A version of this article was originally published in November 2021, and we’ve updated it with additional advice for advertisers leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2022.
It’s that time of year again—Black Friday and Cyber Monday are just around the corner. To help you ready your Amazon advertising for the big week ahead, we’ve prepared the following tips and tricks to get the most out of your campaigns.
Avoid running out of budget on top-performing campaigns
Our data shows that over 30% of sales happen after 7 pm on Black Friday. The general increase in traffic and competition on this day can cause your budgets to expire earlier than usual. So where it makes sense, try to raise budgets by at least 1.5–2x going into Black Friday.
Expect increased conversion rates and CPCs
Conversion rates historically increase during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, particularly if you have a discount on your products. Your competitors are aware of this, and you’ll likely see increased competition on core keywords and product targets, leading to higher CPCs. Make sure to raise bids on your critical, high-performing keywords and targets by 1.5–2x for those days, and keep an eye on performance. (Also, following these sales events, be sure to review and recycle seasonal keywords.)
Protect your brand
Bid higher on your brand terms to make it difficult for your competitors to steal your customers away, especially with the Sponsored Brands, top-of-search placement. If you need help keeping track of who is out-bidding you, tools like Share of Voice in Intentwise Analytics track hourly search-results data and can help automate bidding for your brand terms.
Check for ASIN gaps and issues
Do a quick ASIN gap analysis. Ensure that all the ASINs you want to advertise for are, in fact, in-stock and eligible for advertising. The larger your catalog, the more likely it is that ASINs could be missing or ineligible and need to be fixed before they can be advertised.
Ensure targeting parity across campaign types
Ensure that all targets (keywords, products) working in one campaign type are also in play in the others. All high-performing keywords in your Sponsored Products campaigns should also be added to Sponsored Brands campaigns, and ASINs that have converted in auto campaigns should be added as Product Targets with Sponsored Products and Sponsored Display.
Check your inventory levels
Don’t advertise on ASINs that are at risk of being out of stock. Note that while Sponsored Products and Sponsored Display campaigns are inventory-aware, you could still be spending advertising money on products that have “In Stock Soon” messaging, which can hurt your conversion rate.
Don’t forget to retarget
Black Friday and Cyber Monday can drive large increases in traffic to your products. While conversion rates are higher on those days, many shoppers don’t make a purchase during those days. Prepare Sponsored Display or DSP retargeting campaigns ahead of time, so that you can continue marketing to customers that viewed, but didn’t buy, your products on Black Friday or Cyber Monday.
