Increase your Black Friday PPC Sales With Our 6 Powerful Tips

Black Friday 2022 is nearly upon us, but what can online retailers like you do to maximise sales and win new customers? 

While Black Friday is only one day, many eCommerce companies participate in Black Friday Weekend and Cyber Monday. That means it could run for some online companies as a five-day sale from Thursday, 24 November 2022, until Tuesday, 29 November 2022. 

For others, it’s a whole month of selling. 

So here are our top six tips for making the most of your PPC campaigns during Black Friday. 

This blog is part of our Web Bureau Black Friday series, learn more about: 

Top 5 tips to SMASH your Black Friday sales targets 
6 Powerful Black Friday SEO Tips 
Black Friday Email Tips: 8 Ways To Boost Sales

1. Plan ahead.

Use Google Trends for insights, which allows you to compare search queries by time of year across various regions and languages. Carry out keyword research as early as possible to find appropriate Black Friday keywords and key phrases. Audit your website’s checkout process to ensure sales are seamless. Carry out the audit using a smartphone, laptop, tablet, desktop and any popular ways your customers access your website. 

Review last year’s campaign data to find hidden gems; you’ll be surprised at what last year’s insights can guide how you carry out this year’s campaign. 

2. Fine-tune your bidding strategy.

Black Friday is highly competitive, but fine-tuning your bidding strategy before the big sale starts is a good idea. 

We recommend using automated value-based bidding; target ROAS / Maximize Conversion Value. Your Target ROAS (Return On Ad Spend) is the average conversion rate you’d like back for every pound you spend on advertising. Maximise Conversion Value will attempt to spend your average daily budget entirely. 

Unsurprisingly, CPCs are more expensive around Black Friday than at other times of the year. As a result, you may need to update your budget to reflect this on your Search and Shopping ads. 

3. Content is king.

Great content can be the difference between a successful sale or cart abandonment. 

Firstly, review your previous campaigns to find UPS / CTAs with high conversion rates. Don’t be afraid to test out different text and colours; sometimes, a minor tweak can have a significant, positive effect on conversions.  

Make the most of your search ads and use all the available tools to give you an advantage over your competitors. Ensure you run RSA (Responsive Search Ads) and DSA (Dynamic Search Ads) in every ad group. Look again at your advertising copy and ensure you’ve included all the right keywords within your ads. Consider using ad extensions to make your Black Friday ads more relevant. For example, you could use site link extensions to highlight best sellers, call-out extensions, and price extensions to promote deals. 

4. Build awareness with display ads.

Display ads aren’t talked about much anymore, but they still have a place in digital marketing, especially in the run-up to Black Friday. 

Make use of the space on your website to start a four-week build-up display ad campaign to highlight your upcoming sale. You could include teasers, early discounts and even an email opt-in so that customers can be the first to hear when a new Black Friday deal is announced. Some places to include display ads are within blog content, above the fold on your home page, homepage takeovers, and pop-up boxes. 

5. Remarketing + Retargeting = Results!

Remarketing is an excellent way to retarget customers who have previously engaged with your brand. 

You’ll have experienced it before, perhaps without realising it.  

Have you ever visited an online retailer, added products to your basket and then a day or two later, you’re on a different website and see an ad about the online retailer featuring the same products? Think of remarketing and retargeting as a second chance to get your potential customer to complete their purchase. You can use display ads and add similar audiences with email list uploads. 

In our latest blog post, Top 5 tips to smash your Black Friday sales targets, we’ve covered remarketing in more detail. 

6. Optimisations.

Thirty years ago, retailers had to place an ad in a newspaper but got no insights into how their ad performed. Contrast that to today; you can delve into every facet of an ad campaign and tweak it while it's live. 

Optimisations are vital; after all, a non-performing ad is merely a cash burner. To optimise your Black Friday ads, review search terms and exclude any underperforming terms that are not converting and wasting your budget. Review Quality Scores and improve ad group and landing pages to improve the Quality Score. 

A good Quality Score for your keywords is anything on the higher end of 1-10, while a poor Quality Score is the lower end of 1-10. 

If you need some help in the run-up to Black Friday, contact our team of Digital Marketing experts by calling 028 9073 1190 or emailing us at info@thewebbureau.com.