Graphic shows a small and medium wrapped gift and a third large gift, already unwrapped.

Holiday retail segments can help advertisers build on shopping season momentum

As consumer spending climbs, advertisers can work toward standing out during the saturated holiday shopping period with the help of retail data. While holiday ad campaign planning typically happens toward the end of Q2 — especially for CPG brands — it’s not too late to get your message in front of shoppers.


Black Friday — the discount shopping tradition on the day after Thanksgiving — marks the beginning of the most important shopping season for most American CPGs, and now other advertisers across industries and the globe are joining in too. Black Friday sales in the U.S. reached $10.8 billion in 2024, increasing by 10.2% from the previous year.¹ Globally, digital sales reached $74.4 billion within the 24-hour period, up 7% year over year, according to Salesforce.²

By leveraging key customer segments as a core part of their media plans, CPGs can further boost their holiday sales momentum and distribute messages that encourage shoppers to buy.

Here are three ways The Trade Desk’s customer data segments from retailers can help CPG brands build momentum throughout the holiday season.

Targeted ads for motivated shoppers

“Should I make a purchase?” is typically the question that consumers of CPG brands ask themselves for most of the year. But during the holiday season, those consumers become gift-shoppers and party hosts, and the question shifts — “Should I make a purchase?” becomes “What should I purchase?” To that end, a whopping 83% of gift-givers say they find ads helpful when holiday shopping.³

With the Trade Desk's marketplace of holiday customer segments, advertisers can reach the right audience with messages that help your customers decide where to spend their gift budgets.

Expanded reach aimed at net-new shoppers

Retail data segments can be used alongside media buyers’ existing first- and third-party data to unlock unique reach while scaling an audience-centered strategy.

Retail data can also be used to segment shoppers based on lapsed buying behavior, competitive brand purchases, and relevant life stage and lifestyle audiences. This audience-first approach can enable you to expand your brands’ reach from existing customers to those likely to become new customers.

Complimentary sales measurement

When you activate audience segments, many retailers provide access to sales measurement as well.

This measurement data gets aggregated in the Retail Sales Index report, where you can see total sales and ROAS at specific retailers, as well as a holistic view of performance across retailers. As such, activating segments in the platform can open up new opportunities for collecting useful performance data that can improve campaigns.

Here are just a few examples of key holiday customer segments you can activate on our platform today to help you enhance your holiday campaigns.

No matter when you start your holiday planning, activating the right segments to reach your audience may be the key to success during the busiest shopping season. We offer over 40 global retail data partners that provide access to verified purchase and loyalty program data to help you reach the right customers.


Contact us or reach out to your account representative to turn on holiday audience segments and continue building momentum throughout the holiday season.


Sources:

1. Adobe, “2024 Holiday Shopping Trends.”
2. Salesforce, “Salesforce Data Reveals New Cyber Week All-Time High: $314.9B in Global Sales,” December 4, 2024.
3. The Trade Desk Intelligence and Appinio, holiday shopping research, USA, March 2024.