Ultimate Holiday Marketing Guide for DTC Startups: Strategies to Increase Your Sales

The year-end shopping season is a battleground for e-commerce, marked by intense competition and, more importantly, rising costs across paid marketing channels. After running campaigns for many DTC startups backed by Y Combinator, we’ve gathered key insights on what it takes to thrive during the holiday rush.

In this post, we’ll break down the strategies that have consistently helped brands stand out and win big in paid marketing.

What to expect from paid marketing during the shopping season

• Paid marketing campaigns run on an auction system, and as more brands compete for the attention of the same consumers, the cost of impressions and clicks will increase significantly.
• Research shows that bid prices can jump by as much as 140% during the holidays compared to the rest of the year.
• Consumers also know sales are coming, so they’re more likely to wait before making a purchase. They’ll see your ads but often hold off until the sales start.

To make sure your brand stands out during this busy time, you’ll need a solid marketing plan that’s built to work both before and during the shopping season.

Why your startup needs a holiday marketing guide

The holiday season is the most competitive time of year for digital marketing and if you’re a startup with limited budget or bandwidth, flying blind just isn’t an option. Costs spike across paid acquisition channels like Meta, Google, and TikTok. ROAS fluctuates wildly. Customer intent shifts weekly. Without a clear plan, you risk overspending and underperforming at the worst possible time.

A dedicated holiday marketing guide helps you align your campaign calendar, budget strategy, and channel mix before it’s too late. It ensures you build in time for top-of-funnel awareness, mid-funnel engagement (like UGC and influencer seeding), and bottom-of-funnel retargeting based on real customer behavior. You’ll also need to track key metrics like CPA, LTV, and conversion rate to make smart optimization calls under pressure.

Most importantly, a guide keeps your team focused — whether it’s setting SMART goals, launching influencer partnerships, or preparing creatives in advance. With the right roadmap, you’ll go into the holiday rush with a sharper strategy and stronger results.

Things to do before the shopping season

Start your paid marketing efforts early — ideally 1-2 months before the shopping season kicks in. This period is all about building brand awareness and getting your product or service on the radar of potential customers. While most people won’t be ready to make a purchase just yet, you want your brand to be top of mind when they are.

Run awareness ads

Focus on reaching new audiences and expanding your visibility. Ads that tell your brand’s story or highlight your unique value propositions are key. Consumers may not be buying right now, but you want to be the brand they think of when they’re ready.

Set SMART goals and build a campaign calendar

Before jumping into campaigns, align your team with SMART goals — Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. For example:

• Goal: Generate 2,000 new email signups from cold traffic by November 15
• Goal: Hit 5:1 ROAS during Black Friday weekend on top 3 SKUs
• Goal: Retarget 100% of video viewers from Q4 awareness campaigns

Create a campaign calendar with milestones for:

• Awareness campaign launch
• Influencer content deadlines
• UGC creative shoots
• Retargeting switchovers
• Final sales push (e.g., BFCM, Christmas Eve, New Year)

Planning ensures no overlap, budget waste, or creative bottlenecks when time gets tight.

Optimize for top-of-funnel goals

Instead of pushing for immediate conversions, focus on metrics like video views, website visits, and engagement. This helps you build a warm audience that you can retarget when they’re closer to making a purchase.

Experiment and learn

Use this time to test different customer segments, messaging strategies, and ad creatives. Gather insights into what works best and what doesn’t, so you’re better prepared for the big push when sales season begins.

Winning tips

Partner with influencers for early momentum

Don't overlook the power of influencer marketing, especially during the holidays. Partnering with micro or mid-tier creators allows you to tap into trusted communities and build brand familiarity before the buying frenzy begins. Focus on lifestyle influencers who can organically showcase your products in gifting or seasonal contexts.

Influencer content can serve dual purpose, hence use it as organic reach and repurpose it for paid campaigns. This dual-use strategy helps stretch budgets and improves performance, especially when combined with user-generated content (UGC) and retargeting efforts.

Ramp up retargeting & sales campaigns during the shopping season

When the shopping season arrives, it’s time to shift your focus and budget — from awareness to driving conversions. At this stage, consumers are actively searching for deals, so it’s essential to retarget those who’ve already interacted with your brand over the past few weeks or months.

Retarget warm audiences

By now, you’ve built a warm audience—people who have visited your site, watched your videos, or engaged with your content. Retargeting ads will help you re-engage these potential customers with tailored offers and promotions. They’ve already shown interest in your brand, making them more likely to convert when presented with the right deal.

Use personalization to improve conversions

Once you’ve warmed up your audience, personalization becomes key to converting them. Use dynamic ads to showcase products they previously viewed, abandoned, or added to cart. Personalize copy with phrases like “Still thinking about these?” or “Here’s a reminder of what caught your eye.”

Segment your audience by engagement type such as video viewers, email clickers, or cart abandoners and tailor messaging accordingly. Personalized messaging can increase CTRs and reduce CPA significantly when applied across Meta and Google remarketing campaigns.

Here’s an advanced tip: Use product feeds and catalog ads on Meta and Google to dynamically serve the most relevant SKUs to each shopper.

Promote sales aggressively

Consumers are hunting for discounts during the shopping season, making it the perfect time to showcase your seasonal sales.

• Use limited-time offers and scarcity tactics like "Only a few left!" or "Sale ends soon!" to create urgency and encourage immediate action.
• Leverage social proof to create FOMO (fear of missing out). Show reviews, testimonials, or examples of others using your product to boost trust and create a sense of belonging.

Maximize ad spend efficiency

With ad costs rising during the holiday period, it’s essential to keep a close eye on your performance. Funnel a larger share of your budget into high-performing retargeting campaigns and cut back on ads that aren’t delivering strong returns. This will help you make the most of your marketing dollars when it matters most.

Track your performance with the right metrics

To ensure profitability during a high-cost season, make sure you’re optimizing toward the right performance metrics:

• CPA (Cost per Acquisition): How much you spend to get one customer. Aim to lower this via retargeting and high-converting creatives.
• ROAS (Return on Ad Spend): Revenue generated for every dollar spent on ads. Benchmark holiday ROAS between 3:1 to 6:1, depending on your margins.
• LTV (Customer Lifetime Value): Crucial if you’re offering steep discounts; focus on attracting high-LTV buyers you can retain long-term.

Build dashboards or use platform-level tools to track these metrics daily and reallocate budget accordingly.