As Black Friday and Cyber Monday fever approaches, we recommend preparing properly: Develop a communication plan, create content in advance, plan advertising campaigns, and allocate a budget accordingly. To facilitate this process, we share professional insights and useful tips with you, which will help you stay organised and achieve better results.
According to Google Trends data, people’s interest in discount weekends begins to grow in October, so we recommend starting to plan audiences, collect subscribers, and prepare advertising campaigns in advance. If you have already conducted Black Friday campaigns, evaluate what worked best for you, which content and channels brought the greatest benefit.
Use newsletters and expand your contact list
Email marketing is an excellent tool for businesses to reach their customers. According to Omnisend data, the number of orders generated through Black Friday newsletters increased by 13.8 % in 2022, while Cyber Monday saw an increase of 34.4 %. Email marketing can be effectively utilised at any stage of the user journey: signing up for a website, filling out a pop-up or prise wheel form, adding a product to the cart, or placing an order.
Provide a preview discount code or faster access to special offers exclusively for your followers and newsletter subscribers – this way you will increase your audience and encourage potential customers to join your social media community and subscribe to the newsletter. Take advantage of additional tools such as pop-ups, landing pages, or prize wheel forms to increase the number of newsletter subscribers.
Choose the right Meta ads audiences
When preparing Black Friday advertising campaigns, it is important to choose the right types of Meta ads audiences. Focus on those audiences that have previously shown interest in your products and are familiar with your brand. During the Black Friday / Cyber Monday period, we recommend focusing on the following types of audiences:
- Custom audience (users who have visited your website, added items to their cart but did not purchase, and those who have already purchased your products);
- Lookalike audience (users whose demographic characteristics and interests are similar to existing buyers);
- Broad audience (without specifying specific demographic indicators, interests, or behaviours, algorithms can better find suitable users to display ads to. This means that using a broad audience, you can capture conversions that you might otherwise miss).
Perform results analysis and test ads
If you have already conducted Black Friday or Cyber Monday advertising campaigns, conduct a thorough analysis of their data. This way, you will know what worked or didn’t work in the past and can apply this experience when creating new advertising campaigns.
You can also analyse previous competitor Black Friday advertising campaigns in the Facebook ad library. See how they position their products, promotions, and offers, what visuals and texts they use in ads. The Facebook ad library is especially useful if you haven’t conducted Black Friday and Cyber Monday advertising campaigns yet.
Advertising prices during Black Friday are especially high, so it is risky to run them without prior testing. Prepare several ad variants and test them in advance. This way, you will find out which ones work best, and as Black Friday approaches, you can start campaigns that bring maximum benefits. During testing, experiment with different ad formats. Videos and Advantage + Carousel ads can help you stand out from competitors and achieve great results.
However, after launching Facebook ad campaigns, they should be adjusted as little as possible. Why? Because every time new ads are launched, the algorithm automatically switches to the learning phase. The learning phase is the time during which the platform presents your ads to different audience segments, collects performance insights, and optimises them. During this period, results often fluctuate – this is normal. Usually, it takes about 50 conversions to stabilise performance, so be patient and trust the algorithm.
Use high-quality visuals
During discount periods, consumers see ads everywhere: they receive emails, see ads all over social media platforms, and on websites. Therefore, to attract the attention of potential buyers and encourage them to click on your ad, it is necessary to use high-quality visual material and eye-catching, easily memorable messages. High-quality visuals help convey the value and quality of your products, instilling trust in your brand. For better advertising results, in Google and Meta Ads campaigns, we recommend using images where text occupies no more than 20 % of the total visual.
Prepare Google PMax campaigns and use CTAs
If you are using Google Performance Max campaigns, for the discount weekend, we recommend eliminating branded keywords because they can significantly inflate the Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) metric but not attract new users. Since there is currently no direct way to do this in the system, you should contact Google support and take care of this issue as soon as possible. Also, do not forget that all ads must use a Call To Action (CTA).
Consider the discount amount, types of advertising campaigns, strategies, and budget
During Black Friday and Cyber Monday, people flock to stores expecting to save money. Therefore, an advertisement offering a 5 % or 10 % discount will be hardly noticeable amid the abundance of larger discounts. The average discount offer is 25 % – we recommend taking this into account when planning the discounts you will offer.
When planning your advertising budget, do not skimp on Black Friday advertising. On the most popular shopping days, competition is extremely high – many brands compete for consumers’ attention. Some allocate up to 188% more budget for Black Friday advertising than usual. A larger budget allows for more effective competition and helps ensure that your ads are displayed more frequently to potential buyers.
We recommend running two types of advertising campaigns – optimised for conversions and for traffic. During Black Friday, consumers are already inclined to convert, so it is important not to lose their traffic and maintain a high percentage of ad impressions in the top Google positions. It is also important to choose the right budget strategies: for individual campaigns or for the overall daily budget of all campaigns, it is best to allocate twice as much as the set CPA (cost per action), if set. Campaign budgets are best divided for new and existing customers at approximately 70:30 ratio. For example, if the budget is 1000 euro, then 700 euro are allocated to attract new users, while 300 euro are for existing users who have not performed the desired action.
During Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we recommend disabling individual ads or advertising campaigns whose expenses reach the set CPA value but do not generate sales (if the strategy is Target CPA). Campaign budgets can be reduced by 10 % every 12 hours if the ROAS indicator remains lower than the target. For campaigns that meet or exceed the set goals, budgets can be increased by 10 % every hour or day.
By performing an analysis of available data in advance, considering what communication strategies you will apply, preparing content and advertising campaigns, and allocating an appropriate budget to them, you will be able to feel calm and confident during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. We hope the advice has been helpful and that implementing it will help you achieve excellent results.
Some interesting facts about Black Friday and Cyber Monday:
- In 2021, Americans spent $10.7 billion online on Cyber Monday and $8.9 billion on Black Friday. During peak hours, shoppers spent $12 million per minute.
- It is projected that Black Friday sales will exceed $9.8 billion in 2023. US dollars.
- In 2022, online Black Friday sales exceeded $9.12 billion. US dollars.
- The average Black Friday discount is 25%.
- In foreign countries where Black Friday is particularly popular, shoppers typically wait in line for about two and a half hours.