Don’t Make These Common Holiday Marketing Mistakes

With consumers growing more cautious about their spending, this holiday season looks different. Data shows that 68% of Americans believe the economy will get worse in the next six to twelve months. At the same time, holiday spending is expected to fall by about 5% compared to last year.

For advertisers, this means there’s more pressure to get campaigns right. You need to make every effort count. The problem is, some go-to holiday marketing tactics can do more harm than good, leading to wasted budgets and disappointing results during this critical time.

Here are five common mistakes brands tend to make during the holidays — and some ways to avoid falling into these pitfalls.

Pitfall 1: Slashing Your Holiday Marketing Budget

At best, a sudden mid-holiday season budget decrease can leave sales stagnant during what should be a busy time of year — at worst, it can permanently stifle your ad delivery and leave your existing market share vulnerable to competitors.

If your current efforts rely heavily on paid marketing, shuttering your campaigns is likely to leave a gap that your organic channels can’t fill fast enough. If your average customer takes two to three weeks to convert after initial contact, a budget pause today can hurt sales next month.

The solution here is to focus on optimizing your spend through performance-driven campaigns and high-ROI channels. Check your landing pages for sticking points preventing users from checking out easily (bonus tip: offer guest checkout!), and be sure to leverage both your retargeting efforts and your existing customer base to stretch your dollars further.

Pitfall 2: Relying on Heavy Discounts To Drive Sales

Discounts are something of a holiday staple, but over-discounting can quickly cut into your margins (and dilute your brand’s perceived value).

There are plenty of effective promotional tactics that avoid racing your competitors to the bottom in terms of product pricing. Offer bundle deals, free shipping, loyalty programs…things that excite customers while allowing your product pricing to remain competitive. Also, don’t overlook the importance of flexible payment plans when forming your holiday game plan. Buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) options or zero-interest promos can reduce immediate cost concerns while preserving the integrity of your pricing.

As always, clear, emotional messaging should complement your pricing strategies. When shoppers see both an emotional payoff and practical savings, they’re more likely to convert (and to return again after the holidays).

Pitfall 3: Ignoring Shifts in Consumer Behavior

Today’s consumers are deliberate with their spending, with clear preferences emerging for essentials over non-essentials, transparent pricing, and brands that feel reliable.

Shoppers are turning to digital tools to research, compare, and buy — and they’re doing it earlier in the season. Trends like mobile-first shopping, BNPL, and social commerce are dominating. Consumers are also engaging across multiple channels, often starting their journey on TikTok or YouTube before making a purchase via Google or an ecommerce site.

Brands must adapt accordingly. Fortunately, the blueprint for doing so is already what marketers ought to be doing with their holiday campaigns anyway (optimizing product pages for conversion, incorporating user-generated content (UGC) to build trust, offering flexible payment options, etc). It’s also more important than ever to meet customers where they are — that means tailoring your campaigns to each channel’s respective strengths and ensuring your ads are optimized for mobile.

Pitfall 4: Relying on Assumptions Instead of Data

Relying on gut instinct or incomplete reports can lead to wasteful spending and missed opportunities. This seems obvious in theory, but in practice, it can be harder to catch. For example, many marketers default to last-click attribution, but last-click can obscure how customers actually interact with your brand across touchpoints. Others might depend entirely on a single platform or channel to tell the full story of their product sales cycle, which rarely provides the complete picture.

Instead, dig into your key performance indicators (KPIs) and ask meaningful questions: How long does it typically take a shopper to convert? How many ad impressions does it take before a customer takes action? When should you stop serving ads to certain users to avoid ad fatigue or wasted impressions? 

Understanding your pacing to conversion and multi-touch attribution will help you optimize decision-making throughout the holiday cycle.

Pitfall 5: Neglecting the Post-Holiday Plan

It’s worth considering the effects of your marketing plan beyond December. The post-holiday period is a prime time to engage customers who may have received gift cards, are making returns, or are simply still in a shopping mindset. This window is also prime time for converting holiday buyers into loyal customers.

Use this time to analyze campaign performance across platforms and refine your approach for Q1. Look for insights in your conversion data, segment your audiences based on behavior, and continue the conversation with timely promotions or product recommendations.

Post-holiday loyalty campaigns, referral incentives, or retargeting efforts can turn seasonal traffic into long-term value. Don’t overlook the power of a well-timed January email campaign, or a smart SEO refresh to capture lingering holiday search traffic.

Navigating a successful holiday season in a cautious spending environment doesn’t mean reinventing your entire strategy. It means refining it. By sidestepping common pitfalls like abrupt budget cuts, over-discounting, and data assumptions, you can protect your margins and build lasting customer relationships. The key is to optimize your spend, meet customers where they are, and plan for the entire journey — not just the December peak. A thoughtful, data-driven approach will always outperform reactive tactics.

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