The countdown to the most awaited time of the year for businesses has begun! Black Friday 2022 will happen on November 25th, and this year it will be more intense than ever.
On the one hand, with so many of us shopping online to keep each other safe, ecommerce businesses are thriving. IBM has found that the pandemic has accelerated the shift to ecommerce by five years! But there’s a downside to this change, too.
With ecommerce getting more and more saturated, you need to work even harder to stand out from your competitors. This is especially true when it comes to scaling Facebook ads.
But don’t panic just yet - we’re here to give you a helping hand! Or a helping blog post. Running a successful business based on Facebook ad automation, we have a few things to say on the topic.
Keep on reading, and you’ll learn how to run Facebook ads for your Shopify store. Outsmart your competitors during this year’s Black Friday!
1. Start early & use your precious ad money wisely
Starting ahead of time may sound a little obvious, and yet so many online store owners start planning their Black Friday campaigns too little too late. Don’t be like them, have a marketing strategy!
For one thing, if you leave planning your Facebook ad campaign for the last minute, you’ll end up feeling like you do when you postpone holiday shopping until Christmas Eve. For another, you’ll spend too much money on something that in the end will prove to be useless, and you’ll definitely won’t have a good time either.
Be smart. Be prepared. Make another spreadsheet.
How much does a Facebook ad cost in 2021?
In short, it depends. You can run ads on Facebook on any budget you like. You can spend as little as $1 per day, but that will probably not bring you much traffic or sales. A better question to ask would be: ‘How much does a click from Facebook ad cost?’. Well, it also depends, but at least we have some numbers to give you a clearer picture!
Below you can check Facebook advertising benchmarks across different industries.
According to Wordstream, the average CPC (cost per click) in Facebook ads across all industries is $1.72. That may seem quite a lot but bear in mind that it’s just an average based on costs that can vary quite a bit depending on your industry.
For example, if you’re selling apparel, your average CPC drops to as little as $0.45. However, if you’re in finance & insurance, you may have to spend $3.77 on a single click. Then again, if that click brings you a client worth $500 per month, it’s not that big of a deal.
The key thing to understand about how much Facebook may charge you for a click (or conversion) is to keep in mind that Facebook ads work on an auction. Facebook needs to control the number of ads shown to its users not to get them frustrated. That’s why you have to bid against other advertisers for ad space. Naturally, the more advertisers bid to reach your potential buyers, the more expensive it gets to reach your customers.
Enter Black Friday.
Bidding gets more expensive during the holiday season advertising
The thing about Black Friday and other major shopping sprees during the upcoming holiday sales is that bidding gets quite expensive. With the increased number of advertisers trying to reach their potential shoppers with holiday ads on Facebook and Instagram, paid traffic becomes more competitive.
As a result, getting your target audience to engage with your ads becomes more expensive. Poorly thought-out ad campaigns never really pay off, but during Black Friday, not having a marketing strategy will hurt your wallet even more.
What’s the workaround?
Launch your Facebook ads early to grow remarketing audiences
Now, we don’t say that you shouldn’t run your Facebook ads during Black Friday – of course, you should! The key to success is to set some money aside for warming up your potential customers before the actual holiday shopping craziness begins.
For one thing, the bidding before Black Friday will be less expensive, and you’ll save some of your ad money while getting in front of your target audience at the same time. For another, you’ll be able to grow your audiences for your remarketing campaigns, which you’ll later launch on the actual Black Friday.
What’s a better audience to convert than a warmed-up audience? Just give them the final push on Black Friday and watch your ROAS (return on ad spend) go up.
2. Don’t forget Cyber Monday!
You might have seen the term BFCM quite a lot if you googled “Facebook Black Friday 2021”. It stands for Black Friday Cyber Monday. Cyber Monday happens after the Black Friday weekend and was originally invented by retailers to encourage people to shop online.
We don’t need to be encouraged anymore, especially during the pandemic. Yet, the tradition to go on a shopping spree during Cyber Monday still stands. So, make sure not only to launch your Black Friday campaign early but also extend it to Cyber Monday. This way, you will give your customers the full BFCM experience.
What a better way to start a workweek after Thanksgiving than looking for holiday sales during extended coffee breaks? Don’t forget that people tend to leave their Christmas shopping for BFCM to get better offers for the presents they’re after. Create your Facebook holiday marketing strategy with it in mind to scale your Shopify store.
3. Up your targeting game
To succeed with your BFCM campaign on Facebook, you need to get in front of people who are most likely to find your ads relevant.
Invest in lookalike audiences
Lookalike audiences are loved among Facebook advertising specialists for a good reason. In short, they can help you reach new customers who are very similar to your existing ones. This, in turn, means you’ll be able to connect with people who are likely to be interested in your offers. Isn’t it the whole point of running ads? If you’re not familiar with lookalike audiences, you can learn more about them in this article on Facebook advertising for beginners.
Take the opportunity to recover abandoned carts
Best BFCM offers are usually the ones that are simple and appealing. What’s more appealing than a generous discount on an item you were thinking of buying but changed your mind at the last minute? Take advantage of this opportunity to recover those abandoned carts that give every online store owner nightmares!
4. Create a unified strategy for Facebook and Google ads
‘Which is better: Facebook ads or Google ads?’
It’s one of the most common questions business owners ask when evaluating where to spend their ad dollars.
The truth is, you should be asking a different question to begin with: ‘How can I make the most of my Facebook and Google ads?’
