Memorial Day Opportunities
Summer’s first long weekend has an even longer sales window
Great news!
Memorial Day is just around the corner, and it’s your brand’s chance to kick off summer with a big sales weekend (or weeks).
Not-as-great news:
This start to summer could also be the peak; Many retailers face slower summer sales as could-be consumers do more suntanning and less buying.
The silver lining:
Memorial Day is your big chance to cash in on summer fun — as long as you act on it strategically, and soon.
Amid economic uncertainty, count on Memorial Day weekend
As we near H2, it’s clear that digital marketing in 2025 is proving more challenging.
Economic, e-commerce and advertising growth is projected through 2025, but at a slower rate than in 2024. Per EMarketer, ad costs are rising, with Google Ads CPCs up 61% since 2022 and Meta CPMs increasing 7% YoY in 2024. All the while, supply chains face headwinds and tariffs add direct cost pressures on many businesses.
Now is a more important moment than ever to be strategic with your marketing plans to drive revenue ahead of any potential slumps.
Summer’s first long weekend, to the rescue
The unofficial start of summer is a very welcome long weekend that also offers e-tailers a long sales window.
According to surveys conducted by Numerator, 50% of consumers plan to celebrate Memorial Day — most by gathering and grilling outdoors, of course. That means food and beverage brands are usually the winning sellers for this holiday. But don’t count your brand out if you fit in another category.
Grocery and big box stores will see the majority of the action, per Numerator. If your brand can be present in-store or digitally, it can still land on celebrators’ radars. For example, we recently helped an outdoor products brand launch ads within the Home Depot and Lowe’s retail media networks, expanding their reach to higher intent audiences right in time for summer.
Our advice to e-comm businesses: Build up to a Memorial Day peak, and if you can, go where your audience goes. How — and where — can your brand join the holiday conversation?
Memorial Day data: more than a long-weekend peak
The same outdoor retail client saw demand rise on Meta over 2024 Memorial Day Weekend. Then, they saw it soar just days after. Turns out, Memorial Day was simply the launching point for consumers’ summer spending fever.
While demand rose, advertising costs drastically declined.
But that wasn’t anything new to us here at Strategy Labs. Careful tracking and analysis of performance data shows us year after year that times around major holidays and sales events propose “Opportunity Valleys” — moments when digital advertising costs decline, market demand remains elevated, and savvy brands can capitalize on this favorable disparity.
How does your MDW data compare?
Another Strategy Labs retail client with a completely different product saw similar trends around Memorial Day 2024, but just before the big weekend.
Our advice: Reach out to us so we can discover your industry’s Opportunity Valley. But if you want to go it alone, dig into your brand’s historical data to identify trends — before making any radical strategy shifts.
Strategy Labs results: Simple creative can win
An auto parts client’s 2024 Memorial Day sale saw a 31% increase in sales compared to the prior weekend. The ads driving that success were Meta catalog ads. These ad types drove 5x more purchases than standard image and video ads.
Catalog ads are some of Meta’s simplest, hands-off options, dynamically placing your products into ads and using machine learning to optimize performance. To further amplify performance over the holiday, we added eye-catching overlay banners promoting their sale — examples below.
The campaign’s winning headline? “Memorial Day Sale.”
While we’re big fans of clever headlines here, sometimes the most obvious, boldest statement — delivered at the right time, in the right place — does just the trick.
P.S. Catalog ad overlays prove successful for many of our clients at various times of the year. Don’t limit this tactic to any one holiday!
3 steps to a successful Memorial Day campaign structure
1. Pre-sale: Introduce new audiences to your brand
In the weeks leading up to your sale, drive new prospects to your website, optimizing ads with Meta’s View Product and Add to Cart campaigns or Google’s PMAX and non-branded search campaigns.
2. Leverage a larger audience pool for conversion campaigns
Closer to the holiday, once you’ve filled the funnel, “squeeze the sponge.” Invest in Advantage+, retargeting campaigns and Google branded search to effectively convert your primed new audiences into first-time purchasers.
Remember, your brand is likely to benefit from extending this sale campaign before and beyond the three-day Memorial Day weekend. If it makes sense for your brand, consider driving right up to Father’s Day.
3. Nail your promotional strategy — and its messaging
Like we said above, it doesn’t have to be complicated. But it does have to remain competitive while promising revenue for your business. Explore offering a sitewide promotion, a tiered discount offer (e.g., ‘the more you spend the more you save’), or a loyalty member exclusive.
Building up to the Memorial Day peak echoes our strategy for building to various other sale events — including Black Friday-Cyber Monday.
Determine your brand’s best summer strategy