With over one billion shoppers eagerly preparing to shop for gifts, decorations, and seasonal essentials, now is the perfect time to refine your marketing tactics and connect with these shoppers. With holiday retail sales set to reach $1.37 trillion, it’s time to unwrap holiday spending insights to ensure that your holiday advertising campaigns light up the festive season. The holiday shopping frenzy offers marketers and retailers a chance to capture attention, drive sales, and build lasting customer relationships.
In this blog post, we’ll reveal holiday shopping audiences, including 19 new audiences, designed for you to reach the most relevant shoppers for your campaigns. These audiences are available for activation on-the-shelf of most major ad platforms, including TV and programmatic. You can find the complete audience segment name in the appendix.
2025 Holiday spending trends and insights report
Download our latest report for data-driven insights you can use to refine your messaging and reach the right audience in their preferred channels this holiday season.
Download nowWhat separates Experian’s syndicated audiences
- Experian’s 2,400+ syndicated audiences are available directly on over 30 leading television, social, programmatic advertising platforms, and directly within Audigent for activation within private marketplaces (PMPs).
- Reach consumers based on who they are, where they live, and their household makeup. Experian ranked #1 in accuracy by Truthset for key demographic attributes.
- Access to unique audiences through Experian’s Partner Audiences available on Experian’s data marketplace, within Audigent for activation in PMPs and directly on platforms like DirectTV, Dish, Magnite, OpenAP, and The Trade Desk.
Holiday shopping styles
It’s important to understand how your holiday shopper “shops,” with individual shopping styles varying from a last-minute dash to the store to the one-stop shopper. One in three consumers anticipate beginning their holiday shopping before October this year, with Millennials and Gen Xers being the most proactive, due to concerns about items running out of stock. In contrast, 42% of Boomers are generally less inclined to shop early, wanting to start their holiday shopping in November or December. All generations are motivated to shop early by discounts.1
By choosing and activating the right audience segments, you can deliver messages that resonate with the consumer’s preferred shopping style, ensuring your holiday campaign will align with their shopping preferences and behaviors.
Here are five audiences that you can activate based on shopping style:
- Last-Minute Holiday Shoppers
- One Stop Holiday Shoppers/Power Shoppers: In-Store or Online
- Impulse Buyers
- eCommerce Diehards
- Brick & Mortar Diehards
Discount-seeking shoppers
The holiday season is a time of giving, but also saving! Consumers are driven to shop early by discounts and early sales — 52% of consumers said discounts are their biggest motivator to shop early. Price is another crucial factor — 47% of consumers said price is the most important factor when deciding where to shop during the holiday season. Major holiday shopping events, such as Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, are expected to attract a significant portion of consumers this upcoming year.2
Here are eight audiences you can activate to reach discount-seeking shoppers:
- NEW! Discount Holiday Shoppers
- NEW! Cyber Monday Holiday Shoppers
- NEW! Black Friday Holiday Shoppers
- NEW! Big Box/Club Stores Holiday Shoppers
- NEW! Online Coupon Users
- TrueTouch: Online Coupon Site
- Department Store Deal Shoppers: In-Store or Online
- Post Holiday Shoppers
Gift givers
Holiday shoppers are torn between saving and splurging. Nearly a third of consumers anticipate spending more on holiday shopping this year, while the same number of consumers say they’ll be spending less. Boomers anticipate spending the most on gift cards, Gen Z on clothing, and Millennials on toys, electronics, and experiences.3
Given holiday shoppers’ varied spending habits, it’s important to target the right audience segments to maximize your impact. Targeting specific audience segments allows advertisers to better reach those most interested in their products.
Here are six audiences you can activate to target gift givers:
- NEW! Luxury Gift Shoppers
- NEW! Holiday Shopping High Spenders
- NEW! Holiday Shopping Moderate Spenders
- NEW! Holiday Charitable Donations
- High Spend Gift Shoppers
- Heavy Buyer/Spenders Holiday Shoppers: In-Store or Online
Holiday travelers
In 2023, nearly three million travelers passed through airports on the Sunday after Thanksgiving alone. Take advantage of the busy travel season with our audience segments. By targeting specific travel preferences and behaviors, you can capture the attention of individuals planning trips this holiday season.
