Holiday Facebook Ad Examples Analyzed to Help You Drive Sales

Do you want to get the most from the holiday season?

Have you thought about Facebook Ads, but aren’t 100% sure how to use them?

This article gives you real-world, holiday-specific Facebook ad examples from businesses like yours – providing inspiration for a successful holiday season.

Ready to use Facebook Ads to drive serious money around the holidays?

Let’s get rolling.

Holiday Facebook Ad Example #1: MeUndies

MeUndies is an ecommerce company selling (you guessed it) undergarments for men and women.

Here’s a Facebook ad they ran last year promoting their underwear:

Facebook Ad Critique: The Good

• The bums: Who are we kidding? MeUndies has the right idea here. Both of these bums are eye-catching, no matter who you are.
• Red: The color red draws the eye, and the bums keep it there long enough for the Facebook user to read the brand name.

Facebook Ad Critique: The Bad

Where’s the discount?

The unique selling point they’ve provided here is the micromodal fabric “twice as soft as cotton.” Honestly, the Costco-pack underwear I have are pretty comfortable. This feels like a selling point for the product page.

Your ad should tell me something which gets me to click today.

Holiday Facebook Ad Example #2: Walmart

Walmart is one of the most successful and active businesses on Facebook, so I often look to them for inspiration for post and advertising strategies.

Here’s a Facebook ad they ran last year promoting their new delivery service:

Facebook Ad Critique: The Good

• The Image: Simple, family-oriented and with a flash of color, this image grabs the eye and appeals to Walmart’s target market.
• The discount: Providing a discount code within your ad maximizes the chance of someone buying from you, even if they don’t click.

Top Tip: Put a discount code in your ad, bid for brand awareness, then ensure you’re only paying when someone clicks. This will increase the impressions on your ad, but lower the clicks. But you don’t care about clicks, because you’ll be driving people to your site to use the discount code. You could even use the headline “Don’t click this ad.” **Just be sure you’re correctly tracking discount code usages, as this will determine the profitability of your campaign.

Facebook Ad Critique: The Bad

The brand logo:

It may be hard to hear, but nobody cares about your brand name. They care about what your brand name can give them – how you can provide value or address their needs.

Walmart would be better-off if they used the space taken by their logo to feature the value of their offer: “$10-off + 3 Months Free Delivery.”

Holiday Facebook Ad Example #3: Warby Parker

Warby Parker is an online retailer of glasses and eyewear.

Here’s a Facebook ad they ran last year promoting their giftcards as a perfect holiday gift:

Facebook Ad Critique: The Good

• On-Brand: Clean, professional, and slightly cold, this ad design is perfectly on-brand for Warby Parker. This is essential, and especially-so if you’re engaging in retargeting campaigns.
• Value-Add: Each card arrives with Warby Parker’s “Good Luck Omens” book. I have no idea what that is, but it doesn’t matter. Whenever you give me something for free – no matter how small – it increases the subjective value of what I’ve bought.
• Dollar value: If you think about it, the “Starting at $50!” has no real relevance to the ad’s offer. It simply tells you that you can’t give someone less than $50. But dollar signs catch the eye, so it’s a good idea nonetheless.

Facebook Ad Critique: The Bad

Blue:

I know that blue is Warby Parker’s brand color, but it’s also Facebook’s.

My recommendation would be to retain the blue snowflakes, but test a red or black box instead – something to attract the eye from the rest of the Facebook newsfeed.

Holiday Facebook Ad Example #4: Cincinnati Pops Orchestra

The Cincinnati Orchestra was founded in 1977 and has a holiday performance ever year.

Here’s a Facebook ad they ran promoting that performance:

You can check out the video here, if you’re interested.

Facebook Ad Critique: The Good

• The fact that it’s a video: You can tell by the Likes and Shares that this video got more impressions than it would have as any other format. Videos are a great way to show off your brand’s personality this holiday season.
• The video image: The model is clearly smiling, and the red coat and beard are eye-catching (all best practices). Displaying the product (in this case, the orchestra tickets) is a great idea as well.
• The copy: Family-oriented and to-the-point, this ad copy is a succinct call to action for families in Cincinnati.

Facebook Ad Critique: The Bad

The video itself:

Unfortunately this video is simply a series of still images cut together. Don’t get me wrong, if that’s all you have the time or resources for, absolutely do this over a single still image (especially if you have music you can add), but a professionally (or even half-professionally)-done video would yield greater results.

Holiday Facebook Ad Example #5: DIFF Eyewear

DIFF Eyewear is a trendy, up-and-coming online retailer. They’re known for their “buy one, give one” charitable campaigns.

Here’s a Facebook ad they ran last year, promoting their holiday collection:

Here’s a Facebook ad they ran last year:

Facebook Ad Critique: The Good

• The video image: Extremely eye-catching, the human face is one of the most attention-grabbing images you can choose for your Facebook ad – especially one with serious eye-contact.
• Urgency: “Sure to sell out.” “Before they’re gone.” – phrases like this add urgency to the ad viewer’s decision to buy, or not. These glasses look awesome, but they may not be around forever. If I want them, I need to buy today.

