Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become major selling weekends in the world of automotive retail. Dealerships have seen sales increase up to 122% over regular selling days on Black Friday alone.
The question becomes – are your digital marketing campaigns, website, social media calendar, digital retailing tools and CRM all ready for Black Friday this year?
Search Trends
Searches around Black Friday Car deals & Car Deals are expected to spike (last year in November 2020 alone, the interest captured had over 26 million searches across the USA).
Cost Per Click costs rise during November as more and more dealerships compete for the same keywords – so it is critical that you adjust your budget to mitigate the potential loss of motivated buyers looking for car deals every day this month. Of course, having an AI digital agency will help in keeping these cost per click costs a lot lower.
The Market
It is no surprise that automotive retailers would jump on the bandwagon as vehicle sales have spiked during Black Friday – over 122% over regular selling days – even in Canada.
In general, shoppers are out on the internet and ready to shop as you can see from some interesting observations from last year’s Black Friday*:
- Black Friday 2020 was the second biggest online shopping day in history
- Digital advertisers spent 2-3X the daily November average
- Ecommerce Channel Ads: Sales up 2.9X, average order value up 40%
*Black Friday, 2020 – Skai Digital
Now in 2021, Black Friday may be different. With inventory shortages abound, many dealers are wondering if incentives are even going to be offered, when vehicles are easily being sold above MSRP and profits higher than ever.
But that still won’t take away from creating a ‘presence’ on Black Friday – and by acknowledging and marketing your offers under a Black Friday/Cyber Monday offer, whether they are from the OEM, your own offer or just something that sets you apart like offering higher trade values, buyers will consider you first.
How To Get Prepared
If it’s early to mid November and you have a plan in place, you’re in a great position!
However, so many dealerships out there start taking wind of Black Friday by mid-November and start to string a plan together, but at that point, you’ve already lost the battle.
The reason why is that most consumers are shopping throughout November, and with remarketing lists, and machine-learning funnel targeting, the savvy dealerships that got out a plan early will be ahead.
Couple this with the fact that you should also be coordinating your website collateral and landing pages to match your SEM campaigns as well as making sure you have all the digital retailing tools to attract the savvy online Cyber Monday customers – it takes a couple weeks to get set it all in unified motion.
Here are some Black Friday preparedness tips to implement at your store to get the best out of Black Friday this year.
Search
Ensure to have ‘Black Friday” messaging on all your ad copy. This increases CTR as shoppers are looking for that buzz word to be in your advertising. Make sure you are using an automated marketing provider (like TRFFK) as getting any specific messaging on scale is easy. The AI will ensure that any Black Friday messaging will be placed on every single SRP Ad as well as any individual VDP Ad for all the vehicles you have in-stock, as well as on your relevant static campaigns.
Social
On social media, your creative is going to be just as important as well as your offering. In addition to adding relevant Black Friday messaging to your Facebook Dynamic inventory ads, create an offer that is tech-related or cash bonus related and make sure you use targeted audiences to capture the right buyer.
Video
The most important channel to be on during Black Friday is on YouTube. At TRFFK, we’re seeing the Mobile and Television segments of Device Views grow more and more. And there is no better value right now to get Black Friday exposure than on YouTube where TRFFK Cost Per Views hover in the $0.03 range.
Use skippable 30 second ads as your ad type – BUT – make sure you deliver your branding and Black Friday offer within the first 5 seconds, giving you 100% viewable messaging and more free impressions.
Website
There is no worse customer experience than clicking on great ads online and then landing on Home Pages, SRPs and VDPs, none of which have that great messaging (what’s even worse is if your staff are not aware of the campaign!)
Regardless of your digital marketing campaign strategy, it is imperative that the offer you put onto your digital ads is matched by the creative on your website. Remember to create sizes for both Desktop and Mobile.
So make sure that whatever Campaign creative you execute – that the matching artwork is on your website.
And considering that Cyber Monday is an online-only strategy, make your website is equipped with the latest technology tools as well, like digital retailing to provide the best user experience.
TRFFK Dealers
For TRFFK dealers, we have you covered. We’ve created 3 different channel and spend thresholds to accommodate the type of presence you want and will be presenting them through the next week to get plans in place. Your Online Strategy Consultant will be presenting the strategy mix that is most relevant to your inventory position and local market.
TRFFK is teaming up with Motoinsight for a Black Friday Digital Guide webinar Wednesday November 17 2021 AT 12:00pm EST.
Sign up Here
For more tips on Digital Marketing, Google My Business, Digital Retailing, CRM Management, or for a complimentary digital audit and strategy session from one of our TRFFK digital experts, email us below and we’ll be in touch!
Ivan Sandoval
Senior Marketing Manager, TRFFK by AutoTrader
ivan.sandoval@trffk.ca
This form is currently undergoing maintenance. Please try again later.
