Discovery commerce: How savvy marketers go beyond the holiday period to unlock new opportunities

Source: Auction Experts Cyber5 Analysis, May 2022

While most brands pull back on their advertising spend during this time, leading marketers are leaning in during this period to end the current year strong and start the new year big. Solutions on Meta technologies can help businesses drive what we call “discovery commerce” so businesses can maximize sales and find shoppers, which will keep sales ringing into the new year. Here is how marketers are generating demand through discovery.

1

Data

Forward-leaning marketers are leveraging their business’s data sources to reengage their existing customers and grow by finding new shoppers.

• Boost customer lifetime value by retargeting ads to peak season shoppers with related products or more premium offerings. You can do this by creating Custom Audiences from your website, app, customer list or actions taken across Meta technologies.
• Acquire new customers by building lookalike audiences from a list of your top holiday shoppers. Holiday shoppers may differ from year-round shoppers, and using them as a source audience may allow you to tap into a new audience.

2

Creative

Leading advertisers are tailoring creatives to speak to year-end shopping motivations through diverse assets and creator marketing.

• Gift cards, returns, year-end sales, New Year’s goals: There are a variety of shopping motivations during the post-holiday shopping period, and a diversity of messages enables our ad delivery system to serve the most relevant message to each person. Messages like end-of-season discounts or closeout sales may resonate with deal hunters, while self-improvement messages around health and wellness, fitness, finance and education can appeal to people looking to get a head start on their New Year's resolutions.
• Partner with creators to reach customers with a trusted voice. Not only do creators offer authenticity, they also make it easier for their audiences to shop by curating a relevant product selection. You can add on features like product tags to branded content ads so people can easily tap on a tag and learn more.

3

Media

Brands are building more efficient and effective campaigns by leaning into machine learning to optimize for the best performance and build their CRM.

• It would take a lot of time and effort to anticipate every need from your audience. Automated solutions help connect relevant ads to interested shoppers, with less manual effort. Optimize across multiple campaign levers including creative, targeting, placements and budget to drive the best ad performance with Advantage+ shopping campaigns. Across 31 tests, we saw a 32% higher return on ad spend with the addition of Advantage+ shopping campaigns to business-as-usual campaigns.³ Businesses with a product catalog can additionally maximize product discovery with Advantage+ catalog ads.
• For businesses with longer purchase cycles or one where communication with a business is important, lead generation solutions can help you increase CRM audiences ahead of email campaigns in the new year. Our suite of lead generation solutions enables people to connect via their preferred channel, across forms, calls and messages.

4

Measurement

Gain actionable insights through testing to start off 2023 strong.

• Measuring the impact of your post-holiday marketing is key to knowing what’s working, so you can lean in on the tactics that are most effective in the new year. Meta offers tools such as A/B tests to help you understand successful tactics and strategies around campaign setup creative, ad products, etc. that can be customized to your needs.

Discovery is a strength of Meta technologies year-round. Learn more about how you can help grow your business with Meta Discovery Commerce.