I would like to say that it’s the most wonderful time of the year, like Andy Williams, but unfortunately it’s the most competitive time of the year. Yes, we are talking about Black Friday and Cyber Monday.(BFCM)
BFCM is maybe just a regular day on the calendar but it’s a big day for every PPC marketer. The festive season starts with Singles Day and continues with Thanksgiving ,Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas campaigns. These are the biggest shopping days of the year. Let’s discuss why the BFCM campaigns are significant for business success and marketers.
Firstly we should start by asking a question: Will BFCM see the biggest sales in 2023? The answer is a BIG YES. According to all research and predictions, Black Friday will reach an all-time high in 2023.
Let’s dive into some details about the last Black Friday and what awaits us.
- Projections
According to a report by Adobe, there was a $9.2billion amount of money reported in 2022 for Black Friday and after the pandemic, Black Friday’s spending growth rate was %2.3. According to another report, BFCM online sales are projected to reach around $1.2 trillion in 2023. With these growth rates and predictions, every business owner and marketer has to make sure that they are ready for 2023.
- Is BFCM originated from the US?
Black Friday comes from the US but the top city for shopping behavior was London according to the report by Shopify. New York and Los Angeles come after London as top cities for shopping behavior. %73 of UK shoppers looked for a huge discount from their favorite brands or items. This data proves that discount campaigns are essential for businesses.
- BF is the revenue booster
BFCM will take a week, not just a day. However Black Friday is the most crucial day of this week. It will peak on that day. According to the reports, every year, sales and revenue peak on Black Friday. If you have a marketing budget for this week, Make sure you know how to use it effectively.
- Shopping trends
Consumers look for great deals especially in electronics such as computers and smart home items. Toys, sporting equipment and apparels are also top categories for the shopping season. Shoppers check their favorite brand’s websites and try to find a good deal. While they are hunting for a huge discount, shoppers use their mobile phones. The research shows that, %89 of shoppers used mobile devices for checking and reviewing new products before the shopping process last year. According to Segmentify, %73 of sales are dominated by mobile devices.
- Personalized Shopping
Consumers want to see personalized marketing campaigns for every channel. The research shows that, %54 of shoppers are annoyed if they don’t receive personalized communication. Segmentation is the key to success, especially in digital and e-mail marketing strategies.
Black Friday is a once a year opportunity for business owners who should take these advantages. To do that, make sure your business, your online store and your marketing team is ready for it.
Before BFCM: What to do? Here is the complete Black Friday Google Ads Guideline
This guideline consists of 2 parts. The first part is about general tactics which is related to creating holistic marketing strategies and the second part is about PPC marketing. In this section, I will share my tips that made me get 500x ROAS during Black Friday. If you are only interested in PPC tactics, you can go through.
Building a holistic marketing strategy
When you create a holistic marketing strategy, you will know what you should focus on, which products are star items, who is your main target audience or which platform is going to be your main channel.
Firstly, start with clarifying your star items or your best seller products. Then, check your product descriptions and their stock. Divide your target audience into segments and match these audiences with products. Segmenting your email list and optimizing product feed are a crucial strategy for optimizing your Black Friday strategies .
When that part is ready, start creating Black Friday specialized content for your websites, social media accounts, ad copies and texts. Shoppers want to see specialized and personalized content especially in the shopping season. Create customized content for each segment using email and SMS strategies. Paid marketing will be the most competitive channel. Take advantage of these organic channels to promote your offer for BFCM.
A customized website is not enough by itself. You must be prepared for the whole process. The most important thing for that is increasing your website’s mobile performance. Mobile purchasing is insane considering the fact that %73 of the consumers purchase from mobile devices. For instance, a chatbot should be available on your website or application and it should be easy to use when shoppers use their mobile devices. Your mobile website’s speed must be faster than ever.
