Black Friday: facts, keys, tips and forecasts
If we were fortune tellers and had a crystal ball we could see the future and prepare our holiday marketing campaigns without fear or doubt. Our advertising strategy for dates like Black Friday would be much simpler, but… It would be no mystery!
However, even though we don’t have a crystal ball or know how to read tarot cards, at Clever Ads we’ve consulted numerous sources to find out what to expect for Cyber Weekend 2022:
- Black Friday: November 26th
- Cyber Monday: November 29th
The pandemic greatly affected shopper behavior on key dates, mostly benefiting online retail. In this post we will share some digital marketing ideas for Black Friday and some PPC tips to implement this year to drive sales and increase conversions.
Are you ready, let’s get started! Trends and tips… Here we go!
Black Friday data & forecasts:
Let’s talk with numbers and concrete (and real) data so you can see why you to jump on the Black Friday and Cyber Monday train with offers for your business:
- 2021’s online shopping mania resulted in the first $200 billion + online shopping holiday season.
- 2021’s Cyber Week saw US online spending surpass $100 billion by Cyber Monday, one full day earlier than in 2020.
- Despite the stronger sales figures overall, Black Friday 2021 saw a 1% drop in revenue from the previous year, landing at $8.9B.
- To put this into perspective, Black Friday sales figures clocked in at $6.2 billion in 2018, $7.4 billion in 2019, and $9 billion in 2020.
- Some categories saw a steeper reduction in discounting, like Appliances (-10%), Computers (-12%) and Electronics (-13%). These happen to be some of the most sought-after products for consumers looking to snag a Black Friday deal.
- The average conversion rate globally for Black Friday in 2021 was 3.2%, compared to 4.5% in 2019.
- The US scored slightly better than the global average, with conversion rates at 3.6% in 2021, vs 4.3% in 2020.
- Canada saw an impressive 7.4% conversion rate in 2021, up from 4.1% in 2020. The UK rang in at 4.3% for 2021, vs 4.1% in 2020.
- In 2020, Cyber Monday’s traffic numbers fell behind Black Friday’s by over 21%. The conversion rate fared even worse by 26%.
- During 2021’s BFCM, the gap between Black Friday and Cyber Monday narrowed from the previous year, with Cyber Monday bringing in more traffic relative to 2020. Still, Cyber Monday saw 14.7% fewer sessions than Black Friday’s traffic numbers.
- The gap closed even further when it came to conversion rate. In 2020, Cyber Monday’s conversion rate lagged Black Friday’s by 26%, compared to just 7% in 2021.
- Over 71% of online shoppers visited retail websites via their mobile devices
- Nearly 54% of BFCM conversions happened on mobile in 2021.
- Mobile shoppers still abandon their carts at a much higher rate than tablet or desktop users. 2021’s Black Friday saw average cart abandonment rates per device clock in at:
- Mobile: 73.8%
- PC: 64.8%
- Tablet: 68.5%
- When compared to a regular, non-holiday weekend, eCommerce stores have seen a sustained increase in the number of sessions year over year.
- + 197% in 2018
- + 94% in 2019
- + 57% in 2020
- + 92% in 2021
(Source: Namogoo)
Advantages of Black Friday for all sectors
You can imagine that a date with such an increase in sales, whether online or offline, is essential for all sectors, especially for the eCommerce and online sales but do you want to know more specific advantages? Keep reading!
- It increases the traffic of the websites that adhere to the promotions, both in the weeks before and after.
- Contributes to generate more leads or sales opportunities.
- In the case of eCommerce, consumers tend to put more products in the shopping cart.
- Preparing a good digital marketing strategy guarantees to achieve the objectives set.
Digital Marketing ideas to get the most out of Black Friday
These mini tips will help you with your online business in the face of Black Friday, whether your goal is to get leads or to (probably) increase sales as much as possible!
- Plan in advance the actions to be carried out. We advise you to plan your actions between 3-4 weeks before the date. A good idea would be to write down actions on a marketing calendar to be carried out each week. This way, you will be more organized and you will be able to act before any unforeseen event.
- Define your sales goal for that day and the audience which your marketing actions are directed at.
- It details the actions to be carried out and the deadlines. As we said in the first point, the organization of the actions to be carried out every week is fundamental.
Quick example:
- Week 1: define promotions and objectives to be achieved.
- Week 2: disseminate content (social networks, first sending through newsletter).
- Week 3: new sending of newsletter + paid campaigns (Facebook Ads, for example).
- After the date: launch a satisfaction survey, create new offers and actions to build loyalty.
PPC eCommerce Tips for Black Friday
Prepare your Google, Microsoft and social ads campaigns with care. Here are some little tricks!
Check your eCommerce site speed
You don’t like to wait when you’re shopping online, right? Neither do your users! Pages that take a long time to load (the optimal loading time for a website is a maximum of 3 seconds) get on our nerves and we end up leaving and looking for another option. Have your site ready so that this doesn’t happen and so users want to stay on your eCommerce site!
Start promoting (as previously mentioned) your Black Friday sales early
We have already commented on this and in other articles, you have to anticipate the purchase intention of the users. It is useless to prepare a campaign for a key date if you do not announce it before and people know about it beforehand. Some users will have to run into it that very day but… I bet you had already seen the offers you were going to buy this Black Friday, didn’t you? Your users work the same way. They are buyers like all of us!
Personalization is the key
You know your audience, you have segmented it on other occasions, you have done other A/B tests so you know that it does not work the same for everyone. Your campaigns, especially those for email and remarketing, must be totally personalized! Segment your audience and your database well, analyze what behavior those users have had before… And figure out their soft spot!
Invest some extra time and money in your PPC campaigns
Do you need us to tell you anything else to convince you that this day is a special date for online sales? You don’t, do you? Well, on big dates… A lot of effort is needed! Have part of your budget reserved for the Black Friday and Cyber Monday PPC campaigns and invest in them, and not only in terms of money! Also in time and care when making the campaigns and resources of people (if you can) who are watching over them.
Customer Engagement holds the key for any online business . This becomes even more critical for impending mega sale event , like New Year Sale, Black Friday etc.Among various ways to entice customers to alluring deals is sending Push Notification or pop ups as rightly pointed above. We can send push notifications to customers well in advance( as we have options like scheduled notifications), about the products which are going to be on sale, discounts , and offers .This will not only help in promotion and create anticipation for the upcoming event but also builds brand value .If customers are notified in advance they can also make informed decision about the purchase and avoid any on the spot purchasing.