As Q4 gains momentum, there’s still time to optimise your customer acquisition strategy ahead of Black Friday. With consumers eagerly searching for the best deals, the right mix of advertising strategies can make all the difference. Both Google Ads and Meta Ads have introduced new features that can significantly enhance your campaigns this Black Friday.
What’s New in Google Ads: Demand Gen Campaigns
Google's revamped Demand Gen campaigns (previously Discovery Ads) are a powerful tool for brands looking to maximise their reach this Black Friday. This campaign type spans five major placements: YouTube Shorts, in-stream ads, in-feed ads, Google Discover, and Gmail. It’s designed to ensure your brand is present wherever consumers are browsing, researching, and shopping.
Key Features:
Feed Integration: Use a shopping feed to display personalised product recommendations that resonate with your audience's preferences.
Video Assets: Leverage short, impactful videos to boost both brand awareness and conversions. Video content continues to dominate consumer engagement, especially on platforms like YouTube.
Advanced Audience Targeting: Utilise audience insights to reach the right people. Custom segments, lookalike audiences, and customer intent signals all play a role. Exclude recent buyers and your email list to keep messaging fresh for new prospects.
Pro Tip: Ensure your ad assets are aligned with the audience you're targeting. For example, if you're promoting bedding products, make sure your video, text, and images consistently reflect this, creating a seamless customer experience.
What’s New in Meta Ads for 2024
Meta Ads have also seen significant improvements this year, providing brands with enhanced tools to optimise their Black Friday ad spend. With updates to Advantage+ campaigns and an increased emphasis on automation, reaching shoppers ready to make a purchase has never been simpler.
Key Features:
Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns: These campaigns streamline audience targeting using automation to identify high-potential buyers based on signals from previous campaigns. This is perfect for Black Friday, where precision and rapid adaptation are key.
User-Generated Content (UGC): Incorporate UGC, such as customer reviews, unboxing videos, or influencer content, into your ads to increase authenticity and trustworthiness.
Dynamic Ads: If you run an eCommerce store, Dynamic Ads allow you to retarget users who have interacted with your site, such as those who have browsed product pages or added items to their cart but haven't yet made a purchase.
Key Considerations for Both Platforms
Audience Targeting
Effective audience segmentation remains essential whether you're using Google or Meta Ads.
For Google Ads, you can target using competitor terms, in-market audiences, and Google’s custom intent segments.
For Meta Ads, utilise data from your website visitors, email lists, and social media engagement to build high-converting audiences.
Compelling Visual Assets
Black Friday is a highly competitive, visual-heavy event. Your ads need to stand out. Ensure that your headlines are bold, your descriptions engaging, and your images or videos eye-catching. High-quality product photos, lifestyle visuals, and video content are crucial to capturing the attention of potential buyers on both platforms.
Exclusion Tactics
To avoid wasting your budget, it’s important to exclude recent purchasers or loyal customers who are already in your CRM from your acquisition campaigns. This will help ensure your message stays relevant and focused on attracting new customers, rather than retargeting those who have already converted.
Are You Ready for Black Friday?
With the stage set for one of the biggest shopping events of the year, the opportunities to boost your sales are endless. Whether you're leveraging Google’s Demand Gen campaigns or Meta’s Advantage+ campaigns, now is the time to refine your Black Friday strategy. By using these advanced tools, you can position your brand in front of the right audience at the right time and prepare for a surge in sales this Black Friday.
4M Digital is a paid media consultancy specialising in Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, and Paid Social campaigns. With over 13 years of expertise, we help businesses unlock the full potential of their digital advertising strategies through tailored management, audits, and training.
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