Merchants: How to prep now for back-to-school

In just over a month American children will be going back to primary and secondary schools, and packing for college and university dorms. Which means parents are already making lists. Which means the time is now for merchants to be prepping their sites and stores for an influx of shoppers. Here's how.

by Kristina Knight

First, look to past campaign performance

"We recommend a two-fold approach: preparation and iterative execution. Brands need to examine their best-performing campaigns and creative for insights that can inform future efforts," said Gabriel Herrera, GM - Americas, Smartly.io. "For example, look into the last time you ran a successful sale or promotion or dive into last year's Holiday data. Try to determine what your winning creative strategies were, how you set up those campaigns, and if there has been any recent creative testing to help you better understand your audience. All these are insights that will help inform how to best approach back-to-school."

Second, allow time for troubleshooting

"Historical insights aside, there are also some key tactical steps to take to ensure a successful back-to-school campaign," said Herrera. "First, to allow time for troubleshooting and QA, Marketers should set everything up a few days prior to the sale period. To do this, set up campaigns and ads in a paused state to allow time for Facebook ad approval."

Third, increase ad spending over time

"When it comes to budgeting, build up budgets to prepare for maximum spend and don't triple budgets overnight - work up to your maximum budget by stress-testing several weekends prior. This will allow you to judge the market, competition, and make changes accordingly," said Herrera. "Also, be prepared to frequently adjust your budget breakdown - for example, you can expect a much shorter sales cycle when running a sale. This means your prospecting audiences will most likely convert quicker, resulting in lower cost-per-acquisition than usual. Be quick on your toes and prepare to allocate more budget than usual toward prospecting. You should also expect to bid higher than usual as there will be more competition that will hike up CPM costs in the auctions - conversion rates are typically higher during these shopping seasons which make up for the elevated costs."

Tags: advertising, back to school, bts advertising, bts trends, ecommerce, m:commerce, mobile marketing, Smartly.io