"Will Meta Ads Work For My Brand?" 5 Factors That Enhance Your Chances
The essential factors that drive the success of Meta ads for your brand. Understand how product margins, pricing, audience targeting, and other critical elements influence your ad performance.
As the holidays approach, expect an influx of gift purchases across the next few months — an annual event that’ll only be heightened by the post-COVID e-commerce shopping boom.
Even more so, broader delays in global supply chains are trickling down to affect availability and shipping for e-commerce brands across all segments. Our recommendation? Beat this year’s slowdown by getting a head start on your seasonal campaigns, promotions, and more.
We’ve laid out four steps below that every alcohol brand should take to beat the annual gift rush, while also maximizing the profitability and potential of this concentrated shopping period.
Step One: Time Blocking
First, you can start building out a major messaging campaign by looking ahead on your calendar and selecting key dates to lay out a time frame from early November up until Christmas.
Specifically, we recommend blocking out three primary phases for your campaign delivery.
Pre-Black Friday
By pushing messaging campaigns out as early as mid-November, you’re gearing folks up for the holiday season around the corner, as well as letting potential buyers know to keep an eye out for a promotion in the works.
More importantly, you’re setting your brand up to start the season on a strong note — and to not get caught unprepared by the sudden arrival of Thanksgiving crunchtime.
Thanksgiving & Late November
From Thanksgiving onward, particularly that first weekend including Black Friday, you’ll want to host and advertise some kind of actionable event, i.e. a special release or promotional discount, to jumpstart customers into their seasonal shopping cycles.
Cutoffs for Christmas
Finally, you’ll want to round out the season by selecting a cutoff date for placing new orders.
Seven to 10 days before December 25th is a safe bet for buyers to receive a bottle at their door by Christmas Day, and reminders should be sent out in the days leading up to this cutoff.
In terms of the broader time crunch that’s anticipated due to global supply chain slowdowns, you should emphasize the convenience of purchasing from a domestic brand paired with the reliability that you offer for a timely, safe delivery of your product.
Step Two: Spice Up Your Specials
Once you’ve laid the initial groundwork, it’s time to elevate your campaign by crafting it into something creative and exciting for the spirit of the season.
In other words, your buyer’s inbox may be flooded by holiday deals, but you can capture their attention and help them recognize the thoughtfulness through your core brand messaging.
For instance, Far North Spirits is offering a holiday two-pack for drinks that’ll warm you up in the colder months. Imagine a whiskey, rye, or bourbon for your spicy cocktail or mulled wine.
Ultimately, you’re working with the inventory you have and considering which themed products can play into people’s holiday spirit — even better if it’s in a bundle to boost your AOV.
On the other hand, this period offers a practical opportunity to look back at the year’s releases and offload any remaining inventory through a unique discount or exclusive holiday promo.
Step Three: Ramp Up Your Promotion Game
Next, consider the tactical logistics of your promotions. After all, it can be tricky to time promo launches, depending on whether your customer pool skews toward early or late gift grabbers.
There are two general approaches you can take: 1) offering enticing deals early on to preempt other sales or 2) holding off until late in the buyer’s window to pull the trigger on your promo.
The former can snag early shoppers, or at least convince late shoppers to try an early purchase, but could also lose its appeal by mid-December when fresher deals are dropping every day.
The latter can appeal to buyers who play the long game and wait it out for the most optimal deal, but can still ultimately result in you losing out on early or average shoppers.
Ultimately, there’s no gold-standard method and you’ll need to use your judgement depending on what aligns with your brand’s target demographic, metric goalposts, and even inventory.
For instance, returning to your campaign calendar, you can skew discounts away from marking down products and toward offering cheaper, faster shipping as Christmas creeps closer.
Step Four: Email Marketing On Deck
As we pointed out in our advice for email marketing, setting up your email flow so your comms can run seamlessly is a simple yet essential step of the process that’s easily overlooked.
We recommend starting with a quick info sweep: pull last year’s seasonal purchase data and make sure that customer cohort is consistently re-engaged early on.
In turn, your team won’t be stressed out and frantically attempt to piece together the perfect layout in MailChimp just a few days before Thanksgiving — which circles back to our larger point: the holidays are a time of year with promise of high ROI for your alcohol brand.
You can utilize this opportunity to the max by planning thoroughly and creatively, not stressfully executing a last minute, makeshift campaign.
If your brand has these moving parts staged within the first weeks of November, you should be ready to hook the earliest seasonal shoppers and take full advantage of the holiday rush.
Sit Back and Enjoy the Holidays!
Once you’ve got these steps locked in — a killer campaign calendar, creative promos, and ready-to-launch email marketing — you’ll be the one leading the holiday rush, not falling behind.
