Valentine’s Day is the first big sales day after the Christmas holidays. The consumer economy is coming out of sleep after January and revitalizing with the theme of love and bonding.
What does this mean for affiliate marketing? How best to prepare your campaigns before the holiday? What to focus the attention on? Let’s break this down.
How to make affiliate marketing on Valentine’s Day effective?
Valentine’s Day, or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is a Christian holiday celebrated on February 14. Over time, however, it has become not only a religious but also a cultural and commercial day to celebrate romance and love around the world, across different denominations and cultures.
Before giving specific campaign advice, let’s understand the nature of the holiday and what audiences take part in it.
Who celebrates Valentine’s Day?
To understand which audience is active on this day, it’s worth looking at the average spending patterns on February 14. The target audience for this holiday is young people from 25 to 45 years old, with men buying gifts more often and spending more on average. The average check in Western countries often exceeds $100 for women and $200 for men. This means it’s a great opportunity to acquire new customers.
Couples exchange gifts in the first place, followed by signs of attention from singles to their romantic interests, relatives, and friends. Recently, two other groups have emerged: pet owners, who treat their beloved pets on this day, and those in the anti-Valentine’s Day movement, who do not accept this holiday and also make protest spending related to it.
Men spend considerably more on this holiday, so it makes sense to organize campaigns aimed at gender, with the messages “for him” and “for her”.
What gifts do people buy on Valentine’s Day?
Gifts on this day are bought for their loved ones, and often it is something nice, but not too expensive.
Women are often given flowers, sweets, jewelry, clothing, and gift certificates. They are also invited to restaurants and events to make the evening memorable (however, it is worth taking into account the current pandemic restrictions).
Men often receive small tokens of appreciation as gifts from their soulmates – delicious meals for dinner, clothes, souvenir alcohol, but it can also be something more expensive – for example, some gadgets or even a watch.
Verticals to focus on Valentine’s Day
The vertical that reigns this holiday is e-Commerce, because, after love, all the talk is about gifts. Especially those who offer clothes, food, and adult products win.
Next comes the Dating vertical, because no one wants to be alone on that day, and the week before the holiday, the activity of the dating apps skyrockets.
Next up are the Nutra and Health & Beauty verticals – spending goes both on beautifying yourself for your loved ones and on self-care gifts for them.
Usually the Travel vertical has also blossomed on this day, but in recent years, for obvious reasons, it is not particularly worth counting on.
What are top-performing GEOs on Valentine’s Day?
Valentine’s Day is an old Catholic Christian holiday, and it has been declared a general day of celebration of love and affection since the 15th century. That is why its geography, despite its recent expansion outside the Catholic world, corresponds to its origins.
In first place are all the countries of the Anglosphere, as the most active spenders on this holiday. Next comes Europe, with a focus on Western Europe. Next is Latin America, which has a huge Catholic population.
Then there are some countries in Asia, where this western tradition caught up, namely the Philippines, Indonesia, and Taiwan.
Africa and the Middle East remain a low priority for this holiday. Western countries from Tier 1 get most of the pie this time.
Best formats to use on Valentine’s Day?
As with any tied-to-date event, the demand strives on urgency. You should expect two bursts of interest: about a week before the holiday when people start to think about gifts, and on the holiday itself, when people are ready to spend money on their loved ones or remember about gifts at the last minute.
Good solutions in advance are any kind of push notifications that would guide interested users to the holiday and help them solve their Valentine’s Day gift/activity selection problem.
On the day of the holiday itself, you can up the game by focusing on pop traffic, especially when it comes to the dating and e-commerce verticals. The closer to the evening, the more likely the user will jump at the hot offer.
Keep in mind that shoppers aren’t so much focused on the trivia of the celebration as they are on the people they want to show their affection to, so stay focused on your creatives and get straight to the point. People need to buy gifts and have an unforgettable evening rather than learn entertaining facts.
Other useful tips for Valentine’s Day campaign
Advertising campaigns for February 14, like the holiday itself, have a long tradition and common places regardless of verticals and ad formats you choose. Follow these tips and you’ll be able to hit your audience’s demand and get a nice boost to your start of the year sales.
Design your branding and creatives in the theme of the holiday: hearts, shades of red and pink, love themes, romance.
Offer gift lists. This is one of the most frequent searches at this time, and the more solutions you offer, the higher the conversion will be.
Don’t forget that the holiday is not just about couples. Remember about single people looking for a couple, pet owners, even anti-Valentine activists.
The fear of missing out is high this day. Create a sense of urgency, the importance of getting it now – arranging a date, buying the best gift, grabbing a coupon or a discount.
And be sure to prepare your campaign in advance, test your demographics, and make your creatives ready – so that you’re all set by February 14.
Hopefully, with our tips, you’ll be able to win the hearts of many new users on that day!
Start your Valentine campaign at RollerAds today!
