It’s only October, but your shoppers are already thinking about holiday shopping. Last year, shoppers spent more during the holiday season than they did in 2014, which is good news for both retailers and e-tail marketers as we expect 2016 to be an even bigger year! We found that users behave differently in certain regions of the country in regards to purchasing intent than in other parts of the country during the holiday season. Here are some ways to take advantage of the holiday shopping season no matter what vertical your brand is in!

1. ‘Tis the Time to Plan your
Holiday Campaign
It’s only October, but your shoppers are already
thinking about holiday shopping. Last year,
shoppers spent more during the holiday season than
they did in 2014, which is good news for both
retailers and e-tail marketers as we expect 2016 to
be an even bigger year! While shoppers spent an
average of $1,221 at brick-and-mortar stores last
year, the average online shopper spent $418
between November 1st and December 26th.
Capitalizing on the influx of in market users during
key dates can mean more money for your brand.
Media iQ explored user shopping behavior during
key time frames in 2015 to see how the holiday
season affects not only our retail clients, but how it
affects our clients in other verticals such as travel
and automotive. Our team analyzed multiple data
points such as browsing behavior, time of day, geo
1
https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/news/holiday-market-research/

2. location, device usage, purchase intent,
competitor overlap, among other data signals to
see what implications the holiday season has on
all consumers.
First, our team broke down the US into three
tiers based on available impression volume in
those states (i.e. Tier I = states with the most
available impressions, Tier III = states with the
Even though conversion volumes are higher in
Tier I regions, Tier II regions have the highest
conversion rates (as compared to the average
yearly conversion rates) and show the most
least amount of available impressions). When
drilling into more granular regions, we found
that users behave differently in certain regions
of the country in regards to purchase intent than
in other parts of the country during the holiday
season. Here are some ways to take advantage
of the holiday shopping season no matter what
vertical your brand is in!
#1Holiday shopping patterns
are different amongst regions:
potential for uplift during the holiday season.
Building core targeting strategies around higher
converting audiences, allows your team to drive
incremental sales and engagements.
TIER2
TIER1
TIER3
1.2times
1.3times
conversion
rate
New York
Pennsylvania
Texas
California
than
than
&
TIER3
9times
than
&
TIER1
TIER2
2.5times
has
conversion
volume
thanColorado
Arizona
Oregon
Washington

3. #2
Consumers engage with
auto more during the holidays,
depending on the weather
Engaging auto intenders during the
holiday time frame when temperatures
are warmer could lead to an increase in
conversion volume.
FLORIDA
Av.Temp
70 F°
TEXAS
Av.Temp
65 F°
1.4x
1.6x
Black Friday
Conversion Uplift
Cyber Monday
1.4xBlack Friday
conversion uplift
1.6xCyberMonday
conversion uplift
Tier I Auto conversions during Black Friday & Cyber Monday
Leverage weather patterns when targeting auto intenders during the holidays whether
that is through triggering ads during certain conditions or triggering different creative
during certain weather conditions
Marketing Tip

4. Leverage competitive conquesting
tactics during the holiday shopping
season. Consumers who are in the
shopping mind set are more likely to
purchase from competitor brands
during this time (especially if the
price is right), so let’s take advantage
of the larger user pool.
Marketing Tip
#3
Holiday shoppers are
fashion conscious
Fashion brands in particular see sharp increases
in Black Friday and Cyber Monday performance
as compared to average days of the year. Tier II
regions saw the biggest uplift in Health and
Beauty brands during the same time frame
(1.6x uplift).
3.8xonline traffic
during Black Friday
& CyberMonday
Fashion sees
1.5x conversion uplift
during Black Friday
& CyberMonday
Florida
experienced
conversion
uplift
for fashion brands
9x
Reaching users in the retail specific
vertical allows your brand to capture
more users close to purchase.

5. 2.0
uplift
Most travel plans during Q4 happen around the
Thanksgiving holiday.Travel advertisers as a
whole see an uplift of 1.6x during Black Friday
and Cyber Monday. Understanding travel desti-
nations and arrival/departure information allows
advertisers to be smarter with their audience
segmentation and take advantage of the
increase in holiday travelers.
Flight Travel
Cruise
Car Hire I
II III
3.4
uplift
0.9
uplift
Average uplift of conversione
during Black Friday & Cyber Monday
#4 Air travel ticket purchases
increase during the holidays
as compared
to normal days
3.4x increase in online traffic for Air Travel
Placing an ‘Advanced Pixel’ or Media iQ Capture pixel allows advertisers a view
into arrival/departure information along with more traveler intent data points.
Being able to segment out users more granularly allows advertisers to reach users
with more relevancy in the end increasing conversion volume.
Marketing Tip

