35 Best Emojis for Holiday Campaigns 🎁
AI-First insights to increase CTR, ROAS, and seasonal revenue
The holiday season is when e-commerce brands win or fall behind. Competition spikes, CPMs increase, and every message needs to work harder. In our testing at ScaledOn, strategic emoji usage can improve CTR, boost engagement, and increase revenue when paired with strong creative and AI-smart targeting.
Holiday emojis aren't just "fun." They're a proven micro-pattern interrupter that makes your message more scannable, personal, and conversion-friendly. This guide highlights the best-performing emojis for holiday campaigns, along with where and how to use them to drive sustainable growth.
🎁 Gift-Giving Emojis
Great for highlighting promotions, bundles, and seasonal offers.
Ideal for flash sales or festive shopping sprees.
Universal symbol for promotions and limited-time deals.
Perfect for campaigns centered on appreciation or gift guides.
Creates instant holiday context.
Warm, emotional CTA moments.
💸 Holiday Savings Emojis
Use these when you want to signal urgency or unbeatable deals.
Great for announcing major discounts.
Perfect for "don't miss this" messaging.
Ideal for sitewide deals or bundle savings.
Add-to-cart nudges in paid ads or SMS.
Promoting frictionless checkout, BNPL, or free shipping.
This is a natural tie-in: Protect your holiday ad dollars while increasing conversions.
🎅 Secret Santa Emojis
Great for giveaways, mystery boxes, and early-access drops.
These emojis naturally spark curiosity, which increases engagement on SMS, social, and product drops.
❄️ Winter Activities Emojis
Works especially well for outdoor brands, apparel, sports gear, or lifestyle niches.
These emojis add warmth, nostalgia, and seasonality, perfect for DTC or Amazon lifestyle brands.
🎉 Celebration Emojis
Use these for "end of year wrap-ups," social engagement, and email campaigns.
📱 Holiday Emoji Optimization for iOS & Android
As mentioned in the original article, Emojipedia and holiday emoji apps are great resources. But strategy matters more than access. At ScaledOn, we use emojis as part of a conversion-tested creative framework, combining real-time AI insights, A/B testing across audiences, cross-channel alignment, and seasonal CRO adjustments. This is how we drive sustainable growth, not just holiday spikes.
📈 How Emojis Improve Holiday Performance
From our internal testing and partner campaigns:
Higher CTR
Emojis help ads and email subject lines stand out in crowded feeds.
More Scannable Content
They break up text and create frictionless reading.
Better Mobile Performance
Emojis resonate with younger audiences who shop heavily from phones.
Stronger Brand Voice
Human, warm, and approachable, even for performance-driven brands.
For brands investing heavily in Q4, these small optimizations compound real revenue impact.
FAQ: Holiday Emoji Strategy
How do emojis enhance holiday marketing campaigns?
Emojis make your messages more relatable, break up text, reinforce tone, and capture attention. Combined with AI-powered testing and optimized placement, they lift engagement and CTR.
Why is the holiday season ideal for creative e-commerce marketing?
The holidays increase purchase intent, meaning creative differentiation matters more than ever. It's also when CAC spikes, making optimization critical.
Which emojis work best?
Use emojis that connect directly to your offer: gifts for promotions, money symbols for sales, winter emojis for seasonal products, and celebratory emojis for events.
How should I use emojis effectively?
Place them strategically: in subject lines to increase open rates, in ad copy to emphasize key benefits, in SMS for urgency, and on Amazon bullet points sparingly for visual scanning.
What's the benefit of a Secret Santa emoji strategy?
It taps into curiosity and surprise! Two psychological triggers proven to boost engagement and click-through rates.
🚀 Want to Increase Holiday Sales This Year?
Holiday competition is intense: CPMs rise, attention drops, and every scroll gets more expensive. The brands that win aren't spending more, they're testing faster and deploying AI-first creative that keeps pace with shifting consumer behavior.
And in Q4, video is the biggest performance lever you have.
🎥 Why AI Video Matters in Q4
Most brands run the same one or two videos all season. But during the holidays, creative fatigue hits in days, and a stale asset can quickly tank CTR, ROAS, and CAC.
Across partner accounts, the data is clear:
Creative drives ~70% of paid social performance
Video outperforms static by 2–5x during holiday shopping
Faster iteration = lower CAC and longer winning ad life
AI-powered video helps brands stay ahead by:
- ✓ Producing fresh variations quickly
- ✓ Testing hooks and angles in real time
- ✓ Preventing performance drops from fatigue
- ✓ Tailoring videos to each platform's conversion behavior
In a season where every hour counts, creative agility becomes your unfair advantage.
See examples, strategies, and testing frameworks
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