Consider this stat: people who shop on mega sales days, like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, are more likely to spend more than those who don’t.
Translation? You want to be targeting these people with a savvy advertising strategy this holiday season.
We got you. Read on as we share our best tips for success this BFCM weekend.
Sections
1. Crank up the budget.
Last year, worldwide holiday spend on social media advertising was up 50% year over year. All signs indicate the trend will continue this year. So, go on and increase your budget in Facebook Ads and Google Ads now.
Trust us: you do not want your campaigns shut off in the middle of Black Friday weekend. Why might that happen? Because you hit your ad account spending limit.
This is a super easy, albeit tragic, mistake to make, because advertisers typically set and forget this number, since you almost never reach it any other time of year.
In Facebook Ads Manager, you can adjust your ad account spending limit in Payment Settings. In Google, navigate to your Billing Settings by clicking the wrench (tools) icon under Performance.
2. It pays to plan ahead.
Ask anyone who’s had an ad stuck in the approval process during a sale, and they’ll tell you the wait can be excruciating. Most ads are reviewed within a matter of hours, but it’s not worth the risk — especially during a busy holiday weekend when everyone is launching last-minute campaigns.
While Facebook promises a 24-hour turnaround, Google’s ad review process can sometimes take up to two days. Keep those time frames in mind as you plan your campaigns.
Fortunately, you can schedule ads ahead of time. That’s right — you can schedule your campaigns now, give them plenty of time to be reviewed, and then sit back, relax, and take care of your own holiday shopping during the Black Friday weekend (just kidding; we know you’ll be the weekend monitoring your sales).
3. Take advantage of promotion extensions.
Eight in ten shoppers say the #1 thing they care about when making a holiday purchase is the price, according to research from Meta (the artist formerly known as Facebook).
ensure your ads make it clear that you’re offering a special price. The best way to do this is with Google promotion extensions.
Promotion extensions expand the size of your Google Search ad in the search results. You can get up to two additional lines of text that introduce your discount, the promo code, and when the sale ends. Percentage-off or dollar-off deals are both eligible for promotion extensions, but other types of promotions aren’t.
Pro Tip: If you have a brick-and-mortar, use location extensions on your ads to drive in-store purchases, too.
4. Triple-check your work.
Facebook’s advertising algorithm is designed to bring you the clicks and conversions you desire. But it can only do that if you allow it to.
Each one of your ad sets goes through a learning phase of about fifty conversions before the algorithm is optimized. However, each time you make a change to your ad — whether it’s a targeting change or a budget adjustment — you restart that learning phase, impairing your campaign performance when you’re in a time crunch.
That’s why we recommend triple-checking rather than double-checking holiday campaigns, and avoiding making any changes unless you absolutely have to.
5. Let Facebook and Google do some work for you.
Facebook and Google both offer sophisticated advertising options that allow you to tap into the power of their algorithms, as opposed to making manual targeting and bidding options.
On Facebook, you can upload customer email lists to create Lookalike Audiences. With these, Facebook will target people with similar purchasing behavior to your existing customers, boosting your conversion rate.
On Google Ads, opt into Smart Bidding. These automated bid strategies use Google’s machine learning to optimize your auctions to the individual user, in real-time.
6. Retarget, retarget, retarget.
Last year, over 40% of people started shopping earlier than prior years. With this continuing supply chain concerns, it’s safe to assume people will have already started shopping well before you launch your Black Friday campaigns.
Spin up holiday remarketing campaigns just for those people who have already visited your website. Use dynamic ads to feature the specific products they browsed, and be aggressive with your bids.
On Cyber Monday, launch remarketing campaigns on both Facebook and Google targeting the people who browsed your Black Friday sale, but maybe didn’t get a chance to purchase. Just don’t forget to exclude anyone who did in fact buy on Black Friday, or you’ll end up hearing from them on Twitter or your customer service chat.
Get more tips for success
Are you ready to crush Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year? You will be, with our Ultimate Black Friday Cyber Monday Checklist. Download your free copy now.