Whether your user base is composed of individuals shopping for friends and family or corporate customers with high-volume needs, Accelpay is the platform of choice for your alcohol brand.
To get access to our instant storefront setup and stress-free bulk ordering, get started here.
"Will Meta Ads Work For My Brand?" 5 Factors That Enhance Your Chances
1: Optimize Your Pricing Strategy for Meta Ads Success
To get the best out of Meta ads for your alcohol brand, it's key to keep your product margins strong and your prices in the sweet spot. Ideally, your cost of goods sold (COGS) should be 30% or less of the retail price—so if you sell a bottle for $100, aim for production costs of $30 or under. Top-notch brands often target COGS at 20-25% to really maximize profits. Meta ads can be pricey, with customer acquisition costs (CAC) for a $100 product usually landing between $30 and $50, and this can fluctuate. Having strong margins helps you handle these changes. Also, aim to price your products between $50 and $200. Below $50, it’s hard to keep CAC profitable; above $200, you move out of impulse buy territory, leading to longer decision times and higher risks. Sticking to these strategies helps you manage your ad budget effectively and get the most out of your Meta ads
2: Broad or Diverse Niche Audience?
When kicking off Meta ads for your alcohol brand, start broad—target "men under 30" instead of "men aged 25-30 who play jazz guitar and are amateur chefs." Let Meta’s algorithms do their magic, optimizing your ad delivery and gathering valuable data. This broad approach is more cost-effective and helps Meta learn who responds best to your ads. Once you’ve got a few thousand customers, use tools like Decile on Shopify to enrich your customer data with third-party info on demographics and psychographics. With this enriched data, create lookalike audiences to refine your targeting further. Starting broad and refining with enriched data and lookalike audiences is a powerful strategy to maximize your ad performance and ROI on Meta.
3: Identifying Market Gaps and Solving Problems to Boost Ad Performance
Some of the most successful alcohol brands have hit it big by filling market gaps—think how craft breweries shook up the beer world or how premium tequila brands changed the game. By offering something unique, like a new flavor profile or artisanal production methods, your ads can hit home with your audience. This strategy not only addresses unmet needs but also makes your product stand out.
On top of that, products that solve clear problems or offer specific benefits tend to convert better. In the alcohol world, this might mean offering unique flavors, premium ingredients, or low-calorie options. Positioning your product as the perfect choice for social gatherings, celebrations, or chill moments can really boost its appeal. Combining these approaches helps your ads resonate more and drive higher engagement and conversions, making your marketing efforts much more effective.
4: Visually Compelling
To stand out on Meta, your alcohol brand needs eye-catching creativity. Showcase the transformation from bottle to glass with before-and-after shots, and highlight the satisfying pop of the bottle opening or the fizz when poured. Use slow-motion to capture the liquid’s rich color and texture, or create intrigue with a view from inside the bottle to the glass. Incorporate vibrant colors, sparkles, or animations to make your product pop. Feature real customers enjoying your product through user-generated content, and depict your product in social settings like parties or gatherings. Additionally, short recipe videos demonstrating how to make cocktails with your product can add value and appeal. Creative, engaging visuals and sounds capture attention in a crowded feed, driving higher engagement and conversion rates for your ads.
5: Trendy Appeal
The core, engaged Meta user who frequently clicks on ads tends to be someone who is drawn to trendy or uniquely appealing products. This user is often captivated by items that either follow current trends or stand out by going against the mainstream. Imagine someone who enjoys sharing their latest finds in social media stories or discussing cool, new products with their friends. By aligning your ads with the interests and behaviors of this highly engaged demographic, your campaigns can achieve greater reach and effectiveness. Understanding what excites and compels this user group will make your ads resonate more deeply, driving higher engagement and conversion rates.
Strategies for Brands That Don't Fit Perfectly
If your product doesn’t quite match the checklist above, don't lose heart. Here are some strategies to consider:
Try Meta Anyway, But Pull Out All Stops:
Even if your product doesn't naturally fit Meta's model, an innovative approach like using non-traditional ads or optimizing your landing pages might yield surprising success.
Supplement with a Customer-Centric, Channel-Agnostic Strategy:
Think of your market strategy as a comprehensive campaign. Identify where your customers are, both online and offline, and engage them across those touchpoints.
Test Your Product In Real Life:
If online efforts falter, engage with potential customers face-to-face. Events and direct interactions can provide invaluable feedback and foster initial sales.
Adjust Your Product or Marketing:
Simple changes like adjusting your average order value or revising your product range can align your brand more closely with Meta's advertising strengths.
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Braxton Freeman
Grolsch