Welcome to this year’s edition of our Holiday deck! This is an annual tradition that has become a rhythm that summer is at its end and we’re moving into fall and the ever-busy Q4 season! We endeavor to gather the best of what to expect for the upcoming Q4 shopping season, some predictions, some hard facts, in bite-sized shares so it’s easy to digest - like your favorite holiday cookie.

In today's digital world, using ads effectively across various platforms is essential for boosting engagement and driving conversions. As online competition intensifies, leveraging a mix of paid search, display, social media, and affiliate marketing can help you reach your target audience and achieve your marketing goals.

This guide (updated as of August 2024) covers everything from image extensions, Performance Max, Responsive Display, uploaded banners, DemandGen, and YouTube on Google Ads to Meta platforms (Instagram and Facebook), TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Snapchat, and affiliate marketing. Keep this index handy for quick reference and take your campaigns to the next level.

When Google announced they were automatically upgrading all Video Action campaigns to Demand Gen as of July, we heard the collective groan from marketers everywhere. Another "automatic upgrade" that nobody asked for? Not quite!

Demand Gen is a powerhouse campaign type to add to your Google Ads account. It combines Google's most sophisticated audience targeting capabilities with their most visual, engaging ad formats.

Just how high can the ceiling go? Cyber Week alone brought in $314.9 billion in global sales, according to Salesforce, helping push total holiday ecommerce spending to $1.2 trillion worldwide. In the U.S., core retail sales during the 2024 holiday season grew 4 percent year over year, reaching a record $994.1 billion and beating expectations from the National Retail Federation. One thing is clear: consumers are starting their holiday shopping earlier.

With 2025 looking just as competitive, brands need to plan smart, act early, and promote with purpose. Use this calendar to map your campaigns, align your creative, and make the most of every key date in Q4.

Advertising on social media has become more competitive than ever, and standing out amongst the crowd is getting more challenging each day. When every brand is using the same platforms, product feeds, and audience targeting, how do you differentiate your own? The answer is your ad creative.

Email marketing has long been one of the most powerful tools a brand has in their back pocket — but even the most beautifully designed email means nothing if it lands in a spam folder. In today’s crowded inbox landscape, deliverability isn’t just a technical checkbox; it’s a critical brand trust signal.

This year, a new player has entered the ecommerce shopping space. ChatGPT, one of the largest AI tools on the market, has recently added product results to its capabilities.

As marketers, we all know TikTok is a UGC (user-generated content) hub, with the platform being responsible for creating new trends, increasing popularity of products, and influencing public opinion. As it’s unclear if the app will be granted another extension, it’s time we start asking ourselves how the Tik Tok ban will impact UGC and our use of it in paid social strategy. 

In the ever-evolving Meta Ads interface, new settings seem to pop up everyday, oftentimes relating to Advantage+ enhancements on the account, campaign, and ad level. Meta’s continuously growing list of enhancements can get overwhelming quickly as an advertiser.

Thought leadership is now reaching new heights through one of LinkedIn’s newest ad types, thought leader ads.  This new ad type can expand the reach of thought leaders while allowing brands to build credibility and trust with prospective & current clients.

As AI advances exponentially, expect to see drastic changes in Google’s generative AI models in the coming years. Google’s recent integration of Gemini Imagen 2 into Google Ads emphasizes the importance of leveraging generative AI capabilities, expanding image display options and embracing generated content. 

Digital marketing has changed a lot over the years. With advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI), marketers can do amazing things in a short amount of time. But human input is still essential even with all these new tools. In this blog post, we’ll explore how mixing AI tools and insights with human creativity ensures success in paid media campaigns.

The new wave of Google is officially here. It’s time to seize the day and make those website optimizations before your site gets left behind.

When it comes to digital advertising, the two major players that come to mind are Microsoft Ads and Google Ads. Both platforms offer robust tools for businesses to reach their target audiences online, but deciding between them can be a daunting task. In this guide, we'll dive into the key differences between Microsoft Ads and Google Ads to help you determine which platform is better suited for your business goals.

