If you are in the sales business, Black Friday is probably your most exciting day of the year! If you’ve managed your campaign effectively, all of the hard work will have been done in the build-up, so you can sit back and watch the sales roll in on the big day itself!
If you currently run PPC campaigns, you will need to prepare them for this four-day retail weekend. Now is the time to put changes in place, and engaging with an awarding-winning PPC agency such as Global Search Marketing can make this process straightforward and successful.
With that in mind, we are going to run you through some of the steps that need to be taken when preparing your PPC campaigns for Black Friday.
Plan offers and promotions
There is only one place to begin, and this is with planning offers and promotions. This should be done in advance so that all of your team know about them and you can plan your PPC strategy with your deals and discounts in mind.
To ensure success in this area, your promotion and/or offers must be different from those you have run throughout the year. Black Friday is viewed as the day for mega discounts, so you need to go above and beyond to compel customers to purchase from you. Customers are expecting big offers, so you need to deliver!
Take a look at last year’s performance
How did your PPC campaigns perform during Black Friday weekend last year? By taking a look at your data from 2019, you will be able to discover where you went wrong and what you got right.
Do a bit of evaluation regarding your conversions, conversion value, clicks, and impressions from last November. This should enable you to see what your target market was most interested in.
If you ran Black Friday marketing campaigns during this period, how did they perform? What do you need to do differently?
Prepare your account for Black Friday
We’re sure you are familiar with the saying “fail to prepare, prepare to fail.” This is very much the case when it comes to Black Friday and PPC management.
There are a number of things you can do to ensure that your account is prepared. The first step is to ensure you are prepared for enhanced activity across all of your campaigns.
Aside from this, you may want to consider utilising broader keywords in an attempt to capture new variations of non-branded, generic terms.
Other things to consider include expanding ‘present’ and ‘gift; search terms, adding ‘for kids’, ‘for him’, and ‘for her’ keyword variations to your campaign, and think about the possibility of new DSA campaigns to capture even more. You can then use these findings to build out your campaigns.
Plan your ad copy
You also need to plan your ad copy, making the most of the recent feature and product updates Google has implemented for search ads. This includes responsive search ads and a third headline.
Planning your strategy early is imperative here. Confirm your promotions and write your ad copy, getting it signed off with weeks to spare.
Adding a countdown to your ads is a great way to create a sense of urgency, making customers aware that these incredible offers are only going to be available for a very limited period of time.
You should also consider setting up automated rules to pause or activate your ads at certain times. This is recommended because it enables you to be more efficient.
Setting up ad copy extensions is another advisable practice. This includes structure snippets, callouts, site links, and price. Ad extensions are vital in determining the ad rank of your advert, as well as encouraging extra clicks to your website thanks to the added information that is displayed.
Increase your budget
You should also look for ways to increase your budget. Experts recommend forecasting an increase of 10 to 20 per cent in your overall budget from last year’s campaign.
This extra budget is going to enable you to increase your bids a few weeks prior to the actual event, which enables you to catch the demand fo consumers who like to get ahead of the game and plan their Black Friday purchase. This is also going to contribute to flexibility within your budget.
You should ensure your campaign’s budget is increased so that you do not run out early in the day.
Enhance the landing page experience consumers have
Your PPC efforts and landing pages must be consistent, both delivering exceptional user experience. You can spend tons on your PPC campaign, yet if your site is slow and difficult to use, you’re basically going to be wasting your money, as the user will likely hit the ‘x’ button and head elsewhere.
Optimise your website so that you can enhance your conversion rates. Preparing for lots of traffic is a must. You need to make sure that your website is going to be able to handle the spike in traffic, especially from smartphones.
You should also minimise the journey users need to go on, meaning there are as few clicks as possible!
How easy is it for someone to checkout? The last thing a consumer wants is to input needless information or be forced to join as a member in order to purchase. Keep things simple and efficient!
Don’t limit your campaigns
Last but not least, you need to ensure your campaigns are not limited. This is one of the biggest mistakes people make with regards to their PPC campaigns and Black Friday.
We advise looking into feed optimisation by reviewing terms from last year that had high conversion levels.
If you want to use smart bidding, your strategy should be adjusted for your expected increase in conversion rate.
Final words
So there you have it: some PPC management tips that can help you get your business ready for Black Friday. If you want to ensure that you capitalise on this massive shopping holiday, please do not hesitate to get in touch with our friendly team at Global Search Marketing for more information.