When people hear “holiday campaign,” they might think of December. But for marketers, holidays show up all year long, each one bringing its own timelines and expectations.
The following guide is designed to simplify that cycle, replacing several older holiday-specific posts with one practical playbook you can reuse for every major moment on the calendar.
The idea is to give you a repeatable approach that scales with your campaign schedule. And that matters more than ever with modern changes in holiday shopping behavior, like shoppers starting earlier and moving across more channels before making a decision.
Email, social media posts, paid ads, SMS, QR Codes, in-store touchpoints—they’re all part of the mix, and Bitly fits right in, acting as the connection layer. By using Bitly Links and QR Codes across campaigns, you can track clicks and scans wherever your audience engages.
Bitly Analytics shows engagement, locations, devices, and channel-level performance. But for conversions and revenue, you’ll still need tools like Google Analytics, your ecommerce platforms, or your ad platforms alongside Bitly.
Here’s everything you need to know about using Bitly to plan, launch, and measure all your holiday campaigns, no matter which big day is next on your calendar.
Note: The brands and examples discussed below were found during our online research for this article.
Key takeaways
- Holiday campaigns are no longer seasonal one-offs. Treat them as a year-round, repeatable system that adapts to different customer mindsets, timelines, and channels.
- Bitly works best as the engagement and organization layer across holiday campaigns, helping teams track clicks and scans while pairing with tools like Google Analytics for conversion and revenue insights.
- Planning campaigns around customer intent, like acquisition, gifting, giving, or reactivation, leads to clearer goals and more meaningful performance comparisons across holidays.
- Using consistent Bitly Campaign naming and tagging makes it easier to compare performance year over year and turn each holiday into a data-backed learning opportunity.
- The most successful holiday programs don’t end at checkout. Post-campaign analysis and reactivation efforts are what turn seasonal shoppers into long-term customers.
How Bitly supports modern holiday campaigns
Holiday marketing means juggling timelines, audiences, channels, and campaign content all season long. Modern shoppers hop from email to social feeds to in-store browsing and back again, so keeping marketing campaigns organized and measurable matters more than ever.
The Bitly Connections Platform helps bring structure to that complexity with tools that make it easier to connect the dots between channels and streamline execution.
Bitly lets you centralize your links, codes, pages, and analytics in one place. That means less time on admin and more time optimizing offers and refining messaging, allowing you to tailor campaigns for each holiday moment.
Here’s how Bitly’s tools fit into a smarter holiday workflow:
- Bitly Links: Branded short links keep your emails, social ads, SMS messages, and influencer posts consistent and trustworthy. They also make it easier to track engagement across channels without juggling dozens of lengthy URLs.
- Bitly QR Codes: QR Codes turn offline moments into measurable digital entry points. Use them on packaging, in-store signage, print materials, or event displays to connect physical experiences back to your holiday campaigns.
- Bitly Pages: These lightweight landing pages are ideal for gift guides, limited-time offers, or campaign hubs. Marketers can build and update them quickly without waiting for development resources.
- Bitly Campaigns + Bitly Analytics: Campaigns let you group every campaign-related link in one place, track engagement by channel, and compare performance across different holidays or promotions.
Note: Bitly focuses on engagement data, not full-funnel metrics. For click-through rates, impression-based scan rates, conversions, and revenue, you’ll need to pair Bitly insights with tools like Google Analytics, ecommerce dashboards, or ad platforms.
Understanding holiday customer behavior and timing
Some shoppers start browsing and comparing deals weeks or even months in advance, while others wait until the last minute, scrambling for shipping. Post-holiday returns are common too, so you’ll need a strong holiday customer service strategy.
Timing and intent also shift, depending on the holiday. Black Friday / Cyber Monday (BFCM) often drives early deal-seekers, while gifting occasions, like Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day, see spikes closer to the date.
Understanding these patterns is key to meeting customers where they actually are, not where brands assume they’ll be.
Bitly helps make that behavior visible. Clicks and scans reveal when audiences are warming up, peaking, or tapering off for each campaign. With the Connections Platform, teams can see engagement spikes in real time, giving them insights to shift budgets and tweak messaging or launch last-minute offers based on audience engagement.
When shoppers start (and stop) paying attention
Holiday engagement moves in phases: pre, peak, and post. Bitly Link clicks and QR Code scans provide a real-time window into when audiences are paying attention:
- Pre-holiday: Start sending out “early access” links in late October or early November and watch for rising click trends.
- Peak holiday: Look for sharp spikes on Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, then again at key shipping cutoff dates for holiday arrival.
- Post-holiday: Wait for drop-offs to start after New Year’s as shoppers reset their budgets.
