What We Know About Black Friday 2023
Black Friday has evolved into the largest shopping event of the year, and has been for the last few years. It’s also grown past people barging into physical stores to grab that heavily discounted TV and is now dominating the ecommerce space. This has made it the most crucial period of time on most businesses and marketer’s calendars, with this event being deal-breakers for some brands.
Although Black Friday is always filled with people looking for a bargain, data shows that Black Friday shoppers this year are going to be more frugal than ever. The Cost of Living Crisis this year has led to price points being more crucial than ever as people have their purses squeezed. It’s also led to shoppers being less loyal to brands if they can find a more cost-effective option.
This doesn’t meant that there will be less demand this Black Friday. Instead, people will be hunting and comparing deals across multiple brands to find the best deal possible. According to Google, the average shopper looks on 6 different websites before they purchase during non-peak times. This could easily double during Black Friday.
It’s also crucial to know that Black Friday no longer lasts for a single day. Over the last few years brands have took advantage of the demand and launched their campaigns and offerings 2-3 weeks before the official Black Friday date. This means they’re also running their campaigns for longer, sometimes stretching into the first week of December. Keep this in mind when planning your launch strategy.
Start Prepping Your Black Friday Campaigns Now
Don’t hang around for October to arrive before finally sitting down and planning your Black Friday strategy. Start now.
Finalise your discounts and offerings – Remember that shoppers are hunting for the best deals possible and are most likely not only going to visit your website before buying. Make sure that your deal is something that will keep them coming back to the site before they eventually purchase.
Optimise for each campaign type – There are multiple campaign types in Google that service different purposes and Black Friday is the perfect time to take advantage of them. Use Display and YouTube in the beginning to get your brand in front of people who might be looking for your products but are not aware of your brand. This keeps them in the forefront of their mind when Black Friday arrives and they’re shopping around. Search and Shopping gets you in front of the shoppers actively searching for your product and brand and will be crucial when Black Friday is at its peak.
Keep your messaging consistent across your channels – Remember to finalise your messaging across your different marketing channels including: Google Ads, social and email campaigns. Although you’ll tweak the messaging to suit the nature of that channel, avoid disjointed messaging. Remember, your customers are probably seeing your brand across the different channels, so keep your messaging clear and cohesive.
Start Testing Your Strategies Now
Black Friday is a short period which means you don’t have a lot of room to test different strategies that require time to optimise or leave the learning phase. That’s why now is the best time to test different campaign types, bidding strategies and content so that you know what is working and what isn’t for when Black Friday arrives.
We also recommend launching as many campaigns as you can 1-2 weeks prior to launching your Black Friday discounts. This allows the campaign to leave the learning phase and be fully optimised during peak season.
The last thing you want is for your campaigns to not reach maximum potential because they are stuck in the learning phase.
Tip: the more data you have in your account, the quicker you will typically find your campaigns leaving the learning phase. Also, if the data is rich with your ideal conversion actions, your campaigns will optimise towards your ideal goals.
Data Is Crucial. Leverage It.
We can’t stress enough how important data plays a role in your Black Friday campaigns. Without rich data to help you with planning your strategy, you’ll be in the dark with how to optimise your campaigns for maximum results.
Firstly, look back at your previous Black Friday campaigns. This should be one of the first things you do when you begin planning your campaigns. Delve into the data you gathered during that time to see what worked, what didn’t and compile the data to leverage in your new campaigns. Remember that the economic landscape of this year’s Black Friday is vastly different compared to previous years, so avoid replicating the same strategy and work on creating campaigns that will get your shopper’s attention.
Secondly, in the run-up to Black Friday, prioritise data collection. We typically find that in the 3-4 weeks before Black Friday that demand dramatically drops in the ecommerce space as people wait to purchase their items during the sale instead. This gives us the perfect opportunity to get more shoppers in the funnel early and ready for when your sale is live. Whether that is through encouraging email sign-ups so they know when your Black Friday sale launches or giving them a sneak peak of your offers, this data will be crucial for when the peak hits.
Make Tweaks, But Avoid Major Changes
It’s now Black Friday. Your sale is live on your site, your campaigns are live across your different platform. But now is not the time to sit back and relax (sorry). It’s crucial that you keep analysing your campaign’s performance to ensure you’re targeting the right people at the right time.
We always recommend making little tweaks as you go along to keep your campaigns running smoothly and reaching your optimal goals. But don’t make any major changes such as: launching new campaigns, significant budget changes or brand new bidding strategies. Any changes like these will put your campaigns straight back into the learning phase and by the time they’re fully optimised, Black Friday will be over.
