Opinion - Generation Media

Are you ready for Black Friday & Cyber Monday?

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are crucial periods for retailers, and Amazon is no exception. It is more important than ever for brands to ensure there is a robust e-commerce strategy ahead of these key dates. Generation Media’s Jon Chambers and Marco Mau select five top tips to help brands succeed.

• Preparation, preparation, preparation

Start preparation by creating a list of ASINs (Amazon Standard Identification Numbers) for the products you have submitted deals on. Following this, strategically allocate your investments to focus on the most attractive deals and your hero items. Next, consider supporting ongoing items such as product clearance items with a second tier of support at a lower budget proportion. Separating different budgets based on priority of stock levels and core focuses will help you ensure your budget is spent efficiently. By adopting this approach, our clients have seen on average a 20%+ increase in performance last year.

• Use the full suite of ad placements and point to your Brand Store page (if possible)

Maximise reach by utilising all available ad placements on Amazon. By spreading your ads across various placements, you can tap into a larger audience pool and increase your chances of exposure. Sponsored Brand and Sponsored Brand Video ads are particularly useful as they allow you to direct customers to your Brand Store page. Creating a dedicated Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal page on your Brand Store will enhance the shopping experience for visitors, leading to higher conversion rates and overall sales. It will also help your brand stand out in an extremely cluttered period. We can analyse your campaign's efficiency and recommend the best investment split for placements.

• Stay calm and avoid last-minute changes to your strategy

Once your ad campaign is up and running, avoid making last-minute changes before the frenzy. Any newly added keywords or modifications to your targeting settings may not generate enough data to determine their effectiveness. Additionally, during the busy period, system delays may hinder the smooth delivery of impressions and traffic for your last-minute campaigns. Stick to your strategy and focus on optimising your well-performing keywords for better results. Investments should of course be increased and monitored closely.

• Focus, focus, focus

A focused and well-curated list of top-performing keywords will help you concentrate your investments on the highest-converting ones. This approach is especially beneficial for advertisers with limited investment, as it allows them to compete effectively against competitors with more substantial ad spend. Monitor your campaign performance daily and make necessary bid adjustments based on your reporting console. Remember, even if sales are not instant, awareness is building.

• Ensure your budget can handle the increased traffic

Black Friday and Cyber Monday bring a surge of traffic to Amazon, leading to higher ‘cost per click’ (CPC) and quicker budget depletion. To avoid running out of budget prematurely, regularly review and increase your budgets. Keep in mind that real-time reporting might have delays, so set a higher daily budget or implement budget rules to keep your campaigns alive and kicking. At Generation Media, we use Optimise Convert, a cutting-edge advertising AI solution from our Optimus AI suite of tools, to monitor your CPC and budget, to achieve the most clicks within your desired budget.

Despite AI's emergence, manual execution remains vital. However, the market trend increasingly relies on AI solutions for auto-adjustment, insights and immediate decision-making. Our solution operates across various biddable media platforms to make smarter predictive decisions that will enhance campaign performance.

By following these five top tips, you can significantly increase the effectiveness of your investments, to make the most out of this lucrative shopping period. For more information, or to organise a health-check on your brands current e-commerce performance, feel free to get in touch with the Generation Media team.