Greetings Readers! Here is a full review of the PPCChat session this week, which focused on Ecommerce for this holiday season. Duane Brown led the discussion this week.
Q1. What are you seeing out there for Black Friday? What is the good, bad and ugly? Any brands launching sales already?
Nothing. I’ve no clients who are doing BF stuff! @stevegibsonppc
I’m seeing a lot out here. It hasn’t been a ‘day’ for quite some time. we’ve been seeing and running weeks-long Holiday ads, with a BF Sale coming soon in a few campaigns. @JuliaVyse
I feel like having Amazon Prime days in October was like Bezos saying “I’ll beat all those Black Friday folks to the punch” and it’s been sales/deals ever since. @robert_brady
I have some higher aov clients and this quarter has been pretty rough so far. We are hoping for a good black Friday but are front loading spend a bit to try to strike before others get super aggressive (has a longer buying cycle too. @selley2134
Not as many early ads this year as I have seen in previous years. Like significantly – I don’t think I have seen any. Is it a UK thing? Have I just not been paying attention? My clients – not on it yet. @TheMarketingAnu
As a consumer, I’m already seeing a ton of BF deals & promos. Haven’t really seen any ads or companies that stand out yet though; just the usual discount messaging with product images. Would love to see some more creativity the closer we get to the main sales days. @adclarke10
As a non-ecommerce marketer, we don’t really have any clients with BF/holiday promos. For those companies, we’re a little more focused on 2023 planning right now. @adclarke10
Been seeing a few BFCM sales already. One brand @cutsclothing has been running ads none stop. I get an IG ad every other day. I’m waiting for the big brands to start doing something. Was in the USA yesterday and even @Google store has a BFCM email sign-up for deals. @duanebrown
I’ve seen a lot of really strong loyalty messages around BF/Holiday, more than straight-up ads. The Sephora and Starbucks notifications about using points are a treasure trove of great sales/holiday messaging. @JuliaVyse
What a question! One big one for me is people hamming up ordinary savings e.g FREE DELIVERY when that’s just the norm. @PPC_Fraser
Q2. What are you doing for BFCM? Doing anything outside of your standard playbook? How are you trying to standout?
We have a few different strategies depending on the client. but overall for us clients have cut budgets compared to last year so we are trying to strike a bit earlier before CPCs get too high. Trying to get users to buy before BF can be tough though. @selley2134
Since we don’t have any clients running BFCM deals, I’m spending more time on 2023 planning. Especially with recent CPM & CPC inflation, a main focus has been refining underperformers, as well as finding/testing low-hanging expansion opportunities. @adclarke10
I’m curious if the group has a preference on creating PMax promotional BFCM content as new assets within existing asset groups, or creating entire new asset groups for PMax promotions? We see the pros/cons of both options. @PPCKirk
We’re doing a little bit of the anti-bf rhetoric this year. For one client in particular it’s really important to make it clear that they’re against the whole ‘fast, discount, mega savings’ type thing. @PPC_Fraser
Q3. Based on the last 10 months, have you readjusted what you expected to see in Q4 2022? Did you start the year with higher hopes after gangbuster Q4 2021. How your are bosses taking this year so far?
Yeah, it’s a pretty harsh forecast revision for this quarter. We’re mostly looking at media costs, partner support, and recession. Discounts might need to be deeper to account for customer spending ability, and partners might not have as much support staff as usual. @JuliaVyse
I did expect a turnaround, but I did not expect a big drop like what we experienced. A lot of our clients are decreasing the marketing budget to lower costs. @AlfredSimon
Q4. Seen any interesting news, data, or articles that talk about what Q4 2022 or 2023 will be like?
Not Black Friday per say. Seeing more news around the resales market: blog.edited.com/blog/resale-ma… @duanebrown
Yes, lots. none of it seems particularly solid, unfortunately. Costs are going up, that we can count on. @JuliaVyse
Also, this piece is very Black Friday-related. People will spend less overall and on a few brands. Why should they pick your brand? @duanebrown
PPCChat Participants
- Duane Brown @duanebrown
- Julia Vyse @JuliaVyse
- Steve Gibson @stevegibsonppc
- Robert Brady @robert_brady
- Shaun Elley @selley2134
- Anu Adegbola aka PPC Live UK @TheMarketingAnu
- Ashton Clarke @adclarke10
- Fraser Andrew @PPC_Fraser
- Kirk Williams @PPCKirk
- Alfred Simon @AlfredSimon
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