It’s that time of year — Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and so Black Friday/Cyber Monday are close behind. This can only mean one thing: massive spending. Shoppers have been increasing over the past few years (pandemic not included), and Black Friday 2023 saw 76.2 million in-store shoppers in the US — up from 72.9 million the year before. In fact, Black Friday was the most popular shopping day of 2023.
And it’s not just the stores that shoppers are headed to. It’s been found that 64% of customers intend to shop online during this holiday season, with 36% of shoppers looking to social media for the hottest deals.
If you want to capitalize on the number of shoppers searching for a bargain, you’ll need to ensure your advertising strategy is bulletproof. Here’s your guide to creating Black Friday ads to make sure your campaigns hit home.
Create A Blended Shopping Journey
Today’s consumers are all about research. They’re slow to purchase and quick to compare products to get the biggest bang for their buck. You need to make sure you’re already part of their shopper journey before they hit “add to cart.” And how do you do that? By appearing in front of them through various ad formats.
A digital out-of-home (DOOH) strategy allows you to do just that. You’re able to target your audience through different touchpoints and channels every day, whether they’re commuting to work, riding an elevator, walking through the city, or scrolling on their phones. Appearing multiple times builds familiarity so, when they come to making a purchase, they’ll buy what they know.
Effective Black Friday ads should carefully target the right audience in specific phases of the buying journey: awareness, consideration, and decision. This is where programmatic ad experts can help. We can create a strategy that utilizes different ad content to target consumers at different stages, building a seamless path to purchasing during the Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend.
Increase In-Store Footfall
Geo-targeted DOOH ads can help you encourage shoppers to visit your store when they’re already out and about, increasing your footfall. Placing your ads strategically on digital billboards in the vicinity of your store, or having mobile ads pop up when potential customers are close by can sway last-minute shoppers to drop by and, hopefully, make a purchase.
Ads triggered by proximity can also be tweaked to increase urgency within shoppers. By creating ads that highlight specific, limited offers, and targeting them to appear in front of your target audience, you can create a fear of missing out, which can further be used to drive sales to your business.
Optimize For Mobile
Despite Black Friday being the most popular in-store shopping day, you shouldn’t neglect your websites or apps. Last year, US mobile retail shoppers spent $491.1 billion, an increase of 13.8% year-over-year. If a customer is in your store but you don’t have the physical item in stock — but it’s available on your website — you need to make the shopping experience as seamless as possible. This means fast loading times, an easy user navigational experience, and a smooth checkout process.
You should also think carefully about your mobile ads during this season. Push notifications can be enabled to remind customers of items in baskets, or even just to let customers know about deals in real-time. Creating a well-optimized and seamless mobile experience for your customers can encourage them to buy quickly, which they’ll likely be prepared for during Black Friday.
Extend Omnichannel Campaign Reach
By including a few additional elements to your ads, you can attract both new and existing customers to your brand. Incorporate the use of QR codes, hashtags, or short URLs to encourage online actions and boost engagement with the ads appearing in front of your customers.
This approach bridges the gap between the physical and digital space. For example, hashtags or branded URLs can drive social media buzz, encouraging shoppers to share their purchases or brand experience with their networks, and increasing your reach.
Or, you could have a QR code on your DOOH ads for users to scan and head straight to your Black Friday deals online. Get creative with your ads, and think about what your audience might engage with.
Advantages of DOOH Black Friday Ads
Digital out-of-home ads are perfect for Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaigns. And here’s why:
1. Dynamic creatives served on a variety of screens
DOOH gives you the opportunity to create and serve eye-catching ads across a huge variety of screen types. Whether it’s billboards, bus shelters or shopping mall kiosks, pushing your ads out as much as you can increases your audience reach.
2. Flexibility and timing
The beauty of programmatic ads is that you can set your DOOH ads to appear depending on the time of day, weather conditions, and other real-time factors. This ensures that your ads are relevant and reach the right people at the right time.
3. Retargeting magic
Programmatic DOOH advertising lets you track device IDs, so you’re able to follow up with customers who have already seen your ads at least once before. This retargeting tactic can help encourage them to make a purchase.
4. Real-time reporting
Real-time data analysis allows you to immediately spot what ads are working and which ones could use a little tweaking. This means you can quickly switch tactics, keeping your campaign performing at its best.
Start Your Black Friday Ads Campaign With Grapeseed Media
Creating and maintaining your programmatic DOOH Black Friday ads is crucial to enjoying success over the shopping weekend. And we can help you.
Partnering with Grapeseed Media gives you instant access to the programmatic universe. Our team is able to buy all ad types, on all devices, across 98% of all digital ad inventory. We’re a programmatic partner you can trust.
Get in touch with our team today if you’re ready to start launching your Black Friday ads.
