2025 Holiday Advertising Trends Every Marketer Needs to Know

Last year, total holiday retail sales in the US grew 4% YoY. But this year, the outlook is more uncertain due to looming tariffs, inflation fatigue, and a second consecutive late Thanksgiving. That means even the most thoughtful holiday media plan can unravel in Q4.

To find out how marketers are preparing for the chaos this year, we surveyed over 600 advertising professionals involved in holiday campaigns. In 2025, marketers are starting earlier, getting scrappier, and putting performance at the center of their holiday strategy. 

Below are the top 5 trends (and stats) shaping this year’s holiday advertising landscape. For a more in-depth analysis, be sure to check out our 2025 Holiday Advertising Trends Report.

1. CTV is a holiday must-have.

This year, CTV has climbed to the #2 spot in marketers’ channel mix for holiday campaigns — up from #3 last year.

Not only are more marketers planning to use CTV in their holiday advertising campaigns, they’re also planning to invest more of their dollars into this channel. In fact, 58.2% of marketers say their CTV budgets are growing in 2025, compared to just 40.8% who said the same last year. 

With flexible buying models like cost-per-outcome and robust attribution capabilities, CTV is becoming a reliable performance driver at a time when marketers need it most.

2. Budgets are up, and so is competition.

57.1% of marketers are working with bigger holiday budgets this year across the board. 

More spend means more opportunities, but also more noise.  With inboxes, feeds, and screens packed with promos, even great creative can get lost in the shuffle. In fact, marketers say “standing out” is still the biggest source of stress when it comes to holiday campaigns. 

That’s where the right mix of message, timing, and channel really matters.

3. Agility is the name of the game.

This holiday season may come with bigger budgets, but uncertainty still looms. 54.2% of marketers are worried about market conditions impacting holiday spend.

As a result, flexibility is becoming the default. Most marketers are building plans that allow them to pivot mid-flight, whether it’s adjusting creative, shifting budget, or changing launch timing. 

Here’s how: 

• 53.7% will modify messaging depending on what resonates. That might mean testing different angles (e.g. urgency, savings, loyalty perks, etc.) and letting the results guide creative optimization.
• 56.1% will change campaign timing to meet demand. Instead of going all in at once, marketers are rolling out in phases to match consumer intent.
• 58.9% will reallocate budget across channels based on what’s working. That means doubling down on performance winners, and moving away from channels that underdeliver.

CTV fits naturally into this agile playbook, especially with automated tools that help optimize bidding, targeting, and spend in real time.

4. Holiday timelines are moving up (and Prime Day is leading the charge).

The holiday season is starting earlier than ever, and it’s not just a hunch. 41% of marketers say they’re launching campaigns by September or even August, in order to beat the competition to inboxes and build brand presence before the holiday noise peaks. 

Fueling this shift is Amazon’s October Prime Day, which now acts as the unofficial kickoff to holiday marketing. Marketers are adjusting accordingly:

• 40.4% plan to increase spend because of Prime Day
• 40.9% are starting campaigns earlier in response
• 39.1% are expanding their channel mix to keep pace

Instead of saving their budget for Black Friday, brands are layering their efforts by using CTV in the weeks before Prime Day to drive awareness, then retargeting high-intent viewers with personalized offers across app, web, or social once the deals drop.

Some are going a step further by using predictive AI to optimize campaign timing based on behavioral data and targeting when specific audience segments are most likely to convert. That could mean shifting delivery to weekday evenings, or ramping up impressions before competitors even go live.

5. Performance pressure is high, but measurement is still playing catch-up.

This year, 57% of marketers are feeling more pressure to prove outcomes from their holiday campaigns.

And like most holiday seasons, performance is the goal — but not always what’s being measured. When asked to rank their most important holiday metrics, here’s how marketers responded:

• Reach
• Frequency
• Incremental Lift
• ROAS
• Pipeline

While performance metrics like ROAS and pipeline made the top five, they still ranked behind more traditional indicators. That signals a gap between aspiration and execution, and highlights how difficult it can be to get the right data.

The good news is that platforms like tvScientific are helping marketers bridge that gap, offering tools to directly connect CTV impressions to lower-funnel outcomes like sales, installs, and revenue.

Get Holiday-Ready with tvScientific

The 2025 holiday season is starting earlier, moving faster, and demanding more from marketers than ever before. To succeed, brands need strategies that are agile, performance-driven, and ready to cut through the noise — and CTV is proving to be a powerful piece of that puzzle.