Halloween has always been about standing out and getting noticed. What began as creating the biggest bonfire in ancient Scotland is now all about bold online Halloween ads. 

This spooky season is absolutely the perfect time to invest big in your Halloween ad campaigns. It’s predicted that Americans will be spending a shocking $13.1 billion this holiday. Now is the time to get your share of that pumpkin pie!

Potential customers are at a stage of their journey where they’re seeing the world through orange- and black-tinted glasses. They’re ready to jump at anything spooky, scary, or striking. Reach into our cauldron of tricks (and tips) and discover the difference between eye-popping campaigns and ones that belong in the graveyard. 

Tricks & Treats For Advertisers

First things first, don’t hold back. All the biggest brands circle Halloween like a cauldron of bats, sinking their teeth into anything and everything seasonal. If your Halloween marketing ideas don’t keep up with their spooky energy, you’ll be as invisible as… well, The Invisible Man. 

Ad Formats

As far as Halloween promotion ideas go, think more Scream than Silent Hill. You need to be unforgettable, more than ever. Empower ad formats like pop-under and interstitial with striking visuals and powerful copy, worthy of the full-screen treatment. Channel Fright Night with video ads and make a bigger impression than ever before. After all, scary movies go with Halloween like Count Dracula goes with his bride. 

Pop-Under – Spooky Landing Pages

Use full-screen pop-unders and go all in with your Halloween marketing ideas. Make your landing page drip with scary fonts, spooky imagery, and perfectly terrible Halloween puns and wordplay. Your aim here is to be remembered. Pop-under means you’ll have their full attention for a few moments, so make it count!

Interstitial – Gamify Your Content

The best way of standing out and embracing the season at the same time is by gamifying your ads. Trick-or-treat, apple bobbing… Halloween is all about fun and games, so why not bring that playfulness online as well? Whether it’s trivia, a Halloween-branded minigame, or even a lottery or raffle, gamified content keeps your audience engaged longer. These Halloween promotion ideas are perfect for interstitial or pop-under ads.

Video Ads – Scary Stories

Video ads excel because they can evoke emotions far more effectively than other ad formats. During Halloween, emotions sell, and are remembered – not just shock and fear, either. Humour is also a highly effective angle – subvert your audience’s expectations and leave a lasting impression. Lean into the spooky story angle too, and make the most of video ads’ retention rate! 

User-Interest Targeting 

Halloween sees a surge in certain user-based interests, as our thirst for all things spooky reaches a climax. The first priority would be to target “Shopping”. Halloween is the first in a series of holidays where people expect big discounts and actively look for them. 

Secondly, everyone is craving cozy evenings, curled up in front of a scary movie. “Arts & Entertainment” will help you target groups looking for streaming sites. We’ve also noticed a rising interest in the dating vertical. Focusing on “Online Communities” will help target those who don’t want to be alone as the nights get longer. 

Hallo-where?

It’s vital to focus Halloween ad campaigns on locations that will appreciate your themed content. No one does Halloween like the US; this is where the massive 13 billion is coming from. Canada and the UK are also Halloween mad and will be really receptive to festive content. The holiday is growing in Europe year on year as well. Offering holiday-themed discounts and offers would definitely be appreciated. 

The Publishers Spellbook

As advertisers go all in with their visuals, make sure your web pages aren’t left behind. Ads become a lot more effective if they match the look, feel, and interest of the page they’re on. If your page is already dressed up in Halloween ads, complete the costume with Halloween visuals of your own. This increases the interest in the ads you’re displaying, and in turn, the click rate. 

Ad Formats – Autotag

Advertisers should create a lot of visuals for pop-under and interstitial ads this holiday. Choosing to run Adcash’s autotag means you can implement pop-under, interstitial, and in-page push on your site. Not only can you manually control the frequency of these rotating formats, but you can also easily adopt selected Halloween ad campaigns with these popular formats.

If your site has an in-built video player, don’t sleep on selecting video ads. The video format is super effective in the Halloween season, and CTR will come alive!

Hair-Raising Verticals 

Some verticals go with Halloween, like Frankenstein’s monster goes with lightning. Halloween ad visuals aren’t the only things to match on your site – matching verticals will increase ad effectiveness too. Halloween sees huge spikes in e-commerce (holiday sales and discounts), VOD (scary season = scary movies), and dating (so you’re not solo at the office party). 

Until the Next Full Moon

This guide should have you equipped to navigate the dark corridors of Halloween ad campaigns. Remember the most important thing: big, bold visuals and creatives. Leave nothing on the carving room floor – you have just a few weeks to pull out all the stops.  

Keep your Halloween promotion ideas creeping forward, test what others fear, and sharpen your creative claws. Whether you’re battle-tested or freshly risen, these insights will help you haunt the top of the charts long after the last jack-o’-lantern fades.

For more in-depth information about setting up fresh Halloween ads, check out our guides for advertisers and publishers.