I love this time of the year – it’s a few days before Thanksgiving, Christmas is around the corner and with that comes tons of creative holiday ads. As a web designer, I simply love the ads not just for all the great deals, but for all the conversion optimization tips you can pull from them.

What’s great about holiday ads is that retailers pull out all the tricks. This is the time of the year when 99.9% of the country will be looking through the papers for great deals so this is a huge opportunity for retailers to grab the consumer’s attention.

This means that companies such as Walmart, Target, Best Buy, etc. are showing their best attention grabbing ads with all the bells and whistles.

Looking at the ads closely, you can pick up some valuable lessons that is worth applying to your site  – creative product photography, bold pricing, bold typography, eye-popping graphical elements, bright contrasting colors, etc. Whether you’re a web designer, marketer or run an e-commerce site, you should study the holiday ads carefully and mimic their style (at least through a/b testing). You can be sure that the layout and presentation of these ads have been tested and proven effective time and time again. I’m sure they would translate well online.

Go out and grab a paper, you’ll find tons of creative and inspirational ideas to use on your own website, not to mention you might find a great deal or two.

Happy Holidays!