side prevails? Should you run festive ad units? Or even change your ad networks to festive ads?

Probably not.

The benefits to redesigning your ad spots are negligible, though the costs are great. You can probably spend your resources in better ways: search engine optimization, search engine marketing, a landing page or two…the fact of the matter is, you probably won’t see a great return on your investment by decking out your ads for the holidays.

If it gives you kicks to tweak the design around your ad units so that they’re festive, then have at it. And of course, if you get any direct sales advertisements that specifically pertain to the holiday season, then that’s even better. But don’t you think for a minute that you’ll get any specific monetary benefits from putting some festive decoration around your ads.

What Now?

Stick to the tried-and-true monetization techniques. Pick better ad units, increase your site’s traffic, and lower your bounce rates. But don’t resort to gimmicky techniques such as adding some tinsel-toe to your ads; odds are, it will be a waste of time, won’t drive additional revenue to your site, and will have to be torn down after New Year’s Day, anyway. Have you monetized your holiday ads yet? Get started here!