Every brand is going to be competing for attention during Black Friday and moving into the holiday season, which means two things: 1) Set your campaign budget and/or paid media budget higher than normal to accommodate inflated costs, and 2) get started ASAP.
If you’re just getting started on your holiday strategy, you’re already late to the game. In the influencer marketing industry, the best influencers are already booked, and those who are still available have increased their rates for the season. Do what you can to lock influencers in early and get their content running a few weeks leading up to Black Friday. That way, when the holiday hits, you know which pieces of content are most influential and can, in turn, use those assets for paid media amplification during the peak holiday season (making that heavy spend a more efficient one).
Jennifer Wagner – Marketing Manager
Carusele
Create countdown ads, burst campaigns on Display and video: Use Black Friday terms specific to campaigns that are announcing sales are coming up. Implement countdown awareness ads, video and GDN burst campaigns with Black Friday content and creative at least two weeks ahead of Black Fiveday weekend, which let your customers and visitors know about your upcoming sale well in advance.
Think mobile-first, as mobile is more important than ever before: More than 70% of Black Friday transactions in the Middle East region took place on mobile phones application. We should expect this trend to continue. What this means for you as a store owner is that thinking mobile-first is essential.
Retarget past visitors and customers: You can also retarget customers that have previously purchased from your store. With existing customers being generally easier to reach and market to than brand new customers, shoppers you’ve already sold to in the past should be especially receptive to your latest Black Friday weekend sales.
Make plans based on what KPI’s you want to achieve with each campaign: For awareness use Cost Per Impression (CPM), for consideration Cost Per visit (CPV) and for Action tCPA/ Mac conversion bidding strategy.
Whitelist seasonality audience: Implement Black Friday seasonality in the market and a similar audience list across all campaigns.
Bid adjustment level: Use effective bid adjustment on the device, ad scheduling and audience level based on the last year Black Friday weekend performance.
Spy on your competitors’ promotional activities: Paying attention to your competition’s marketing efforts can help you gather ideas for your own Black Friday deals. The easiest way to spy on your competitors is to subscribe to their email list. Study the types of emails they send and set up Google Alerts to see which websites are talking about them.
Arun Santhosh – Digital Marketing Specialist
Namshi
Working in digital marketing at a B2B agency, Black Friday isn’t nearly as hectic as it is in a B2C agency.
As such, instead of focusing on how our digital campaigns are being structured, preparing for Black Friday gives us an opportunity to focus on the end of Q4 planning, as well as planning for the new year.
My absolute top tip for Black Friday weekend in a B2B environment is to take the opportunity to ensure that your digital campaigns are prepped and pacing correctly for the end of the year. And, while our B2C colleagues are frantically working to optimize their campaigns, take the time to do some planning for the start of the new year, to ensure you hit the ground running.
I’ve always found that setting aside dedicated time to plan out my digital campaigns helps ensure that there are no drastic surprises, and gives me a chance to recalibrate on everything.
Matt Carter – Digital Marketing Manager
CG Life
Brian Roizen is the Cofounder and Chief Architect of Feedonomics, a full-service feed optimization platform that optimizes product data for hundreds of channels. He has been featured on numerous podcasts and eCommerce webinars, and regularly contributes to Search Engine Land and other industry-leading blogs. Brian graduated summa cum laude from UCLA with both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering.