By tracking engagement trends over the holiday season, you can see exactly when audience attention picks up, peaks, and wanes, giving you an ideal playbook for the next big day.
Tip: Keep campaigns live slightly longer than you might normally to capture post-holiday activity. The Connections Platform lets you see which links and QR Codes are still driving engagement, so you can adjust messaging and extend offers to capitalize on continued interest.
Mapping holidays to your customer lifecycle
Looking at holidays through a lifecycle lens helps you set clearer goals and measure success more realistically.
- BFCM and gifting seasons tend to be strongest for acquisition and large purchases. Shoppers are actively comparing options and looking for deals, so they’re more open to trying new brands or buying multiple items at once.
- Giving-focused dates, like Giving Tuesday or cause-driven campaigns, work well for brand affinity and community building. These moments focus more on value and long-term connection than holiday sales.
- New Year’s and early Q1 are ideal for reactivation and product adoption. People are resetting routines and redeeming gift cards. Some are finally exploring new products they already purchased during the holidays.
Tip: To make these patterns easier to analyze later, label your Bitly Campaigns with both the holiday and the lifecycle goal. Naming campaigns “BFCM – Acquisition” or “New Year – Reactivation” lets you quickly see which holidays consistently drive which outcomes when you review performance over time.
Holiday campaign types that work best by season
“Holiday” isn’t a single moment—it’s a series of distinct phases, each with its own customer mindset. Rather than reinventing the wheel each time, it helps to think in repeatable campaign templates:
- What the moment looks like
- What kinds of customer experiences to aim for
- Which Bitly-powered assets support those goals
Black Friday and Cyber Week urgency campaigns
Shoppers are deal-hunting and comparing brands quickly this time of year, jumping between inboxes, feeds, and storefronts. Starting early and planning tightly helps boost brand awareness that wins their business.
That means mapping out a campaign calendar in advance, warming audiences with early-access or teaser promotions, and running focused offers by channel—not launching everything at once.
A few Bitly tools work especially well here:
- Branded Bitly Links: Use these in email marketing, paid ads, and SMS to help messages stand out in crowded channels and make it obvious where clicks are coming from.
- Bitly Pages paired with QR Codes: These are great for in-store promos or packaging that sends shoppers straight to doorbuster bundles or collections.
- Bitly Campaigns: Group everything under a single label, like “BFCM 2025,” so every related link rolls up into one view.
Tip: Use Bitly to track engagement and momentum, then measure conversions and sales lift in Google Analytics or your ecommerce platforms using UTMs that match your Bitly Campaign names.
Gifting and shipping season campaigns (late November through December)
Shoppers shift from deal-hunting to decision-making here. They want help choosing the right gift and reassurance about delivery timing, and they expect clear next steps.
Bitly makes this info easy to find and share, helping you increase ecommerce sales or in-store purchases:
- Bitly Pages: Use them to host gift guides, last-shipping-date reminders, store locators, or pickup options in one simple destination.
- Shortened Bitly Links: These make Pages easy to distribute across email, SMS notifications, and social posts.
- Bitly QR Codes: Turn those same links into QR Codes for in-store signage and product packaging.
- Bitly Campaigns: Group everything under a label like “Gifting and Shipping” to compare which channels are driving the most engagement.
Tip: Bitly’s geolocation insights are especially helpful here. See which regions are clicking or scanning and adjust messaging around shipping cutoffs, local inventory, and pickup options while they’re still engaged.
Giving-focused campaigns (Giving Tuesday and nonprofit seasons)
Campaigns for Giving Tuesday and similar holidays revolve around purpose, not urgency. Supporters want to understand the impact of their contribution and feel confident that giving is simple and meaningful.
Bitly helps keep those paths clear and accessible:
- Branded Bitly Links: Share convenient, trustworthy links to donation pages, volunteer sign-ups, or matching gift campaigns across email and social.
- Bitly QR Codes: Use these on mailers, event signage, or in-store prompts to send supporters to mobile-friendly Bitly Pages that explain the cause and guide them to the right donation form.
- Bitly Analytics: See which messages and channels are driving engagement, then confirm donations and revenue in your fundraising or payment platform.
Tip: This is a strong moment for thoughtful follow-up. Post-campaign outreach can turn one-time holiday supporters into recurring donors, continuing the conversation beyond the giving day.
New Year and Q1 reactivation campaigns
This phase turns attention to bringing holiday shoppers back and helping them get more value. Bitly supports this shift with assets designed for retention and re-engagement:
- Bitly Links: These work well in “welcome back” emails, loyalty offers, and educational content that shows customers how to use or enjoy what they bought.