6. Understanding what content users are browsing
allows advertisers to align relevant advertising
and build user pools of relevant users to target
precisely on certain days. Leveraging content
consumption and rich media units earlier (even
through Black Friday) can create an even bigger
lift in site conversions on Cyber Monday within
these categories.
Leveraging content
consumption
Rich media units
earlier than Black Friday
3.0x 2.0x
#5
Home & Garden and Technology
sites show a stronger lift on
Cyber Monday, NOT Black Friday
Building users pools and segmenting users around certain interests and content
consumption habits allows advertisers to target consumers based on intuitive and
non-intuitive cues leading to more efficient targeting.
Marketing Tip
Cyber Monday
conversion
uplift
&
To boost conversions
on Cyber Monday
within the categories
Black Friday
conversion
uplift

7. #6 Black Friday festivities
start Early
Advertisers are continuing to advertise earli-
er and earlier in the year for holiday shopping
deals. For Black Friday in particular, early
morning hours make up a larger portion of
total daily conversions.
Having a unique strategy to reach users on
both days (in different ways) means that
advertisers are able to capture incremental
revenue.
Taking advantage of positive advertiser sentiment, negative competitor sentiment,
and general hype around holiday shopping, allows advertisers to increase advertis-
ing when users are talking about purchasing/deals on social media the most.
Marketing Tip
Changeinconversion
Black Friday
conversions are higher
Cyber Monday
conversions dip low
There is more than
4.0x uplift for Black
Friday in conversions
around 12-3 AM
Black Friday
conversions are higher
Cyber Monday
conversions dip low
Cyber Monday
conversions are higher
Black Friday
conversions dip low
Cyber MondayBlack Friday
Normal
Days
0%
0 1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 19 20 21 22 239
10 11 12 13 1816 17
-10%
-20%
-30%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
3% of daily conversions transact at midnight Black Friday, which means that
$90MM is changing hands in that hour alone (based on a $3B daily market).

8. #7 Multi device strategy
is a must
Black Friday
Cyber Monday
Black Friday
Cyber Monday
Black Friday
Cyber Monday
Connecting users across device and
understanding when these consumers are
physically in store as opposed to at home.
Leveraging MiQ’s in-store LOCATE solution
in addition to cross device tactics allows
advertisers to serve the most relevant and
intent ads resulting in not only a better
consumer experience but also in more
overall revenue.
Marketing Tip
Black Friday
conversions higher
12AM-4PM 10PM-6PM 10PM-11PM
Cyber Monday
conversions higher
Black Friday
conversions higher
Black Friday
conversions higher
9AM-1PM 3PM-6PM5PM-11PM
Cyber Monday
conversions higher
Black Friday
conversions higher
62.7% conversion
37.7% conversion 19.9% conversion34.9% conversion
36.8% conversion
10AM-6PM
5PM-12AM
Cyber Monday
conversions higher
Black Friday
conversions higher
( by site domain categories )
Device Conversion Trends
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are no
longer one-day events, neither are they
a one device option. Shoppers are con-
stantly searching and researching on
multiple devices throughout the day
before they make their final purchases.
Tablet Trends
PC Trends
Phone Trends

9. Shopping habits of multicultural consumers
show that Chinese, Spanish, and
German-speaking individuals in the US
shop significantly more on Black Friday &
Cyber Monday than on average days.
Reaching users with relevant creative
imagery, products, and language will allow
brands to stay more relevant and at the
end of the day drive incremental user
engagements.
892%
319%
BLACK FRIDAY
#8 Multicultural consumers
purchase more during
Cyber Monday and Black Friday
Rotating multiple creative versions with relevant products and imagery that con-
nects with individual users, will drive incremental users to interact with brand sites
and ultimately transact with the brand.
Marketing Tip
uplift
CYBER MONDAY
uplift
198%
453%
BLACK FRIDAY
uplift
CYBER MONDAY
uplift
187%
1080%
BLACK FRIDAY
uplift
CYBER MONDAY
uplift

10. The goal of this analysis was to delve into
changing trends in shopping behavior in the U.S
before the start of the holiday season. These
actionable insights help marketers plan and build
their holiday campaigns accordingly, to be able to
reach the right consumers at the right time.
In order to gather the data, we analyzed
network-wide AIQ data including site domain and
advertiser categories as well as device data.
However, to provide for more extensive and
niche actionable insights to marketers, we dug
into multivariable analysis such as looking at
device by time, advertiser sub categories by
geography and language trends. The analysis was
conducted from October to December, 2015.
What we did