The upcoming sales season is a crucial opportunity to potentially drive the biggest volume of sales and new customer acquisitions for the year. Helen Black, Head of Connection Planning ANZ at Meta, reveals how marketers can optimise their strategies in the lead-up to the key mega sales day moments, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
As we start heading towards the end of the year, many of us start looking forward to when we can slow down.
But for many businesses, this is the time when the real magic happens. Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become the key sales moments where people are looking to shop. While these moments started in the US, they are only getting bigger in Australia.
Last year, the Black Friday weekend made up more than a quarter of holiday purchases in Australia – hitting $6.36bn1. As this builds in popularity, we’ve seen that shoppers have been trained to hunt for bargains, and 68% of shoppers wait for these discount sales events to purchase specific items they need2.
This is going to be the sales moment of the year, and with the majority of shoppers starting their holiday shopping in October, there is only a month to get your house in order and optimise your marketing strategies to get the most out of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Here are our tips to help optimise your campaigns a month out.
Build demand early
To make the most of the shopping season, marketers need to build demand early.
Building your marketing well in advance will mean you’re already present in your consumers’ minds when they’re ready to buy, and often means sustained return on ad spend (ROAS) over the entire holiday period.
When it comes to specific days you should be looking at, while demand is usually highest on Thursday and Black Friday, Cyber Week offers massive potential for brands to make an impact.
Our research has shown us there is massive untapped headroom over this sales event. Ensure you prime customers and pump up the volume of your activity over this time to maximise sales volume.
Test now to hone your approach
No sales season will be as effective as it can be without the time and effort to test, measure and learn what exactly works for your business and what people are responding to.
Now is the perfect time to put your marketing strategy to the test, and to experiment with new approaches and optimisations. Cyber Week is not the time for testing - by the time Black Friday rolls around, you want to have your strategy in place and a good idea of what it’s going to achieve for your company.
By experimenting beforehand, you can eliminate inefficiencies, optimise for what’s really working for your brand, and set your company up for success from the get-go.
Think outside the box - and outside Australia
Consider expanding your reach and marketing beyond Australia and look towards markets such as the UK and US. These markets have a combined reach of over 400 million people. Research indicates that in the US, 75% of holiday shoppers bought something in a mega sales day event, with 58% in the UK as well3.
To help break into new markets, consider using AI to make your business discoverable at the right time and to the right people. Last year AI accounted for $199 billion of holiday orders in 2023, primarily through predictive recommendations4.
Another way to crack into new markets is with creators. We’ve found that 51% of Gen Z and Millennials are influenced by online creators in their holiday shopping decisions, proving that they should be a key part of mega sales day activities5.
They can also help push consumers along the purchasing journey, with 39% of respondents saying they are more likely to buy a product more quickly if it is promoted by a trusted creator6.
Creators are a shortcut to connection - helping your brand become a culture carrier as well as building valuable and crucial trust with a new audience.
Diversify your creative to capture new customers
Holiday sales seasons are great times to really connect with your audience, but it is also a time when your brand will have to fight harder than ever to cut through. Creative is one of the biggest levers you can pull. A strong sales offer is only the starting point.
Over the holiday period, feed AI systems with diverse creative assets, tapping into different motivations to find a broader range of customers. Using a diverse set of creative messaging across a wide variety of ad formats leads to better performance: on average a 32% increase in efficiency and a 9% increase in incremental reach.7
Consider emotion-led creative, motivation-led creative and creator-led creative as different ways in which brands can optimise their creative towards what consumers really want.
What’s clear is that mega sales days are not just about boosting discounts - they’re about strategically positioning your brand to seize the moment. By timing your activities right, thinking cross-borders, leveraging AI and building diverse creative you can turn this sprint to the finish line into a winning strategy for your business.
Sources:
1. https://www.retail.org.au/media/black-friday-weekend-to-make-up-more-than-a-quarter-of-holiday-purchases-hitting-6-36bn
2. Seasonal Holidays Study” by YouGov (Meta-commissioned online study of 1,861 holiday shoppers aged 18-64 in the US), December 2023.
3. “Seasonal Holidays Study” by YouGov (Meta-commissioned online study of 1,359 holiday shoppers aged 18-64 in Australia, 1,683 in the UK, 1,861 in the US, December 2023.
4. Salesforce blog, “Holiday Shopping Season Results”, Jan 2024
“5. Seasonal Holidays Study” by YouGov (Meta-commissioned online study of 1,861 holiday shoppers aged 18-64 in the US), December 2023.
6. “Seasonal Holidays Study” by YouGov (Meta-commissioned online study of 1,861 holiday shoppers aged 18-64 in the US), December 2023.
7. Meta analysis - results were derived from a scaled backend test comparing the performance of two identical vs two non-identical (creatively diverse) creatives in 2703 ad sets across verticals from 04-04-2021 to 04-26-2021. This analysis was limited to static ads only.
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.