With Cyber Week 2023 having ended and Boxing Day sales eagerly awaiting their moment, our journey into the realm of Black Friday sales performance data becomes a compass for future success.
In a mere 7 days, Pattern’s performance clients witnessed a digital spectacle, garnering over 76 million impressions and a staggering 1.6 million clicks on Google Ads alone.
Delving into these intriguing numbers, the Pattern’s Performance Marketing team has meticulously curated key statistics, profound insights, and actionable recommendations that promise to reshape the way we approach digital marketing.
Let’s dive deeper into the insights!
1. Key Trends: Navigating the Shifting Landscape
Our internal benchmark data shows that in 2023, early Cyber search volume intent surpassed any previous year, with a notable spike in customer intent as early as November 18th. Despite a higher Black Friday peak compared to the previous year, post-promotion traffic experienced a significant decline on November 28th.
External reports from Criteo, digiDirect, CommBank, and Mi3 provide further insights, revealing increased traffic during Cyber Weekend in Australia but challenges with declining conversion rates and average order values.
The research also highlights a shift towards essentials and Christmas gifts, as well as a spike in Buy Now, Pay Later usage on Cyber Monday. Looking ahead, there is speculation about the impact of Cyber Week on December sales and the potential influence of negative macroeconomic conditions.
2. Google Ads: Unveiling the Digital Symphony
This year, Google Ads experienced a significant increase in searches for Black Friday, with a 51% rise in volume for the term in October compared to the previous year. Additionally, searches and traffic for terms like [sale], [deals], and [promotion] also saw a substantial increase of over 22% year over year.
The interest and ad spend for Black Friday saw early spikes in November, with CPCs peaking on November 20th and remaining high until November 28th. Conversion rates fluctuated throughout the weekend, reaching a peak on Black Friday and dropping on Cyber Saturday before recovering on Sunday and Monday.
Performance Max contributed to up to 55% of advertiser SEM revenue during key sale months. Strategic segmentation, particularly in campaigns targeting specific SKUs and new customers, proved to be successful, highlighting the importance of automation and sophistication for higher returns.
3. New Campaign Types: Unleashing Innovation
The introduction of Demand Gen as a cost-effective alternative to Google Discovery has resulted in a significant decrease in CPCs compared to Discovery campaigns. This shift has allowed advertisers to reach a broader audience at scale. Advantage Plus campaigns have also proven to be highly effective, improving cost per conversion and driving a remarkable increase in Return on Ad Spend.
We saw the Affiliate Channel experience a meteoric rise, with savvy customers leveraging programs like Cashrewards and Shopback to strategically time purchases. This has led to a robust growth in Affiliate revenue, with a comprehensive transaction validation process saving clients a significant amount of overall spend.
4. Programmatic Prowess: Unlocking New Avenues
Criteo’s post-event data highlights the strong growth of programmatic advertising and retail media during Cyber 2023, with a 7% increase in transactions compared to the previous year. The top trending categories during this period were Luggage & Bags, Apparel & Accessories, and Shoes, with Shoes experiencing a particularly high increase in unit sales.
Additionally, brands investing in non-revenue-focused prospecting campaigns on programmatic platforms saw a significant boost in website traffic, especially through video prospecting campaigns, which had lower CPMs in November, indicating a potential for reaching a larger audience.
Strategic Recommendations: Performance Do’s and Don’ts:
Strategic recommendations echo through the corridors of digital marketing wisdom. From early promotions and competition analysis to monitoring stock levels and creative adaptation, a strategic approach is paramount.
Do’s
- Emphasise the importance of comprehensive transaction validation processes
- Adherence to platform best practices
- Maintaining a robust product feed for optimal performance.
Don’ts
- Start from ground zero when it comes to ad spend
- Ignore the product feed
- Neglect platform best practices that could lead to increased costs per click
If you’re looking to dive deeper into the data, our Cyber Performance 2023 report is the best tool to supplement your Black Friday and Cyber Monday reporting.
To download our Cyber Performance 2023 report, click here.
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