Festival Campaign Operations in Nepal
Festival campaigns are recurring growth seasons for Nepali commerce and services — Dashain, Tihar, Nepali New Year, and category peaks (trek seasons). CPC and creative fatigue spike; the winners lock landings and WhatsApp SLA early. Ops note: Dashain/Tihar SLA.
What the engagement includes
- Budget calendar 6–8 weeks ahead of peak
- Dedicated festival landing URLs (not homepage rewrites)
- Creative waves (static + short-form) with offer clarity in NPR
- WhatsApp / call staffing SLA during peak hours
- Search-term and remarketing hygiene when demand spikes
Channel partners: Google Ads · Meta · short-form · conversational commerce. Benchmarks for planning tables: Benchmark Report 2027.
Nepal Market Context
Dashain and Tihar (usually late September to November) are the biggest spending weeks of the year for most Nepali consumer businesses. Remittance inflows rise before Dashain, gift and clothing searches climb, and more advertisers bid on the same audiences, so costs rise exactly when you want to spend. Other peaks matter by category: Nepali New Year in mid-April, Teej for fashion and jewellery, Chhath in the Terai, Losar, Christmas and New Year for hotels, the two trekking seasons for travel, and admission intakes for education.
Festival weeks also bring operational limits: courier backlogs, offices closed for days, staff travelling home. A campaign that ignores these promises delivery dates the business cannot keep.
How the Work Runs
- Eight weeks out: offer and budget calendar: Pick the offers, stock, and price points; set budgets by week, including the quiet days when offices close.
- Six weeks out: landing pages and tracking: Dedicated festival URLs, NPR prices that match ads, and conversion events tested end to end.
- Four weeks out: creative production: Shoot the first and second creative waves together so you are not filming during the peak.
- Two weeks out: warm-up: Build remarketing audiences and run awareness content so the peak spend reaches people who already know you.
- Peak weeks: daily operations: Search-term cleanup, budget shifts toward what converts, and a staffed WhatsApp and phone rota.
- After the festival: Delivery follow-up, review requests, a repeat-purchase offer, and a written post-mortem for next year.
What We Measure
| Metric | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Cost per order or lead, compared with a normal month | Expect it to move; the question is whether margin still works. |
| Share of revenue from festival landing pages | Shows whether the dedicated URLs earned their build time. |
| WhatsApp and phone response time at peak | Slow replies during the peak lose sales that ads already paid for. |
| Delivery promises met | Late gifts turn into refunds and bad reviews. |
| Repeat purchases in the following 60 days | The real return on festival acquisition. |
Targets are set after an audit of your accounts, margins, and tracking; this page does not quote average results.
Common Mistakes
- Rewriting the homepage for the festival instead of building a festival page.
- Starting ads the week of Ghatasthapana with untested tracking.
- Running one creative for the whole season until it fatigues.
- Promising delivery dates the courier cannot meet.
- Discounting everything instead of bundling or adding gift value.
Ways to Work Together
Festival planning sprint
Calendar, offers, landing-page brief, tracking checklist, and creative brief for your team to execute.
Managed festival campaign
Planning plus ads management and daily optimisation through the peak and post-festival follow-up.
Annual festival calendar
Every major peak for your category planned in one calendar, with a review after each.
Scope and pricing are agreed after a short discovery call. See hiring options.
Frequently Asked Questions
How early should we start planning for Dashain?
About eight weeks before Ghatasthapana. That leaves time to build landing pages, test tracking, and film creative before costs and courier demand peak.
Do advertising costs really rise during festivals?
Usually, because more businesses bid for the same people. Plan budgets by week, keep brand Search running, and judge results on cost per order rather than cost per click.
Should we offer discounts?
Not always. Bundles, gift wrapping, free delivery thresholds, or limited festival editions often protect margin better than a flat discount.
How do we handle office closures and courier delays?
Publish the last order date for festival delivery, pause or reduce ads on days you cannot fulfil, and set auto-replies that give an honest response time.
Which festivals besides Dashain and Tihar matter?
It depends on the category: Nepali New Year, Teej, Chhath, Losar, Christmas and New Year for hospitality, trekking seasons for travel, and intake months for education.
Reference Guides
Related Services
Talk through this service on WhatsApp
Message @gurkhatech — or use the form that opens a prefilled chat.
Get the free Nepal digital marketing checklist
Two fields, then we open a WhatsApp chat with your details already filled in — no newsletter, no spam.