- Bitly QR Codes: Place on packaging inserts or receipts to point to Bitly Pages with onboarding guides, how-to content, or loyalty program signups.
- Bitly Campaigns: Use a label like “Q1 Reactivation” to easily track which channels and messages are pulling people back in.
Tip: Here’s where the long-term impact of holiday marketing efforts really shows up. Compare Bitly click and scan trends with repeat purchase data in your CRM or ecommerce system to measure lasting value.
Non-winter holidays and “micro-holidays”
The same engagement patterns show up around Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, graduation season, summer sales, and even niche observance days that matter to your audience.
Turn the holiday season into a steady, year-long rhythm by:
- Choosing a small set of non-winter holidays that naturally fit your products and customer needs.
- Building lightweight, repeatable campaigns using Bitly Pages, QR Codes, and short links, so each holiday feels familiar instead of starting from zero.
- Organizing everything with Bitly Campaigns, even for smaller promotions, to keep links easy to manage and review later.
Tip: The Connections Platform helps teams plan ahead and measure these moments so every campaign runs like a well-oiled machine, not a last-minute scramble.
Choosing the right channels for each holiday with Bitly
An offer that works in email may need to be shorter and more urgent in SMS or more visual on social media. Bitly helps keep those executions consistent and channel-appropriate.
Below are common channel patterns—and how Bitly helps you adapt the same holiday campaigns across email, mobile, social, and offline experiences.
Email and lifecycle campaigns with Bitly Links
Holiday email campaigns are a prime spot for guiding shoppers through every step, from “coming soon” teasers to cart reminders, shipping deadlines, and post-purchase care.
Using branded Bitly Links keeps your emails looking clean and professional. Stick to one main link per email when possible, and tag each link so the Connections Platform can break out performance based on campaign and email type.
Email is also a good place to feature detailed gift guides. Hosting them on Bitly Pages gives you an easy way to share rich content without overwhelming the message, while keeping clicks and engagement visible in one place.
SMS and mobile messaging with Bitly and QR Codes
MMS and SMS marketing are ideal for quick, time-sensitive holiday nudges—think restock alerts, “last day to ship” reminders, appointment notifications. Short, clear messages get noticed, but long URLs can be a barrier to increasing holiday mobile sales.
Bitly Links and QR Codes keep URLs short, branded, and trackable, directing recipients to campaign-specific landing pages without cluttering the message.
With the Connections Platform, you can see which SMS-driven links and QR Codes are getting scans and clicks. While actual conversions live in other tools, this visibility helps you understand engagement patterns and fine-tune messaging across each holiday campaign.
Social, creators, and link-in-bio experiences
Social and creator campaigns thrive on quick access and clear tracking. One effective approach is using a single Bitly Page as a holiday hub in your bio, updating the links as promotions change.
Creators can get unique Bitly Links for their posts or stories, providing a convenient way to see which influencers drive the most engagement during BFCM or gifting periods.
Consistent naming and tagging in the Connections Platform ensures clean reporting, especially when sharing performance with stakeholders. This way, teams can track clicks and compare channels, adjusting campaigns as needed.
Offline, packaging, and in-store with QR Codes
Physical touchpoints can become powerful holiday engagement channels when paired with Bitly QR Codes. In-store signage, window displays, receipts, catalogs, and product packaging can all connect shoppers directly to digital experiences.
Give customers instant access to helpful content with QR Codes that point to mobile-friendly Bitly Pages featuring gift guides, store locators, or loyalty program signups.
With the Connections Platform, teams can see which locations and formats are driving the most scans by region. These insights help them optimize placement, messaging, and inventory for maximum holiday impact.
Planning and measuring holiday campaigns with Bitly Campaigns
Holiday campaigns move fast, so your processes need to keep up. Bitly Campaigns turn planning and measurement into a simple, repeatable workflow: plan the moment, tag links, launch everywhere, review engagement, and reuse what works.
Step 1: Plan your campaigns and build a link and QR Code inventory
Take time to map out what you’ll actually need before anything goes live. A little planning up front saves a lot of cleanup later, especially during busy holiday periods.
- List every destination tied to the holiday—product collections, gift guides, shipping details, donation forms, loyalty signups, onboarding content.
- Decide how you’ll get shoppers to each one, whether it’s through email, SMS, social posts, paid ads, or offline materials.
- Create branded Bitly Links and Bitly QR Codes for each destination. Assign consistent UTM parameters, so your downstream analytics align clearly with your Bitly Campaigns.
Use simple, clear naming conventions. Labels like “BFCM,” “Gifting,” or “Q1” make it easy to scan and compare campaigns in Bitly at any time.
