Marketers are heavily reallocating budgets toward offsite retail media, with spend expected to peak during Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM), according to data from TripleLift.
The supply side platform’s Christmas retail media guide reveals that 46% of marketers are reallocating budgets, with 23% introducing new incremental investment. Almost 60% of marketers are taking a “measured, incremental approach,” expecting to increase their Q4 retail media spend of up to 20%.
The report also shows that marketers allocate between 40-50% of their Q4 campaign budget during BFCM, with a strong emphasis on conversion-focused tactics. This is reflected in other tentpole events as well – TripleLift identified a 289% increase in ad spend during Amazon’s October Prime Days, compared to the usual daily ad spend across formats such as native, display, and video.
“The intense competition around Black Friday requires a change in approach,” said Frazer Locke, SVP International Sales at TripleLift. “It’s no longer enough to just offer a discount, you need a strategic, data-driven narrative that converts peaks into lasting momentum. Brands must use the powerful first-party data generated ahead of the peak period to make better decisions and be more precise in their targeting. They can gather clean audience insights from these ‘lead-in’ campaigns and use them for the actual promotional period. This is valuable for both retargeting audiences contextually and extending their reach via contextual environments and lookalike audiences.
“Additionally, marketers should use learnings to fuel campaigns beyond those major events, keeping consumers engaged long after the holiday lights come down. This means unifying onsite and offsite efforts and leveraging high-impact formats to capture attention early, making creative excellence the true performance driver.”
TripleLift’s report also shares five tips should adopt:
- Perfect your audience targeting: Targeting strategies should be influenced by shopper behaviour and shopping intent, with seasonal segment strategies the most widely used (75%).
- Focus on creative excellence: Marketers should leverage AI-enhanced formats and personalised creative that adapts in real-time
- Bet on high-performing ad formats: High engagement formats like native (79%) and video (75%) are considered most effective.
- Measure beyond ROAS: Measurement should be approached more holistically, focusing on metrics such as incrementality, new customer acquisition, and lifetime value across retail networks.
- Turn peaks into momentum: BFCM campaign data and insights should be used to inform part of an ongoing retail media strategy throughout the entire holiday season.
