Geek Speak Ep. 6: Holiday Advertising Hacks – How to Build Profitable Meta and Google Funnels for Key Seasons

by Art Lindop

Thursday, January 2, 2025

Key seasonal moments are a goldmine for brands, but they also bring fierce competition and rising ad costs. For brands in health, wellness, or gifting, capitalising on January’s health-conscious resolutions, Valentine’s Day’s romantic fervour, and Mother’s Day’s sentimentality can be incredibly profitable with the right funnel strategy.

At Alphageek, we believe the secret to seasonal success lies in creating well-structured Meta and Google advertising funnels tailored to your audience. Here, we’ll show you how to make these seasonal moments count—turning high competition into high returns.

1. Prep Early: Plan Your Funnel Before the Season Starts

Seasonal campaigns require preparation. Start crafting your strategy weeks (or even months) ahead of the key dates. A well-prepared funnel allows you to build awareness and nurture interest, ensuring your audience is primed to convert when demand peaks.

Steps to Prepare:

Audit Past Data: Look at previous performance data for January health resolutions, Valentine’s Day, or Mother’s Day. Identify which creatives, audiences, and ad formats drove results. This will give you a head start on what approaches are likely to resonate this year.
Define Your Offers: Build offers that attract new customers on mass. For example, a percentage discount or an exclusive new customer deal. When crafting this offer, ensure the reduction in margin is offset by a significantly lower blended cost per purchase and cost of new customer acquisition. Model these adjustments into your forecasted ad spend to ensure profitability at scale.
Plan Split Testing Opportunities: Each offer should have built-in testing opportunities. The right psychological lever—such as “buy one, get one free” versus a “20% off” discount—can make a massive difference. Testing these variations helps you pinpoint what drives the most conversions for your audience.
Stock Up: Ensure your inventory and fulfillment processes can handle increased demand. Nothing kills seasonal momentum like running out of stock mid-campaign.

2. Build Awareness with Meta’s Hunter Role

At the top of the funnel, use Meta to generate awareness and interest. As a “hunter” platform, Meta excels at putting your brand in front of new audiences and sparking curiosity.

Tactics for Awareness:

Use Broad Targeting: Lean into Meta’s AI to identify potential customers for seasonal campaigns. Broad targeting paired with Advantage+ can optimise reach while testing audience reactions.
Engage with Video: Short-form videos (Reels, Stories) showcasing lifestyle-driven use cases are ideal for January health brands or emotional gifting moments like Valentine’s Day. Videos have a higher engagement rate and often outperform static ads in generating clicks.
Highlight the Seasonal Hook: Create ads with seasonal visuals and copy to instantly connect your audience with the moment. For example:
- “Start your health journey today” for January.
- “Say it with chocolate this Valentine’s” for gifting brands.
Leverage Influencer Partnerships: Partner with creators to showcase your products in authentic and relatable ways. Influencers can be especially impactful during high-intent seasons like Valentine’s or Mother’s Day, where trust and relatability drive purchases.

3. Nurture Consideration with Retargeting

Once you’ve built awareness, retarget users who’ve engaged with your ads or visited your website. The goal here is to reinforce interest and move users further down the funnel.

Meta Retargeting Tactics:

Dynamic Product Ads: For e-commerce brands, show personalised ads highlighting products users have viewed or added to their carts. Pair this with messaging that reinforces urgency, such as “Selling Fast!” or “Limited Stock Available.”
Carousel Ads: Showcase product categories or bestsellers to help undecided shoppers explore their options. This format works well for gift-focused campaigns by offering users a range of choices.
Seasonal Social Proof: Use testimonials or reviews tied to the season, like “These supplements helped me crush my New Year’s resolutions” or “My mum loved this personalised gift last Mother’s Day.”

Google Retargeting Tactics:

YouTube Ads: Use video to retarget users who searched for related terms or visited your website, keeping your brand top-of-mind. Showcase your unique value proposition in these ads.
Display Ads: Serve visually appealing reminders across Google’s network to nurture interest in users who didn’t immediately convert. Ensure the visuals align with the season and carry a clear call-to-action.

4. Drive Conversions with Google’s Gatherer Role

Google is your “gatherer”—perfect for capturing intent and driving final conversions. By the time users reach the bottom of the funnel, they’re actively searching for products and services, making Google’s search and shopping ads indispensable.

Conversion Strategies:

Target High-Intent Keywords: Bid on seasonal search terms such as “Valentine’s Day gifts,” “best supplements for weight loss,” or “Mother’s Day personalised chocolates.” Use exact match for precision.
Leverage Shopping Ads: Showcase your products directly in search results with enticing images, clear pricing, and review ratings. Highlight any discounts or offers prominently.
Use Countdown Extensions: Highlight time-sensitive offers to create urgency, e.g., “Ends in 3 days.” This is particularly effective during flash sales or the final days leading up to the seasonal event.
Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA): Adjust bids for returning users who’ve interacted with your brand during earlier funnel stages. This ensures you’re capturing the most engaged users.

5. Measure and Optimise in Real-Time

Seasonal campaigns move quickly, and your ability to adapt can make or break results. Use real-time data to identify what’s working and refine your approach.

What to Monitor:

CTR and CPC: These are early indicators of creative and audience effectiveness. Ads with low CTRs may need refreshed messaging or visuals.
ROAS: Assess whether your campaigns are profitable and adjust budgets accordingly. A lagging ROAS may signal the need for a shift in targeting or creative.
Blended Metrics: Evaluate performance across Meta and Google to get a full-funnel perspective. Look for synergies between platforms, such as Meta driving branded searches on Google.
Conversion Insights: Identify which products or offers are driving the most sales and optimise ad spend towards these.

At Alphageek, we operate a central live reporting dashboard, ensuring feedback loops are immediate. During key periods, you can’t afford to wait weeks or months for data analysis. Real-time insights allow us to optimise budgets and creative on the fly, maximising ROI in competitive markets.

6. Post-Seasonal Retention: Capitalise on New Customers

The end of the seasonal period doesn’t mean the end of opportunity. Retain new customers and turn them into loyal advocates by nurturing relationships post-purchase.

Retention Tactics:

Email Marketing: Follow up with personalised thank-you messages and cross-sell related products. Ongoing email efforts keep your brand top-of-mind and drive repeat purchases.
Loyalty Programs: Incentivise repeat purchases with points, rewards, or exclusive early access to future sales. For example, “Join now and get 10% off your next order!”
Meta and Google Retargeting: Use custom audiences to re-engage seasonal buyers. Tailor ads to highlight complementary products or upcoming sales.

The effort spent acquiring customers during peak periods pays dividends when followed up with consistent retention strategies. If your acquisition efforts are profitable, ongoing repurchasing efforts will significantly enhance long-term profitability.

Final Thoughts: Alphageek’s Seasonal Funnel Framework

Seasonal campaigns are your chance to maximise visibility and conversions when consumer demand is at its peak. By using Meta as your hunter to build awareness and Google as your gatherer to capture intent, you can create a seamless funnel that drives results.

Though many brands aim for an “always-on” approach to their funnels, the reality is that most success comes from capitalising on key cycles within the yearly marketing calendar. Identify periods to double down on growth and quieter times to nurture existing customers.

Whether you’re promoting health supplements for New Year’s resolutions, chocolates for Valentine’s, or thoughtful gifts for Mother’s Day, the principles remain the same: prepare early, stay adaptable, and measure obsessively.

At Alphageek, we’re here to help you build profitable seasonal funnels that don’t just survive the competition—they thrive.

Ready to maximise your seasonal campaigns? Let’s chat.