Valentine’s Day is the first big campaign of the year for brands. How can digital marketers take advantage of it and reach their target audience?

More than 50% of adults celebrate Valentine’s Day, which means that this is a great opportunity for marketers to promote their products in the most appealing way.

Bing has released a guide to Valentine’s Day for digital marketers to help advertisers get a better understanding of the occasion, and take advantage of the fact that there was an estimated spending of $19.7 billion last year for the day.

Given that there was a 4% increase in consumer spending from 2015 to 2016, Valentine’s Day 2017 could be even bigger. So here are the tips that marketers need to know:

Think of a wider audience

Planning for an effective campaign should start with an analysis of the target audience. It has been observed that the recipients of a Valentine’s Day gift go beyond romantic partners, with more than half of adult Americans identifying themselves as single. This does not stop them from celebrating the occasion with family, friends, co-workers, or pets.

This means that marketers can beat their competitors by targeting a wider audience, trying to include all the different types of gifts someone may be searching for for Valentine’s Day.

Pick the right keywords

The right use of keywords depends on a proper understanding of your target users. As we’ve seen, gifts go beyond husbands and wives, with friends coming second in the searches for Valentine’s Day on Bing.

Pick the right timing

Valentine’s Day is an occasion of short planning and quick turnaround, with 46% of searches and shopping taking place in early February. Only 23% of shopping occurs in January, while 10% takes place on the day before the occasion.

This brings out a great opportunity for marketers who are present at the right time, just when the searches and clicks increase. 

It’s important for marketers to ensure that their budget will last until the final day of the campaign. Budgeting carefully for the week preceding the 14th is especially crucial, as this is the period that clicks peak.

How to optimise search for Valentine’s Day

It has been observed that the use of desktop and mobile devices is almost equal in Valentine’s Day searches, which means that mobile optimisation is crucial.

48% of all Bing searches for Valentine’s Day in 2016 were performed on a mobile device, up 8 percentage points from 2015.

Moreover, 30.5% use mobile to research products or compare prices.

The power of mobile

As mobile search keeps increasing, marketers need to improve their mobile ads to ensure that they drive the desired engagement.

Multiple extensions tend to be more effective, with site link extensions, location extensions, and call extensions leading to higher click-through rates.

This is an interesting reflection of what makes a successful mobile ad, as it helps marketers understand what the audience expects from a targeted mobile ad.

Overview

Valentine’s Day cannot be ignored by marketers, and despite the inevitably short lifespan of Valentine’s campaigns, they can still be converted into increased sales and new customers.

To sum up, these are Bing’s suggestions on how to create a successful campaign for Valentine’s Day:

• Prioritize high-value audiences
• Focus on last-minute timing
• Prioritize mobile search
• Create campaigns around trending Valentine’s Day gifts.