How to Structure Seasonal Ad Campaigns

Question

Hey Jon. This is Lisa Bader and I have a question about campaign structure. I sell a physical product that's used for different holidays. I'm considering splitting major holidays into their own ads sets so I can control budget using ad set spending limits. Do you think that's a good idea? Please let me know.

Answer

Great question, Lisa.

So Lisa is another dedicated, long-time member of my Power Hitters Club - Elite community. You can learn about how to join us at jonloomer.com/elite.

What Lisa describes is a common challenge that’s unique to seasonal businesses.

You might have an evergreen, more generic set of ads that you’ll run all year long for your evergreen product. But then you also need to create your seasonal products, so you create separate ads that will only run for a few weeks or months.

On one hand, you can combine them into the same ad set with the evergreen ads. But I think Lisa’s instincts are right that a CBO campaign with multiple ad sets would be cleanest.

It’s questionable whether delivery would be all that different than combining into the same ad set when you use CBO. But it’s much cleaner from an organizational standpoint, and it allows you a bit more control as seasons come and go.

So I’d envision something like this.

Create your main ad set that includes ads for the evergreen product that will run all year long. Feel free to update that ad set with new ads as the need arises.

I’ve talked about my approach to this in prior episodes, but I’d introduce new ads using the creative testing tool.

Otherwise, create separate ad sets for your seasonal ads.

Let’s assume you want to promote a product for Valentine’s Day. I’d start a new ad set with a creative test that includes two to five ads in it. You’ll dedicate a certain percentage of your campaign budget to the test.

Once the next season or holiday comes along, create a new ad set for that new product.

Whether you turn off the prior seasonal ad set will be based primarily on performance. Even if the holiday has passed, there’s no reason to stop it if it’s still getting good results.

But more than likely, that ad set will begin to die out, and you can turn it off. Meanwhile, you’ll keep the evergreen ad set running at all times.

What’s nice about this approach is that when a year passes and you start the cycle over, you’ll begin the ad set with the ads from the prior year.

If you want, you can add to that ad set with new ads. And again, I’d do that with the creative testing tool if time allows.

Whether or not you need to apply ad set spending limits will depend. Personally, I’d resist applying such a restriction.

Assuming Meta pushes budget to what works best, the main goal should be getting the most results possible.

Now, it’s also possible that Meta’s optimization will struggle with the constant shuffling of seasonal products. If that’s the case, you can look at either an ad set spending maximum or minimum, depending on your needs.

Whether that’s applied to the evergreen ad set or the seasonal ad sets will depend on the problem that needs to be solved, if any.

This is definitely a challenge for seasonal products, but that’s how I’d approach it.

Thanks for your question, Lisa!