These are some of the best tools to check out whether you’re trying to streamline your daily tasks or some that might just spark your interest, because AI is only ever evolving.  

Video is finally having its mainstream moment after being hyped up for years and clients are having to jump into the pool headfirst instead of dip their toes and dabble if they want to thrive. Feeling a bit overwhelmed already? Don’t worry, Revel Interactive has you covered.

With Google Marketing Live on Tuesday, May 21, 2024 there were a whole host of announcements that digital marketing advertisers should be aware of. These days the word on everyone’s lips is AI, and Google Marketing Live was no different.

Recently, we have witnessed a trend that signifies that Google might not necessarily always be the go-to search engine when an individual embarks on a purchase journey. Users are also treating social media platforms as search engines, oftentimes looking to historically non-traditional sites such as TikTok, Pinterest, and Instagram to gather the information they are seeking regarding a certain product or service. 

There has never been a better opportunity to monetize your content as an affiliate marketer. Nearly 40% of affiliate revenue in the U.S. is earned through blogs & content and the opportunities are increasing every year. Let's dive into some proven content strategies that work wonders for affiliate marketing, from informative product reviews to engaging listicles.

Is your company looking to target a B2B audience but aren’t sure where to start? There are many ways to target your audience, but no full funnel strategy would be complete without considering LinkedIn ads.

As we head into a cookieless future, it’s important to understand how to best prepare for this change.

For many brands, not selling on Amazon means missing out on customers who prefer the shopping platform. Read on for tips on how your brand can optimize their Amazon presence.

If you launch a collaboration with a publisher, you want to consider creating a private text link(s) for them with deep linking enabled - this will allow you to better track performance.

With changes coming across all advertising channels, email is no exception. In February 2024, Google and Yahoo had placed certain requirements that advertisers should be aware of for strategy going forward. Need help getting started? Reach out to your Revel account team to identify any areas of non-compliance within your email advertising program.

Welcome to the second installment of Revel's strategic feed series. In this segment we delve into custom labels. We’ll unveil their potential to surface strategic insights that inform impactful and tailored digital marketing campaigns.

Pinterest is a beacon of opportunity for businesses seeking to expand their horizons this year. In Q4 2023 the Platform saw a “12% surge in revenue to $981 million and an 11% year-on-year increase in global monthly active users reaching an all-time high of 498 million,” which positions Pinterest as a compelling investment option for media diversification in 2024.

Cookie Consent Banners, which caused a big splash in Europe with GDPR in 2018, are now furrowing brows in the U.S. Eleven states now have privacy legislation, a doubling since last year, which all vary in requirements, making it tricky for advertisers to navigate. 

Email marketing is one of the most tried and true forms of marketing because of its ability to reach users at scale, and its high ROI.  The key to unlocking email marketing’s true potential is creating email automations.

If you’ve been interested to try out CTV but are hesitant to start with larger investment platforms, CTV is now available to run as an option with any YouTube video campaign within the Google Ads platform.

Like it or not AI is coming in full force within Digital Marketing and we here at Revel Interactive are leaning in to find ways it can assist in our day to day instead of ignoring it, or even worse fearing it.

In the ever-evolving landscape of paid media, change and the constant shift toward automation can be daunting. We at Revel like to reframe this from a “loss of control” to the campaign potential that opens up when we master what we can control. Enter: inputs. Acknowledging the pivotal role of inputs, especially a high-quality data feed, is the first step to optimizing your PPC campaigns, be it on Standard Shopping or Performance Max.

The transition from the old Universal Google Analytics (UA) to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has been less than ideal. Trying to understand the new GA4 platform is similar to trying to learn a new language. Lucky for you, Revel is here to help you find and recreate your favorite reports from UA into your new GA4 property.