Here are seven audiences to tailor your campaign according to travel preferences:
- NEW! Holiday International Travelers
- NEW! Holiday Travel-Train
- NEW! Holiday Budget Savvy Airline Travelers
- Vacation/Leisure Travelers: Domestic Trips
- Air Travel (FLA/Fair Lending Friendly)4
- Vacation/Leisure Travelers: Frequent Spenders
- Hotels: Frequent Spend
When you work with Experian, you work with a single data provider that gives you access to audiences across multiple verticals and categories, such as travel and retail.
Targeted advertising this holiday season with Experian audiences
The holiday season is the busiest time of the year for advertisers. Experian’s data, ranked #1 in accuracy by Truthset, allows advertisers to reach people based on demographic, geographic, and behavioral attributes (e.g. websites visited and purchase history). By using Experian’s audiences in your holiday advertising campaigns, you can reach last-minute shoppers, discount-seeking shoppers, gift-givers, and holiday travelers.
Just as shoppers seek the perfect gifts, with the right strategy, your holiday advertising campaigns can capture the right shoppers this holiday season. Need a custom audience? Reach out to our audience team and we can help you build and activate an Experian audience on the platform of your choice. Additionally, work with Experian’s network of data providers to build audiences and send to an Audigent PMP for activation.
You can activate our syndicated audiences on-the-shelf of most major platforms. For a full list of Experian’s syndicated audiences and activation destinations, download our syndicated audiences guide.
Explore our other seasonal audiences that you can activate today.
Download our 2025 Holiday spending trends and insights report
This holiday season is about more than just transactions – it’s about cultivating meaningful connections with your audience. Download our 2025 Holiday spending trends and insights report, in collaboration with GroundTruth, to access all of our predictions for this year’s holiday season.
Contact us
Footnotes
- Online survey conducted in June, 2024 among n=1,000 U.S. adults 18+. Sample balanced to look like the general population on key demographics (age, gender, household income, ethnicity, and region). n = 204 Gen Z, n = 234 Millennials, n = 270 Gen X, n = 272 Baby Boomers.
- Online survey.
- Online survey.
- “Fair Lending Friendly” indicates data fields that Experian has made available without use of certain demographic attributes that may increase the likelihood of discriminatory practices prohibited by the Fair Housing Act (“FHA”) and Equal Credit Opportunity Act (“ECOA”). These excluded attributes include, but may not be limited to, race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, age, disability, handicap, family status, ancestry, sexual orientation, unfavorable military discharge, and gender. Experian’s provision of Fair Lending Friendly indicators does not constitute legal advice or otherwise assures your compliance with the FHA, ECOA, or any other applicable laws. Clients should seek legal advice with respect to your use of data in connection with lending decisions or application and compliance with applicable laws.
Appendix
Here are the complete audience segment names (taxonomy paths) for all audience segments discussed in this blog post.
Holiday shopping styles
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Seasonal > Holiday Shoppers: Last-Minute Holiday Shoppers
- Retail Shoppers: Purchased Based > Seasonal > Holiday Shoppers: One Stop Holiday Shoppers/Power Shoppers: In-Store
- Retail Shoppers: Purchased Based > Seasonal > Holiday Shoppers: One Stop Holiday Shoppers/Power Shoppers: Online
- TrueTouch: Communication Preferences > Purchase Behavior > Impulse buyers
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase behavior > Shopping Behavior > In-Store vs. Online: eCommerce Diehards
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase behavior > Shopping Behavior > In-Store vs. Online: Brick & Mortar Diehards
Discount-seeking shoppers
- NEW! Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Seasonal > Holiday Shoppers: Cyber Monday
- NEW! Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Seasonal > Holiday Shoppers: Black Friday
- NEW! Retail Shopper: Purchase Based > Seasonal > Holiday Shoppers: Big Box/Club Stores Shoppers
- NEW! Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based >> Discount Holiday Shoppers
- NEW! Retail Shoppers: Purchased Based > Shopping Behavior > Online Coupon Users
- TrueTouch: Communication Preferences> Purchase Behavior > Online Coupon Site
- Retail Shoppers: Purchased Based > Shopping Behavior > Department Store Deal Shoppers Online Spenders
- Retail Shoppers: Purchased Based > Shopping Behavior > Department Store Deal Shoppers In-Store Spenders
- Retail Shoppers: Purchased Based > Seasonal > Holiday Shoppers: Post holiday
Gift givers
- NEW! Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Seasonal > Holiday Shoppers: Luxury Gift Shoppers
- NEW! Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Seasonal > Holiday Shoppers: High Spenders
