How has the demand changed in 2019? Why do you need to focus on brand queries? How to reach top search results on Black Friday?
Our Promodo team has researched how the Ukrainian eCommerce market prepared for Black Friday and what digital marketing channels did online retailers use for the ad campaigns in 2019.
We focused on the household appliances and electronics niches since TV sets, game consoles and laptops were top sellers during this Black Friday week.
Digital marketing trends 2018 vs 2019
This year, consumers were ready to purchase more products than last year, but at a discount
The average purchase value increased by 9%. Along with that, customers who didn’t buy anything on previous Black Fridays were more intended to purchase discounted products. Those consumers who already had Black Friday experience purchased more expensive items in 2019.
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The household appliance stores had the highest average purchase values this year. Electronics retailers were no longer leaders in this KPI.
The median purchase value of home appliance retailers increased by 20%, electronics online stores noticed a 1% growth.
Fake orders were another unpleasant trend on Black Friday 2019. We noticed a discrepancy in the number of orders in Google Analytics reports and actual data.
Which digital marketing channels converted best on Black Friday 2019
Display ad campaigns attract brand traffic
Black Friday is a flash sale. Over the week of sales, about 45% of all purchases were made by customers who visited the website for the first time ever. This is 44% of the turnover.
New customers placed 45% of all orders on Black Friday.
Such an indicator is the result of the tangible impact of display advertising: both online and offline. In 2019, retailers who previously increased their budgets for display ad campaigns received even more organic traffic than the leaders of search results due to various creatives with emphasis on brand and price.
Expert advice: Large market players invest heavily in display advertising campaigns. Since the auction is highly competitive, many of them don’t use bid limits and prefer auto strategies. For small and medium businesses, who cannot afford large budgets for display campaigns, Black Friday is an excellent opportunity to increase sales. They can do this by setting more detailed ad targeting, creating custom audiences, and carefully segmenting their remarketing list.
Retention Marketing Matters
Users who visited the website 1-2 weeks before Black Friday and then returned to buy, had the largest order value. Promodo specialists recommend collecting this customer segment and then attract them to the website during the sales period using email marketing.
30% of purchases in offline home appliances stores were made by shoppers who were already in the website customer base. Likely, marketing emails with Black Friday offers motivated them to visit a brick-and-mortar store.
SEO: Start preparing for Black Friday in summer
Black Friday lasts for a limited period of time, but the search queries appear much earlier. This is crucial to get to the top ahead of your competitors and keep your position until the sale starts.
This year, we noticed a linear increase in traffic on pages created especially for Black Friday ( for example, “Black Friday Fridges”) 12 days before the start of the sale.
But the average number of sessions per user skyrocketed directly in the Black Friday week, by 10-15% compared to the previous year.
The Black Friday search query format has changed
If consumers used “Black Friday” or “Black Friday deals” search queries last year, this year, they searched for special offers from specific brands. This trend is likely to continue in 2020, and the brand name will become an even more important choice factor.
Expert advice: For websites that do not have large budgets to compete for the homepage top positions in the search results for Black Friday, we recommend to create thematic landing pages.
Categories and products optimised for low- and mid-frequency Black Friday queries can attract up to 30% of the traffic from the top-2 results for the head query.
In 2019, retailers received about 50% of their revenue from paid traffic channels due to brand queries. At the same time, they managed to get excellent CRR (Cost Revenue Ratio) and ROI (Return on Investment) indicators.
Smart Shopping campaigns became another leader in 2019. They were by 50% more efficient than traditional search campaigns in terms of conversion. Moreover, with the help of Smart Shopping, online retailers managed to attract high quality traffic to the website and receive 35% of revenue over the Black Friday week.
Key Conclusions
- Black Friday is a week of new leads who are ready to buy expensive products but at a discount.
- Ukrainian consumers became more interested in Black Friday discounts. Traffic on Black Friday landing pages increased by 10% compared to last year.
- People who visited the website 1-2 weeks before Black Friday and then returned to purchase had the highest average order value. We would recommend motivating this audience to come back to your website on the day of sale.
- Black Friday season lasts 1-2 weeks in November, but search queries appear much earlier. It is important to get into the top of search results, ahead of your competitors, and maintain your positions until the period of sale.
- About 50% of the revenue from paid digital marketing channels came from branded traffic this year. Most likely, the trend will continue in 2020, and the brand name will play an even more important role.
About the Authors
Nataliia Raskopa
Copywriter at Promodo
Dmytro Borzenko
Web Analytics Expert at Promodo
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