When holiday shoppers finish buying gifts and planning parties, they look to spend on their next big investment: New Year’s resolutions. This is when brands and publishers can reach them.
According to Quicken, 56% of people who make New Year’s resolutions spend money to keep them. Of those people:
- 40% spend $100 to $500
- 14% spend $500 to $1,100
- 12.5% spend $1,000 o $5,000
What are they spending on exactly? As Inc. reported, the top 10 New Year’s resolutions fall into the health and fitness, finance, and lifestyle categories. Quicken confirms this, noting that people who make financial resolutions — funnily enough — spend more than others.
To help marketers in these industries reach consumers when they’re ready to buy, we dove into Taboola Trends and pulled the latest insights for health and fitness, finance, and lifestyle campaigns. Our data reveals prime opportunities for engagement, where supply is low but clickthrough rates (CTR) are high.
Here’s what we found to power your New Year’s marketing campaigns:
New Year’s Health and Fitness Marketing
The most common resolutions involve diet and exercise as people look to improve their health — especially after an indulgent holiday season. Our data shows how health and fitness marketers can reach this critical group of consumers.
Opportunity #1: Reach People from 6-7 PM
Most marketers invest in reaching audiences in the morning and early afternoon, but CTR is highest in the evening, around 6-7 PM.
Marketers can engage readers during this time when they’re heading home from work, hitting the gym before dinner, or looking for information about self-care strategies and products.
Opportunity #2: Distribute Content on Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday
CTR is lowest on Sundays, yet that’s when marketing spend is the highest. Marketers are trying to reach people when they’re off from work, relaxing, and likely browsing the web. But our data shows greater opportunities for engagement on Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday.
So, don’t discount the beginning of the week, when people are building their schedules and researching new diet and exercise plans.
Opportunity #3: Launch Campaigns on Tablet Devices
It’s not surprising that marketers are investing heavily in mobile campaigns, as mobile Internet traffic now surpasses desktop traffic. But they should also be investing in tablet campaigns specifically. Tablet campaigns drive almost as many clicks as mobile campaigns, but see much less spend than desktop.
After all, tablets are great for on-the-go research and they’re more readable than smartphones. They also might be home to other health and fitness apps that people use to plan their new diet and exercise routines.
Opportunity #4: Create Black-and-White Images with no Text
The most successful health and fitness campaign images are sleek, simple, and to-the-point. That’s why we see higher CTR on black-and-white images without extraneous elements, such as text or animals. Food, however, does drive clicks, since it’s relevant to the industry.
Look at this New Year’s campaign from Fabletics, promoting the brand’s new activewear collection with Kelly Rowland. Minimal, textless, black-and-white Instagram images feature Rowland sporting her products and physique.
Opportunity #5: Use Keywords such as ‘Arteries’
New Year’s resolutions aren’t just about losing weight and working off that Thanksgiving turkey. They’re also about improving heart health. That’s why engagement spikes around keywords such as ‘arteries,’ and we see opportunity for CTR impact with keywords such as ‘hypertension.’
Keywords such as ‘eating,’ ‘bananas,’ and ‘gradually’ also drive clicks. So start pitching that new article, “How Eating Bananas Can Gradually Improve Hypertension.”
New Year’s Finance Marketing
We pulled data from finance campaigns to see how marketers can better reach money-minded people in the new year.
Finance Industry Benchmark Report
Opportunity #1: Launch Ads from 3-5 PM
According to our data, spend on finance-related content dips as the afternoon wears on, but CTR rises. This means marketers have an opportunity to invest in late-afternoon content and keep up engagement throughout the day.
During this window of time, audiences might still be at work and conducting financial research for professional or personal reasons.
Opportunity #2: Reach People on Tuesday and Saturday
Finance marketing doesn’t stop just because the working week does. We see an opportunity for brands and publishers to reach audiences with finance content on Saturdays. Add Tuesdays to the mix too, when the working week kicks off.
