6 Ways to Prepare Your Digital Ads for Black Friday

It’s the craze of Black Friday, and all through the house,
Every creature is stirring, even the [computer] mouse.
Websites frantically refresh, multiple windows on screen,
In the hopes that no holiday deal goes tragically unseen. 

Consumers go bonkers over Black Friday and Cyber Monday. What used to be considered a nonautomotive retail holiday, Black Friday continues to attract millions of eyeballs online and create the potential for high sales volume for automotive. 

Do you have a plan in place to ensure your dealership reaps the benefits of this traffic spike? The key is a balanced strategy, across multiple channels, and for the whole month of November, not just the one day. Here’s where to start:

Paid Search campaigns use the interest already available in your market area.

1. Update your paid search ad copy at the beginning of the month to support the promotions, sales, and events that you have running or are planning to run. Customers research and plan their purchases well ahead of time, so update these in the beginning of the month.

2. Check your inventory. Make sure your campaigns are helping you move the models most valuable to you. Is your OEM offering a bonus for a certain line? Do you need to get 2016 models off the lot before the 2017s roll-in? Optimize your paid search campaigns to help achieve these and other goals.

Display campaigns generate interest in your brand and inventory by building awareness of your promotions, sales, and events.

3. Update your display ad copy at the beginning of the month to support the promotions, sales, and events that you have running or are planning to run.

4. Check your inventory. (You’re noticing a theme, aren’t you?) Just like with paid search, allow your display ads to push your most important models for the end of the year.

5. Identify what networks your display provider accesses. The more diverse an array of networks/exchanges/portfolios it partners with, the more eyeballs in front of your brand and inventory. Don’t be afraid to ask.

Retargeting capitalizes on the online traffic your paid search and display campaigns generated by repeatedly following up with those shoppers.

6. Make your retargeting budget proportional to your monthly unique visitor count. You’re doing all this work to bring traffic to your site, why wouldn’t you want to follow up?

Black Friday, and the month of retail fervor it ushers in, will be here before we know it. Get ready by reviewing your plan for November, setting up a meeting with your advertising manager/provider, and maybe writing a little poem to get jazzed about it. The key is to get organized and strategize so you can make Black Friday work for you, and not the other way around. Otherwise, it’s a whole lot of craziness with no benefit.