You know Black Friday is one of the biggest days of the Ecommerce year, but did you know how big? To find out, let’s crunch some numbers:
- Last year, Black Friday sales reached an estimated £12.3 billion.
- That’s an 8.3% increase year-on-year.
- 49% of consumers bought at least one item from one of the many Black Friday promotions.
Remember, this better-than-ever performance happened in the middle of an economic slump. In fact, according to Mintel market research, the financial squeeze made Black Friday matter more. 63% of consumers agreed that, with money so tight, Black Friday promotions were even more tempting than in the previous year.
Clearly, Black Friday is a key date for any retailer, so how can you make the most of it? Here are our six Paid Search tips for striking gold on Black Friday.
Nail your offer and plan your sale element early
Be prepared! Make sure you’ve got a great offer and get your sale details planned early. Then you’re ready to implement the required structural changes in your Paid Search accounts; equipped to align the right sales message to the keywords that will maximise their impact. This gives your PPC team time to have everything in place well before the offer launches.
Create compelling copy that highlights your offer
Once again, preparation is the key to success. Here are some key tips for creating truly effective copy in advance:
- Make sure the offers are seen. Pin them in your Responsive Search Ads so they are always on display to your target audience.
- Use the power of Promotion Extensions to grab the reader’s attention and highlight your offer outside of your Ad Text.
- Black Friday is the magic phrase. Use it in every ad.
- Keep your messaging fresh for key products. Take the time to write tailored text rather than using the same messaging across the account.
- If the sale has a specific landing page, insert a sitelink within the ad. Drive people directly to the sale page and reap the benefits.
Prioritise keyword selection
Keyword selection is always vital in any form of search, including paid search. Do you have maximum coverage on the keywords most relevant to the products in the sale? With the increase in conversion rates expected on the day, it may even be worth reactivating keywords that have performed poorly in the past. Above all, don’t neglect the obvious. Include the keywords “Black Friday + product name” and you’ll definitely see a spike in volume.
Use Custom Labels in your shopping feed to cover multiple sale products in one campaign
Whether you’re using traditional shopping ads or Google Performance Max, you need to be able to monitor and control the return on ad spend (ROAS) from your sale products. Utilise Custom Labels to structure your campaigns differently, as this will allow for a bidding strategy focused solely on your sale items.
Budget accordingly to significantly increase volume
Plan to at least double your usual budget for Black Friday. Search volume for your existing keywords and products will increase significantly. If you’ve followed the advice above, you’ll also have reactivated keywords and added some Black Friday-related terms. As a result, your higher spend will be rewarded with increased revenue.
Smart Bidding needs help, here’s how to guide it
There are two ways to get Smart Bidding working for you:
- Change the ROAS (return on advertising spend). However, this needs to be done carefully, because simply telling Google you want it to return fewer £s per £ spent can result in volatility, especially if it is a big change. Instead, Google recommends changing bid targets in 10% increments to avoid shocking the algorithm.
- Using seasonality adjustments. This is the method we prefer at TrunkBBI, because it allows you to predict your conversion rate uplift. Google will then allow itself the same uplift in bid value. It’s likely that your AOV (Average Order Value) will drop in a sales period. With that in mind, we recommend exercising a little caution if you need to keep the same level of return.
And there you have it. The key tips for your Google Ads account this Black Friday. We’re always happy to share our Paid Search expertise at TrunkBBI so, if you have any questions please get in touch soon and beat the Black Friday rush. We’ll be more than happy to help.