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Unwrap 2023 Strategic Social Tips & Tricks to Win the Holidays

The temperatures are cooling down, pumpkin spice has made its debut and it’s time to start thinking about the holiday shopping season. The critical selling season can be a make or break time of year for brands and sellers, and a social media presence is of the utmost importance, setting the tone for the season and encouraging followers to purchase.

From finding new audiences through advertising to planning strong creative and identifying goals and KPIs, the push for the holiday season starts now. Our favorite social media networks haven’t left brands hanging, though! Read on to learn more about what Pinterest, TikTok and Meta are recommending for holiday planning. 

Plan a Picture-Perfect Pinterest Holiday 

Haven’t started your brand's Q4 social strategy? According to Pinterest, you’re late to the party. Well before summer began, Pinterest users were already planning for fall and winter festivities. Knowing the go-to planning platform is a one-stop shop for inspiration and ideation, it’s also the ideal spot for brands to seek a new audience during the holiday season, with 3 in 4 Pinterest users open to discovering new brands and products during the season of giving.

Users on the platform are ready to splurge on the people they love and are inclined to spend more across different categories, allowing a wide variety of brands ample opportunities to take advantage of this motivation and build a strong paid (and organic) presence on the platform during the holiday season. 

Although the planning starts early for Pinners in the summer months, it isn’t until the fall season where their discovery mode is switched to decisive buying, leaving the opportunity for brands to shift their messaging strategy to aid in the buyer’s journey. Then, once November hits, it’s time to keep pushing, increasing campaign budgets and maintaining through December, taking advantage of high demand and those last minute shoppers. For more tips and tricks, visit Pinterest’s Holiday Marketing Tips.

‘Tis the Season for TikTok

TikTok is giving Pinterest a run for their money as the “go-to resource” when it comes to the holiday season. From discovery to purchasing, TikTok is priding themselves in being the platform to influence with over one billion active users each month, 15% of which attribute their product discovery to TikTok. TikTok has even put out a calendar that includes key dates to follow, as well as a recommended checklist to build brand success on the platform before, during and after the holiday season.

The platform is encouraging users to take advantage of the e-commerce opportunities (shoppable ads, TikTok shop, lead generation campaigns, etc.) within the app to allow for a more seamless and direct user journey, allowing your brand to maximize their TikTok marketing approach and improve  KPIs this holiday season.

Their guide also includes ways to strengthen creative for optimal results, allowing brands to really set themselves apart from competitors by building TikTok-ready content, structuring the storytelling of the videos, using attention triggers, trending audio and optimizing with trends to really diversify content and allow for the same product to be displayed in variables ways for users with different motivations.

All-in-all, TikTok’s holiday presence will not go unnoticed this season, especially with 61% of their audience purchasing products directly within the app or right after seeing the ad. The platform’s natural entertainment draw yields highly engaged user  value with an expectedly strong driven response from strong campaigns.  For more insights, visit TikTok’s 2023 Holiday Guide.

Make the Holidays Meaningful with Meta

Meta is taking holiday planning one step further with tips on how to leverage AI to market this giving season. Their guide shares helpful ways for brands to enhance brand campaigns and optimize their strategies through a click of a button. Their Advantage suite sets campaigns up for major success through their automation tools. To Meta, success this holiday season means taking advantage of their expanded suite of automation offerings with generative AI becoming a bigger opportunity.  

Meta is expected to be the place for users to find the best deals while they are looking for valuable deals that pair with a brand's valuable offerings. Users on Meta will be looking for top promotions and brands relevant to their shopping needs this holiday season. Meta is expecting the highest volume of conversions during the weekend of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, emphasizing the impact advertisers saw for their brands across the platform last year at a 20% increase YoY.

Meta makes it easy by sharing ways brands can maximize their ad performance all season long, even after the New Year; through automation, creative diversification, data quality and measurement, brands are ready for a successful holiday season.

Learn more ways to maximize your ad performance this holiday season  on Meta here.

The holiday season can be a stressful time for brands, but it’s a critical one. If you aren’t even sure where to start, we can help! Code3 can help your brand take advantage of this holiday season and optimize performance through our media planning and creative development expertise across both paid and organic social. Contact us today to learn how our team of marketing professionals can help.