The Match2One Blog

How to Boost Black Friday & Cyber Weekend Sales with Programmatic Advertising 2017

November 13, 2017

Black Friday and Cyber Monday (24-27th of November) is the biggest shopping weekend of the year, with last year’s Black Friday sales reaching $3.45 billion alone. Marking the start of the Christmas shopping period exactly one month before Christmas eve, companies offer great discounts and shoppers hunt for the best deals. This article will give you a guide on how you make the most of it and maximise your sales.

In Europe the Cyber weekend sales is on the rise and increasing by 50% per year. Giving smaller advertisers the chance to compete for new customers with the bigger retailers, since shoppers are actively looking for new discount deals.

The customer time to purchase is significantly shorter during this period, going from 12 days average to 5 days only during this weekend. Meaning the customer behaviour includes less price comparison and faster purchase decisions. The average order value during this weekend was €85 in 2015 and has been steadily increasing 25% per year.

 

Start now

Putting your holiday season strategy off until last minute will leave you behind the competition, when it comes to capturing the shopper’s attention. Prepare your holiday sales & discount campaigns together with ad creatives as soon as possible. Planning a campaign around an event also allows the timeline for campaign strategy and material to be set ahead.
“47% of consumers start thinking about holiday gifts before November”. It’s a good idea to start creating awareness within your target audience long before they make a purchase, then increase your ad campaign investment during Cyber Weekend and the month before Christmas.

Consider expanding to a regional (or neighbour) market with similar consumer behaviour to help you reach potential buyers.

Checklist

1. Strategy

Start off by setting the goal and objectives with the ad campaign, what do you want to achieve? Follow up by deciding which promotion or discounted deal you want to communicate, together with which theme in design and copy. Make sure this theme is unified across all channels, such as ad creatives, emails, social posts, and the landing page.

2. Ad Creatives

Use images and animations associated with:

a) Black Friday / Cyber Monday / Christmas

b) Discount %

c) Discount codes

Could be something as simple as a snowy background or changing the headline.

3. Landing Pages

Match your landing page design to your ad creatives, using the same elements mentioned above.

4. E-mail & Social

Make the Cyber weekend campaign central in all your communication channels during this week, November 20-27.

5. Bid competitively

The return on marketing investment (ROMI) is much higher during shopping holiday periods, which means the competition for ad spaces is also higher. Raise the CPM/CPC goal $2-3 higher than you would normally set your bid, and you will stay ahead.

Cyber Weekend Campaign Recommendation

Campaign Period: November 20-27
Campaign Goal: CPC/CPA goal value +50-100% higher than average
Ad Creatives: Include discount rate and discount code in image. Landing page matching ad creatives.

Summary

The holiday season sales are a great opportunity to find new customers using programmatic advertising. When planned properly, advertisers can see very high return on their marketing investment during this time of year.
Designing new ads can be time-consuming, we recommend using efficient tools such as Canva or Match2One’s Creative Studio to create beautiful and engaging ads.

Consumer interest in Cyber weekend has been growing rapidly during the past few years, and sales are expected to hit new record levels this year 2017. Our recommendation is to plan well, increase your marketing budget and don’t miss this opportunity to find new customers.