Are you ready to make this year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) Facebook ads campaigns your best ones so far? The BFCM weekend is the ideal time for businesses to increase their sales and reinforce their brands.
However, to make that happen, you’ll want a strong strategy that not only highlights your products but also keeps your audience engaged.
So, let’s see how you can create Black Friday Facebook ads for your e-commerce store.
Preparing for increased ad costs
Did you know that in November 2023, the average store spent almost twice as much on Facebook ($2.72K) compared to Google ($1.59K)?
During the BFCM period, advertising competition escalated, resulting in a 10%-20% surge in the CPM across the market. This means that running ads on Facebook becomes more expensive in BFCM week.
To tackle this challenge, consider setting aside a slightly larger budget to account for the expected increase in CPM.
Strategies for Black Friday Facebook campaigns
With the increasing cost of the Meta ads in the Black Friday period, planning your campaigns is important.
Planning effective Facebook campaign strategies for BFCM requires a combination of early preparation, targeted ads, and optimization. What you should consider for your Facebook ads strategies during the Black Friday period are:
Start early
Targeting strategy
Ad format
Optimization goal
Single ad per ad set
Ad set budget optimization
Monitor and adjust
So, let’s cover every one of these strategies in the next sections.
When to start your campaigns?
The first thing you need to consider is the timing of your campaigns.
You gain a distinct advantage by initiating your BFCM promotions a bit earlier, rather than exclusively during the bustling BFCM week.
Starting early allows you to secure prime ad placements, expand your reach, and harness the full potential of this lucrative season.
Early planning is your key to not only cost-effective advertising but also staying ahead of the competition and reaching your target audience before they’re bombarded with BFCM promotions.
What we mean by starting your BFCM preparations as early as possible is this: before the BFCM hype begins, you have the opportunity to target your audience and set up retargeting strategies for when the BFCM period arrives.
By doing this, you can achieve lower customer acquisition costs and better conversion rates compared to waiting until the last minute. In the next section of the blog post, we’ll explore the strategies we used to achieve the results shown in the graphs below.
How to target your audience?
At the start of your Black Friday campaign, use broad targeting optimized for purchases for your prospecting audience. Instead of narrowing down specific interests or demographics, you simply apply location restrictions and let Facebook’s algorithm do the work.
The algorithm will identify and show your ads to users most likely to make a purchase, allowing you to reach a wide yet relevant audience without overcomplicating your targeting settings.
As Black Friday nears, shift to retargeting audience. Focus on reaching users who have already engaged with your business, such as those who visited your site, viewed products, or interacted with previous ads.
This ensures that these warm leads, who are now familiar with your brand, are more likely to convert during the high-shopping period.
Why use Advantage+ placement?
Using Advantage+ placement on Meta ads is beneficial because it allows Facebook’s algorithm to automatically place your ads across all available placements, such as Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the Audience Network.
Using Advantage+ placement in your BFCM campaigns is highly recommended.
Here’s why:
Maximizes reach during a high-demand period: With more shoppers online during BFCM, Advantage+ ensures your ads are visible across all Meta platforms, increasing your chances of reaching potential buyers wherever they are.
Optimizes for best results: During BFCM, competition is intense, and Advantage+ placement allows Meta’s algorithm to find the best placements for your ads in real-time, ensuring they are shown where they will drive the highest conversions.
Improves cost efficiency: As ad costs rise during BFCM, Advantage+ helps you get the most out of your budget by automatically placing ads in the most cost-effective spaces, reducing wasted spend and helping you lower customer acquisition costs (CAC).
In BFCM campaigns, Advantage+ placement ensures your ads are strategically placed for maximum performance and cost-efficiency, making it an essential tool for optimizing your campaigns during this critical shopping period.
The right ad format for BFCM period
When it comes to selecting the best ad type for eCommerce businesses during BFCM campaigns, dynamic creative ads have traditionally stood out as the most effective choice, boasting a conversion rate of 1.73%.
However, it’s important to note that dynamic creative ads are no longer available. Based on our experience, flexible ads deliver similar performance, making them a viable alternative.
Dynamic creative ads offered a competitive customer acquisition cost of $25, while catalog ads boasted a higher return on ad spend (ROAS) at 321, with dynamic ads still providing a strong return with a ROAS of 168.
While dynamic creative ads excelled in driving conversions, flexible ads now present an excellent option for BFCM campaigns. Their ability to effectively engage potential customers, coupled with a reasonable customer acquisition cost, positions them as a top strategy for maximizing sales during the holiday season.
