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How to set up your Google Ads campaigns before Black Friday and Cyber Monday

1. 11. 2018

On Black Friday, shops are always bursting at the seams. People start shopping for Christmas and want to take advantage of every discount and event. Black Friday is on Friday, November 23 this year, but discounts often last throughout the weekend. This is the starting point of the Christmas shopping fever, which is also supported by Cyber Monday on November 26. Over the last couple of years, these sell-out events have spread mainly among e-shops. For PPC specialists this is an important period for which it is good to prepare properly.

It is important not to forget a good PPC strategy. Determine the direction of your Black Friday goal. Do not leave the preparation for Black Friday to the last minute. Prepare the strategy in advance, drawing on statistics from the previous year. A year-to-year comparison of Google statistics during the season shows a growth in category searches (+64%) and product searches (+53%). Generic queries begin to grow in the week before Black Friday. Two days before the sale begins, both generic and brand searches grow rapidly. People are the most active on Black Friday, while the day after, searches fall considerably. The average CPCs and search queries at different times can be seen in the graph below.

Source: Google

Most people search in the evening before Black Friday, when the average CPC is still low, then it starts to grow gradually. The biggest peak is at midnight before Black Friday. People then start searching again between 7 and 8 in the morning and use mobile devices more than desktops. 40.7% of queries (CZ and SK) are from cell phones. 70% of shoppers first search on their cell phones before buying in the store.

Appropriate targeting

From our experience, it’s a good idea to focus on visitors to your site. We recommend that you add remarketing audiences to your campaigns (all visitors, product viewers, cart abandoners, buyers). These visitors already know your brand and are more likely to buy. Take advantage of similar audiences: Similar to all visitors and Similar to buyers. This will extend the campaign’s reach to new users who are similar to existing ones. Set the time for all audiences for up to 180 days. This will remind your brand and those visitors who were on your site six months ago. You can divide them into different intervals of 60, 30 or 7 days.

Tips for retailers

  • Target interest: Bargain Hunters, Value Shoppers, Luxury Shoppers, Shopaholics
  • In-market: Children’s Products, Clothing and Accessories
  • Demographic targeting: Focus on parents who are going to buy gifts for their children

Tips for Electronics Dealers

  • Focus on interests: Technophiles, Mobile Enthusiast
  • In-market: Consumer Electronics, Computer

Tips for dining and entertainment

  • Use the appropriate audience: Foodies, Cooking Enthusiast, 30-Minute Chefs, Aspiring Chefs, Frequently Dines Out

Tips for Beauty & Wellness

  • Take advantage of audiences like Beauty Mavens, Fashionistas, and Luxury Shoppers
  • In-market: Bath and Body Products, Hair Care Products, Makeup and Cosmetics, Parfumes and Fragrances.

Custom audiences 

In-display campaigns also target Custom Affinity Audiences and Custom Intent Audiences. Add the keywords related to Black Friday and Cyber Monday to these audiences. In this way you create audiences tailored to your brand, which makes targeting more accurate.

New audiences from Google

According to past data and trends in the digital world, Google has created new audiences for Black Friday. Take advantage of this novelty and incorporate new audiences into your campaigns. These audiences are:

  • Black Friday Shoppers
  • Black Friday Shoppers / Online Shoppers
  • Black Friday Shoppers / In-Shop Shoppers

Campaign settings

Are you using optimized ad for your search campaigns? Thanks to these, Google Ads will show only the most relevant ads which bring you more conversions. To get as many shoppers as possible, we recommend that you set up targeting to all devices, and to increase the frequency of display campaigns.

Budgets

Plan your budget in advance. People will buy a lot, so don’t let the budget run out at the start of the day. Increase budgets for the entire Black Friday period. If limited, relocate them from lower-traffic campaigns. Do not use accelerated ad delivery—your budget will run out too soon. People mainly buy in the evening.

Offers

Use an enhanced cost-per-click eCPC. For campaigns where you want to maximize conversions, set Maximize Conversions to get the most conversions. You can use it wherever you’ve reached at least 30 conversions in the last 30 days. Maximize Conversions needs to be turned on in time to complete the learning process before Black Friday starts.

Landing page

Prepare a good Black Friday landing page:

  • Use Black Friday banners
  • Refer to products in the offer
  • Highlight the discounts offered
  • Optimize web download speed
  • Customize texts for your ads

High-quality landing page content gives you a higher Quality Score, and your ad gets a better ranking in searches. You can also place a countdown on the landing page to remind people that this is a time-limited offer. This will encourage them to make an immediate purchase.

People also buy a lot on their phones on Black Friday, so focus on modifying mobile site views. Expect a large increase in traffic and optimize the web loading speed. Increasing budgets will lead to sales growth, therefore sufficient stock needs to be secured, as well as the necessary number of employees.

Text ads

In each ad group, have at least three different ads. Google Ads will show the ads that are most effective. You can achieve up to 15% more conversions.

Work more on editing ads. Motivate customers to buy immediately, edit the second headlines. Take advantage of phrases expressing that the limited offer will soon end:

  • Black Friday on xyz.cz
  • Discounts up to x%
  • Limited offer
  • Action is valid until
  • Black Friday Mobile Deals
  • Black Friday Sales

Create third headlines and add the Countdown function to them. This will support the purchasing decision process during Black Friday. Countdown allows you to insert a countdown into your ads. With this feature, you can tell to your potential customers about the upcoming end of the event/sale. People will feel that some products will sell out and will therefore buy them immediately. Countdown works first by day, then by hours and minutes. What does it look like in reality?

“Get a 30% discount on our products. Hurry up! Black Friday ends in 12 hours. “

Ad extensions

Customize the extension of your ads for Black Friday. Ad extensions affect the position of the ad in search.

With the appropriate extensions, you will attract more customers while ensuring a good position in searches. In the extension settings, you can choose from 11 opportunities, including Black Friday. Then you just need to enter the discount level and specify the products that are affected. Competitors who do not use the extension will appear below you. Focus on sitelinks. Link to specific Black Friday offers and include information about the discounts offered and the duration of the offer. Take maximum advantage of text ad space during Black Friday:

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