For paid marketers, Easter isn’t a slow burn – it’s a sprint. In the final 10 days before the long weekend, intent peaks, decisions accelerate, and competition intensifies. Brands that have campaigns live and optimised before demand spikes don’t just capture more conversions: they pay less for them.

Here’s how to run Easter campaigns on Microsoft Advertising that outperform across three of the highest-demand categories.

Confectionery, Chocolate and Food

This is the highest-intent category at Easter. The shopper knows what they want – your job is to be visible when they search, and persuasive when they hesitate.

Performance Max should anchor your confectionery strategy. It serves across Search, Shopping, Display and Native in one campaign, which means you build visibility as demand rises and convert that intent as it peaks. Set up an Easter-specific asset group or a dedicated campaign if budgets allow.

Your search themes should reflect how people actually search. Use terms like “Easter eggs”, “Easter chocolate” and “Easter sweets” – seasonal specificity consistently outperforms generic product terms. Layer in audience signals alongside them:

• In-market segments: confectionery and desserts audiences actively researching purchases
• First-party data: previous converters, Easter page visitors, and existing remarketing lists
• Creative signals: imagery featuring chocolate, gifting and family moments, paired with copy that includes Easter messaging and highlights offers

One often-missed opportunity: PMax campaigns also surface Shopping ads within Copilot and Copilot Search, where your products can appear alongside AI-generated results during high-intent moments. As demand builds into the final two weeks, increase budgets to match rising search volume and adjust bids in line with expected conversion rates.

⚡ Quick win: Add a free shipping deadline to your ad copy. Time-sensitive offers in confectionery ads consistently outperform generic seasonal messaging, and they cost nothing to test.

Gifting

Gifting is unique at Easter because it spans children and adults, low and high price points. That breadth is your advantage — if you structure the funnel correctly.

Microsoft’s Audience Network is the right tool here. But the most important decision comes before you build anything: are you prospecting for new customers, or re-engaging people who’ve already shown interest? The tactics differ significantly, and mixing them in the same campaign blurs your performance signals.

For prospecting, focus on reaching new users through:

• In-market segments for seasonal shopping and gifting
• LinkedIn targeting for higher-value demographics and gift categories
• Lookalike audiences built from your existing converters or site visitors

For remarketing, centre your activity on impression-based audiences, previous site visitors, and dynamic product viewers — people who have shown real intent but haven’t converted yet.

Vary your creative formats to suit the placement and the moment. Native and display ads work well for showcasing gifting ideas visually; video is better suited to lifestyle-driven moments that inspire rather than interrupt. Extensions add context and build trust at the point of decision — sitelinks to bestsellers, price extensions for key products, and review extensions to reduce hesitation.

⚡Quick win: Define your funnel objective before building. Prospecting and remarketing campaigns need different budgets, audiences, and creative – separating them is the single fastest way to improve your reporting clarity.

Decoration: Home and Garden

Decorations are a growing Easter category, especially for families. These shoppers aren’t always searching for a specific product, they’re looking for ideas. Meet them there.

In-market audiences for seasonal décor, crafts and home goods give you reach among actively engaged shoppers. Broad match keywords are particularly valuable here – shoppers in this category don’t always know exactly what they want, which means tightly matched keywords will miss volume. Terms like “Easter decorations”, “table décor” and “Easter wreaths” in responsive search ads improve relevance without over-restricting reach.

Multimedia and display formats are well-suited to this category because the purchase decision is visual. Rich creative that shows products in a decorated home setting outperforms copy-led approaches. When setting up:

• Use responsive search ads to test different seasonal messaging combinations efficiently
• Pair strong CTAs like “order now” with well-timed budget increases in the final week
• Lean on promotion and callout extensions to surface offers and urgency directly in the ad

Remarketing earns its keep in this category more than most. Home decoration purchases are often considered decisions – users browse, leave, and return before committing. Impression-based audiences and dynamic product ads keep your products visible across that consideration window, so you’re there when they finally decide.

⚡ Quick win: inspirational shoppers convert late. Increase budgets in the final week and make sure remarketing is live – this is when the browse-to-buy gap closes.

Before Easter weekend: your campaign checklist

Easter campaigns reward preparation. Run through this and check you have everything below ticked off before the window closes:

• Creative reviewed for seasonal relevance and urgency
• PMax Easter asset groups live and product feed updated
• Seasonal search themes added across all relevant campaigns
• Audience signals loaded: in-market + first-party lists
• Budgets scaled to match rising search volume
• Shipping deadline copy in all confectionery and gifting ads
• Sitelinks, price and image extensions active
• Remarketing campaigns live for all three categories.

Final Thought

Easter may be a short seasonal window, but it presents a significant opportunity for advertisers who prepare early and execute effectively.

Focusing on high-demand categories, aligning campaign types to user intent, and introducing seasonal messaging and urgency can make a measurable difference to performance. Ensuring budgets, bids and creative are adapted in line with demand will help maximise visibility and conversions across Microsoft Advertising.

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