What optimization goal to choose?
Optimizing your Black Friday campaigns for sales is essential because it aligns your ads with the ultimate goal of generating revenue during this high-demand period. Here’s why:
Maximizes ROAS:
Optimizing for sales ensures your ads are shown to users most likely to purchase, which maximizes your ROAS. Facebook’s algorithm will prioritize conversions, meaning your budget is spent more efficiently on people ready to buy, increasing your profitability.Targets purchase-intent audiences:
During Black Friday, people are in a buying mindset, actively searching for deals and ready to make purchasing decisions. By optimizing your campaign for sales, you’re aligning with this mindset, allowing Facebook to target those who are most likely to convert.Improves cost-efficiency:
When your campaign is optimized for sales, you lower your customer acquisition cost (CAC) because Facebook’s algorithm finds the users who are more likely to purchase. This ensures you’re not wasting ad spend on users who may engage but aren’t ready to buy.Capitalizes on high shopping intent:
Black Friday is one of the biggest shopping events of the year, where customers are actively looking to spend. By optimizing for sales, you can capture this heightened shopping intent and turn interest into actual transactions.Drives immediate revenue:
The short window of Black Friday means you need to focus on immediate results. Optimizing for sales puts your campaign in a better position to deliver quick conversions, driving revenue during this critical period.
So, optimizing for sales helps you capture purchase-ready customers, maximize your ad spend efficiency, and ultimately increase your revenue during the Black Friday rush.
How many ads per ad set should I have?
With only one ad in each ad set, Facebook’s algorithm can focus on optimizing and delivering that ad to your target audience without splitting impressions among multiple ads. This ensures the most efficient use of your budget, as the algorithm isn’t spread thin trying to determine which ad performs best.
Running a single ad per ad set makes it easier to analyze performance and make adjustments. You can clearly see how that one ad is performing without the added complexity of comparing several ads within the same ad set.
This allows for quicker decision-making when scaling or adjusting campaigns.
How to optimize the campaign budget?
Choosing ad set budget optimization (ABO) gives you more control over how your budget is spent across different audience segments.
Unlike Advantage+ Budget optimization, where Facebook automatically distributes the budget across all ad sets based on performance, with ABO, you manually allocate budgets to each ad set. This gives you the power to decide how much to invest in each specific target audience.
Regarding the budget split, a 50-50 budget split between prospecting and retargeting ad sets is a great starting point for BFCM campaigns.
Best way to monitor your BFCM campaigns
Examples of Black Friday Facebook ads
Now that we know how to set up your Black Friday Facebook ads, it’s time to discuss how they should look. The focus needs to be on the deals and savings you’re offering your customers; you want to present them with the best offer possible.
When planning your Black Friday campaigns, concentrate on the following key messages to resonate with your audience and drive conversions:
- Exclusive deals and discounts
- Scarcity and urgency
- High demand products
- Value proposition
- Easy shopping experience
- Customer testimonials and reviews
Exclusive deals and discounts
Emphasize the limited-time offers, exclusive discounts, and special promotions available only during the Black Friday period.
Highlight how these deals represent significant savings compared to regular prices.
Scarcity and urgency
Create a sense of urgency by communicating that stock is limited or that the sale is for a limited time only.
Phrases like “while supplies last” or “limited time offer” can motivate customers to act quickly to avoid missing out.
High demand products
Showcase your best-selling or most popular products, especially those that align with Black Friday shopping trends.
Highlighting what others are buying can create social proof and influence purchasing decisions.
Value proposition
Clearly communicate the unique value your products offer.
Whether it’s quality, functionality, or convenience, ensure customers understand why they should choose your brand over competitors.
Easy shopping experience
Reassure customers about a seamless shopping experience.
Highlight user-friendly features such as fast shipping, easy returns, and secure payment options to reduce barriers to purchase.
Customer testimonials and reviews
Use customer testimonials or positive reviews to build trust and credibility.
Sharing real experiences can help potential buyers feel more confident in their purchase decisions.
Sharing customer reviews performs better in retargeting campaigns than in prospecting.
By centering your campaigns around these messages, you can effectively engage your audience, drive traffic, and ultimately increase sales during the Black Friday shopping period.
Summing Up
In summary, Black Friday is a time when advertising costs are at their highest, but it’s also an opportunity to achieve lower customer acquisition costs (CAC) and higher revenue if your campaigns are optimized effectively.
By focusing on exclusive deals, utilizing smart targeting strategies, and monitoring performance, you can maximize your returns during this crucial shopping period.
