Mom’s big day is upon us and, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF), people are spending more than ever honoring the women who raised them. In the 16 years since the NRF began its survey, Mother’s Day spending has never been higher — $24.95 billion in 2019, up from $23.1 billion in 2018.
Shopping plans are vast and varied. Greeting cards, flowers, gift cards, and clothes and accessories top the list of Mother’s Day gifts.
This means marketing agencies have a big opportunity to help clients across the board — in lifestyle, fashion, home, education, and technology verticals — reach Mother’s Day shoppers with engaging campaigns.
To help in this mission, we tap into Taboola Trends to find the most effective images, keywords, and ad distribution times in each of these categories. Even if you only sell one product in these verticals, use our data to guide you and make your Mother’s Day campaign as click-worthy as possible.
Let’s take a look.
Mother’s Day Lifestyle Campaigns
Reach people buying flowers, greeting cards, and gift cards with these best practices for lifestyle campaigns, based on analysis of over 74 million clicks and 38 billion impressions.
Launch Ads from 6-7 AM
Ad spend is highest from 9-10 AM, yet that’s when clicks begin to drop off. According to our data, there’s an opportunity for lifestyle marketers to reach audiences from 6-7 AM, when clickthrough rate (CTR) reaches its peak and people are waking up or on their way to work.
Reach Consumers on Sunday and Thursday
Spend is highest on Friday and Monday, but it turns out the days before those days bring a rise in engagement from lifestyle content consumers.
If lifestyle marketers and publishers want to reach Mother’s Day shoppers, they’d be wise to launch campaigns on Sunday and Thursday, and see if that yields a higher CTR.
Create Images with Food, Color, and Illustrations
According to our data, lifestyle images with food see a 68% higher CTR than those without. And images with women see a 27% higher CTR than those with men. Other factors driving engagement are color, illustrations, and close-up shots.
Take this Instagram image from LUSH Australia & New Zealand. It features the brand’s colorful ‘Super Mum’ bath bombs for Mother’s Day, placing them in a graphic composition with illustrated capes attached. (Also, they’re not edible, but they do kind of look like candy, you must admit!)
Use Keywords such as ‘Eat,’ ‘Everyone’ and ‘Video’
Food is where it’s at with lifestyle content these days. (I know you’re still thinking how delicious those bath bombs look!) Boost your campaign with high-engagement keywords such as ‘eat,’ ‘everyone’ and ‘foods.’ Avoid keywords with a lot of competition such as ‘year,’ ‘start’ and ‘free.’
There’s even an opportunity to reach consumers with keywords such as ‘phenomena,’ ‘risks’ and ‘video.’ These have low spend, but high potential for CTR.
For example, here’s what Mother’s Day ads might look like for lifestyle consumers across stages of the marketing funnel:
You can also test your titles with the Title Analyzer to find the highest-performing copy for your Mother’s Day campaign. Enter your titles to see if they have a high or low predicted CTR.
Mother’s Day Fashion Campaigns
We analyzed over 37 million clicks and 17 billion impressions to help you reach clothing and jewelry shoppers this Mother’s Day.
Distribute Ads at 6 PM
Before engagement dips around 7 PM, there’s a spike in clicks at 6 PM, likely when people are heading home from work and browsing content that meets their interests. This is precisely the time when lifestyle marketers and publishers can reach prospective shoppers with ads.
Launch Campaigns on Wednesday and Thursday
Competition for attention is too tough on the weekends. Do your CTR a favor, shift your spend to Wednesdays and Thursdays when clicks are on the rise and the landscape isn’t too crowded yet.
Use Photos, Food, and Close-Ups for Images
Illustrations may work for lifestyle campaigns, but fashion campaigns demand photos, food, indoor shots, and close-ups for higher CTR.
Alex and Ani, for example, created a Mother’s Day Gift Guide featuring vintage snapshots, inspirational quotes, and corresponding bracelets for moms.
Incorporate Keywords such as ‘Sunglasses,’ ‘Method’ and ‘Indoor’
Are you selling sunglasses that are so cool you can wear them indoors? Now’s your chance! Keywords such as ‘method’ and ‘indoor’ can increase engagement, while keywords such as ‘love,’ ‘shoes’ and ‘shop’ see too much competition.
You can also reach Mother’s Day shoppers with opportunity keywords such as ‘sunglasses’ and ‘dermatologist’ — both good solutions for protecting yourself from sun damage.
In fact, here’s an idea of how these keywords might look in a campaign for a fashion website:
How to Create Genuine Native Content
Mother’s Day Home Campaigns
Over 28 million clicks and 24 billion impressions later, we have these best practices for engaging homeware and gardening-tool shoppers this Mother’s Day.
