Marketing Strategies

Mother’s Day: 3 segments to target and 4 channels to activate on

In 2022, consumers planned to spend a record $31.7B on Mother’s Day gifts.1 This is an increase of $3.6 billion from 2021’s Mother’s Day spending, which was already a record high. Advertisers cannot miss out on the chance to connect with consumers by leveraging this cultural moment.

Now is the time to start planning for this key holiday by creating an omnichannel campaign to surround and reach segments of customers who are actively looking to purchase gifts this Mother’s Day. From husbands shopping for their wives, millennials shopping for their moms, or even Mom’s shopping for themselves, we have some ideas on who you should target and where to reach them.

The Top 3 Segments to Target

1. Dads

Dads are of course one of the top audiences to reach, because dads spend twice as much on Mother’s Day compared to other consumers. Investing in marketing to an audience of affluent dads is a good strategy for brands looking to increase their amount of high-value customers.

Using Data Axle’s audiences, our Affluent + Active Dad audience allows you to reach 18+ men with a household income over $150k who have children.

2. Millennial Children

Millennials are ready to spoil their mothers on Mother’s Day. In fact, 25-34 year-old consumers led in Mother’s Day spend by age group in 2022 – spending an average of over $400 to make this day extra special for mom.2 Targeting this audience allows you to reach consumers who are shopping for both their mothers and their wives in this stage of life.

At Data Axle, we did the hard work for you by designing a customer audience set of millennials who are between the ages of 25–34 who have purchased popular Mother’s Day gifts in the past – making this audience perfect for your campaign.

3. Moms

As counterintuitive as it might seem, moms – from the affluent to the everyday – are a great audience to target for your Mother’s Day campaigns. Forbes reports that nearly 40% of moms say they are planning to get their own Mother’s Day gift.3 The top categories they plan to purchase are clothing, jewelry, and beauty. However, there are as many different types of moms as there are stars in the sky – and we’ve found that many moms are interested in arts & crafts, fashion, living actively, DIY, and more.

Consider buying a targeted ‘off-the-shelf’ audience to find the right ‘mom’ audience for your brand. At Data Axle we have a number of audience options including “Everyday,” “Affluent, “DIY,” and more.

The Top 3 Channels to Activate On

Choosing the right channel to activate your Mother’s Day campaign on can be overwhelming. From social media to digital and emerging channels, companies have a large array of options. We’ve selected a few that we have found to be particularly impactful for the above audience segments.

1. Email

Email marketing is still one of the most reliable channels to boost marketing program ROI.4 From new customer acquisition to engagement and retention, don’t neglect this powerful channel on Mother’s Day. Let’s look at this channel in action. See’s Candies worked with the Axle Agency to come up with a personalized twist on their Mother’s Day email campaign, sharing employees’ personal picks for Mother’s Day products. They also made sure to throw in a discount for expedited shipping for last-minute shoppers (we’re looking at you, Dads.)

2. Social Media

Have you heard the saying “everyone and their mother is on social media?” Well, that’s because it’s true! 4.67 billion people use social media,5 81% of U.S. moms on social media use Facebook compared to 61% of the total U.S. population,6 and 80% of U.S. mothers who use the internet use Pinterest.7 Long story short – if you want to reach U.S. moms, you need to be on social media.

Many social media platforms allow you to select and target based on the segments they have available on their platform. However, they also allow advertisers to upload their own target audiences. We recommend you take advantage of this in order to better target in on your best prospects.

3. Connected TV (CTV)

Did you know that in 2022 87% of U.S. adults own at least one CTV, and almost half of U.S. adults watched CTV daily?8 Advertisers are increasing their CTV ad spend to meet consumers where they are – experts predict CTV ad spend will reach almost 19 billion by 2026. By incorporating CTV into your advertising strategy, you can ensure that you are reaching your Mother’s Day audience while they’re engaged (e.g. family movie night) with non-skippable ad placements on premium networks like Discovery, A&E, HGTV, Food Network, CBS, NBC, AMC, Lifetime, Pluto, Crackle, Sling TV, Roku, and more! Netflix and Disney+ are also reworking their advertising strategy, so keep them on your radar as well.

4. Display

Display ads can increase brand awareness by 80%9 and savvy advertisers are increasing their display budgets. In 2019, display advertising spending in the U.S. was about 70 billion, that number has been growing YOY and experts expect spend to reach 107 billion in 2023.10

Display advertising allows you to reach the right people at the right time as they browse online. This is a great way to build brand awareness, generate engagement and drive high-value prospects to your website. This is a particularly great strategy for DTC E-commerce initiatives around Mother’s Day.

The Benefits of a Custom Audience

Are the off-the-shelf segments not a fit for your marketing strategy? A custom audience might be right for you. Custom audiences give you access to rich, diverse, person-level attributes. They also give you access to data experts who are equipped to provide added value consultation to ensure your data strategy is sound on all channels and throughout your marketing cycles. Data Axle does this by constructing profiles from hundreds of sources, like real-estate data, voter registrations, search and browsing history, purchase history and more. Custom audiences allow you to efficiently devote your time and resources. You can personalize your messaging and home in on what your customers want and need from you.

Want to get started? Get in touch.


1 https://www.yahoo.com/
2 https://www.lendingtree.com/
3 https://www.forbes.com/
4 https://www.campaignmonitor.com/
5 https://www.smartinsights.com/
6 https://blog.hootsuite.com/pinterest-demographics-for-business/
7 https://www.omnicoreagency.com/pinterest-statistics/
8 https://www.madhive.com/
9 https://www.webfx.com/digital-advertising/statistics/
10 https://www.statista.com/

Natasia Langfelder
Content Marketing Manager

As Content Marketing Manager, Natasia is responsible for helping strategize, produce and execute Data Axle's content. With a passion for writing and an enthusiasm for data management and technology, Natasia creates content that is designed to deliver nuggets of wisdom to help brands and individuals elevate their data governance policies. A native New Yorker, when Natasia is not at work she can be found enjoying New York’s food scene, at one of NYC’s many museums, or at one of the city’s many parks with her two teacup yorkies.