Advertising during Black Friday - is it worth it?
Queue the mania! Two of the biggest shopping days for online retailers are quickly approaching, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. What used to be considered as just another American gimmick has soon turned into the biggest spending weekend of the year, now marked in the calendars of almost all Kiwi’s.
Black Friday hype is on the rise here in New Zealand, with many physical stores deciding to move online in the midst of a global outbreak. This means an even bigger spike in online Black Friday traffic and a lot of potential revenue for e-commerce businesses of any size.
However, it isn’t all butterflies and rainbows. It’s important to understand, for small businesses specifically, both the positive and negative impacts of advertising during Black Friday.
Either way, there is a huge opportunity to learn whether you go all-in or observe from the sideline!
Share of voice
Gone are the days of promotions running exclusively during the time in which the name suggests, it’s now common practice among brands to strike while the iron is hot, jump the gun, and run discount collateral way ahead of time in an attempt to get a head start on competitors, and the impending cluster-f@#k of every man and his dog promoting their sale.
We understand running a small business is challenging; it's hard to plan three steps ahead when you're focused on the day to day operations; yet by extending your sale, you’ll likely be able to gain more customers and profits. However, be careful when extending your sale, as if you overdo it, you’ll lose credibility.
The likelihood of dodging the onslaught of Facebook ads, promotional emails and dominating share of voice against online retail giants is next to nothing. The biggest brands spend massive amounts on marketing with the aim of protecting their own market share and hopefully stealing some from competitors; and for small businesses to go up against them is a tall feat.
Budget blow-out
During the Black Friday weekend, advertisers will be spending way more than usual. The cost to advertise on Facebook during this period can easily double, even triple, regardless of the audience used. The return on Black Friday sales is seen by many as a major investment, justifying the increased spend. However, for those not clued up on optimising for conversions, the return on ad spend will be harder to gauge. Likewise, for startups, the initial hard cost may be unachievable.
Conclusion
Advertising during Black Friday definitely has its benefits, and above all, it’s become an almost expected activation in the marketing calendars for Kiwi retailers and e-commerce brands. This year, we have some clients that are, and some clients that aren’t going all in on Black Friday. There is no hard right or wrong, it really does depend on your business.
If you could take away one key insight from this it would be: Think about ways you can communicate your promotional offering in an innovative way that aligns with your brand, catching your potential customers’ attention before they are exhausted by an influx of Black Friday messaging.
Good luck out there!