Going into Q4 can be even more challenging to know how to strike the right balance between keeping things fresh and letting the algorithm do its thing. To help inform this we took a look at some strategies our clients have used for sales so far this year.

 If you have fallen behind in your affiliate planning in Q4, we have a handful of tried and true strategies we’ve deployed with strong results.

In the ever-changing world of social media, platforms like Meta, TikTok, and Pinterest, are heavily focused on enhancements to keep users engaged and to provide valuable tools for businesses to connect with their target audiences.

As an email marketer this holiday season, you have a unique opportunity to spread holiday cheer and boost sales through effective email marketing campaigns. In this guide, we'll walk you through the essential steps to prepare your clients for the holiday season using email marketing.

Don’t get caught with your digital pants down allowing Google’s AI & creative suite the ability to plan your holiday narrative.

If you're an affiliate marketer, you're presented with a distinctive chance to share the holiday spirit and enhance sales through well-executed creator marketing campaigns.

For many brands, not selling on Amazon means missing out on customers who prefer the shopping platform. Below are tips on how your brand can optimize their Amazon presence. 

Influencer marketing has become increasingly popular in recent years as more and more consumers are utilizing social media to discover new products and services. It’s an effective strategy for brands to reach their target audience in an authentic and engaging manner, as influencers provide a personal touch that traditional advertisements may lack. The content is displayed in a variety of forms, including social media posts, blog posts, videos, or product reviews. The intent is to leverage the influencer's reach and impact to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to the brand's website, and ultimately boost sales. With the recent rise in social media platforms such as Tiktok, influencer marketing has become a primary advertising focus for many brands. In the past year, 81% of consumers reported that social media posts from influencers, friends, or family members drove interest in an item or service. 

As SEOs, we’re constantly trying to stay on top of the latest trends, algorithm updates, strategies, and tools that will help get us in front of our audience. It’s a moving target, constantly evolving, and always vulnerable to disruption. Like it or not… disruption has arrived in the form of AI. ChatGPT, Bing’s new search experience, and Google Bard are quickly becoming an integral part of how people engage with the web.

People spend *a lot* of time on TikTok - and not just Gen Z. In a forecast of time spent on social media platforms, TikTok users aged 25 - 54 spend over 45 minutes per day on the app. This is much more time spent on any other social media platform.

As marketers, we like to think we know what’s best for our clients and the campaigns we set up for them (job security, right?), but sometimes, leaning on the algorithm is the best road to take.

If you’re like me, you see the words “broad match” and shiver from flashbacks of running Search Query Reports and seeing you've spent large portions of your budget on irrelevant queries. But please try to put that out of your mind and stay open to what we at Revel Interactive are calling the “new broad match”.

Today, video marketing is one of the most successful and engaging strategies for businesses to connect with their consumers. Video content stands out and can help brands gain awareness, aid in search optimization, and help make your brand feel more personal compared to other forms of advertising. And now, with TikTok, Instagram and Facebook Reels, and YouTube Shorts gaining in popularity, it is clear that short-form video is gaining more traction with consumers. It makes sense as the human attention span continues to decrease by 88% every year, from 12 seconds in 2000 to eight seconds today. 

As daunting as it can be to tackle, search engine optimization (SEO) is a crucial part of running a successful ecommerce business. Making sure you have the basics in order from your site’s inception will set you up for success in the long run. Below is an overview of SEO fundamentals and easy wins that will help you optimize your site.

As digital marketers, we’ve all spent a lot of time on the question: what’s the most meaningful and effective way to communicate the data story we’re trying to tell? 

Are you ready to set your  business  up for Google Analytics 4 (GA4) reporting success? Here are a few key changes and features to keep in mind when creating  your GA4 profile.

Brands that run affiliate marketing programs often ask us, "How can we get our links organically featured in well-known publications?" Paying to have a brand featured in a newsletter or article can be costly for dollar-conscious brands, which makes organic features a top priority.