3 Reasons Why Your Should Advertise and Strategize NOW (not over the holidays)
Last year I worked at a marketing agency. By the time October and November hit, I had 18 clients, I was running multiple ad campaigns, and was stressing harder than a 24-year-old should at their job. It was all surrounding one thing, BLACK FRIDAY.
There are so many holidays coming up which means a LOT of sales. The worst thing about it is, most business owners leave holiday planning until the VERY last minute. Sometimes that works, but let me tell you, it’s not sustainable. Plus, it can get really expensive.
Here are some reasons why you should run ads BEFORE the holidays:
1. Lower cost per result
Whether you own an e-commerce store, you’re a coach or some other type of entrepreneur, if you have a product or service you’re selling, then advertising right now is a really really good idea. Think about it, everyone (well, maybe not everyone) is running ads over the holidays. Think about how many businesses are targeting the same people you want to target to sell your products or services. When companies are targeting the same audience, the cost per bid on Facebook & Instagram goes up, like really high up. A little context: any time an advertisement is shown on Facebook or Instagram, Facebook automatically places a bid to see who’s ads will show up, whoever has the highest bid will have their eyes shown. This means that in October you might be able to out-bid other advertisers with a cost per bid of $2, but on Black Friday weekend you might need a cost per bid of $12 to get your advertisement shown. That is really expensive.
2. Build your email list
So if you’re running a campaign to collect leads/email addresses (which is the best type of FB ad campaign to run FYI), you want your cost per lead to be below $2. You want to have the time to grow your email list so you can advertise to them during the holidays and whenever you want. If you wait and start scrambling during the holidays to get your campaigns up, you’re likely going to be pushing for people to purchase something that’s on sale, whether it be a product, course, or service. Sale conversion campaigns are more expensive than lead campaigns to begin with, and on top of that doing it over the holidays really can crank up your cost per sale.
This is why I advise you to advertise in October, pre-holiday craze, to grow your email list. Your cost per lead will be low, you’ll have a loyal following that you own, and you’ll have a set-out strategy for the rest of 2021.
3. This time of year, people are ready to spend
Let me tell you, once fall hit, people are hitting up the farmers’ and crafters’ markets, they’re buying self-care products, they’re reinvesting in their education, etc etc. People are ready and willing to spend their money right now. If you collect all those email addresses, have your automated emails go out to them (or manually create all your emails, up to you), introduce the option to purchase, then have a strong CTA to purchase during your sales, bingbangboom, hello sales. People will feel more inclined to purchase from you because you’ve been nurturing them in their email list, they’re ready to spend their money, and you just made your offer a no-brainer for them. Why the heck wouldn’t they purchase from you?