- NEW! Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Seasonal > Holiday Shoppers: Moderate Spenders
- NEW! Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Seasonal > Holiday Charitable Donations
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Shopping Behavior > Gift Shoppers High Spend Spenders
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Seasonal > Holiday Shoppers: Heavy Buyer/Spenders: Online
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Seasonal > Holiday Shoppers: Heavy Buyer/Spenders: In Store
Holiday travelers
- NEW! Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Seasonal > Holiday International Travelers
- NEW! Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Seasonal> Holiday Travel-Train
- NEW! Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Seasonal > Holiday Budget Savvy Airline Travelers
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Travel > Vacation/Leisure Travelers: Domestic Trips
- Lifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > Travelers > Air Travel (FLA/Fair Lending Friendly)
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Travel > Vacation/Leisure Travelers: Frequent Spenders
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Travel > Hotels: Frequent Spend
Latest posts
Tapad's technology enhances Bidtellect clients frequency capping and audience extension capabilities cross device. NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Tapad, part of Experian, is a global marketing technology company and leader in digital identity resolution solutions, today announced a new partnership with Bidtellect (now Simpli.fi), a leading native Demand-Side Platform (DSP). Bidtellect's paid content distribution platform will leverage The Tapad Graph™ as its first cross-device partner. The integration will offer Bidtellect's clients in the U.S. and Canada cross-device frequency capping and enhanced audience extension capabilities. The combination of Tapad's leading cross-device technology, with Bidtellect's unparalleled scale and optimization capabilities, will allow content marketers within brands and agencies to develop even more strategic, effective content marketing campaigns. The Tapad Graph™ will allow content marketers to gain greater reach and create more relevant, unified messaging with targeted delivery, when used in conjunction with Bidtellect's technology. Marketers can expect to benefit from amplified reach, and enhanced, privacy-safe engagement with desired audiences as a result of this partnership. "Partnering with Tapad, the leaders in cross-device data, provides Bidtellect with a complete solution that leverages both probabilistic and deterministic mapping strategies," said Mike Conway, Chief Technology Officer at Bidtellect. "The Tapad relationship expands our audience size by providing the opportunity to reach the same user across multiple devices and, when used in conjunction with our frequency capping functionality, ensures increased reach, reduced ad saturation, and elimination of wasted ad spend." As the partnership progresses, Tapad will also work with Bidtellect to provide advanced attribution for conversions and engagement metrics including connectivity and amplification. These advanced insights will help brands and agencies develop a more holistic approach to content marketing, so they can build audiences and influence bidding algorithms that directly impact their business. "We're thrilled to be working with Bidtellect as the company's first cross-device partner," said Chris Feo, SVP of Global Data Licensing and Strategic Partnerships at Tapad. "At Tapad, we are continuously advancing our identity resolution solutions to keep pace with the ever-changing needs of marketers. As a part of that commitment, we look to work with partners where our technology is able to enhance their offering to better serve marketers. We are looking forward to creating that superior experience with the Bidtellect team." Contact us today
The Tapad Graph Now Offered in Adobe Audience Manager, part of Adobe Analytics Cloud New York, NY — August 7, 2018 — Tapad, now part of Experian, is advancing personalization for the modern marketer, announced today that its proprietary Tapad Graph is now integrated with Adobe Audience Manager, part of Adobe Analytics Cloud, helping marketers expand their view of consumers and boost results through Tapad’s probabilistic solution. Tapad has been working closely with the Adobe Audience Manager team on this integration. With the Tapad Graph integration, customers based in the U.S. and Canada can use the Tapad Device Graph to expand the reach of audiences defined and activated in Adobe Audience Manager to extend first- and third-party data and deliver personalization across paid, earned and owned channels, publisher sites, programmatic, and more. Tapad worked closely with Adobe to develop the integration, allowing marketers to enable first-party data that has been previously tied to cookies and mobile. This offering has been beta-tested by leading organizations across retail, financial services, telecom providers, and more. “We're excited to publicly announce the solution our team has been closely designing over the past 12 months with Adobe,” said Chris Feo, SVP, Global Data Licensing and Strategic Partnerships at Tapad. “This solution will give marketers in the U.S. and Canada the ability to unlock increased value from Adobe Audience Manager through the power of the Tapad Graph and its ability to expand customer prospects.” Tapad has repeatedly proven its ability to provide marketers with a unified view of the customer across channels and screens. With the Tapad Graph, a global identity graph that currently supports more than 100 enterprise customers and 200 integration partners, marketers can extend their reach and customize messages based on user and household-level data. Contact us today
