Did you hear about the cheese factory that got blown up? Da brie was everywhere.
Swimming with sharks is so expensive. It cost me an arm and a leg!
Dad jokes… whether you love ’em or hate ’em, one thing’s for sure – you’ll always chuckle because even if they aren’t that funny, your dad gets a kick out of them, and you can’t help but humor him.
All jokes aside, Father’s Day, which is June 19th, will be here before you know it. It’s one of the last major holidays before the end of Q2, which means it’s the perfect opportunity to cash in and reach your quarterly sales goals.
According to the National Retail Federation (NFR), 75% of people planned to celebrate Father’s Day last year. If we look at data from the last few years, consumer spend has been on an upward trajectory, each year hitting a new record. In 2020, people spent just under $150 on cards, gifts, and experiences for the father figures in their lives. That number climbed to $174 in 2021, totaling about $20.1 billion.
Data from Numerator shows that 2022 celebrations will be even bigger, with 83% of people planning to celebrate. Nearly 50% of consumers will turn to online retailers to buy gifts for dad, making this year’s campaigns all the more important for advertisers and publishers.
We’ve rounded up everything you need to know to help you get your marketing campaigns and content strategy ready, including last year’s product trends and this year’s predictions, the news trends already capturing consumer attention, and the targeting and creative strategies guaranteed to make your campaigns successful.
Last Year’s Holi-dad Trends
Skimlinks’ (a Taboola-owned company) data revealed some fairly predictable trends around the hottest products consumers purchase on the open web, from the top verticals, including Sports, Technology, and Lifestyle. Plus, the content that earned the most clicks.
Top-Performing Father’s Day Content
Articles and guides centered around gifts for new dads, unique gift ideas and last-minute gifts generated the highest commissions and the most clicks.
Top-Performing Merchants for Father’s Day
The merchants that scored big for the holiday included themed subscription box service Bespoke Post, Craft Jerky Company, Huckberry, MasterClass, and Uncommon Goods.
Top-Selling Father’s Day Gifts
Gifts that were best-sellers included educational experiences, delicious bites and booze, and lifestyle products that fed into dad’s hobbies.
What’s Pop-ping Up on Dad’s Wishlist for 2022?
Dads give everything to their families, but what do they want for themselves? We expect to see many of last year’s trends carry into this year. The predicted pandemic baby boom didn’t quite materialize last year, but experts see signs of it emerging this year, meaning there will be lots of new dads.
Partners, spouses, and newly-minted grandparents will all be shopping for the perfect first Father’s Day gifts. Also, with gyms and fitness clubs back at it, plus warm summer days, all types of sports gear should be in demand.
If spending trends continue growing, promoting higher-end electronics and tech gadgets in gift guides could benefit your bottom line. If those items resonate with your audience, consider featuring smart home tech, sound systems, new phones and tablets, and fitness tech products. Clothing items usually top the gift-giving list.
Since consumers are shifting towards valuing sustainable products, think about promoting eco-friendly fashion.
And although grilling certainly isn’t a dad-only passion, plenty would love gifts related to outdoor entertaining, including beer subscription boxes, new BBQs, high-tech thermometers, or anything that makes them feel like a top chef.
Lastly, we believe Father’s Day flowers will be popular, especially with the last-minute gift buying crowd. A card and a bouquet can be quite a hit. Many retailers like From You Flowers construct special ‘arrangements’ for the holiday, including tasty snacks, balloons, and buds.
Pa-pular News Trends
When you want to generate high-quality traffic, you need to produce content and campaigns that speak directly to consumer interests. There’s no better way to know what people are searching for than to look at publisher search trends.
Include the following keyword trends in your headlines to attract the most article clicks and ensure your campaigns are shown next to contextually relevant publisher content.
As of May 10th, data from our US publisher network shows the following search trends are gaining steam:
Father Day: 209,070 pageviews over the last 90 days, up +1430%
Dad: 7,162,710 pageviews over the last 90 days, up +6%
Grandpa: 148,020 pageviews over the last 90 days, up +18%
Publishers Giving Props to Pops
Fathers set examples and inspire their kids and family. In the same vein, you can get inspired by the articles top publishers produce to target Father’s Day shoppers.
