It’s that time of year again! Lights, carols, and last but not least, holiday shopping. For many shoppers, holiday shopping is a stressful and daunting task. So how can brands use Facebook to help their customers with this intimidating feat? Strategic uses of Ad Types, Targeting options, and Ad Placements can help ensure your customer won’t turn into The Grinch this holiday season!

Ad Types

Page Post Offer Ads are a must-use. Brands post an offer on their Facebook page to their current fan base and that offer can subsequently be turned into an ad for wider reach and engagement. Offers are a great way to provide an exclusive offer to reward a brand’s current fans, or as a way to acquire new fans who are likely to shop in your store. Either way, the offer is a great way to drive sales and lift engagement, making it a win-win for both brands and customers.

Sponsored Stories, an oldie-but-goody, should also be considered. Sponsored Stories are essentially messages going out to a user’s friends about their engagements with your page, app or event. Not only do Sponsored Stories help brands increase their fan base, but they also allow customers to see what brands their friends like and products they are looking to buy. Knowing what friends like can help customers think of gift ideas.

Targeting

For brands looking to drive purchases offsite, Facebook Exchange is the way to go. This real-time bidding and ad-purchasing strategy within Facebook allows brands to re-target consumers who have visited their website, shopping cart, opened up an email or visited any other location where cookies can be placed by the Brand. Cookies should be placed on sites prior to Black Friday so that brands can use data collected and re-target those customers for future holiday promotions.

Custom Audience Targeting allows brands to reach a specific set of users by their email addresses, Facebook User IDs, or phone numbers. Brands can match their email and phone lists with Facebook’s user data and create ads targeted to this specific set of users. What’s great about this targeting option is that you are able to reach people who have already engaged with your brand, and thus have a high predisposition to become fans, engage with your brand further on Facebook, and ultimately, purchase your product.

Placement

For most people, the holiday season is jam-packed with visits from relatives, ski trips, and other vacations, leaving little to no time to spend sitting at a computer. So how will brands ensure that users will see their ads? Brands should make sure that their Sponsored Stories and Page Post Ads are being placed on the Mobile Newsfeed. With 600M mobile users, the mobile newsfeed is an ideal place for brands to advertise during the holidays and reach those users who are getting their social media fix at Grandma’s house by sneaking peeks on their phones.

All of these tactics can lessen the burden of holiday shopping for your best customers, leaving more time to focus on spending time with loved ones this season!