Marketers Can Now Harness The Tapad Graph In Concert With Twine’s Vetted, Verified TrueData™ Identity Graph. Los Angeles and New York – August 2, 2018 – Tapad, now part of Experian, is reinventing personalization for the modern marketer, today announced that it is partnering with mobile data leader Twine Data (now TrueData) to bring Twine’s hundreds of millions of deterministic mobile identity connections to The Tapad Graph. Together, the two companies will create one of the largest portable identity graph & CRM onboarding services in the U.S., through the integration of Tapad’s best in class cross-device capability and Twine’s deterministic identity graph. "Twine is a respected player in the onboarding space", said Chris Feo, SVP of Global Data Licensing and Strategic Partnerships at Tapad. "Through Tapad and Twine’s partnership, our clients can now use their first-party CRM data to leverage the full power of The Tapad Graph — fueling a wide range of data-driven marketing use cases, including audience extension, attribution, and personalization." At the core of one-to-one marketing and true personalization is identity resolution. For marketers, the ability to accurately and safely connect customer activity across desktop/laptop, mobile, CTV, tablets, as well as CRM and offline touchpoints is ultimately what enables informed and personalized future conversations with each customer. Tapad is known for the precision, accuracy, and scale of their cross device connections, setting them up as an ideal partner for Twine’s TrueData deterministic identity graph. “We believe that by combining Tapad’s renowned cross-device connectivity and our deterministic identity graph, marketers will finally be able to seamlessly segment users based on digital and offline behaviors as well as easily distribute those audiences to both DMP and DSP environments for personalized messaging,” said Elliott Easterling, CEO of Twine Data. With this partnership, Tapad will build a client's cross-device graph off of identities onboarded by Twine from a client's offline CRM. The resulting identity graph can either be delivered directly to brands looking to host their own identity graph, or can be leveraged in a managed fashion for marketers looking for simple connectivity of their offline CRM audiences to their DSPs. To date, Twine & Tapad have seen full connectivity rates* for CRM segments from advertisers at between 259 percent and 322 percent at major DSPs. *Full Connectivity Rate is defined as {total unique desktop, laptop, and mobile devices active at DSP} / {unique CRM users in original audience post cleansing}. It represents the final match rate of the clean audience in CRM format to onboarded audience at a client’s DSP instance. This metric encompasses Twine’s onboarding & linkage validation and Tapad’s cross-device amplification. About TapadTapad, Inc. is the marketing technology company reinventing personalization for the modern marketer through its identity-driven solutions. The company's signature Tapad Graph connects millions of consumers across billions of devices. The world's largest brands and most effective marketers entrust Tapad to provide an accurate, privacy-conscious and unified approach to connecting with consumers across screens. In 2018, Tapad introduced its Tapad Customer Data Platform (CDP), purpose-built to offer marketers a highly personalized and privacy-safe platform to convert first-, second- and third-party data into actionable, results-driven campaigns. Tapad is based in New York and has offices in Chicago, London, Oslo, Singapore and Tokyo. Tapad's numerous awards include: Forbes' Most Promising Companies, Deloitte's Technology Fast 500, Crain's Fast 50, TMCnet Tech Culture Award and Global Startup Award's "Startup Founder of the Year." Tapad was acquired by the Telenor Group in 2016. Telenor Group is one of the world's largest mobile operators across Scandinavia and Asia. About TwineTwine is a mobile data platform that believes true, honest, accurate data is the fuel that helps our partners grow their businesses efficiently and effectively; Twine’s TrueData is used by brands, agencies, and ad tech partners across the country and across the globe. Twine’s app publisher partners generate revenue while maintaining control over their data; their marketer partners get comprehensive, high quality mobile targeting and intelligence. To learn more about Twine, visit their website. Contact us today