Black Friday has evolved from a single day of in-store deals into an omnichannel shopping event, where retailers leverage both online and in-store channels, apps, and social media to offer extended promotions, exclusive digital deals, and seamless shopping experiences that reach consumers wherever they are.
Retail media has become increasingly important in holiday shopping strategies, as brands and retailers use targeted ads on e-commerce platforms and digital channels to reach consumers with personalised offers and product recommendations, driving sales during the crucial shopping season.
For retailers, Retail Media Networks (RMNs) offer a valuable opportunity to target these holiday shoppers directly within their purchase paths, maximising engagement by leveraging first-party data to deliver customised ad content. This approach is especially relevant as inflation and high interest rates make consumers more price-conscious. Retailers that excel in using RMNs can capitalise on shopper demand for deals and enhance their omnichannel shopping experience, driving conversions at a time when consumers are willing to spend but are seeking strong value.
Pre-Black Friday Preparation
Data-Driven Planning
To maximise retail media effectiveness during Black Friday, retailers focus on leveraging first-party data and historical holiday shopping data to craft targeted, personalised campaigns. Analysing past holiday data on peak shopping times, best-selling products, and high-performing channels allows retailers to optimise inventory, pricing, and promotions.
By creating targeted audience segments based on previous Black Friday behaviours, such as product interest or channel preference, retailers can deliver relevant ads and offers, enhancing engagement and conversions.
Retailers can also reach new high-potential customers by building lookalike audiences based on characteristics of past high-value shoppers, such as demographics and spending habits. This strategy enables retailers to target similar profiles with promotions tailored to high-interest products, improving conversion rates among likely buyers.
Inventory Management
Inventory planning is critical for Black Friday success. Syncing retail media with inventory management helps retailers ensure they only promote in-stock products, reducing customer frustration and maximising sales. Using inventory data for location-based ads also enables more efficient stock turnover by directing traffic to stores with surplus items. Prioritising high-margin products in ad placements can help maximise profit margins, particularly for seasonal high-demand items, leading to a more efficient return on ad spend (ROAS).
Campaign Preparation
A structured campaign strategy for Black Friday is essential. A phased approach, such as early access for loyal customers, pre-Black Friday promotions, and a focused main event, allows retailers to spread out traffic and sales, build anticipation, and capture shoppers across the entire Black Friday period.
Organising campaign hierarchies further enhances efficiency. At the campaign level, groups based on phases, such as “Early Access” or “Black Friday Deals,” allow for dedicated budgets and bidding strategies. At the ad group level, targeting can be tailored to high-value customers or specific product categories, like electronics or apparel, for more precise spending control. Individual ad creatives within each group can then be tested for effectiveness with variations in headlines, images, and calls to action.
Budget allocation across different ad formats and placements, such as search ads for high-intent traffic, social media for engagement, retargeting to recover abandoned carts, and video ads for brand awareness, maximises success across various touchpoints. Search ads are especially useful for high-intent shoppers actively looking for deals, while social media’s visual formats and video ads create awareness around major sales events. Balancing ad spend across these distinct formats ensures coverage across the buyer’s journey, from awareness to conversion, and real-time adjustments based on performance can further enhance campaign effectiveness.
By strategically leveraging data, inventory insights, phased campaign planning, and targeted ad placements, retailers can drive maximum engagement, efficient spend, and high conversion rates during the peak shopping season.
Optimisation Strategies for Peak Performance
Strategic Bidding Optimisation
To boost revenue across the Black Friday season, retailers can use real-time bidding optimisations like dynamic bid adjustments and dayparting. By analysing historical data and leveraging machine learning, they can set bids based on each shopper's likelihood to convert, adjusting for high-intent users in real-time. Automated bidding on platforms like Google Ads can help retailers prioritise these users, optimising ad spend and conversion rates. Dayparting allows ads to appear during peak hours, and budget pacing options spread spending throughout the day to ensure visibility during both high and low traffic times.
Choosing the Right Channels
For creative optimisation tailoring ads to audience segments and designing mobile-first creatives are essential. Customised creatives ensure relevance by showing targeted ads to different audiences, like premium deals for high-value shoppers or discounts for budget-conscious buyers. A/B testing of elements like headlines, images, and calls to action (CTAs) can help identify which ads perform best. Given that most Black Friday traffic comes from mobile devices, it’s critical to use responsive design, fast-loading images, and clear, clickable CTAs to enhance mobile shopping experiences.
Integrating Various Channels
Cross-channel coordination improves reach and cohesion by integrating onsite and offsite media and aligning retail media with other marketing channels. Onsite promotions like banners and pop-ups drive attention to special deals, while offsite ads, such as social media and email campaigns, bring traffic back to the retailer’s site. Using retargeting ads for users who interacted with onsite promotions but didn’t convert maintains engagement across both types of media.
Together, these strategies enable retailers to optimise their ad spend, improve relevance, and maintain consistent engagement across channels for maximum impact on Black Friday.
Measuring Campaign Success: Key Performance Indicators
For Black Friday campaigns, comprehensive performance measurement is crucial for both immediate optimization and future planning. Retailers should focus on tracking essential metrics including average order value, click-through rates (CTR), cost per thousand impressions (CPM), return on ad spend (ROAS), and incremental sales to gauge campaign effectiveness.
Modern retail media platforms provide detailed insights through user-friendly dashboards that monitor real-time campaign performance. These tools enable retailers to track customer journeys across both online and offline channels, providing granular data on impressions, conversions, and customer engagement. Beyond traditional metrics, retail media platforms can measure incremental ROAS, helping brands attribute sales specifically to Black Friday campaigns and ensure marketing investments deliver measurable value.
Post-campaign analysis is equally important for long-term success. By analysing comprehensive performance reports, retailers can identify successful targeting elements, bidding strategies, and ad placements to inform future campaigns. This data-driven approach enables continuous improvement in campaign effectiveness and helps optimise future holiday season strategies.
Maximising Black Friday Success
As retailers prepare for Black Friday 2024, a strategic approach to retail media becomes increasingly crucial for success. By leveraging comprehensive data planning, synchronised inventory management, and targeted campaign strategies, retailers can maximise engagement and drive conversions during this peak shopping period. The key lies in careful preparation, real-time optimization, and seamless cross-channel coordination - all capabilities enhanced through modern RMNs.
For retailers looking to capitalise on Black Friday opportunities, the time to begin preparation is now. By implementing these strategies and leveraging the power of RMNs, retailers can create more engaging, efficient, and profitable holiday campaigns that resonate with today's price-conscious consumers while driving meaningful results.
Interested in learning more about optimising your retail media strategy for the holiday season?
Visit trycarter.com or connect with a retail media expert at talk@trycarter.com to explore best practices and innovative approaches for driving Black Friday success.