Lastly, be prepared for shipping, returns and exchanges or lost packages in the high intent season. Customer relationship management will be crucial to your holistic process. Customers need to know what to do next if they face any problem. You should be clear and informative about all processes on your website.
Are you ready to see huge costs?
First things first: Research shopping seasons’ trends. Before you start to publish BFCM campaigns, you need to know the trends. Start with keyword research. Your target keyword will mostly stay the same during Black Friday but also there are some tricks which you can use too.
1. You can re-activate your paused keyword. Consumers can have more intent to make a purchase in this season rather than anytime. According to Semrush’s data, the most searched keyword was “nintendo switch” , which is related to Black Friday in 2022. Let’s see trends for the “nintendo switch”.
As you can see, the search volume was changing during the year, except November. When we were getting closer to the shopping season, volume started to increase, similar to Apple watch searches. “Apple watch” was the second most searched keyword and the search volumes started to increase in November.
2. Allocate your digital marketing budget: According to the Marketing Dive’s report, retailers directly spend %35 of their digital marketing budget on Google Search and display ads. Numbers show that retailers are aware of intent and allocate most of their budget to Google although the report is not updated. In addition, during black friday, the competition will be high and you can miss the opportunity to get ahead of the competition if you don’t increase your marketing budget and start your campaigns before BF.
3.Setting real expectations about Cost Per Click: All data show that the search volume, which means consumer’s demand, will be high for Google ads campaigns. During the BFCM week, the competition and CPC will increase and the campaign’s metrics expectation should be set correctly. If you use a manual bidding system, your bidding will change more than once. You have to increase your bid before the season starts. If you use different bid adjustments for mobile and device, you may want to review and reset your bid during Black Friday.
4. Embrace the Black Friday theme for all assets: Firstly, you have to make sure that your content is related to Black Friday deals. Your marketing creatives, even creatives’ color, your ad copies, your keywords, everything must be special for Black Friday. After analyzing the trends, you can add some specific keywords for Black Friday.
However, how can you find the best keyword for Black Friday?
You can use specific free tools for keyword researching. For example; Semrush, Ahrefs or Adsby’s free keyword generator tool . It can give the best target keyword for campaigns. If you do not know how to choose the best keywords for targeting, just give some details about business, products and target audience and give the rest to Adsby.
Your copy texts should be related to Black Friday. You should mention Black Friday deals on your ad copy. Consumers do not look at the best products or the best brand, they look at which brand does have the best deals. You should emphasize your Black Friday offer.
5. To Know Life Saving Rules: Don’t target “Black Friday” The keyword is too broad and your marketing budget is likely to be spent inefficiently. However you should definitely add the target keyword “Black Friday + product” or “ Black friday + brand” or “brand + sale” versions. The success of this strategy depends on your market but generally it is a good tactic to add.
6. Use Black Friday Extension for Google Ads Campaigns: Promotion extension allows you to extra explanations to search ads. You can choose specifically Black Friday or Cyber Monday extension and give extra information about your deal. If a code is needed you can also add it. With this promotion, you can have more specialized content. In addition, you can add new sitelinks only for Black Friday. You can pause your current sitelinks and add new ones. To mention Black Friday on sitelinks’ headline and descriptions.
7. Remarketing is the best: Make sure your customer lists and remarketing data are updated. It’s easier than ever to sell your products to these people. A strategic remarketing campaign can bring thousands of people back to your site. They already know about your brand or your products. You can target who has visited your website within the last 30,60,90 days. You can segment these people and target again. When you create your website visitors’ segments, make sure to exclude these audiences from each other.
8.Using dynamic countdown timers: This feature allows you to highlight your Black Friday deal with countdowns. It can be a valuable headline for your texts. You can give feelings of a limited time offer and create urgency using this.
Long story short, Black Friday is the most important day of the year and Google Ads is going to be one of the best channels in advertising. Create a checklist for your business and use these strategies to your advantage to generate revenue and finally enjoy the season, happy ROAS!