Starting with your Google ads campaigns is not enough for this Black Friday season. Instead, take advantage of performance max to ramp up your eCommerce game and drive your holiday sales.

Embracing your ads with Performance Max campaigns is the ultimate key to unlocking your brand’s potential in the Black Friday sale season. As 2024 is near the end, it is time to rethink your advertising strategy and guarantee that your eCommerce brand stands out in the bustling marketplace. Thus, your approach must be creative and effective with savvy shoppers searching for the best Black Friday deals. 

Performance Max is a game changer as it shifts into the automation and machine learning world, allowing advertisers to adjust search trends and track human behaviour changes. You reach your audience across multiple platforms, allowing you to showcase your offerings engagingly. 

In a way, Pmax is a strategy that can drive interest and conversions like never before.

This guide will walk you through the best strategies to maximise your Performance Max campaigns, ensuring you capture attention and boost sales during this critical shopping period. 

Continue reading to learn the best performance max strategies you can incorporate to make your Black Friday promotions truly shine!

Use Creatives, Both Images And Videos

In order to capture interest during the highly competitive Black Friday season, it is critical to incorporate both images and videos into your Performance Max campaigns. Pictures of excellent quality not only introduce your products but also encourage quality shopping. When creating promotional clips or videos, do not make them very long. Instead, make them exciting and interesting and talk only about the essential parts of the special deals.

– Pictures 

Regarding Black Friday deals, the importance of using high-resolution images cannot be underestimated as they help stand out in crowded online spaces. 

Consider using clear, well-lit photographs of your top-selling line or any unique products or services that are currently running. 

Make sure to incorporate several ad image shapes and sizes so your ad blends comfortably within multiple advertising platforms such as Google Search, Display and Shopping ads. Emphasise the key elements in the images, like price drops, promotional offers, or unique product details, to enhance the offer’s appeal. 

Also, consistent branding—adding elements like a logo or colours associated with the brand—helps strengthen brand recognition, increasing viewers to remember the offer and return.

– Videos

If utilised effectively, videos can become the X factor of Performance Max campaigns during the Black Friday season. This means using rich media content and telling a story in a few seconds. 

For best results, limit the length of the videos to about 15 seconds and concentrate on the Black Friday sale, product features, or a DIY of how to use the product. 

For instance, start with a compelling opening that quickly conveys the benefit of your offer. If there is a need to use spoken word in the video, subtitles or on-screen text can be provided as an alternative. 

Finally, ensure you incorporate mobile and web-based video formats in your campaign, promoting your offer on ad platforms to target the desired audience.

Audience signals

Using Performance Max campaigns has the advantage of tracking audience signals so that the algorithms can reach the right audience faster, even in high user intent periods like Black Friday. 

Evaluate the previous campaigns and look for audiences with characteristics similar to your brand or products offered, for example, ‘custom intent’ or ‘customer match’. By providing such signals, you focus the algorithm on potential buyers, increasing the relevancy of your ads that are served to get conversions. 

Additionally, seasonal messaging like “limited stock” or “only available for Black Friday”, etc., is a powerful way to make the most of the high-traffic Black Friday season and reach those primed to buy.

Create Asset groups

In PMax campaigns, Asset Groups refer to combinations of images, videos, headlines, and descriptions designed for specific groups of people. When it is Black Friday, you need to ensure that you have asset groups with images and text promoting seasonal offers like “Black Friday Special” or “Limited Offers.” 

Always create separate asset groups for different product categories or target audiences. This will encourage Google to deliver the relevant ad to the right audience. 

For example, you can use this approach: 

• Create a new asset group for only promotional items. 
• Add new promo and creative extensions. 

Keep in mind that if you are opting to create a new asset group, do it within the same campaign. This way, you can benefit from the historical performance data of your products.

Like, if an asset group for best-sellers is created, another can be made for holiday-specific products. This division works to improve the effectiveness of your campaign because the right offer matches the right audience, minimising wastage and increasing engagement and conversions during the high activities accompanying best Black Friday deals.

Remember, refrain from creating new performance max campaigns for BFCM, as it will take a long time to ramp up, leading to capturing the in-line opportunities. 

Optimise Your Data Feed

Although the data feed remains crucial throughout the year, its essentiality increases during the Black Friday deals. This is because Performance Max and Google Shopping do not allow advertisers to target using keywords. Their machine learning system uses product information to gain an understanding of what search queries must show appropriate ads. 

In other words, it is integral to Performance Max since it provides all the necessary product information, such as price, description, discounts and availability.

Optimise your data feed in time for Black Friday and enhance it by incorporating any special offers, promotional prices, or ‘limited stock’ messages to instil a sense of urgency.

Maintaining product titles and descriptions relevant to Black Friday benefits Google’s understanding of which products should be promoted the most. Double-check all pricing and availability are correct and up to date, especially the products with Black Friday that have marked-down prices. 

A well-prepared structured data feed makes it possible for your ads to provide the correct product information without much delay, prompting the audience to make purchasing decisions faster during the sale.