Step 2: Set up Bitly Campaigns
Inside the Connections Platform, Bitly Campaigns let you group assets by holiday and channel so engagement is simple to see and compare, both within a season and throughout the year.
To optimize your Bitly Campaigns, follow these best practices:
- Create one campaign per holiday or holiday cluster, such as “Holiday 2025 – BFCM” or “New Year 2026 – Reactivation.”
- Assign every Bitly Link to the correct campaign, using clear channel tags like email, SMS, social, paid, or in-store.
- Reuse the same structure every year, so performance comparisons across seasons are quick and meaningful.
Step 3: Read the right Bitly metrics and pair them with other tools
Bitly’s built to show how people engage, not to replace your full analytics stack. Inside Bitly, you can see:
- Clicks and scans by individual link or QR Code.
- Engagement by location and device, down to country, city, and device type.
- Channel comparisons within Bitly Campaigns.
What Bitly doesn’t provide on its own are impression-level metrics like CTR, conversion data, and revenue. Your CRM, ecommerce platform, and Google Analytics handle that, so you’ll need to use UTM parameters to connect your Bitly Links with those systems.
Bitly answers which links, channels, and QR Codes drive the most engagement, so you can fine-tune creative and channel mixes with confidence.
A simple workflow to launch your next holiday campaign with Bitly
Think of this as a repeatable checklist you can adjust for any holiday, big or small:
- Start with a clear goal, like driving people to a BFCM gift guide while collecting email signups.
- Build a Bitly Page as the hub, organizing products clearly and linking to a simple signup form that your email platform manages.
- Create branded Bitly Links for email, social, and SMS, plus QR Codes for in-store signage or print.
- Group everything into a Bitly Campaign, such as “BFCM Gift Guide 2025.”
- Launch and monitor clicks, scans, and geolocation by channel, adjusting promotions or creatives as needed.
- Review results, comparing Bitly engagement with ecommerce sales data to inform next year’s offline and digital marketing strategies.
Post-campaign retrospectives and building your holiday playbook
Don’t wrap things up just yet. You can get even more value from your holiday campaigns after they end. A short retrospective helps teams spot patterns and document what worked, so they can avoid the same mistakes next time.
These learnings become a holiday playbook for smarter campaigns that drive proven results.
Questions to ask after every holiday campaign
Before jumping into the next promotion, take a few minutes to review what actually happened. These questions help you turn data into repeatable wins:
- Which Bitly Campaigns and channels drove the most clicks?
- Which Pages or destinations kept people around the longest, based on GA4 or web analytics?
- Which QR Code placements or creative variations outperformed expectations?
- Did we see measurable reactivation or repeat visits in Q1 from new customers acquired during the holidays?
Tip: Document the answers in a shared holiday playbook and use consistent Bitly Campaign names year over year to make comparisons easy.
Turning seasonal shoppers into long-term customers with Bitly
Holiday campaigns carry a ton of value. But the real wins come from turning seasonal shoppers into loyal customers.
Bitly helps you connect every touchpoint—QR Codes, branded links, and landing pages—so you can understand which interactions bring in the most engagement into your broader sales funnel.
With Bitly Campaigns, it’s simple to review performance and capture lessons learned, helping you carry insights into the next holiday cycle.
Kick off your next holiday campaign with Bitly to see how every click and scan drives results.
FAQs
How early should I set up Bitly for my holiday campaigns?
Ideally, you should build your Bitly structure 6–8 weeks before your first major holiday push. This gives you time to create all your links, set up Bitly Campaigns for each holiday, and test everything across email, SMS, social, and offline touchpoints before engagement spikes.
Can Bitly show me which holiday campaigns are performing best across channels?
Yes. By using Bitly Campaigns inside the Connections Platform, you can group links by holiday or promotion and then compare clicks across email, SMS, social, and offline placements at a glance. This makes it easier to see where to double down, even though you will still rely on other tools for conversion and revenue data.
How do I measure ROI from holiday campaigns if Bitly does not track conversions?
Use Bitly to understand engagement by campaign and channel, then tie that back to revenue in your ecommerce, CRM, or analytics tools. For example, you can look at which Bitly Campaigns drove the most engaged sessions in GA and then compare that against order data or signups for the same date ranges. Bitly gives you reliable engagement numbers; your other platforms provide the revenue picture.
What if my brand does not run big Black Friday or Christmas promotions?You can still use Bitly to support smaller “holiday” moments that fit your audience, such as Valentine’s Day, spring events, back-to-school, or cause-led campaigns. The same process applies: pick the holidays that matter, build Bitly Pages, links, and QR Codes for each, group the links into Bitly Campaigns, and reuse what works each year instead of reinventing your strategy from scratch.
