MAXIMIZE SALES WITH 8 PROVEN BLACK FRIDAY FACEBOOK AD STRATEGIES

Heidi McIvor-Allen - Owner of McIvor Marketing LLC

BY HEIDI MCIVOR ALLEN

Black Friday presents an incredible opportunity for e-commerce advertisers to significantly boost product sales and draw in waves of fresh customers. In 2022, U.S. shoppers unleashed a staggering $9.2 billion in online shopping over the Black Friday weekend, eagerly scouring for enticing deals and substantial discounts.
“When you change one thing, you have the ability to change EVERYTHING.”

FACEBOOK MARKETERS AGAINST THE BLACK FRIDAY CHAOS

Nonetheless, Black Friday can be a whirlwind of chaos, despite the immense profit potential. As a Facebook marketer, you’ll find yourself navigating through intense competition with rival brands investing substantial budgets, all vying for the attention of the same audiences. If you believe you can tackle Black Friday like any other run-of-the-mill Facebook ad campaign, it’s time to reconsider your strategy. But fear not, there’s hope.

OPTIMAL APPROACHES FOR BLACK
FRIDAY FACEBOOK ADS IN E-COMMERCE

Follow these best practices, and you’ll be able to transform the Black Friday madness into highly lucrative sales.

1

LAY DOWN THE GROUNDWORK BEFORE BLACK FRIDAY KICKS OFF

A significant portion of your key tasks as a Facebook advertiser unfolds even before the sales begin. Waiting to generate website traffic until Black Friday itself puts you at a considerable disadvantage compared to the competition. Instead, your focus should be on nurturing receptive, top-tier retargeting audiences in the run-up to the Black Friday weekend.
It all starts with the Facebook Pixel.

Once the Facebook Pixel is properly implemented, you can commence the creation of retargeting audiences based on individuals who have interacted with your ads, explored your website, or made purchases. These specific segments are referred to as Custom Audiences, and because of their prior exposure to your brand and products, they exhibit a considerably higher likelihood of conversions.

Custom Audiences retain their effectiveness for a span of up to 180 days. By initiating website traffic generation well in advance, you can set the stage for a rapid start on Black Friday. Instead of beginning from square one, you can promptly direct your efforts toward high-potential prospect audiences who have previously engaged with your business. This approach allows you to maximize growth quickly and efficiently.

Furthermore, you can harness the power of Lookalike Audiences to broaden your Custom Audience targeting. This will expand the reach of your campaign while still honing in on relevant consumers.
Given the intense competition during Black Friday, advertisers who can expedite their focus on cost-effective audiences gain a substantial advantage in this fiercely competitive landscape.

2

BE SMART WITH AUDIENCE SEGMENTATION

As previously emphasized, preparing re-engagement and retargeting audiences prior to Black Friday is pivotal. However, it’s equally crucial to segment these audiences thoughtfully.

For instance, giving top priority to users who have made multiple purchases on your website within the last 60 days is essential. These are existing customers displaying a clear interest in your products and represent a substantial revenue opportunity during Black Friday.

Conversely, users who have already engaged with one of your videos might be contemplating your products, but not ready to commit to a purchase.

It’s important to carefully strategize your approach for Black Friday, rather than treating all audiences the same. High-value customers may only require a straightforward discount message, whereas those who have interacted with your ads might need a bit more persuasion to take the leap and make a purchase.

Learn how to be smart with audience segmentation this Black Friday - McIvor Marketing Blog

Additionally, it’s crucial to consider how to distribute your marketing budget across these retargeting audiences.

When it comes to Black Friday, inefficient spending isn’t an option. Identify your ‘bullseye’ audiences consisting of hot prospects and existing customers, and ensure you allocate an adequate budget to drive maximum conversions.

3

LAUNCH EYE-CATCHING CREATIVE ASSETS

In the chaos of Black Friday, high-quality creative assets can serve as a potent weapon. Capturing your audience’s attention constitutes a significant part of the battle.

