Holiday Shopping Trends on YouTube: How Advertisers Can Win in 2025

Date modified: November 12, 2025

From unboxings to reviews, deal previews, and gift ideas, holiday shoppers increasingly turn to YouTube to guide their holiday purchases.

The holiday season is now more than a sales event – it’s a cultural moment where brands connect with their target audience through authentic storytelling and smart video strategies. In 2025, YouTube continues to lead the shopping journey, turning browsing into buying at record scale.

Key Takeaways for 2025 Holiday Shopping

• The 2025 holiday shopping trends show that winning brands:
  • Start earlier, leveraging pre-season awareness and early shopping lists.
    
  • Partner smarter with trusted creators to amplify gift buying moments.
    
  • Activate full-funnel strategies on YouTube to reach shoppers across the entire path to purchase.
• Creators drive consideration. CTV builds awareness. Performance-driven ads close the loop on holiday purchases.

YouTube Dominates Holiday Advertising

• YouTube has a broader and more balanced demographic distribution, making it the only platform that can truly deliver at scale across all ages (source)
• 87% of consumers say YouTube video reviews speed up their buying decisions, reducing the shopping journey by up to 6 days.
  
• 75% of holiday shoppers value relevant ads that create a personalized shopping experience.
  
• 24% of shoppers cite YouTube as their main source for holiday gift ideas, ahead of TikTok and Instagram.
  
• 98% of users trust creator recommendations on YouTube more than on any other platform.

For advertisers, the takeaway is clear: YouTube is where holiday spending is inspired, accelerated, and converted. 

What Are Brands and Creators Posting (and When)?

Holiday content is launching earlier every year. Creators now begin publishing gift-guides, hauls, unboxings and deal previews in October (source/source), building anticipation well before Halloween. In 2024, creators like Marques Brownlee, Lea Felicitas, and Skip the Tutorial topped the list for this type of content. Pixability’s proprietary AI-driven targeting surfaces the top trending creators each holiday season.

Brands that engage with this content in this early window gain a first-mover advantage, capturing share-of-mind and early awareness while competitors are still planning. Pixability’s proprietary AI-driven targeting surfaces the top trending creators each holiday season. 

• Creators post: unboxings, product reviews, gift inspiration, and seasonal tutorials.
• Brands post: Black Friday previews, shoppable YouTube ads, and CTV campaigns tied to major live events.

Actionable insight: The holiday shopping season now starts before Halloween – early adopters are seeing higher brand visibility and ROI.

How Can Advertisers Capitalize on Top Performing Holiday Content?

Pixability’s research on 2025 holiday shopping trends reveals the content formats that best influence purchase intent:

Lean Into Trusted Formats:

Gift guides, reviews, and unboxings remain the most influential content types. Over half of holiday shoppers buy gifts after watching them.

Advertiser action: Run your ads alongside these trusted creators to strengthen brand trust and conversion.

Exploit Seasonal Cultural Spikes:

Engagement surges around Vlogmas, Christmas music, Diwali, and Kwanzaa, with billions of views driving cross-cultural discovery.

Advertiser action: Use Pixability’s cultural targeting tools to align campaigns with these high-engagement periods and reach diverse audiences.

Prioritize Contextual Relevance Over Content Creation:

Capitalize on YouTube’s creator ecosystems without producing new branded content.

Advertiser action: Buy into existing creator networks and AI-curated placements to maintain authenticity and efficiency.

Authenticity drives performance – real creators showcasing real products build trust and accelerate the holiday shopper’s journey.

What Successful Brands Are Doing on YouTube (Across KPIs)

Top advertisers deploy multi-format, AI-optimized, full-funnel campaigns across YouTube:

• Awareness: CTV pushes long-form, non-skippable ads on premium content.
  
• Consideration: Video View Campaigns (VVC) using Shorts and creator partnerships.
  
• Conversion: Demand Gen Campaigns with shoppable ads, retargeting, and sequential storytelling.
  

This holistic marketing strategy ensures brands engage holiday shoppers at every stage of the buying journey.

How Pixability Can Help

Precision drives success. Pixability’s AI-driven audience curation aligns campaigns with the most relevant creators, content, and consumer trends, reducing wasted impressions by up to 45%.

In a year marked by economic uncertainty and shifting holiday spending habits, the holiday shopper’s journey is happening on YouTube. The only question: Will your brand meet them there?