Opportunity #3: Distribute Content Across Mobiles and Tablets
Desktop spend is high and on par with mobile spend, yet we see the highest CTR across tablet devices. It is temping to reach finance readers on PCs while they’re at work, but the numbers don’t lie. Marketers should invest in tablet-distributed ads or risk missing out on crucial engagement from on-the-go audiences.
Opportunity #4: Build Black-and-White Images with Text
Like health and fitness images, finance images should get down to business — eschew frills and be upfront about what they offer. We found that black-and-white images drive a 51% higher CTR than color images. Visuals with text and without people also positively impact engagement.
Mastercard, for example, launched its ‘Start Something Priceless’ campaign at the beginning of this year, inspiring audiences to pursue their passions and launch their own business initiatives. To promote this campaign, the global payments company profiled women entrepreneurs, such as Morgan DeBaun, CEO and founder of Blavity, Inc., a media company for black millennial creators. It shared black-and-white sketches of the women via social, web, and out-of-home channels.
Opportunity #5: Try keywords such as ‘Medicare’
As the political discourse around healthcare access grows, we see keywords such as ‘Medicare,’ ‘claim,’ and ‘disbursed’ having a positive impact on CTR. Meanwhile, competition around payment-centric keywords, such as ‘card’ and ‘cash’, remain strong, lowering CTR.
There are also opportunities for marketers to reach finance readers with age and family-related language, such as ‘retiree,’ ‘year-old,’ ‘soon-to-be,’ and ‘mother.’
New Year’s Lifestyle Marketing
Lifestyle is a broad category. To narrow it down, popular lifestyle resolutions include learning a new skill, reading more, and spending more time with friends and family. Data from lifestyle campaigns reveals how to best reach audiences with these interests.
Opportunity #1: Distribute Ads at 6 AM and 11 PM
The optimal times for engaging people with lifestyle content are right after they wake up and right before they go to bed. Yet, most marketers spend on campaigns in the late morning and afternoon.
So, if you’re looking to reach New Year’s audiences with lifestyle goals, don’t wait until they’re engrossed in their work day. Reach them when they have a more relaxed and open mindset.
Opportunity #2: Launch Campaigns on a Monday
Spend is lowest on Mondays, but clicks surge as the week kicks off, revealing a window of opportunity for lifestyle marketers to reach audiences with their ad content.
Combine this insight with the above data and try launching lifestyle campaigns on Monday mornings and evenings. Your CTR may thank you.
Opportunity #3: Invest in Distribution Across Tablet Devices
Once again, tablet remains the most neglected but opportune device for engagement. This doesn’t mean marketers should turn their backs on desktop and mobile ad spend; rather, they should harness this opportunity by placing more faith — and budget — in tablet distribution.
Opportunity #4: Incorporate Food, Animals, and Text into Images
Don’t hold back on those lifestyle campaign visuals. Our data shows that added elements, such as food, animals, and text, boost CTR significantly. And, while fitness and finance campaigns benefit from black-and-white photos, lifestyle images should include color and illustration for higher engagement.
Consider this New Year’s marketing campaign from Spotify; it promoted humorous ‘2018 Goals’ using data from the music streaming platform. Eye-catching colors, illustrations, and text fill all the visuals in the campaign.
Opportunity #5: Use Keywords such as ‘hacks’
How many times do we have to say it? Stop using ‘mosquitos’ in the titles of your lifestyle articles! In all seriousness, there are real opportunities to drive clicks with keywords such as ‘body,’ ‘hacks,’ and ‘water.’
Meanwhile, engagement is high but spend is still low for keywords such as ‘dog,’ ‘confirms,’ ‘looks,’ and ‘experts.’ This means it’s the perfect time to try out this headline: “Experts Confirm These Dog Trick Hacks.”
See Fireworks from your New Year’s Marketing Campaigns
Don’t drop the ball on New Year’s marketing — that happens in Times Square as the clock strikes midnight. Use these data-backed strategies to drive traffic with health and fitness, finance, and lifestyle content, and keep audiences engaged as they seek solutions to their resolutions.
Also, as 2020 draws closer and the new year kicks off, keep an eye on Taboola Trends for real-time insights, so you can stick to your own resolution: to drive revenue and engagement from robust marketing campaigns.