It shouldn’t be any surprise that 44% of businesses plan to increase their ad budget during this holiday season. According to a recent Reveal Mobile webinar, 36.2% of companies are considering October of this year to be the prime time to begin their holiday advertising. Another 23.9% plan to begin their advertisements in November and 5.4% won’t start until December. Regardless of when they begin, 54.3% plan to keep their ad spending equally distributed throughout the 2019 holiday season.

Media

What are the most popular ad formats of the upcoming holiday season? Social media leads the pack with 36.6% of businesses planning to allocate the majority of their holiday ad spending to social ads. TV follows at 14.4%, then print/​direct mail and email marketing (both at 12.8%). Search engine marketing is next with 10.7%. Few companies plan to allocate the majority to their budgets to digital media such as digital display ads (4.1%) and mobile ads (1.6%). Geotargeting, defined by GeoMarketing as “delivering content to a user based on their geographic location,” will also be an important aspect of the holiday ad campaigns. At least 88.1% of businesses will allocate some ad spending to this format.

Ad to Sale Confidence

Overall, companies believe in the power to digital advertising to generate new sales. Reveal Mobile’s research indicates that 83% of businesses are either very or somewhat confident about the direct correlation between digital advertising and new sales. Marketers’ opinions about the power of traditional advertising remain positive. At least 70% of surveyed business owners say traditional advertising also drives sales.

No matter what form of digital marketing your clients use, it’s important to know the purchase intent of each target audience. AudienceSCAN on AdMall by SalesFuel has numerous digital marketing-​based audiences, from Email Ad Responders to Online Video Watchers to Sponsored Search Result Responders. On these profiles, you and your client will discover demographic and purchase intent information for each audience, along with marketing formats that will capture attention during the busy holiday season.

October is upon us. If your client hasn’t begun rolling out their holiday ads, it’s time to get planning!