Always-on campaigns, the Strategy Labs way
Turn stale evergreen content into a sophisticated profit-driving engine
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Always on — not always boring
Evergreen content can get a bad rap for the wrong reasons.
Year-round marketing material doesn’t look like high-budget campaigns; it doesn’t seize upon the internet trend of the week, let alone the season of the year; it doesn’t promote your biggest sales, or giveaways, or holidays. This could lead any marketer to believe always-on content is boring — and at worst, ineffective.
However, many marketers and agencies don’t realize that their stable, everyday content is key to scaling their brands. At Strategy Labs, data drives our creative decisions. While always-on content isn’t always-glamorous, we’ve seen that strategically crafting and iterating on top-performing evergreen ads can supercharge your sales.
We’ve developed a unique approach to always-on campaigns that emphasizes investing in your “Opportunity Valleys” — the slower times of your marketing calendar — to bring your peak sales periods to new heights.
How always-on can boost sales during “peaks & valleys”
You’re probably familiar with always-on or evergreen campaign best practices, and you may already be running one. These campaigns are designed to stabilize your performance across the calendar and keep audiences engaged between major sales events. Many marketers stop here.
At Strategy Labs, we strategize and execute always-on campaigns in conjunction with our Opportunity Valley strategy. As a result, our always-on campaigns do much more than maintain sales — they amplify your peaks.
What are Opportunity Valleys?
With years of data in our arsenal, we noticed some clear annual CPM (cost per mille, or cost per 1,000 impressions) trends. Opportunity Valleys are moments when CPMs decline while market demand remains elevated. These valleys often precede or follow holidays or other large seasonal events. Most brands and agencies overlook these moments, but we capitalize on them to drive demand during less competitive times.
FFor example, in recent periods after Black Friday-Cyber Monday and before Christmas, we saw conversion rates (CVR) remain above average and even rise higher than Black Friday numbers at the shipping cutoff date. As you can see in the graph below, costs throughout December fell as much as $0.50 per click, while demand remained steadily above average levels.
The rising tide raises all ships
So how does always-on content boost Opportunity Valley performance? Throughout the year, we recommend continuously creating and improving the ads in your evergreen campaigns. Measure performance and iterate on your top-performing ads to help them gain more momentum, while troubleshooting or axing low-performing ads.
By doing this, your brand will form an arsenal of strong, tried and true creatives that can then be leveraged during Opportunity Valleys and peak sales moments. During those times, tweak your top performers to incorporate the relevant seasonal or sale messaging, while maintaining the concept with proven performance.
Here’s an example of how we’ve done this for an aftermarket auto parts client.
The top-performing ad above continued to perform strongly all year, through seasonal changes with simple updates to imagery and messaging. While these adjustments were small, they kept our ads just relevant and fresh enough to consistently perform better.
The rising tide raises all ships. High-performance evergreen campaigns will grow the foundational budget for your business, and this building momentum will supercharge your peak sales campaigns. The result is higher and more stabilized revenue throughout the year.
Up next: Tips to get the most out of always-on campaigns ↓
Ride the always-on wave to better profits
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Tips to get the most out of your always-on campaigns
Running an always-on campaign doesn’t mean running the same ad all year. It means maintaining a core strategy that adapts over time.
Here are four actions we recommend to maximize impact:
1. Play the long game: Constantly build your audience
Start acquiring high-intent audiences earlier in the year so that come November, you’re prepared to target larger pools of prospective customers.
How to do it:
→ Leverage Meta and TikTok to effectively identify new customers. Optimize campaigns toward “view product” or “add to cart” events to balance site-visit efficiency and quality.
→ Tap into relevant creators to boost social proof and create a sense of brand community.
→ Generate loyalty, app downloads, and email or SMS subscriptions with exclusive access to sales, events or products.
2. Market smarter, not harder: Lean into automation
Deliver more personalized content that requires less manual maintenance. A win-win.
How to do it:
→ Lean into easily scalable dynamic solutions, like Meta dynamic product ads and Google PMax campaigns.
→ Run Meta catalog ads with lightly designed overlays. Similar to dynamic product ads, catalog ads dynamically insert product images within a designed frame. Make simple graphic updates to the frame throughout the year, so products are accompanied by call-outs to the next sale or seasonal trend. E.g., “Memorial Day Sale”; “Tax Season Top Pick”
→ Set up back-in-stock alerts, price drop alerts, or product review requests via email and SMS automations. These can encourage first-time buyers, repeat purchasers, and general reengagement.
3. Keep your ducks in a row: Maintain clean data
Ensure your platforms are consistently integrated correctly, so the most up-to-date data is always on hand for your always-on content.
How to do it:
→ Automate, but also routinely audit, your product catalogs. Integrate with an automated system to ensure that anything out of stock or back in stock is removed or added back into Meta or Google product feeds. Regularly check to make sure these connections are sending data correctly, and adjust your product catalogs and evergreen ads accordingly so no ad spend is wasted.
→ Pass events through browser pixels as well as server-to-server integrations to gather more reliable data and improve tracking across the user journey.
4. Test, learn, repeat
Constantly iterate on your top-performing ads. Try different formats, placements, messaging, POVs, and design styles to see what moves the needle.
How to do it:
→ Ad upgrades can be extremely simple: Alter the layout. Shorten or lengthen a video. Swap two distinct headlines on top-performing ads. Drop a different color or version of a top-selling product into an ad design.
→ Find your ad in the wild and assess how viewers interact with it. Likes and shares indicate success, but post comments can open new creative avenues. Are people expressing pain points? Are they asking about product details? Are they tagging their friends because they think your ad is hilarious? Consider any of the above when tweaking your ad for the next round. For example, if viewers love the humor, push that messaging further and see what happens!
Up next: 3 winning content tactics for always-on success ↓
Always-on campaigns should be more than relevant, they should be effective
Let’s connect the dots between your evergreen assets and your year-defining moments.
3 winning content tactics for always-on campaigns
An always-on strategy is only as good as the content behind it. Here are three low-lift, high-impact creative approaches to keep your brand relevant all year:
Top-performing static ads deserve a permanent spot in your ad mix. Identify which evergreen angles consistently convert — value props, reviews, bestsellers — and continue to iterate on them. Bonus points if they’re templatized for quick refreshes.
💡 Let the data guide your creative decisions.
1. Run tried and true static ads
For ads that are always on, you’ll want to showcase products that are always available. Use simple, benefit-driven creative to feature bestsellers or anchor items in your catalog. This is where clean product shots, UGC, or testimonials shine.
💡 Keep it short, clear, and focused on value.
2. Rely on your always-on products
You don’t always need full video to make an impact. Light animation — like scrolling text overlays, sparkle effects, drawn-in arrows, or GIFs — can catch the eye without draining your production budget. These work especially well in story placements.
💡 Add movement where you want attention to go.
3. Add some movement
Always-on content isn’t always flashy, but when done strategically, it fills the valleys, boosts your peaks, and builds a stronger, more predictable revenue engine year-round.
Goodbye status quo, hello Strategy Labs