Seasonal Best Practices for DPAs: Summer Edition

With summer right around the corner, new marketing strategies (and vacation plans) are undoubtedly underway. That means the summertime sales slump is also quickly approaching. According to data collected by Hubspot, last summer saw less traffic than in pre-pandemic years. Although the slowdown may be in your forecast, there are a few ways to help mitigate its effects. By shifting your e-commerce strategies and making a few creative tweaks, you can maintain a consistent level of performance across your lower-funnel campaigns even during slower periods. Here are a few best practices to elevate your Dynamic Product Ads (DPAs) this summer. 

Maintain design excellence 

It can be easy to let creative customizations slip through the cracks when you’re hustling to get seasonal DPAs out the door. That being said, scaling creative product catalog-powered ads doesn’t have to be difficult. With automated content scaling solutions like Celtra’s Dynamic Product Ads, you can deliver resonating ad creative, significantly adding the extra workload needed to create high-performing lower-funnel ads. 

By taking a modular approach, on-brand commerce content can, in fact, drive performance just in time for summer. On-brand DPAs can lead to 25% greater ROAS and 35% higher engagement and conversion rates.

Get strategic with creative formats

From carousel to single-image to video, there’s a variety of formats that you can experiment with when it comes to DPAs. The challenge during the summer is that web traffic typically dips. This means that brands must work harder to influence the final purchase decision and carefully strategize their DPAs during the summer. Here are a few things to consider: 

• Carousel: Although they are effective in showcasing multiple products, which increases the chance of conversion, carousels can look dull if you don’t brand them with templates. By introducing beautiful branding through templates, you can maximize the carousel DPA experience. If you find that your carousel DPAs aren’t getting the results you want to see, you can always A/B test and innovate based on what works. 

• Single-image meets lifestyle: Experimenting with single-image ad formats can be a great way to retarget people shopping for high AOV (average order value) items. Teams can elevate high AOV products with lifestyle backgrounds or imagery to place the product in a more aspirational context and give a more premium experience.  

• Video: Adding motion to your lower-funnel creative can really seal the deal when it comes to conversion. Compared to static creative, movement captures the shopper’s attention and creates a more memorable experience. 

Plan for prime holidays

Taking advantage of the summer holidays (like Independence Day or Labor Day if you’re in the U.S.) is a must for e-commerce teams. Not only does it bring the opportunity to test against evergreen content, but shoppers don’t want to keep seeing the same ads over and over again. To avoid this, holiday-specific headlines and themed imagery help break that ad fatigue. 

It doesn’t stop with calendar holidays, either. Amazon loves to host a midsummer Prime Day with deals that give Black Friday a run for its money. Whether or not you have an Amazon shop, you can still prep a promotional run with DPAs, leading to your site inventory when shoppers are already in the mood to purchase. 

To prepare, you can create one main seasonal template that can be repurposed across different holidays from Memorial to Labor Day. Simply adjust the branding, colors, and messaging for each holiday to maximize the usage without spending that much time creating each seasonal sub-campaign. If you’re unsure how to get started, check out these DPA template ideas from our in-house Creative Services team.

Consider a dynamic pricing strategy 

Dynamic pricing is when you adjust your prices according to e-commerce marketing trends. This is especially helpful during low-sales periods, like the summer slump. To implement this, you will need to categorize your products based on goals, track competitor pricing, and then set up a plan to lift prices when the market changes again. 

Reflecting new prices is easy with solutions like Creative Automation for DPAs, which pulls in prices and product names into templates with ease. The platform lets you personalize templates relevant to the audience, test different messaging, and achieve creative excellence all from one platform. 

Bring the power of your brand to summer campaigns with Celtra 

Ready to revolutionize your lower-funnel marketing? With DPAs by Celtra, you can deliver a lift in ROAS with spectacular, on-brand creative. Our solution helps growth marketing and creative teams transform DPAs into high-quality, on-brand creative across the funnel. If you found this article helpful, check out the playbook for high-performing DPAs.