Black Friday was a huge success for our client in 2019, so how could we top that performance in 2020? This case study compares the data, strategies and results of Black Friday 2019 with Black Friday 2020 and showcases that, with the right strategies in place, Black Friday performance can grow each year.

Liz and Steve were initially reluctant to run a Black Friday Sales Promotion as they believed it might damage their existing sales, cheapen their brand and lead to reduced margins.

Seeing the potential with other clients promotions and the level of sales they were achieving, Zelst pushed our Health and Beauty client to reconsider and suggested a strategy which would appeal to a whole new market, whilst building loyalty with their existing customer base and growing sales and profits

Learn how we implemented an integrated digital marketing campaign to achieve a dramatic increase in sales over a very short period, without affecting normal sales volumes.

Thinking of running your own Black Friday PPC campaigns? The Zelst team have put together a kick-ass guide to Black Friday to help you make the most out of Google Ads during the 2021 Black Friday event.

Liz and Steve have an ecommerce business in the Health & Beauty Sector, which they have built from scratch to become a leader in their field. We briefed the couple on the potential for Black Friday sales in the heat of summer, having pitched the idea the previous year.

Liz and Steve were a little reluctant to get involved as they did not see it as suitable for their market and also believed it may cannibalize normal sales. They also thought it may put undue pressure on the business to deliver a large volume of orders in a short space of time, which might otherwise be delivered more manageably over a longer period. After careful consideration, however, they decided to promote a Black Friday offer on just one brand over the 24 hours of Black Friday.

We have worked with Zelst for a number of years. Their willingness and ability to provide strategic direction for our ongoing campaigns make them valued partners . . . . and they are also, really nice people!

All of the Zelst team play an important part of our strategies, as they are all very competent and knowledgeable in their own area of expertise. Our main point of contacts are Peter and Sophie. Both are extremely diligent and completely trust their work ethic. All in all, a great team!

Health and Beauty
Managing Director

Black Friday 2020

Similar to the Black Friday promotions in 2019, the team only had a limited number of hours and a select number of products to promote. Our biddable media team created a range of bespoke Black Friday ads and also used a combination of extensions, callouts and promotion extensions to try and gain as much traction as possible.

The team also utilized the Google Merchant Centre feed by adding special prices to the specific products that were going to be discounted. Take a look at some of the shopping ads shown here to the right:

Facebook Advertising

We also suggested to Liz and Steve that this year they try and increase their online presence even further by focusing more of their marketing efforts on social media.

We developed a solid paid social campaign that would run alongside their organic social campaign to try and capture as many of their potential customers as possible. They decided to go for a simple single image ad targeting a lookalike audience that had been populated using their existing customer base and their website visitors.

The Black Friday ad reached over 13,742 on Facebook and Instagram and achieved a ROAS on ad spend of over 11.

Facebook/Paid Results:

• E-commerce Conversion Rate: 3.25%
• Transactions: 19
• Revenue: 2,373.73
• ROAS: 11.86

Black Friday 2019

The offer was promoted via their website, Organic Search by a dedicated Black Friday Offer page, via Google Ads, using a combination of Specific Advertising, Site Extensions, Callouts, targeted products and a Google Merchant Promotion in Google Shopping and through email marketing.

Because of the limited time period that the offer was to run, the promotion required careful planning and preparation, pre-approval of promotions with Google Ads, the use of time scheduling and a countdown mechanism to build excitement.

Black Friday 2020

It was the client’s best day ever!

• Revenue increased by 35.88% compared to Black Friday 2019
• Over 30% more conversions
• 4.49% Avg Order Value increase
• 1,329.95% Increase in Revenue compared to average daily sales

Black Friday 2019

Because the offer was so good, it opened a whole new market for the company, of buyers who may have previously bought a cheaper product, now able to buy a high-quality product for much the same price. In addition, the company’s loyal customers were given the offer first, further strengthening the strong brand relationship. Furthermore, because Liz and Steve had been able to plan the promotion some time in advance and focused on just one brand, they were able to negotiate exceptional terms, meaning not only record sales but record profits!