What Microsoft’s holiday research means for campaign planning
Danielle McMeekin presents Microsoft Advertising’s research on holiday shopping, AI-assisted discovery and the timing of purchase journeys. The article connects early consideration, value-conscious shopping and brand discovery with questions advertisers face when preparing seasonal campaigns. It is useful for reviewing when to start activity and which assumptions about discovery deserve testing. Read the findings by market and evidence type: survey intentions and observed conversion journeys answer different questions, and neither should automatically replace what your own customer and account data show.
Microsoft Advertising · Published
Why make time for it?
Useful when building a seasonal brief: the article connects early consideration, value-conscious shopping and brand discovery with campaign planning questions.
What to look for
- Check when consideration begins instead of concentrating every activity around the final sale.
- Compare the findings for your market with your own customer and conversion data.
Keep in mind
This is an official platform perspective. Survey intentions and observed conversion paths are different evidence types. The cited July survey includes 310 Australian, 519 UK and 1,024 US respondents; its findings should not be presented as universal behaviour.
Take this question into the article
Which assumption in your holiday plan is supported by your own audience data?
The people behind the article
Explore their work and recorded contributions on PMC.
Authorship points are shared between coauthors. Experts receive credit for substantive contributions, not mentions. One work earns one award per person, including when it appears elsewhere on PMC. How recognition works
Read the full argument.
Continue to Microsoft Advertising for the complete article and supporting material.
Read the full articleReading notes reviewed 30 Sept 2026. The publication date above belongs to the original source.