Let’s look at some publisher examples.
TODAY’s gift guide mentions two top product categories: clothes and electronics.
Business Insider created a gift buying guide that includes items for dads with all interests and focuses on shoppers with a set budget.
POPSUGAR taps into two Father’s Day trends: unique gifts and personalized presents.
Dad-a Backed Targeting Best Practices
Dads can dole out tons of valuable advice and wisdom, but we think you’ll prefer to take your cues from data when it comes to marketing campaigns and ad budgets.
We’ve rounded up the best targeting strategies that you should use to make the most of your campaign spend.
Here are the ones that generate the most engagement and conversions:
SmartBid: SmartBid, Taboola’s automated bidding tool, takes the guesswork out of bidding by using historical data and deep learning to increase or decrease your impression bid based on the likelihood of conversion.
High Impact Placements: With Taboola’s High Impact Placements, your campaigns will appear next to brand-safe content in the most prominent areas of top publisher sites, such as on homepages and section fronts, mid-article, and at the beginning of Taboola Feeds and Stories.
Motion Ads: Motion Ads feature GIFs or short looped videos instead of static images to ensure your campaigns capture the most attention in Taboola Feeds, resulting in higher CVRs and lower CPAs. As always, A/B test your creatives to optimize campaign performance.
Knowing which type of content you should promote and the platform you should target based on your campaign goals will put you miles ahead of your competitors.
Don’t worry; we’re not keeping this a secret from you or dear old dad!
As of May 1st, US-based advertisers in the Lifestyle vertical experienced higher CTRs and lower spend with the following targeting:
Top Content Type (30 days): Video over Photo and Text
Performance by Platform – Brand Awareness (3 months): Mobile over Desktop and Tablet
Performance by Platform – Leads (3 months): Tablet over Desktop and Mobile
Performance by Platform – Purchases (3 months): Mobile and Tablet over Desktop
Creative Best Practices to Make Campaigns Pop
The images, videos, and headlines you choose for your marketing campaigns can significantly impact CTRs, CVRs, and viewability. Each should be selected with care and intention, but how do you know which choices to make?
Taboola Trends is a tool that will give you the answers you need to launch your campaign with confidence. It analyzes billions of campaign impressions and clicks to surface the characteristics that will produce the best results. For image data, don’t forget to filter the results by vertical.
As of May 2, US advertisers in the Sports vertical should consider the following:
Images: Give your campaign CTRs a boost by using black and white photos that include food but not animals.
Video Completion Rates: To see higher completion rates, select footage with winter scenes, illustrations, and men, but skip anything with animals.
Video Viewability Rates: Increase viewability rates by showing people climbing, driving, and getting married.
Headlines: We tested four headlines that incorporate some of the trends discussed previously to see which one has the highest predicted CTR. The Title Analyzer identified ’50 Father’s Day Gifts for the Dad That Has Everything’ as the winner.
Example Campaigns: Here’s what your campaigns might look like if you applied the trends and creative strategies:
Brands that Pop-ped with Taboola Campaigns
Consumer Electronics Company
To expand its base of potential customers, drive new sales, and maximize its marketing budget, a leading US consumer electronics company promoted its latest line of 4K/Ultra-High Definition TVs through Taboola’s discovery platform. The Taboola campaigns generated a 300% higher ROAS and an 11X lower cost-per-session than the company’s related search campaigns.
Adidas
Adidas partnered with Taboola Studio and produced unique video content with overlaid CTAs to increase awareness for its BOOST footwear technology. Using Taboola Video to promote the new content, Adidas saw a 50% increase in CTR and a 25% higher CTR than other video platforms.
Mornin’ Glory
When Mornin’ Glory wanted to enter a new market, it turned to Taboola, seeking high-quality converting traffic with a high ROI. Through Taboola targeting and optimization, the brand achieved a 1483% increase in CVR and a 10% increase in overall native ad CVR.
Make Your Campaigns go Fa-ther
When creating your native campaigns and content, apply all of the tips, data, and strategies we’ve covered in this post, so you don’t make a ‘faux pa.’
Focus on creating and promoting a variety of guides that feature in-demand products that will resonate with your audience, and A/B test your ads to find the elements that deliver the best results.