The Connected Holiday Playbook: Your Guide to Winning the Holiday Season on Social

The holiday period – spanning Click Frenzy, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas – is the most competitive time of year for advertisers. It’s when attention is expensive, audiences are overloaded, and brands either cut through or get lost in the noise.

At Connected, we’ve distilled the top insights from Meta, TikTok, and Pinterest’s 2025 holiday playbooks to help marketers navigate this intense period, and drive efficiency, cut-through, and tangible results.

Start with a Strong Foundation

Before jumping into creative and budgets, set up your campaign framework for success.

1. Define Your Role in the Sales Window

Every brand doesn’t need to dominate every sale. Consider where your brand adds most value:

• Click Frenzy: great for high-volume, fast converting offers.

• Black Friday & Cyber Monday: prime for deeper discounts and high urgency.

• Christmas: more emotional and gifting-led (ideal for brand storytelling and cross-selling). Don’t forget to be clear about Aus Post cut-offs, so customers know if they will get their orders prior to Christmas.

  
  

2. Focus on Efficiency and Learning

Platforms like Meta and TikTok reward stability, instead of constant switching, best practice recommends:

• Keep campaigns active across multiple sales events - this helps algorithms optimise.

• Maintain consistent tracking (via Meta’s Conversions API or TikTok Pixel/Events API) to refine performance and retarget effectively

• Avoid pausing ads mid-sale unless absolutely necessary. Pausing resets the learning phase and can spike CPMs. If you need to make major edits (like budget reallocations or creative swaps), try doing so during lower-traffic windows or use duplication rather than full pauses to maintain campaign stability.

3. Budget and Pacing

Holiday CPMs spike, so pacing is everything:

• Front-load testing in October to identify best audiences, creatives, and formats.

• Gradually scale budgets from mid-November through to peak week (don’t triple spend overnight).

• Use automated tools like Meta Advantage+ budget or TikTok Smart+ campaigns for

• real-time budget distribution and optimisation.

  
  

  

  TikTok Holiday Playbook 2025

Creative That Converts

The biggest difference between good and great holiday campaigns is creative variety and velocity. Every publisher agrees: creative fatigue kills ROAS.

Meta

• Create for sound on – Reels with audio tend to outperform static assets during peak season, especially when they follow platform best practice. But don’t rule out static formats altogether; in some categories and sales windows, they still deliver efficient results. The key is variety - keep testing both to stay ahead of fatigue and algorithm shifts.

• Include people and storytelling - 79% of users purchase after watching Reels they relate to (Meta Holiday Guide 2025).

• Keep messaging simple: make your offer clear in the first three seconds and close with a strong CTA.

TikTok

• Think authentic, fast, and festive - Q4 is TikTok’s biggest discovery season, and “real” beats “polished.”

• Use Smart+ campaigns to dynamically rotate top-performing videos while managing fatigue.

• Post at least 4–6 videos per product, refreshing 2–5 weekly.

• Tap creators for UGC and LIVE commerce moments - livestreams during mega-sale windows can boost GMV by up to 100% (TikTok – The Mega Sales Blueprint 2025).

• Build urgency with countdowns, limited drops, and “join live for the reveal” hooks.

Pinterest

• Focus on inspiration and discoverability - every six seconds someone searches for a gift on Pinterest (Pinterest Holiday Gifting Insights 2025).

• Use Shopping ads and Collections to showcase multiple products and price points.

• Test the new Promotions feature, which adds offer messaging (e.g. “20% Off” or “Free Shipping”) directly under the Pin - increasing ROAS by 9% and lowering CPA by 8%.

• Try “This or That” or “Me + You” Collection layouts for gifting inspiration that feels personal and playful.

Pinterest Promotion Feature Update

Social Media: Audience Targeting & Full-Funnel Thinking

Holiday campaigns need balance, think precision without restriction.

• Meta: Use Advantage+ Audience to blend your first-party data with AI’s predictive reach, driving a lower cost per conversion (down ~7%)*.

• TikTok: Warm audiences early with Consideration Ads, 23% cheaper per consideration and 32% lower acquisition costs*.

• Pinterest: Upload your product catalogue - advertisers with a live catalogue saw 5x more impressions and 3.8x higher ROAS*.

Then, retarget seamlessly across all three platforms:

• Leverage Meta retargeting + Advantage+ catalog ads to convert warm users.

• On TikTok, pair GMV Max (for sales) with Consideration Ads (for awareness) to move users from discovery to purchase.

• Use Pinterest Dynamic Retargeting to recapture holiday browsers.

Navigating Competition and Maintaining ROAS

During sales season, CPMs rise, competition intensifies, and fatigue sets in fast. To stay efficient:

• Refresh creative constantly with small tweaks (e.g., colourways, offers, CTAs) can reset learning and sustain performance.

• Blend sale urgency with brand storytelling – particularly post-Cyber Monday, when emotional gift messaging outperforms hard offers.

• Stay omnipresent - don’t isolate platforms. Use TikTok for discovery, Pinterest for planning and Meta for conversion.

The role of SEM during peak sale periods

As social drives awareness and urgency, search captures the intent.SEM and social are symbiotic – your Meta or TikTok clicks build intent that’s realised through Google Search.

Align your SEM and social messaging for:

• Consistent language across ad copy, creative, and landing pages.

• Shared urgency cues (“Ends Midnight”, “Cyber Monday Only”).

• Unified data tracking – use shared UTM structures and first-party conversion APIs for accurate attribution.

Final Thoughts: The Connected Holiday Playbook

Focus Area	Key Takeaway
Strategy	Plan early, pace spend, and test creatives before the rush.
Creative	Refresh regularly; make offers instantly clear and thumb-stopping.
Audience	Combine automation (Meta Advantage+, TikTok Smart+, Pinterest Performance+) with your first-party data, and prime those audiences months in advance with lead-gen activity (giveaways, waitlists, early-access signups) to warm intent before peak CPMs hit.
Efficiency	Don’t pause; optimise – use automation to sustain momentum and ROAS.
Integration	Keep SEM and Social aligned (intent + inspiration work hand-in-hand).

This season, success will come from clarity, consistency, and creativity. Amidst the noise, brands that stay agile, test relentlessly, and keep the customer journey connected will win the moment (and the sale).

---

*References: Meta Holiday Guide 2025, TikTok Holiday Playbook 2025. TikTok – The Mega Sales Blueprint 2025, Pinterest Holiday Gifting Season Insights, Pinterest Promotion Feature Update.