If you haven’t already heard of it, Black Friday is a discount shopping event that originated in the US which is held on the 24th November, the day after Thanksgiving.
It’s one of the biggest shopping days of the year with huge bargains online and in-store to entice shoppers to buy for the Christmas period.
This also includes Cyber Monday, also known as ‘Mega Monday’ on 27th November, which is a completely online version of Black Friday that was created to get more people online shopping. Even though it’s a famously American tradition, we wanted to get a piece of the bargains (and huge sales) too!
The day after Black Friday is ‘Small Business Saturday’ which has been going for five years in the UK. This puts the spotlight on businesses that might be around the corner from customers but hasn't heard of before!
Black Friday weekend is soaring in popularity in this country, in 2015, retailers made 1.1 billion in sales compared with 435 million on Black Friday 2013.
No one wants to miss out on the huge revenue that Black Friday deals can bring to your business, so make sure that your customers are going to the right place with our PPC tactics.
Personalise It
Create unique ad extensions with site links and call outs that reference your sale and tailor the shopping experience for customers by segmenting audiences for remarketing according to products that they’ve viewed before.
Not only will this be more effective for sales, but potential customers will feel a greater affinity with your brand as it will look like you know what they're interested in.
Using Google Ad Customisers to update your ad copy is also a great way to encourage urgency among customers.
Timing
Increase budgets and bids at peak shopping times and the lead up the events to broaden your radar as far as you can. The most popular shopping times around this period will have the highest CPC (cost-per-click), but you should expect a much better return on your results if your PPC is effective.
Globally, Amazon found that their Cyber Monday sales peaked between 9 – 12 pm and the UK branch found that this was their busiest ever shopping day.
On Black Friday there were over 4 million tweets that mentioned sales from the day, so people are very likely to comment on their shopping experiences, and the best sales.
Google Trends shows that the search term ‘Black Friday’ is being searched more frequently the closer that it gets to the date in the UK. In the past 30 days, the number of searches has grown significantly, it also demonstrates that people may be researching deals ahead of this Friday to decide who to shop with.
Google Trends also shows that 'Cyber Monday' is increasing in popularity in this country, and could have more interest than Black Friday itself. The interest over time with this shopping event is much more gradual and is predicted to spike this weekend.
Brush up Your Landing Pages
The key to successful PPC campaigns are strong landing pages. If your ad copy directly matches the text on web page that the user is directed to once clicking on the advert. For example, if your ad copy says 'Black Friday Sale - Up to 50% off', the landing page should demonstrate the sale described. Your potential customers won't have the patience to navigate your website to find your sale, and will be frustrated if it doesn't match up to what is offered.
Here is a great example from Debenhams:
Make it Mobile
Every day more and more people are using mobile devices to browse the internet and shop online, in September, 25 % of online traffic came from a mobile device.
This means that the landing pages on your website must be ready to be viewed on mobile as layouts can change dramatically from desktop.
This goes for your ads too as they must be optimised for ease of use on mobile, there's nothing more frustrating than trying to access a website that isn't fit to mobile screen size!
Bid modifiers should also be used to target the top positions and ad extensions must be updated to keep your customers in the know about what you're offering.
Let Us Help You Out
We have over 13 years experience in PPC with a track record of achieving competitive results. We know that the festive period can be a stressful time, so have a chat with us to find out how we can increase your chances of success.
