Overview
This strategy involves two key parts:
Using last year's data to inform this year's campaigns
Building real-time reports to find winning strategies as they happen
Part 1: Analyzing historical data
Step 1: Establish your timeline 📆
Find the exact dates you ran campaigns last year:
When did you launch your ads?
When did you turn them off?
This is critical for historical analysis. For example: "We launched November 1st and ended November 30th".
Step 2: Create historical reports 📊
Winners report
Shows which creatives drove the most conversions last year
Sort by highest purchase value to identify top performers
Default view shows highest spend first, but you can re-sort by any metric
Losers report
These are your underperforming ads
Duplicate your winners report and change the filters
Sort by metrics like lowest click-through rate to find ads that didn't drive traffic
Engagement report
Tracks brand awareness metrics if engagement matters to your strategy (spoiler: it should!)
Focus on metrics like impressions and engagement rates
Potentials report
Highlights ads that showed promise but didn't get enough traffic
Look at engagement metrics or click-through rates to find missed opportunities
These ads kinda worked, but may need another chance with small tweaks
Step 3: Analyze trends across variables
Create comparative reports to identify high-level patterns:
Visual format analysis
Shows all visual formats used (slideshows, split-screens, collages, etc.)
Displays aggregated performance across each format
Helps identify which formats to lean into this year
Persona analysis
Uses AI tagging to find your most engaged audiences
Shows which customer types responded best to your campaigns
Guides targeting strategy for this year
Hook analysis
Compares performance across messaging angles
Identifies which openers landed best
Step 4: Share what you learned with your team
Motion offers two ways to share reports:
Create a Snapshot: Generate a shareable link that displays the filtered report and metrics visible to anyone
Update report titles: Label reports clearly (e.g., "BFCM 2024 Winners") so team members understand the context
Part 2: Building reports for this year
Set up reports early
Create reports before your first campaign goes live to track every ad as they launch.
Focus on real-time optimization
This year's analysis differs from historical review. Focus on:
Messaging angle reports
Track which angles are performing best in real-time
Pivot if unexpected angles outperform your planned approach (ex. if "bundle and save" drives the most traffic, lean into it immediately)
Visual format reports
See which visuals work best with your winning angles
Create visual diversity by testing the same angle across multiple formats (collages, slideshows, feature callouts, etc.)
Persona tracking
Keep monitoring which audiences engage most with your current campaigns
Adjust targeting based on emerging patterns
Hook performance reports
Use Motion metrics to compare creative performance across both static and video assets
Find your top-performing hooks/headlines and use them for iterations 👇
The iteration cycle (this sums it up)
Launch new concepts based on last year's learnings
Monitor performance through real-time reports
Identify trends as they emerge
Create iterations of winning concepts with different visual formats
Apply successful patterns (hooks, formats, personas) to new creative
Repeat
This creates a strategy flywheel that continuously improves campaign performance throughout your seasonal event.
Key takeaways
Historical data reveals what worked before, but be ready to adapt
Set up reports before launching campaigns, not during them
Visual diversity amplifies successful messaging angles
Quick pivots based on real-time data maximize ROI
The same framework works for any recurring seasonal event
By following this strategy, you'll enter each seasonal campaign with data-backed hypotheses and the ability to rapidly optimize based on real-time performance.