During the busy holiday season, every day and every detail counts. Marketers have to craft the right creative ads to reach audiences, then measure and adjust on the fly to make sure the strategy is working. Every decision should be informed by data to engage users and provide a smoother buyer’s journey.
With a data-driven framework and clear KPIs, marketers can go above and beyond on their holiday sales goals. To that end, I’ve gathered tips on how to make your own holiday marketing campaigns shine with data-informed creative. You can also check out Taboola’s holiday creative playbook for more data and market trends to inform your data-driven creative strategies.
Download the holiday creative playbook now
Learn MoreUnderstand Your Audience (and Their Holiday Mindset)
With millions of shoppers converging on the internet toward the end of the year with the intent to purchase, knowing your audience is crucial. Without that depth of knowledge, your ads might be too broad, too narrow, or simply not speaking to the right people.
“The better you understand your audience, the easier it is to create content that feels relevant and personal,” points out digital marketing specialist Honey Chhatani. “Start by understanding who you’re speaking to. Tailor your messaging to resonate with their interests, motivations, and pain points.”
With what you know about your audience, build visual and messaging themes accordingly, telling the stories that will resonate with them. For holiday shoppers, you might tap into emotions or otherwise convey a relevant narrative.
A/B Test Your Creative Elements
A/B testing is an essential part of marketing best practices all year round. Items to test include headlines, visuals, calls to action (CTAs), and ad formats. It’s important to strike a balance with A/B testing, though. “Test thoughtfully, but don’t over-test,” suggests Chhatani. “Start with simple A/B tests, like comparing Headline A vs. Headline B, or video vs. static image. Stick to testing one element at a time. Overloading with too many variations can confuse the results and make optimization harder.”
Chhatani recommends using the seasonal holiday spike in impressions to test variations quickly, rotating ads with different headlines, imagery, or CTA placement. In the meantime, monitor performance and reallocate budget accordingly.
If you’re only able to measure a few metrics, you can still capture useful insights. “Start small and stay focused,” advises Chetna Rohilla, marketing assistant at NeuroSync and VP of Podcasts at the AMA Boston Chapter. She continues that, during her pro bono work with an orchestra, “One of my first wins came from simply A/B testing subject lines during a concert push. Clear, time-sensitive subject lines consistently outperformed clever copy, and that one insight shaped all email sends that followed.”
“I used to think data was just numbers on a screen, until I saw how it could fuel creativity instead of killing it,” Rohilla adds. “Data’s not there to replace creativity — it’s there to sharpen it, so track what you can, and adjust as you go. Even a single metric, if tied to a clear goal, can sharpen your creativity fast.”
Analyze Performance Metrics for Creative Optimization
Many marketers are able to track a wide range of metrics, but focusing on the right data is the best way to inform your decisions. Some of the key metrics to capture for holiday ads are click-through rate (CTR), conversion rates, scroll depth, and engagement.
“Use these insights to tweak creative elements, improve landing pages, or even refine your audience targeting,” says Chhatani. “It’s easy to get distracted by vanity metrics such as likes or views, but the most important thing is whether your campaign is generating results. Every dollar should work for you.”
The creative playbook for the 2025 holiday season recommends maintaining four to six creatives in rotation, monitoring their performance, and pausing underperforming ones.
Leverage Past Holiday Campaign Data
The data from past holiday campaigns can be a goldmine for marketers. Explore what worked and what didn’t, and see which evergreen creative themes can be repurposed or reused. To use that data to inform your next holiday campaign, “Identify high-performing ad formats, messaging styles, CTAs, and visual elements,” says Chhatani. “Let data, not assumptions, guide your creative direction.”
Chhatani also recommends post-holiday campaign follow-through, such as retargeting holiday buyers. “Don’t let a new customer be a one-time buyer!” she urges. “Use loyalty offers, post-purchase emails, or future promotions to nurture repeat sales.” You can also use the insights from holiday campaign performance to guide your next push, whether another holiday period or a product launch.
Understand the Role of AI in Data-Driven Creative
AI tools can be useful to marketers, assisting in creative generation or analysis. It can act as a starting point for holiday campaigns and tactics, giving marketers a springboard for headlines, copy, targeting, and more. For teams looking to freshen up campaigns and rotate visuals, AI can also offer ideas for new perspectives or new language to combat user fatigue.
“For time-sensitive or high-volume campaigns, using AI can give you an edge,” agrees Chhatani, “whether it’s generating personalized video ads, writing different versions of ad copy, or analyzing performance trends.”
Focus on the Right Data
When you’re running a multi-channel campaign during the busiest season of the year, it’s easy to get bogged down in numbers. It can become overwhelming and hard to know which numbers really matter.
“Don’t get buried in metrics,” advises Rohilla. “[In the past], I’ve focused too much on vanity numbers — likes, impressions — without connecting them to business goals. It’s easy to over-track and under-apply.” During peak summer season, for example, Rohilla found behavioral and timing data to be the most actionable for her target audience. She tested which types of phrases worked to convey urgency, and what people actually clicked on, not just what they liked, to understand better where to put marketing efforts. “In a crowded season, knowing when and why someone engages can be more valuable than broader demographic insights,” she says.
Uncover which data points might be most valuable and actionable for your business ahead of the holiday rush. The tweaks you make might be small, but can have a huge impact. For example, simplifying a mobile layout or segmenting emails by prior engagement led to an increase in open rates and sales, says Rohilla: “These weren’t major overhauls, they were small data-driven decisions that compounded into real revenue results.”
Pay Attention to Timing
In advertising, timing is everything, and that’s particularly true during the holiday season. Our holiday playbook recommends implementing tracking four to six weeks in advance of peak periods to gather data on users who interact with your brand.
Tracking the timing of your audience is also crucial. See when your audience is most active or likely to convert. “Posting at peak engagement times can improve your reach without increasing spend,” says Chhatani. “Tools like email open rate tracking or social media analytics can help identify these patterns.”
Marketers should also track KPIs in real time, or as close to it as possible. Dashboards and automated alerts can be very useful to either pivot or double down on successful tactics, Chhatani points out.
Key Takeaways
Marketers and advertisers have a captive audience during the holiday season, with tons of opportunity for sales. Bring together data insights and creative practices to make sure you’re reaching every prospect.