First and foremost, make certain that your ad visuals convey both your products and Black Friday promotions with the utmost clarity. In a field flooded with generous discounts, users should grasp your offering at a single glance.

Launch eye catching creative assets for Black Friday - McIvor Marketing Blog

Another valuable strategy is to explore past competitor Black Friday campaigns within Facebook’s Ad Library to gather insights. Examine how they positioned their products and price promotions, and identify opportunities to differentiate your brand this year.

Whether you opt for a static image or a video, it’s imperative that your creative assets are designed to instantly grab attention.

Incorporating motion and vibrant colors can be exceptionally effective, so don’t hesitate to break free from the conventional and set your brand apart from the rest.

Keep in mind that the most successful Black Friday advertisers aren’t striving to create artistic masterpieces. Instead, they employ high-quality product images and striking visuals to share their promotions and drive sales.

4

EXPERIMENT WITH DIFFERENT AD FORMATS TO ACHIEVE SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE

Black Friday poses an element of unpredictability for Facebook advertisers. What typically succeeds in your regular campaigns may not yield the same results during this event, and vice versa.

To discover new creative avenues and effective placements, it’s essential to experiment with various ad formats throughout Black Friday. Not only will this diverse mix of ad formats keep your creative messaging dynamic, but it will also offer numerous opportunities to captivate your audience and showcase your promotions. By exploring fresh concepts and promptly making optimizations, you significantly enhance your chances of driving sales.

For example, Facebook’s data underscores the popularity of video assets on Black Friday, with 30% of mobile shoppers attesting that video is the most effective format for discovering new products.
Advantage+ Carousel ads can be a remarkable asset on Black Friday, enabling you to present a curated selection of personalized product recommendations to your audience.

Stepping beyond your customary strategies becomes crucial during the Black Friday sales event, as many standard Facebook advertising principles undergo transformations. If your usual practice revolves around just one or two types of Facebook ads, try venturing into uncharted waters and experimenting with something fresh – the outcomes might pleasantly surprise you.

5

USE ACTION-DRIVING, SALES-LED COPYWRITING TECHNIQUES

Given the intense competition during Black Friday, every aspect of your Facebook ads must be geared towards driving clicks and conversions. One of the most critical elements is your ad copy.

While creativity is valuable, the primary focus should be on inciting action. When crafting Black Friday ad copy, concentrate on clearly conveying discounts and compelling product benefits—there’s no room for irrelevant details.

Functional ad copy may not always be the most imaginative, but if it generates sales, it serves its purpose. Use the main text to emphasize key selling points, such as “20% off this product collection,” and include additional copy to highlight extra perks, like free shipping or returns.

Consider utilizing sales-oriented copywriting techniques for maximum persuasiveness. Scarcity (e.g., “only X products left”) and urgency (e.g., “sale ending in X hours”) are powerful motivators for shoppers. Additionally, prominent percentage discounts (e.g., “70% off regular prices”) can make an immediate impact on consumers.

The more value your ad copy communicates, the higher the likelihood of conversions.

6

DON’T HESITATE TO SCALE UP SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIES

Black Friday sales move fast, and if you want to drive optimal results through Facebook ads, you need to be decisive.

By scaling up successful tactics and audiences, you can make the most of the sales period to maximize conversions. However, you won’t have the luxury of time–if you’re going to scale up budgets, you’ll need to scale them quickly and efficiently.

So how can you prepare for this budget scaling during Black Friday?

To give yourself the biggest number of opportunities to scale, it’s a good idea to start your campaign with a diverse mix of broad audiences. While you’ll always want to allocate a healthy budget for your red-hot retargeting segments, you’ll also need to balance this out with larger audiences that will provide sufficient scale.

Once you’ve identified creative or audiences that are generating high volumes of conversions, you can begin to scale. This could be vertical scaling (i.e. increasing ad set budgets) or horizontal scaling (i.e. replicating/tweaking successful tactics).