Reach Consumers from 6-7 AM
Bang out your lifestyle and home campaigns in one shot by taking advantage of that 6-7 AM window, when spend is low but clicks are high. Whatever you do, avoid 8-9 PM. Yikes.
Distribute Ads on Sunday and Wednesday
Tuesday is a no-go and Saturday brings a dip in CTR, but Sunday and Wednesday provide a big opportunity for driving engagement with home-related content.
Build Images with Close-Ups, Color but no Text
Images with people don’t always yield clicks. When it comes to home-related content, however, they’re the key to increasing CTR by 53%. Close-ups also have a major impact on CTR, as do color images and photos without text or food.
Home Depot got it right last Mother’s Day with this sweet, close-up picture of a mom and child enjoying one of the store’s Kids Workshops.
Try Keywords such as ‘House,’ ‘Clean’ and ‘Midcentury’
Looks and cleanliness matter when it comes to home shopping. That’s reflected in these engagement keywords. Meanwhile, competition keywords such as ‘mattress’ and ‘pay’ might be too pricey these days.
You can also spice up your ad copy with opportunity keywords such as ‘shark,’ ‘thrive’ and ‘found.’ Now that sounds like a fun article!
Here’s a quick take on what a home campaign could look like with these keyword trends:
Mother’s Day Education Campaigns
Learn about education-based content that reaches book and music shoppers with these insights, based on analysis of over 5 million clicks and 6 billion impressions.
Launch Ads from 7-10 AM
Late morning is the best time to reach audiences interested in education-based content. This is likely when they’re commuting to school or work and seeking stimulating information to get their brains geared up for the day.
Reach Audiences on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday
Learning is for the working week, playing is for the weekend — according to our latest data for education-based content. To drive clicks, distribute ads at the start and middle of the week, before CTR decreases on Saturday and Sunday.
Create Images at a Distance with Color
Keep education images clean, distant, but colorful. Images at a distance see a 37% higher CTR than those up close. And images with no food see a 36% higher CTR than those with food. Sorry to those who enjoy studying and snacking.
Penguin Books UK dove into its archives for this Mother’s Day post, inspired by an illustration from an old children’s book.
Use Keywords such as ‘Improved,’ ‘Performance’ and ‘Networking’
There are so many ways to learn in the digital age — books, e-books, audiobooks, podcasts, online courses — and so many relevant keywords that education brands and publishers can use to reach interested audiences. Nursing, for one, seems popular among today’s readers, as well as keywords such as ‘find’ and ‘courses.’
Meanwhile, opportunity keywords such as ‘improved,’ ‘performance’ and ‘networking’ are ripe for the picking.
Wondering how to incorporate these keywords into your Mother’s Day campaign? Take a look at our example:
Mother’s Day Technology Campaigns
Consumer technology makes for great gifts year-round. This season, we analyzed over 18 million clicks and 15 billion impressions for insights to inform your Mother’s Day campaigns.
Reach Audiences at 6 AM
Spend reaches its highest point in the late morning, but CTR rises at 5 AM. Technology retailers and marketers have an opportunity to reach consumers between 5 AM and 6 AM when people are just waking up and checking their phones.
Distribute Ads on Thursday and Saturday
After a mid-week lull, engagement around technology content rises on Thursday, opening up a valuable window for launching technology campaigns that drive clicks.
Make Outdoor Images with People and No Text
Technology isn’t just meant for using indoors. With wearable and portable devices, people can take their technology anywhere to aid travel, workouts, recreation, and business. Perhaps that’s why outdoor images can increase CTR by 35%. Also, black-and-white images can boost CTR by 41%, for those that want to go with a more muted, artsy look.
Fitbit, for instance, incorporated some of these key elements into this Mother’s Day blog post image featuring a mom on the go — literally.
Try Keywords such as ‘Gift,’ ‘Computing’ and ‘Discounts’
Engagement keywords such as ‘gift,’ ‘make’ and ‘computing’ power up your technology campaign, while competitive keywords such as ‘compare,’ ‘research’ and ‘incredible’ can cause it to lag.
And, there’s an opportunity to use buzz-worthy keywords such as ‘discounts’ and ‘startup’ that have low competition and high clicks.
Begin brainstorming your click-worthy campaign titles with these examples for technology ads across the funnel:
Celebrate Mother’s Day the Right Way
Ok, so there’s no ‘right way’ to celebrate Mother’s Day, but there is a right way to launch Mother’s Day campaigns that drive optimal clicks and engagement.
We can help you find that right way with these data-backed tips for building images, keywords, and ads that grab people’s attention. From lifestyle and fashion to home and tech, Taboola Trends is always updating with real-time insights for creating click-worthy ads across verticals.