So, you want to run a holiday Facebook ad this year.

Holiday and winter-themed promotions are different from ads you’d normally run on Facebook, given their specific and temporary nature. You want people to make an immediate purchase or hire you for a particular, seasonal service. Therefore, you’ll have to create your holiday Facebook ad with these goals in mind.

But have no fear! Follow our recommendations below to run a holiday Facebook ad that’s effective and successful.

Choose an Audience for Your Holiday Facebook Ad

First, identify the people you want to target with your holiday Facebook ad. To run successful ads, you need to target the kinds of people who will actually want to click on them. This is your “audience,” and you’ll decide what your typical audience member looks like:

• How old are they?
• What’s their gender?
• Where do they live?
• What’s their education level and occupation?
• What are their spending habits? (Yes, Facebook has access to this third-party data…)
• Are they homeowners? (Again, Facebook knows this through outside channels.)
• And more!

Note: If this is your first time running a Facebook ad, you may want to target your audience more broadly.

For instance, you might just say you want people age 18-65 in your home state to see your ad. Why? Since you haven’t run ads before, you probably don’t have much data regarding your target audience’s specific demographics and behaviors. Therefore, you don’t really want to narrow it down too much unless you’re super-confident in the profile you’ve created for your audience.

Set a Goal for Your Ad

What do you want to get out of your holiday Facebook ad? Do you want people to…

• Visit a specific page on your website?
• Buy your product?
• Contact you?
• Like your Facebook page?

Because you’re promoting a specific service for a short amount of time, your goal is probably for people to make a purchasing decision of some kind. If that’s the case, then you’ll want to set up your holiday Facebook ad with a “conversion” objective.

AgoraPulse advises, “Use the Conversion objective when your goal is to get people to convert for a specific action, whether that be opt-in, register or purchase.”

However, Facebook says you should only aim for conversions if you’re confident you can get a minimum of 50 conversions per week. In other words, only use this objective if you’re certain you can get at least 50 people to make a purchase, sign up for your program, or hire you in some way. Why? Because Facebook needs data about the people who convert so it can better optimize your ad and show it to even more people who are likely to convert.

If this sounds confusing, you’re not wrong. But just take Facebook’s word for it that your ad will be more successful if you can ensure a minimum of 50 conversions per week.

So, what if you’re not confident your holiday Facebook ad will get that many conversions in a week? You’ll want to use a “consideration” objective, instead. With this goal, your ad will increase things like website traffic, Facebook engagement, and lead generation, rather than purchasing decisions. These are still highly valuable actions!

Get all these tips simplified on a single page in our step-by-step guide!

Set a Budget for Your Ad

One of the reasons we love Facebook ads so much is that they use a super-simple billing system. In this regard, Facebook is much easier to use than Google AdWords.

Facebook simply charges you per day for each of your campaigns. So, all you have to do is decide how much you want to spend in total, and then divide that by the number of days your campaign will run.

During your ad campaign setup, Facebook will ask you how much you’d like to spend each day. This is where you input the daily spend you’ve calculated. Easy-peasy.

Create the Appearance of Your Ad

This is where practice makes perfect. You’ll probably end up experimenting with multiple versions of your holiday Facebook ad until you’re satisfied with how it looks.

However, the most important aspect of your ad is the image you use. Often, the success of an ad comes down to its visual component rather than its headline or messaging. People are visual creatures, after all.

Building on this fact, Facebook’s carousel ads take visual formatting to the next level by allowing you to display several different images and/or videos at once:

“The carousel format allows you to showcase up to 10 images or videos within a single ad, each with its own link. With more creative space within an ad, you can highlight different products, showcase specific details about one product, service or promotion, or tell a story about your brand that develops across each carousel card.”

In our own experience testing out different Facebook ad formats, we’ve had substantial success with carousel ads. We highly recommend at least trying out this format and seeing how it performs for you.

With all that being said, here are some general tips to keep in mind when developing the ad itself:

• Use a high-quality image with bright colors and a high contrast. This will make your ad leap off the screen.
• Make sure your image has a visually interesting subject to grab people’s attention. In most cases, it should represent the particular product or service you’re promoting.
• Use strong call-to-action language (e.g. “call now,” “click here,” “contact us today,” etc.).
• Make your ad’s headline count. Put the most important message right there in the headline so your audience can’t miss it.
• Your ad must link to a dedicated page on your website about the product or service you’re promoting.

You can find even more tips in our post, “How to Start Promoting Holiday Services in October (and Why You Should).” Go check it out!

Note: As the folks at RWL Design point out, there’s a significant increase in the number of people using Facebook on their smartphones during the holidays.

Whether it’s because they’re out shopping for gifts or attending holiday parties, they’re scrolling through their news feeds on their phones more often than on desktops. Therefore, you’ll want to be sure your Facebook ad looks great on mobile devices.

This means shorter text, concise call-to-actions, and light-colored images. Moreover, make sure the webpage your ad links to is mobile optimized, as well.

Get the Most Out of Your Holiday Facebook Ad

Phew! Did you catch all that?!

When you’re setting up your holiday Facebook ad, use this post as your guide. These tips apply to virtually any type of local business or service provider. If you follow our above suggestions and advice, you’ll have a stunning ad that targets the right audience and gets you the results you need—all without breaking the bank.

Good luck!