Data-Backed Insights to Boost E-Commerce Sales This Holiday Season
For shopping and e-commerce app marketers, holiday planning is a year-round affair. With 40% of U.S. gift spending packed into just five days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday (PwC’s 2025 Holiday Outlook), competition is fierce and execution starts early.
The playbook for the season is also changing. Last year, mobile drove 54% of holiday revenue, and shoppers spread their spending more evenly throughout the season. Add in higher tariffs and restrictions on global trade, and consumers are getting savvier—prioritizing value, timing, and trust over impulse buys.
To help you attract and convert the 2025 shopper, we draw on recent data from AppsFlyer’s 2025 State of E-Commerce Report and insights from Liftoff Creative to help you pace your ad spend, balancing UA and remarketing, and run eye-catching holiday campaigns with timely promotions.
To Drive Higher Holiday Sales, Ramp Up UA Spend Early
Acquiring users early still lays the foundation for the holiday season. Typically, user acquisition costs run high during October, November, and December, and many advertisers run user acquisition campaigns during the summer and ramp up remarketing during the holidays.
AppsFlyer data on UA spend shows that early summer is when most advertisers ramp up spend. In 2024, UA spend stayed relatively balanced across Android and iOS. But by early 2025, iOS ad spend surged, nearly doubling by May. This sharp uptick suggests that marketers are front-loading their UA efforts ahead of the mid-year shopping push and, likely, fine-tuning campaigns to prepare for Q4’s peak buying period.
In 2024, while UA spend dipped in late summer, campaigns started to scale again in September and peaked during global shopping days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. To get the most from the season, in addition to looking for low-cost windows, break your campaigns into cycles. In October and early November, highlight messages around “gifting” and your holiday sales. Even if users don’t convert right away, they’ll keep you top-of-mind on sale days. Remember that acquiring users during this period means more opportunities to re-market during Q5 or in the new year.
Focus on Remarketing Year-Round, But Boost Spend on Top Shopping Days
Remarketing (re-engagement) campaigns are increasingly key to increasing sales volume during the holidays. Overall, e-commerce brands are investing more in keeping users active, not just acquiring new ones. The relative steadiness of remarketing spend throughout the year also implies a smarter allocation of budgets.
Marketers are learning to stretch spend over the full season, not just the headline shopping days. When it comes to the holiday season itself, remarketing spend ramped up earlier on iOS than on Android, climbing in September and spiking dramatically in November and again in March.
We recommend maintaining steady remarketing campaigns year-round, not just during holiday weeks. Prioritize remarketing on sales days, and post-purchase and post-event windows (like the weeks after Black Friday) to drive repeat purchases and reduce churn. Also, leverage first-party data you’ve collected to personalize your campaigns for idle or returning customers. On top sale days—showcase your deals on top products.
Focus on Sustained Revenue, Not Just First Purchases
From late 2023 to May 2025, in-app purchase (IAP) revenue remained steady across both platforms, hovering at the same level despite shifting UA and remarketing patterns.
The resilience of in-app spend underscores the importance of optimizing onboarding and loyalty flows now to maximize ROI from holiday-acquired users. It also indicates the long-term value of acquiring new users during the holidays. Many shoppers spend year-round, and once they install, they’re likely to continue to engage.
Convert New Shoppers With the Right Creative Strategy
As UA and remarketing strategies mature, creative innovation remains a key differentiator. Top-performing apps are standing out through interactive ads, working with top influencers, and AI-driven iteration. Here’s how to put winning trends to work this holiday season.
- Go interactive. Top consumer apps increased spend on interactive ads by ~20% year-over-year. Interactive ads transform passive views into engagements (swipes, taps, quizzes) that deepen interest before the install. This holiday season, combine interactive ads with enticing deals or rewards. Try scratch-offs, spin-to-win, or tap-to-reveal offers in your UA creatives during key shopping windows (e.g., early November, mid-December) to break through the noise.
- Try UGC videos with in-app walkthroughs to build trust. User-generated content (UGC) is a great way to tap into niche audiences and showcase top products or deals, especially for e-commerce apps. Consumers respond to authentic perspectives and recommendations. Combine a first-person POV with classic formats like unboxings and short app walkthroughs. This way, your audience gets a preview of the app as well as the excitement of holiday gifting. Finally, pair UGC ads with clear CTAs (“shop now, deal ends tonight”) to blend authenticity with urgency.
- Use Gen AI to test and scale holiday campaigns. Top advertisers are using generative AI tools to multiply creative output and personalize messaging at scale. Use AI tools to generate variations of top holiday assets and create region-specific variants (e.g., Black Friday vs. Singles’ Day visuals) while maintaining brand consistency. Finally, use AI-assisted creative analytics to continuously refresh your best performers as the season evolves.
For more on creative strategies, check out Liftoff’s 2025 Mobile Ad Creative Index.
Level Up the 2025 Holiday Playbook
Holiday performance is about sustained, data-driven momentum. From early UA testing to always-on remarketing and creative iteration, the brands that plan ahead will convert more shoppers and build lasting loyalty well beyond December.
At Liftoff, we help e-commerce marketers turn every impression into growth. Ready to make your holiday campaigns your strongest yet? Get in touch now.
