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Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the biggest online shopping days of the year, and the way you set up your PPC ahead of them can make or break your holiday results. Here are our top tips for getting the most out of your PPC spend this holiday season.
It is that time of year again. Wallets get a little lighter, and everything from huge TVs to the hottest toys, fashion and workout gear goes on sale. Many shoppers now skip the crowds and the freezing parking lots and do their buying from the couch, with their phones in hand and their carts loaded online.
That makes the holiday season the most important time of the year for ecommerce store owners. Online shopping has become a permanent part of how people buy, and the shoppers you reach tend to arrive with high intent. At the same time, more retailers are competing in the same auctions, which pushes costs up. Having a clear, well-optimized digital strategy matters more than ever, and these tips will help you protect your margins and grow revenue.
Get your product feeds and store listings healthy first
Google Shopping, Meta and Pinterest catalogs and Amazon storefronts are the lifeblood of many ecommerce stores over Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the whole holiday season. If you do not have these set up yet, you are behind, but there may still be time. These platforms recommend having your feeds and stores running well before the sale dates. Besides advertising on them, make sure your listings are done properly, with optimized product titles, descriptions, SKUs, product IDs and images.
A good way to find the best titles and descriptions is to test variations and see how your placements change on Google and the other platforms. Feed health also means checking for disapprovals, suspensions and unresolved issues in Google Merchant Center and on each platform, so nothing blocks your products during the busiest weekend. Check prices and stock levels too. An ad for an out-of-stock product wastes money. If you use automated campaign types such as Performance Max, the quality of your feed matters even more, because the system relies on it to decide what to show.
Build brand awareness before shoppers are ready to buy
Consumers have so many brands to choose from that awareness matters more than ever. If your brand image or message resonates with a shopper, whether through sustainability, convenience, fast shipping or something else, they are far more likely to choose you over a competitor.
Brand awareness is not just posting on social media five times a day. It should be part of every campaign, with a true omnichannel strategy that reaches people on several platforms with one cohesive message. For example, you might run a search ad on Google, a matching display or Demand Gen ad, a Meta ad and a brand video on YouTube and social media. Combining and optimizing all of these can be the final push that moves someone from consideration to purchase.
Show off your deals in your ads
It is the holiday season, so you probably have deals. Show them. Google and other platforms make it easy to display promotions and discounts through ad assets and feed-based promotions, such as Merchant Center promotions that appear on your Shopping listings.
You can also add countdowns to ads to create urgency, showing deals that end in only a few hours. Clear promotions and a sense of urgency are quick, easy ways to supercharge your Black Friday, Cyber Monday and holiday PPC. Make sure the offer in the ad exactly matches the offer on the landing page, and keep your return and shipping deadlines visible.
Bring your best customers back
After attracting new customers, focus on keeping your best current ones coming back. Keeping a loyal customer is generally far less expensive than winning a new one, so give your retargeting and customer retention efforts priority.
Google, Meta and many other platforms let you upload customer lists, for example through Customer Match, and use them in your campaigns. You can create ads specifically for your existing customers, or raise your bids on these audiences in your search and shopping campaigns. Show them your current promotions and even an extra reward for returning customers. Make sure you collect and use customer data in line with privacy rules and each platform’s policies.
Make checkout fast and easy
Last, and most important, make sure your site is easy to navigate and check out on. You can do everything above right, but if your site is slow, confusing or hard to check out on, your advertising spend goes to waste.
Mobile optimization deserves special attention, because most holiday shoppers browse on their phones, and many buy on them. Offer guest checkout and digital wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, which make payment quick. Convenience and speed reduce abandoned carts right away. Load-test your site before the sale so it can handle the traffic spike, and test the whole purchase flow on a phone.
Plan early, track closely and adjust fast
Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the holiday season can be the most profitable time of the year for ecommerce stores that are set up for digital success. Shoppers are buying online earlier and in larger numbers than ever, and your store is only a few steps away from benefiting. Healthy feeds, strong brand awareness, clear deals, retargeting and a smooth checkout let you maximize your holiday campaigns without a gigantic advertising budget. During the sale itself, watch your campaigns daily, check budgets so you do not run out mid-day and move spend toward what is working.
If you want more insight into improving your ecommerce PPC and growing your business, we at SmartSites can help. We use our years of digital advertising expertise and omnichannel strategic planning to find the right solution for your business. Schedule a free discovery meeting to see how we can help.
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