Commentary

Valentine's Day Loves Advertisers

Phones are littered with flowers, chocolates and jewelry ads targeted to celebrate love on Valentine’s Day just weeks after advertisers spent months reaching out to consumers during the holiday season.

Google and Microsoft have caught on and have been rolling out a barrage of tools to support the frenzy.

Retail sales from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day grew 4% in 2024 compared with 2023.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) saw forecast sales increase between $979.5 billion and $989 billion, or between 2.5% and 3.5%.

But 2024 sales hit a record — $5.28 trillion, up 3.6% compared with the prior year.

Google and Microsoft are increasing the launch frequency of services and tools. Google on Thursday announced it will add a slew of features to Performance Max in several key areas in the coming weeks.

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Google also announced the rollout of detailed custom reports for Google Analytics 4 that enable advertisers to take the exact settings and layout of a custom report or analysis created in one Google Analytics property and duplicate it for other properties. This maintains consistent reporting and saves time.

Microsoft on Thursday shared four new capabilities rolling out to advertisers in a pilot. Those include reporting updates, conversion value rules, new customer acquisition goals, and LinkedIn targeting as an audience signal. The later is only available in the U.S., CA, UK, AU, FR, and DE markets.

Why all the tools and services so early in the year?

Advertisers have barely recovered from the holiday media-buying season, and now they are focused on Valentine’s Day.  Americans embrace this tradition to express love, giving brands yet another reason to connect with a specific audience.

Microsoft Advertising in a blog post listed the top shopping categories advertisers should consider targeting. In the United States, the categories are jewelry, clothing and flowers. Some 40% of purchases for this holiday are made online.

Shopping preferences for this holiday in France typically are for flowers, perfumes and jewelry, with a high concentration of Gen Z shoppers.

United Kingdom consumers tend to buy flowers, clothing and jewelry, with Gen Z and Millennials more likely to respond to video ads.

Consumers in Germany tend to buy flowers, candy and perfumes, with a strong mobile engagement with multimedia Valentine’s Day ads.

One of the most interesting trends across France, Germany, and the United Kingdom is that 26% of Gen Z consumers planned to give Valentine's gifts for the first time -- double that of other generations' 13% participation rate.

Microsoft also focused on the timing of campaigns. Some 61% of Valentine's Day conversions in February start with clicks that occur in December and January. General Valentine's Day searches start increasing in late December and continue through February 14, with searches in key verticals rising starting three weeks before the holiday.

Consumers are more likely to start their journey with non-brand searches, despite the fact that brand and non-brand searches influence conversions through the journey.

Non-brand searches tend to increase to 68%. Once the consumer is ready to make a purchase, per Microsoft, brand and non-brand conversions are evenly distributed.

For consumers who only need one click or touchpoint, 69% convert on branded searches, per Microsoft.

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