The National Retail Federation is projecting that spending on Halloween-related products in the US will reach an all-time high of $10.14 billion in 2021, up from $8.05 billion in 2020. Shoppers spend a lot of money on costumes, home decoration items, pet dressing products, candies, and more. And advertisers invest a lot of time and effort to reach those customers and increase their sales.
Over 65% of Americans plan to celebrate Halloween or participate in Halloween activities this year, up from 58% in 2020. More people are buying costumes and candy this year, and as such Halloween spending will be up as well. We have searched various resources to help you see how consumers are behaving around Halloween and how retailers are planning to reach them. Staying up to date with the latest trends will help you capitalize on them. Also, try implementing the strategies explained in this article to increase the revenue opportunities.
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Halloween Celebration Plans and Consumer Spending 2021
- The most popular activities for celebrating Halloween include handing out candy, decorating their home, dressing in costumes, carving a pumpkin, and hosting or attending a Halloween party.
- Nearly three-quarters of consumers expect some sort of impact from COVID-19 on their Halloween celebrations, though only a little over a fifth expect this impact to be a significant one.
- One-third of Halloween shoppers will spend between $25 and $50 on their items, whereas one-fourth of shoppers will spend over $75. Two-thirds of the respondents expect their budgets to be roughly the same as usual. One-fifth expect to spend money more this year than the previous year.
Data sources: National Retail Federation, 2021 Holiday Consumer Intentions Survey – Numerator.
Halloween Tips for Publishers
Let’s look at how you can take advantage of this influx of consumer spending and retailers’ increased budget during this Halloween.
Halloween Ad Campaign Options
While you can continue to serve direct-sold ads on your website, what about going beyond them and start with programmatic advertising? Since most consumers will shop online, this Halloween will bring in tens of thousands of new advertisers. This gives you a chance to sell the remnant inventories via programmatic options. There are numerous reasons to try programmatic advertising, but specific reasons include getting better-targeted ads, higher eCPM, and generating more revenue through multiple demand partners.
The most preferred method of programmatic advertising is header bidding. You can connect with several buyers at once and sell the ad impressions at the highest possible price in real-time. Simultaneously, you can set up direct deals and increase the competition between direct and indirect advertisers.
Contextual Targeting
Contextually relevant ads are one of the most effective ways to serve ads on the website. On average, they bring in click-through rates nearly twice as high as those on non-contextual ads, and users are more likely to complete their initial searches since ads are relevant. Further, with the advertising industry shifting towards a data and privacy-first ecosystem, contextual advertising is positioning itself as a robust tool to deliver relevant ads on websites.
Target your audience based on Halloween Content, Candy Recipes, Jelly/Jello Recipes, Baking Recipes, Cake Recipes, Cookie Recipes, and Dessert Recipes. As contextual ads are more likely to be relevant for the audiences, the ROI of advertisers is higher. And thus, ad revenue for publishers.
Note: If you serve ads via Google Ad Manager, serving contextual ads is pretty straightforward. You can set up key values and deliver ads that align with the context of the particular page. You can contextually target ads coming via header bidding as well. Here’s how to do it.
Halloween Audience Segments
As third-party cookies are going away, transitioning to advertising based on first-party data has become more prominent for publishers. Advertisers want to consider expanding their reach and invest in publishers who can provide them with first-party data. So, capture first-party data from your website & understand how users scroll, click, and search your website via analytics tools (such as Google Analytics). Create an audience segment based on Holiday cooks, Grocery buyers, Household cooks, Recipe content, and deliver relevant ads to improve your bottom line.
Run Halloween Themed Social Promotions
Over 40% of consumers find Halloween inspiration on Facebook and Instagram. If you have a social media presence, spruce up your company pages and optimize them for Halloween. Set up a Halloween promotion on social media pages. Facebook or Instagram giveaway might just be the simplest and most effective option. Additionally, you can create smart promotions with attractive prizes. It can help you increase followers, engagement, and even sales.
Create Halloween Guides And Series of Articles
You don’t necessarily need to hit up something very new. You can attract the audience and keep them engaged with what you do – producing original and unique content. People have been looking for Halloween ideas (recipes, humor, home decor, costume ideas, DIY projects, and party themes) on Pinterest since August, and searches are still ramping up. Not sure where to start? Use Google Trends and Pinterest to come up with ideas for creating articles and guides. Take a look at Facebook and see what people are talking about.
Sponsor Virtual Halloween Events
It’s Halloween, and your audience may expect special offers, content, or anything that excites them during the holiday — what could be better than hosting virtual events? There are two main reasons why you need to sponsor virtual events. First, there is the cost factor. This makes sense, especially given the post-Covid-19 world we live in. The second reason is these events allow you to reach out to a broader audience via your desktop.
There’s no doubt that events are a great way of driving traffic to your website. So make sure to find and post several local Halloween-related events on your website. You can even include goodies (if possible) with the tickets or send them Halloween-themed craft DIYs and decoration tutorials to the attendees. Later, you can repurpose the events and convert them into articles.
Other Seasonal Optimization Posts [Unlocked]:
Best Thanksgiving Strategies for Publishers
How to Optimize Your Setup based on Seasonality?
3 Super Bowl Strategies From the Top Publishers
At Automatad, we help publishers to monetize better without hampering the user experience. Our products are live across hundreds of publishers, earning them incremental ad revenue with every passing second. You can request a free audit to get an estimated revenue uplift today.
