The holiday shopping season, or the high-spirited months at year’s end, wields a powerful influence over the economy, historically accounting for roughly one-fifth of annual retailer sales, per National Retail Federation. In 2024, eMarketer projects accelerated holiday consumer spending, with total U.S. retail sales expected to reach $1.353 trillion — an impressive 4.8 percent rise year-over-year, compared to the 3.9 percent rise the previous year.

As we approach the 2024 shopping season, leveraging Connected TV (CTV) is essential for advertisers aiming to maximize their campaign effectiveness. With significant growth anticipated in online and in-store shopping, CTV provides a powerful platform to reach, engage, and validate consumers, driving foot traffic and online sales.

Read on to learn how advertisers can strategically utilize CTV to effectively connect with holiday shoppers and boost sales during this crucial period.

The expanding holiday shopping season

Traditionally confined to November and December, the holiday shopping period is stretching longer, with major retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Target initiating October sales events that unofficially kick off the season.  

In 2023, the Cyber Five—the five-day stretch from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday—accounted for 16.2 percent of total U.S. holiday retail e-commerce sales, with Cyber Monday alone generating $13.23 billion, per eMarketer. This shift to earlier end-of-year sales encourages consumers to start holiday shopping earlier, creating a more competitive landscape for brands looking to capture consumer attention.

Understanding holiday shopping trends

As the holiday season continues to evolve, brands must adapt to consumers' changing behaviors. Over 80 percent of holiday retail sales are expected to occur in person, highlighting the importance of in-store experiences. However, online sales are projected to rise 9.5 percent year-over-year, with mobile commerce growing even faster at 13.4 percent, per eMarketer. CTV can seamlessly connect these channels, driving foot traffic while facilitating online purchases through curated ad experiences.

Generational shopping habits further influence this landscape. While Amazon remains the primary source for holiday shopping among Americans, with 50 percent of Gen Z/millennials and 56 percent of Gen X/baby boomers preferring to shop online through the platform, 36 percent of Gen Z/millennials are choosing to shop in-person at the mall, compared to just 28 percent of Gen X/baby boomers, per The Harris Poll. This suggests that younger consumers are more inclined to seek in-store experiences, while older generations show a stronger preference for online shopping.  

The rise of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services illustrate a growing trend among consumers seeking both convenience and cost-effectiveness—especially younger consumers. In 2024, eMarketer projects that 43.4 percent of Gen Z will use BNPL services, a trend expected to continue in the current economic climate.

With endless shopping options, seamless digital integrations across the customer journey have become critical to a brand’s success. Per Deloitte, only 60 percent of consumers are satisfied with personalized experiences offered, indicating a significant gap that brands can leverage.  

CTV advertising offers brands a unique opportunity to bridge this gap by integrating personalization into their marketing strategies. With its precise reach, advanced campaign measurement, and creative flexibility, brands can tailor ad experiences to specific audiences and effectively track engagement. This enables them to deliver customized messages that resonate with individual consumers across various touchpoints. This strategy not only drives foot traffic and highlights promotions but also enhances customer loyalty, allowing brands to capitalize on the evolving preferences of holiday shoppers.

The CTV advantage

While the holiday shopping season intensifies, CTV emerges as a powerful platform for advertisers, providing precise reach, advanced campaign measurement, and creative flexibility.  

These capabilities enable brands to effectively engage with consumers, optimize their strategies in real-time, and deliver compelling messages that resonate during this critical time of year.  

Precise reach

Thanks to its tailored audience reach capabilities, CTV advertising is rapidly becoming a top choice for brands looking to engage consumers during the holiday season. Unlike traditional linear TV, CTV allows for hyper-focused reach based on various factors, including demographics, interests, and viewing habits. This means advertisers can deliver ads that resonate with specific audience segments, resulting in higher engagement rates and a better return on ad spend (ROAS).  

Utilizing advanced strategies such as contextual, behavioral, and demographic targeting, brands can ensure their messages reach the right viewers at the right time. For instance, contextual targeting aligns ad content with relevant programming, while behavioral targeting connects ads to users based on their past online activities and interests.  

Additionally, demographic targeting allows brands to reach specific age or income groups, enhancing the relevance of their campaigns. Using data to target holiday shoppers on CTV not only maximizes ad spend, but also drives higher conversion rates during the busiest shopping season of the year.

Learn more: 8 Methods for Audience Targeting on CTV

Advanced campaign measurement

CTV offers advertisers advanced measurement tools that enhance campaign effectiveness during the holiday season. While traditional TV advertising provides limited insights, CTV delivers real-time performance data that allows brands to optimize their strategies on the fly. This level of agility empowers advertisers to refine their messaging based on how different audience segments engage with their content.

Furthermore, as third-party cookies become less reliable, CTV stands out as a future-proof platform for measurement. By utilizing first-party data and alternative targeting methods, advertisers can maintain precise campaign tracking without sacrificing effectiveness.  

With advanced data analytics and audience measurement platforms like App Science® providing a holistic view of performance across devices, CTV advertisers can confidently assess their impact and adjust their strategies to better connect with holiday shoppers.  

Creative flexibility

Now more than ever, consumers are faced with seemingly unlimited options. CTV enables advertisers to showcase what makes their brand unique through high-impact ad units designed to drive many campaign objectives.  

Brands looking how to create successful CTV ads for the holiday season must go beyond their messaging alone by utilizing ad units designed specifically for CTV. From showcasing product features to driving purchase intent and in-store traffic, brands can leverage ad units designed specifically for CTV to capture consumers’ attention and drive desired actions.  

Below are some ways you can use creative ad units to bolster your holiday CTV campaigns:

Highlight products

CTV ad units with integrated product details are an excellent choice for holiday shopping campaigns, as they enable brands to showcase products in an informative and engaging way. Providing valuable information such as product features, pricing, purchase location, rating, disclaimers, and customer reviews directly within the ad, these units enhance viewer interest and encourage action, ultimately boosting conversions.

Drive purchase intent

CTV ad units featuring QR codes drive action and increase purchase intent by encouraging viewers to scan the code for instant access to relevant landing pages or apps. This seamless experience allows shoppers to partake in the latest holiday shopping trends by adding items to their mobile carts, boosting click-through rates and conversions while providing valuable insights into viewer behavior through tracking scans and landing page visits.  

Drive in-store traffic

Dynamic video CTV ad units enhance the shopping experience by adapting content based on real-time factors, making them especially effective for driving store traffic during the holidays. Location-based ads can direct viewers to the nearest store, seamlessly guiding them to purchase seasonal offers. These ad units allow advertisers to integrate external data, such as local weather conditions, audience preferences, and viewer location, to personalize ads with hyper-relevant messaging.  

Learn more: Top 8 CTV Creative Ad Units to Boost Engagement

Engage holiday shoppers with Sabio

Sabio is the premier partner for reaching holiday shoppers with personalized CTV ads. Our unique audience targeting leverages mobile and CTV app data to create custom segments tailored to your needs. This ensures you reach consumers based on their interests and life stages, well beyond general demographics.

Plus, Sabio is device- and platform-agnostic to ensure your campaign reaches the right consumers no matter where they are streaming content. With 55 million households across diverse inventory sources, we ensure your ad finds the right context and avoids overexposure, even when working with other partners.

Connect with Sabio

Get in touch with our team of CTV experts to discuss best practices for CTV advertising during the holidays.