Meta released a series of blog posts this week about holiday campaign planning, outlining how the shopping journey is evolving and detailing how marketers can adjust their strategies to adapt to new discovery and purchasing behaviors.

The core argument of the series is that shoppers now discover products across multiple platforms, and marketers must take this reality into account.

According to Meta: "86% of global holiday shoppers use social media for inspiration, spanning Reels, Stories, and Feed; 58% of Gen Z discover gifts through Reels and Stories. Among users who discover products on Instagram, 64% have purchase intent. The more formats you provide, the better Meta Advantage+ can match the right creative to the right person throughout the season."

This is the key point the articles emphasize: marketers should fully leverage the company's AI-driven Advantage+ campaigns to reach potential customers more effectively.

Meta says the holiday shopping journey now includes four distinct phases:

  • Discovery phase (October to early November)
  • Deal phase (i.e., Black Friday and Cyber Monday)
  • Gifting phase (throughout December)
  • New beginnings phase (late December to the New Year)

To ensure campaigns align with these phases, Meta recommends that marketers launch campaigns early so the system can complete its learning phase and ensure Meta's systems understand how audiences respond to promotional activities.

Meta says its advanced Advantage+ campaigns can help marketers better adapt to changing discovery patterns by automatically delivering ads to potential buyers in phases from October to December.

Meta states: "The system reads intent signals in real time and places your ads in the interfaces most likely to drive that specific user to take the next step at that particular moment."

Meta adds that Advantage+ can save ad spend by using Meta's full ad inventory, including competitive and lower-cost high-performing placements.

Meta advises advertisers to enable Advantage+ placements for holiday campaigns as soon as possible to start the learning period early, ensuring campaigns reach maximum efficiency before Black Friday.

Finally, Meta recommends that marketers use conversion lift studies to better measure the purchase path, ensuring accurate tracking of Meta campaign performance to attribute sales driven.

These guidelines contain some valuable tips and insights that aid campaign planning and ensure brands maximize their holiday marketing efforts.