It’s worth remembering that the Facebook ads landscape is highly contested during Black Friday, so you’re likely to pay more for impressions and conversions than usual. Nonetheless, if you can scale up your campaigns effectively, your sales figures will compensate for it!

7

OPTIMIZE YOUR AD DELIVERY TO STAY COMPETITIVE

Launching Facebook ads during the hustle of Black Friday can be quite a whirlwind, but for optimal returns, maintaining focus on ad delivery is paramount.

Black Friday stands as a unique event characterized by an overwhelming surge in marketing competition. Consequently, you might encounter two common issues with ad performance: restricted delivery and escalating campaign costs.

The good news is, with vigilant attention, you can implement key adjustments to surmount these challenges and ensure consistent ad delivery.

The initial step involves expediting Facebook ad delivery. By adjusting delivery at the ad set level, you empower the Facebook algorithm to appropriate your budget as swiftly as possible, all while adhering to your bid cap. In essence, this means Facebook will maximize the frequency of your ad delivery—an ideal approach for a time-sensitive period like Black Friday.

This doesn’t imply that your investment will be squandered on ineffective strategies. By strategically deploying Automated Rules, you can establish triggers that automatically halt underperforming ads, safeguarding your budget in the process.

For instance, you might opt to implement a rule that promptly pauses ads generating minimal clicks or delivering a poor Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). This approach enables you to uphold campaign effectiveness while still prioritizing speedy delivery for a limited duration.

Considering the likelihood of increased spending during a Black Friday campaign, it’s prudent to make adjustments to the spending limit within your Facebook Ads account. Costs of advertising typically surge during the Black Friday weekend, so expanding your campaign spend flexibility can help avert issues with ad delivery.

8

AVOID MAKING LAST-MINUTE CHANGES TO YOUR FACEBOOK ADS CAMPAIGN

While Black Friday can introduce disorder into the world of Facebook advertisers, it’s crucial to resist the urge to make last-minute alterations to your campaigns.

Why, you ask?

Because every time you launch new Facebook ads, the algorithm initiates a Learning Phase. During this period, the platform distributes your ads to various audience segments, collects performance insights, and implements optimizations to enhance results. Fluctuations in performance are common during this initial learning phase, and although it might be tempting to intervene, it’s vital to trust in the algorithm and exercise patience.

The Learning Phase typically requires around 50 conversion events to stabilize performance. If you interfere with your campaign prematurely, this learning process resets, and you’re back to square one.

(As you’re well aware, time is of the essence during the Black Friday sales event and delays in optimization can prove costly!)

To avoid the need for last-minute adjustments, ensure that you’ve meticulously reviewed everything from your target audiences to your creative headlines. It’s acceptable to pause ineffective audiences and designate more resources to high-performing strategies once you’ve collected substantial data, but refrain from making minor tweaks during the Learning Phase.

CREATE COMPELLING E-COMMERCE BLACK FRIDAY FACEBOOK ADS

Black Friday might appear daunting to advertisers, but there’s no reason you can’t reap substantial rewards from this e-commerce treasure trove.

Despite the inevitable intense competition, employing the right Facebook ad strategies can help you stand out and effectively convert high-value audiences.

Through compelling ad creatives, data-driven optimizations, strategic budget scaling, and precision-focused targeting methods, you can harness the Black Friday frenzy to achieve remarkable results for your business.

HOW MCIVOR MARKETING CAN HELP YOU CRUSH YOUR BLACK FRIDAY SALES WITH FACEBOOK ADS

As a Meta Partner, McIvor Marketing gets first hand assistance from Meta with all issues and we are up to date on all of the latest trends and tricks that foster success!

McIvor Marketing has all the skills you need to drive sales and conversions just in time for the holiday season and the busiest shopping months of the year. Contact us today to learn how we can boost your sales this Black Friday!

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