Facebook Ad Critique: The Bad

A single product:

The video (which you can see here, if you’re interested) is good. It’s fun, engaging, and shows the model in different poses with the line “Where’s the party?” superimposed. The problem? I’m only seeing one pair of glasses. TIFF sells dozens. What if I don’t like this particular pair?

Use video to its full potential by showcasing different elements of one product, or multiple products. This maximizes the chance of someone seeing something they want.

Holiday Facebook Ad Example #6: Zedric’s

]Zedric’s](https://zedrics.com/) offers chef-prepared, healthy meals in San Antonio.

Here’s a Facebook ad they ran last year promoting their holiday meal delivery service:

Facebook Ad Critique: The Good

• Multiple-product display: While a carousel would have been, perhaps, less overwhelming, showing a wide selection of products is a great idea.
• Multiple value-propositions: This ad delivers the value. Zedric’s tells Facebook users that their meals are low-fat, chef-prepared, easy to grab-and-go, can be bought online or in-store and are available via free delivery. It’s always a good idea to double down on your value propositions.
• Red: You might be surprised how impactful hat little red ribbon in the top left of the ad image is. We’ve tested orange or colored borders around our ad images, and they convert significantly better than images without color every single time.

Facebook Ad Critique: The Bad

Hashtags?

Your Facebook ads aren’t going to pop up in Facebook’s search like a normal post would, because they’re ads, so there’s no point in using hashtags. All they do is clutter up the copy.

Holiday Facebook Ad Example #7: Sounds True

Sounds True is an online retailer of self-help and self-discovery books and courses.

Here’s a Facebook ad they ran last year promoting their holiday discounts:

Facebook Ad Critique: The Good

• The question: Questions grab the eye and force the reader to consider for a split second (even unconsciously). Starting your ad with a question is a good call.
• The emojis: We’ve seen the addition of emojis have a very positive influence on our client’s ad campaign conversion rates. Make sure they’re relevant, though!
• Percentage signs/discounts: “75%-off” is a significant amount, and that grabs the eye, as well as showcases the value of the offer being promoted.

Facebook Ad Critique: The Bad

The image:

Normally I’d say that your image doesn’t have to relate 100% to your product (especially if you’re promoting software or a product less visually-appealing). But this image takes it a bit far in its vagueness.

The offer is for transformational, self-help books. Why not show a happy couple or contented individual similar to the target audience?

If possible, use a human model in your ads every time.

Holiday Facebook Ad Example #8: Treehut watches

Treehut sells personalized, inscribed watches online.

Here’s a Facebook ad they ran last year, promoting 50% off their “perfect custom holiday gift:”

Facebook Ad Critique: The Good

• The carousel: Not only do product carousel ads show off more of your product line, they can also feature different value propositions, as Treehut’s ad does above. “Shop our Holiday sale” and “Up to 50% off.”
• Discount: Again, you need to be showcasing why someone should buy your product today, not tomorrow. The holiday season isn’t reason enough (though, of course, it helps). To learn more about promoting a sale on Facebook, check out my article “How to Build a Complete Facebook Marketing Campaign from Start to Finish.”
• “Limited stock:” There are two ways to imply urgency and drive a quick decision: limit resources or limit time. Either one is a Facebook advertising best practice.

Facebook Ad Critique: The Bad

More something to test: the product image:

If you’re customizing products, consider running multiple ad designs based on your target audience.

I’d bet my next month’s salary that this ad would perform better if they used an inscribed watch image which read “David’s groomsmen, 2019” and targeted men about to get married.

Where possible, personalize your ad images based on your target audience, and avoid targeting people with an image or copy which doesn’t appeal to them specifically.

Holiday Facebook Ad Example #9: Outschool

Outschool is an online educational platform, enabling educators all around the world to create and promote courses to people of all ages.

Here’s a Facebook ad they ran last year:

Facebook Ad Critique: The Good

• The story: I recently spoke to ecommerce marketing expert Talia Wolf, who is seeing 200% higher conversion rates on her Facebook ads when she tells a story. Definitely worth a test!
• You will learn: When promoting a course, webinar or podcast, be sure you feature exactly what people stand to gain from attending.
• Broad appeal: Consider the most appealing element of your product promotion, as the advertiser has done here. A course in which you made a scarf probably wouldn’t sell that well. Making a Hogwarts scarf before the holidays? Boom, whole different value proposition.

Facebook Ad Critique: The Bad

There’s nothing wrong with this ad.

In fact, I absolutely love it. This ad makes me so damn happy I could burst, and there’s one single reason why: It shows that anybody can grow their business and make money from Facebook Ads

This ad was run by Kibibi Oyo, an educator promoting her courses online using “Outschool” – a digital learning resource. The knitting class is for 8-12 year olds, so the target audience would be parents of children that age. And Facebook makes it possible to target those parents specifically – parents who have shown an interest in crafts themselves, or child development, or a dozen other variables.

If you’re wondering whether Facebook Ads can work, just check out Kibibi.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully these holiday Facebook ad examples have given you a bit of inspiration for a successful holiday season.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out in the comment section below!

Read more: Holiday Marketing: April Fools’ Day Edition