Both channels are great for generating traffic and sales for online stores.
- Google ads are great for targeting people who are actively searching for things to buy.
- Facebook ads offer sophisticated ways to target your potential buyers. So, even though people are not using Facebook to find things to buy, you’re totally in control over who sees your product ads.
The key is not to put Facebook ads against Google ads, but to find out how they can benefit each other in your advertising strategy.
Pitch with Facebook ads, close on Google
Facebook ads are a great way to reach cold audiences. For instance, you can increase your brand awareness using advanced targeting options. They let you show your products to people who may not know you exist but are likely to be interested in your offer.
Now, even if your Facebook ad campaign is flawless like Beyonce, it still doesn’t guarantee you a 100% CTR. That’s just not how life (and algorithms) works.
But here’s the beauty of digging a bit deeper.
Let’s say you keep on seeing ads from a brand on Facebook. Say you have doubts about how legit this online shop is. What do you do? That’s right, you google it.
Your task as an advertiser is to make sure that when your potential customers turn to Google to check you out, you’re there for them.
Here’s what to do to boost your Black Friday ecommerce sales:
- Use your brand name in your Google ads to make sure you’re found.
- Keep your ad messaging consistent across Facebook and Google ad campaigns. You’ll be recognized quicker.
- Got something to brag about? Established longer than two months? Trusted by over 1000 clients? Slip it in your ads to build trust.
PRO TIP: Use main phrases from your Facebook ads’ headlines as keywords in search campaigns.
Suppose you have a very memorizable value proposition in your Facebook ads. In that case, your target audience will likely remember it better than your store’s name. And if you plant a great offer in their heads, your potential customers may google it, too. Your task here is to make sure your brand pops up on Google with the promise of delivering that offer.
5. Make no major ad edits on BFCM
Try not to make essential edits to your Facebook ads during Black Friday Cyber Monday.
Once you edit something like targeting or the creative (image or text), the Facebook algorithm starts over its learning phase about your ad.
- During the learning phase, Facebook is making adjustments to your ad’s delivery to make sure it’s seen by people who are the most likely to convert.
- The learning phase may need 50 conversions to be completed, and that can take a little while.
While this wouldn’t hurt your advertising strategy on a regular day, during BFCM, your time is limited. Don’t waste it!
To increase your chances of not meddling with your ads once they’re running, double-check them before their launch. See if your copy has no typos and if your photos don’t contain too much text (your ads may not be as successful otherwise).
6. Don’t slip on the basics
Sometimes we spend so much time crafting complex strategies that we tend to overlook the basics. Here are a few things to keep in mind when planning your BFCM Facebook ad campaign.
Adjust your Facebook ad account spending limit
If you’ve done your homework well, chances are you’ll spend much more on your ads than you usually do. Make sure your high-performing Black Friday Cyber Monday Facebook ads are not forced to stop because you reached your ad spend limit.
Stay within the character limit
It’s still quite common to see ads where the text is truncated. If your ad headline is too long, Facebook will cut it. Stay under 25 characters for your headline and under 30 characters for your link description, and you’ll be fine.
Evaluate your text/image ratio in your visuals
Even though Facebook is removing its ‘20% text in image’ rule for ads, it’s still recommended to reduce the amount of text within ad images. According to Facebook, photos with less than 20% text perform better.
Ok, that sounds like a lot of work… Are Facebook ads still worth it?
You’ve got to the end of this article – congratulations, you really got what it takes to win at Facebook advertising during BFCM! However, it’s also possible that you may be thinking – ‘This sounds like a lot of effort… are Facebook ads still worth it?’.
In short, yes, they are.
But if you want a longer answer, then take a look at your feed.
Organic reach on Facebook is dead
- Since 2018, Facebook users have started seeing less content from businesses and more from their family and friends.
- A report by Hootsuite from 2019 shows that brands can only reach around 5.5% of their followers. If you don’t have many followers, your chances of promoting your BFCM offers organically are pretty much nonexistent.
Contrary, our time spent on social media has increased, especially during the pandemic. With more than 2.7 billion monthly active users, Facebook remains the king of social media.
So, if you want to win big with your Black Friday campaign, you need to reach people where they hang out the most. Facebook happens to be such a place online.
Facebook ads can help you connect with your potential customers at the right time and in the right place. Go for it!
Black Friday Facebook ad examples to get you inspired
The best conclusion is the one which inspires. So, here are some nice BFCM ad examples to get your creative juices flowing!
- Target: an original way to build Black Friday anticipation
The ad stands out with its unusual messaging: what’s here? The visual is also sleek.
- Dollar Shave Club: clever use of humor in a holiday advertisement
If your online store’s tone allows it, use some humor! Who doesn’t like a reason to giggle when scrolling through their social media feed? Take advantage of it!
- JackThreads: play on numbers
If you’ve got a great BFCM offer, make it obvious and create a sense of urgency, just like JackThreads did (60% OFF, NOW).
Need more ideas for your visuals?
PRO TIP: You can also use social proof in your ad creatives to promote your Black Friday Cyber Monday deals.
Social proof in Facebook advertising usually means using customer testimonials, likes, and shares to give people the confidence to trust your brand. For example, you could take a screenshot of a positive review about your product and use it in your Facebook ad.
Want to learn a bit more about Facebook marketing strategy? Check out our blog post on how to use social proof on Facebook ads to attract more customers.
Off to your spreadsheets now!
P.S. If you feel like you need help with your scaling Facebook ads, check out our automation tool!
