Whilst 2020 has been a truly unusual year, one thing we can count on is the festive shopping season arriving once again. Black Friday sales have seen a meteoric rise in popularity in recent years with the likes of Amazon launching wide-spread digital marketing campaigns to push their Black Friday deals with success. With the approach of Christmas, the right Black Friday campaign could see your sales figures boom as the world turns to online shopping during the lockdown. But how do you promote your Black Friday offers online for the biggest draw with the lowest cost? Luckily, our team of digital marketing specialists is here to help with a range of Black Friday marketing tips and tricks to help turbo charge your 2020 holiday campaigns.
Why is Black Friday Important?
Black Friday has become the start of the Christmas shopping period with customers flocking to online and physical stores to purchase gifts for the festive period. As such, Black Friday has become essential for driving online sales with discounts continuing throughout the weekend culminating in Cyber Monday, an online extravaganza aimed at capturing online shoppers. Black Friday falls on Friday 27th November this year and as with any seasonal campaign, it is important you start work now in order to create a successful Black Friday 2020 campaign.
How to Optimise PPC campaigns for Black Friday 2020
Whilst you may already have a number of ads running for your business, optimising your google ads for Black Friday 2020 marketing is imperative if you want to see results. Your competition will be making their ads their best during this period and scaling spend so it’s important you don’t get left behind during one of the busiest periods. Don’t know where to start? Our PPC specialists know their stuff when it comes to marketing for Black Friday so have a few suggestions to help you on your way.
Tiffany, one of our Pay Per Click Account Managers recommends using a promotion extension in Google Ads to up your Black Friday marketing. Using a promotion extension on your Black Friday sales ads can help catch your audience’s eye as they stand out for other ads. Adding an extension can display an end date on your BF ad and mark it as a specific offer, for example, ‘Black Friday sale – 10% off 1st November – 2nd December’. Tiffany recommends,
“I always like to put the sale in the extension and the ad just for good measure, but you still want to promote your business and services/products in the ads. So still make sure you are highlighting USP’s and adding in ad variations.”
When it comes to creating ads for your Black Friday 2020 marketing campaigns, it can be tempting to simply reuse existing ads with an update to mark them as Black Friday deals. However, PPC Manager Shafiq cautions against this and recommends creating separate text ads for promotional campaigns dedicated to the sale you are promoting online. Our PPC team recommends raising new ads and labelling them specifically as Black Friday deals. During the sale, you can pause previously existing ads in order to focus spend on your Black Friday marketing. Then, once the sale has finished, you will be able to pause the Black Friday ads and reenable your usual business ads to ensure your company is still visible online.
PPC Managers Shafiq and Jason’s Top Tips for Black Friday 2020 PPC marketing
- Create separate text ads specifically for BF 2020 and switch back to normal business ads once your sale has ended
- Add prices and percentages into the heading to entice clicks and improve your click through rate
- Use price extensions on your promotional ads to showcase your business’ Black Friday deals and make them stand out
Promoting Black Friday 2020 Through Social Media
When it comes to running Black Friday marketing campaigns through social media, it helps to know your audience. Social media is a fantastic tool for interacting with your customers on a personal level and can help to keep your ear to the ground with how your product is being received. For your social media Black Friday marketing ideas this year, why not think outside of the box when putting together your campaigns? Creating a Black Friday social media campaign that stands out is a fantastic way to draw attention to your brand and get people clicking through to your website. Use high-quality visuals to catch the eye of prospective buyers with value-giving content that will make you stand out from the crowd.
When using social media to prompt your Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales, take some time to update each of your social media profiles including profile pictures, banners, bios, and links to promote your Black Friday deals. A stunningly-designed visual as your cover photo can be a perfect way to promote your seasonal offers, just ensure that all visuals are on-brand and consistent with the rest of your Black Friday marketing materials.
Once your promotions start, make sure to follow through with fantastic customer support through social media for any potential customers getting in touch to show the value of your business’ knowledge. Even if Black Friday isn’t usually your thing, this can be the perfect time to boost impressions on social media using seasonal marketing to support.
SEO for Black Friday Marketing – Give your Content a Refresh
Whilst SEO is important year-round, having content dedicated to your Black Friday sales is key to making your seasonal promotions successful across the board. If your potential customers get drawn in by a creative Black Friday ad but land on a website with no mention of a sale, the chances are they are going to leave. Similarly, during the Black Friday sales period, more and more people will be searching for products and services online. If you can get your page to rank in Google for related terms, you stand a good chance of people seeing and visiting your website and potentially converting into paying customers.
Support your other digital marketing tools with a Black Friday marketing strategy that incorporates all areas of digital marketing this Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Some good ways to give your website an SEO boost this seasonal period is to research specific and relevant keywords related to your products or services and Black Friday itself. These can then be used within your content to give an SEO boost. Similarly, optimising your product and category pages to ensure clear, optimised information can help with both seasonal sales conversions and improve your page year-round. If you already have a business blog for your company, use this to create SEO-focussed content that drives traffic to your purchase pages and gives extra information on any offers or promotions you may be running using Black Friday and Cyber Monday-related key phrases. If your company sells anything gift-related, a sale-related gift guide can be the perfect way to add value to your customers through ideas as well as promoting key products you may sell.
Top Tips for Black Friday 2020
Now you have heard from the experts, here are some general top tips for Black Friday 2020 marketing to make your campaigns a success:
- Keep it personal. Personalise your ads, targeting and content to reach the right people
- Know your audience. Find out what makes your audience tick and incorporate this into your Black Friday marketing ideas
- Create a sense of urgency. Let your customers know these are one-time-only deals with ‘ends-soon’ messaging to encourage sales
- Stand out. With many businesses seeing Black Friday as the final push for 2020 be creative and let your campaigns stand out
- Optimise for mobile. As always, make sure your Black Friday content is accessible and optimised for mobile to harness that large portion of online shoppers
- Capitalise on Cyber Monday. Give your sales a second boost by promoting for Cyber Monday to boost online sales this BFCM 2020
Need some help shoring up your digital marketing efforts for the season ahead? Why not get in touch with our expert team of digital marketing specialists to find out more about how we can help you make the most of your Black Friday and Cyber Monday marketing ideas with long-term results.