Black Friday is the wildest shopping party of the year
It's not long until Friday, November 27, when Black Friday kicks off the wildest shopping party of the year. A party that is not only held in Denmark, but in large parts of the world. Consumers are literally going crazy with their credit cards, and as a B2C company, you should of course take advantage of this!
The battle for customer attention online is fierce on Black Friday - and arguably even fiercer this year, with many businesses being squeezed by the economic impact of COVID-19. But take a deep breath and read on so you don't end up burning a lot of money on marketing activities that aren't well thought out.
It's not always the company that throws the most money into marketing efforts that wins the battle. Tactics are your most important tool! And the right tactics can potentially save you a lot of money. So here are some concrete tips for your Google Marketing activities ahead of Black Friday.
Tips for SEO on Black Friday
SEO is a long-term and ongoing process, and it can take up to a month or more before you see the first results of your work. That's why it's important that you start your Black Friday SEO efforts now. If you've worked with SEO ahead of Black Friday in other years, you may want to reuse your work.
1. Find relevant keywords
Do you know which keywords your target audience is using on Google on Black Friday? If not, then you need to make a keyword analysis Now. Typical search terms are product categories and product names in combination with words like 'black friday', 'black Friday', 'offer', 'sale', 'sale', 'discount', 'price drop' and 'save money'.
You can relatively easily find keywords and the number of searches for each word using analytics tools such as Google Keyword Planner (free of charge), SearchVolume.io (free) and SEMrush (Commercial).
2. Create landing pages based on keywords
Once you have found a number of relevant keywords, create one or more landing pages on your website based on these keywords. A sensible strategy for many businesses is to have one search engine optimized landing page with an overview of all Black Friday offers and an explanatory text.
If you have found many keywords with a high search volume (i.e. with a high number of searches) that can be grouped into different topics, you can create a search engine optimized landing page for each topic. This will increase the chances of the landing page achieving visibility on Google.
For a landing page to be search engine optimized, the keywords should be included in the title tag, meta description, headings, subheadings and several times in the body text. You can read more about using keywords in our guide on content optimization.
3. Write more content than your competitors
Do a Google search for the most relevant keywords you have selected and check the highest ranking pages on Google. The text on your new landing page should generally be longer than the text your competitors have on their corresponding landing pages.
Remember that SEO is an ongoing process and even though you may already be ahead of your competitors on many parameters, it doesn't mean that it will stay that way. That's why it's important that you continuously monitor your competitors' behavior so that you can adjust your efforts accordingly.
4. Remember link building
The most important factor for your landing page's visibility on Google is the quantity and quality of links from other websites to your landing page and your website in general. An inbound link can be seen as a recommendation of your website, so links give Google a strong indication of how good and relevant the page is.
Links available for purchaseor they can arise naturally because someone of their own free will wants to link to your content. Examples of purchased links are sponsored content, sponsorships and guest blogging (the payment in the latter case is that you write a blog post for another company's website).
Read more in our guide about link building.
Tips for Google Ads on Black Friday
Google Ads is not a long-term process like SEO - once you've set up a campaign, you can make it visible on Google almost instantly - but on Black Friday in particular, it's important that you're out there early. Below are some recommendations that too many businesses failed to follow last year.
1. Create separate Black Friday campaigns
Separate Black Friday campaigns allow you to target your sales messages specifically to Black Friday and improve your conversion rates. At the same time, separate campaigns allow you to better isolate and evaluate ad data from this particular day.
You should also be aware that if you don't create separate Black Friday campaigns, you run the risk of your other campaigns being negatively affected afterwards. This is especially true if you use smart bidding, as the algorithm behind it can be affected by the changing behavior on the day.
2. Submit your ads in good time
All advertisers are busy in the days leading up to Black Friday. This includes Google, which has to manually approve all ads. Even if you're used to Google approving your ads within 24 hours, prepare for Google to take much longer for Black Friday.
We recommend that you submit your ads to Google no later than the week before Black Friday. You may also want to create more ad variations than you actually need - that way you have a number of backup ads in case Google doesn't approve one or more of your other ads.
3. Pause all other campaigns
On Black Friday - and in the days leading up to Black Friday - Black Friday is on every consumer's mind, and consumer buying behavior are aimed directly at the great Black Friday deals. Therefore, it is inappropriate to continue with the regular ad campaigns during this period.
We generally recommend that you pause all other campaigns during this period so you don't waste your money on them. They will most likely convert very poorly. Unless you're selling a product or service that isn't typically part of the Black Friday sales frenzy.
4. Use promotional extensions
Promotional extensions are small offer signs that appear below your ads and make your potential customers aware of the best deals your business has to offer. When someone clicks on the extension, they are taken directly to the page on your website that contains that offer.
In our experience, promotion extensions can help increase the conversion rate of ads, especially around Black Friday. It's free to add promotion extensions and the cost of a click on a promotion extension is equivalent to the cost of a click on the headline in the same ad.
5. Update your Google Shopping feed
Make sure the price information in your Google Shopping feed is updated on Black Friday and again the next day to always reflect your current prices. If you don't, you risk consumers seeing a price that is either more or less expensive than your current pricing on your website.
Many Google Shopping feeds update automatically once a day (or less frequently depending on the specific setup). The best way to ensure correct pricing around Black Friday is to manually submit the updated Google Shopping feed to Google when your prices change.
Last but not least, all of us at InboundCPH wish you a great Black Friday! If you need help with your SEO campaigns or ad campaigns, you are very welcome to Contact us.
