Your "It’s a week until Black Friday, Holy S***" Checklist:

We all know the drill; Black Friday and Cyber Monday (otherwise known as Cyber Weekend), is the biggest sales period of the year. This is the time where brands can make or break their yearly sales targets and ultimately, grow their brand for years to come.

Plus, this year is bigger than others - with physical stores being closed due to Covid-19, every consumer who can get their paws on a laptop or computer will be purchasing their Christmas gifts online this year.

Essentially, if you are looking for a visual representation of Black Friday, this is it (for both consumers and businesses)

With that being said, online advertising is going to be even more important this year, to ensure brands promote their products in a *seriously* crowded online marketplace.

For our clients, we plan for Black Friday advertising in October, so it’s safe to say we are raring to go for the big weekend, but are you?

Here’s a quick 6 point digital advertising checklist from our Paid Digital Team, to get you ready for the big day:

Tip 1: Facebook Ads

You want to ensure your ads are set up and ready to go as soon as Black Friday starts. You want to reach your potential customers without a delay to ensure you achieve the best ROAS and conversion rates!

We recommend you set up a campaign well before Black Friday with *at least* the following ad sets:

• Remarketing those who have visited your website over the last 30-60 Days - these are consumers who have already shown interest in your brand and are aware of the products you offer. Using a discount, it should be easy to push these people over the line from consideration to conversion…
• Remarketing those who have viewed up to 50% of any videos on your page or in your previous campaigns over the last 365 Days - these are people who understand what you are offering, and have spent time learning more about your brand through your videos. They only need a prompt as to why they were interested in the first place, to spark their interest once more and push them to purchase…
• Remarketing those who have abandoned their cart over the last 30 days - These people have made the decision to purchase your products, and have gone to do so, and then hit a snag (whether this is something to do with your website, their children grabbing their attention instead, or some other issue). By reaching them again and reminding them you’re still here, they can begin to finish their purchase again… hopefully now resulting in success for your brand!

Ensure your ads are visually appealing, click through to the correct URL and highlight your offer effectively (in either the creative or copy) and you’re set!

We definitely recommend you take a look at what your competitors are doing if you are struggling to create your ads. You can do that by using Ads library here!

Tip 2: Google Ads

Google is an amazing platform which will let you reach customers searching for your products - and they will be over Cyber Weekend!

Budget permitting, you should consider all Google formats for advertising, to ensure you are reaching potential customers at all stages of their customer journey.

We recommend the below:

• Start your Shopping campaigns early, ideally on the Monday before Black Friday - grab people who are ready to purchase before Black Friday, to ensure you make the most bang for your buck! We recommend using Smart Shopping where possible as Google will optimise ads across devices and channels dependant on what has worked for you in the past.
• Start Search advertising and bidding keywords as soon as Black Friday starts - if people are searching for your products, you want to be seen so they can buy them! Keep an eye on your CPCs and ensure you put up an effective bid - as it is Black Friday, companies are going to be offering extremely competitive bids, so you don’t want to miss out.
• Start Display Remarketing from midnight on Thursday, reminding previous web visitors about your discounts everywhere they look online.
• Set up promotions on Merchant Centre for your Google Shopping campaigns - this will catch the eye of consumers and highlight your discount! We recommend doing this before the big day, as sometimes it can take a few days for discounts to get approved.

Tip 3: Email Marketing

Are you ready to let your subscriber list know about your offers? This list contains a high-quality group of consumers, who are both interested in your brand, and ready to buy if the right offer comes along - so why wouldn’t you let them know about your BFCM offer?! We recommend sending:

• A teaser email to let your list know about the upcoming offers
• An email once the offer drops
• An email reminder for the last day of discounts (Cyber Monday)
• An email chasing those who have started the checkout process but abandoned partway through (they are so close!)
• An email on Tuesday, possibly offering a final, exclusive post-cyber weekend offer, just for them (if they haven't converted yet, they definitely will now…)

Tip 4: Creatives & Copy

As a creative agency, content is always at the front of our minds to ensure our ads perform as well as they should.

Create content that draws attention, uses contrasting colours and short and snappy text (but make sure your ads stay on brand!). This is especially important if you are considering Facebook or Google Display advertising - which are both visual channels.

Tip 5: Automation

Facebook Ads Manager and Google Ads remain to be the epitome of the phrase “easy to learn, hard to master” but both offer a way for you to manage your campaigns and ensure you don’t overspend on under performing ads.

You can do this through automated rules! We recommend setting rules up for frequency and cost per acquisition (CPA):

• Frequency: Set up a rule for ad sets to be switched off once impressions per person hit above a certain level - we normally go with 5-7 as research suggests 5 is the limit a person will see an ad before ads begin to take a negative effect.
• CPA: Set up a rule for ads to be switched off if your CPA is higher than you want. You can ask Facebook to only use this rule on ads who have reached a certain number of impressions to ensure your ad is served to enough people before it gets switched off.

Rules can be extremely beneficial if you are running advertising with a small budget… you heard it here first!

Tip 6: Website Preparation

Can your server handle a large influx of traffic to your website? Is your loading speed quicker than 3 seconds?

Google recommends ensuring your website loads in 3 seconds, or quicker, or you could miss out on potential purchases if consumers are having to wait for your site to load.If you are wondering how quickly your website loads - you can test your site here!

Also, have a check on the server you’re using - how many people can it handle on the site at one time? Make sure it can handle the amount you are hoping for, or else you could miss out on important sales opportunities!

So that’s it… it’s not easy, but proper preparation for Black Friday will allow your brand to reap the rewards!

Good Luck on the big day! If you have any questions, just shoot us a message on our Instagram and we will be in touch! ??