Adjust Bids And Budget

It is advisable not to make any drastic changes that will shock the ad setup. Adjusting your bids and budget is key to maximising reach on Black Friday. Consider raising your budget incrementally. A target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) or maximise conversions bidding strategy can work well for Black Friday deals. 

It helps you to capitalise on the increased buying intent.

If some products have more popularity or have better margins, allocate more of the budget to these categories. 

Monitor your campaigns closely throughout the sale period and make quick adjustments as needed to keep up with shifting demand. Ensuring your bids and budget is crucial for Black Friday. 

It potentially has the ability to make a notable difference in reaching your sales goals during this shopping season.

Smart Style Shopping

When using Performance Max, you can run campaigns without any assets (images or videos) and solely on your product data feed. This strategy compels the system to operate in a smart shopping manner while giving access to more placements.

It is a highly effective strategy that focuses on high-intent traffic, and it can expand by simply allowing Google’s machine learning to optimise the campaign on a real-time basis using the feed provided. 

So, if you have a low budget yet need to capture the attention of a broader audience segment, set up an asset-free Pmax campaign that requires minimal data and improves the reach and efficiency of the campaigns. 

The key elements here are: 

• Automated Ad Placement: Google’s algorithm places your ads in the most effective spots across Search, Display, and YouTube, among others, targeting customers actively looking for Black Friday deals.

• Enhanced Targeting And Reach: Smart Style Shopping identifies users interested in specific product styles, which is especially useful when running short-lived Black Friday promotions.

• Creative Adaptability: Allows for quick adjustments in creative elements based on customer interactions, so your ads remain relevant as preferences shift during the Black Friday sale season.

Product Feed Optimisation

It is essential to focus on optimising the product feed for the Black Friday sale as it goes a long way in attracting the attention of customers who are ready to search for any offers. 

To begin with, improvise the product listings with correct titles, descriptions, and, most importantly, appealing photographs that explicitly show Black Friday deals. Also, adjusting the size, colour, and brand features helps your consumers understand the products. 

Therefore, as a result, your ads become more appealing and relevant to the target audience.

Also, make sure to use merchant promos! These come in handy to promote discounts or special offers and are very important for every deal seeker on Black Friday. But, to avoid any concerns and draw time for troubleshooting, ensure that the offers are uploaded prior to at least three days. 

In addition, go forth with a hygiene check before the sale starts to fix any issue in the product feed, and customers get to see the products optimised for this sale season. 

This increases the campaign’s visibility and contributes to helping you get more sales during the Black Friday sales.

Use Promotional Ad Copies

Having excellent promotional copies is the ultimate chance to grab the attention of your potential buyers. 

In a word, it is your hook and helps develop the sense of urgency that Black Friday shoppers are looking for. 

Make the best out of your copy by presenting the discounts and special offers immediately using phrases such as “Black Friday Sale – Up to 50% Off” to let them know how good the offer is. You can also articulate the urgency of the offer by including phrases like “For a Limited Time Only” or “Hurry Up,” which are bound to make the customers make a purchase. 

Considering the fact that people are mostly glued to phone screens, it is vital to keep your texts mobile responsive as well. 

Properly formulated and well-designed promotional text will allow you to make a convincing appeal to the audience for the best Black Friday sale, leading to higher click-through and conversion rates.

Bottom Line

Black Friday sales are around the corner, and customer behaviour is truly becoming unpredictable. For advertisers and retailers who are still lagging, now is the time to switch to automation with Google’s performance max campaigns. 

Along with other ad types, leveraging such human and machine learning enables you to reach the target audience precisely, driving better campaign performance and maximising ROI. 

If you are facing challenges or are not entirely confident about setting up Performance Max campaigns, we are here to guide you through every step. Learn from our experts in Oxedent how we can make the most of your advertising investment, resulting in improved ROAS in weeks. Schedule your call now! 

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What are the most effective sales strategies for Black Friday?

To maximise sales on Black Friday, the emphasis should be on Black Friday deals, which are hard to resist and have a more time-sensitive nature. Go for the right audience and use the most strong buying intent keywords. PMax campaigns are performance-oriented and target consumers in all of Google’s networks, which works best in improving visibility and increasing sales for your Black Friday promotions.

2. What can I do to better my PMax campaign performance?

When it comes to your PMax campaign, one can always create signals around the audiences and assist with the automation that Google will use. In addition to this, it is key to pay attention to product titles and descriptions so that they are attractive to potential customers. Also, look out for the campaign reports to know what is performing well and update your ads regularly with fresh content, especially for Black Friday deals, to keep them relevant and eye-catching.

3. How to succeed in Black Friday?

It all starts with good preparation. Have objectives in place, engage in the best Black Friday deals, and prepare your advertisements early. In PMax campaigns, you can also utilise and cover multiple ad spaces from Search to YouTube to reach out to your audience all over the internet. Ensure that products are available and that you are ready to modify your plan during the sale.

4. What sells the most during Black Friday?

During Black Friday, the most popular items are electronics, fashion, beauty products, and home essentials. Items with big Black Friday deals and high perceived value, like gadgets and home tech, usually perform best. Knowing what appeals most to your customers will help you focus your deals effectively.

5. How to create a deal for Black Friday?

Creating a Black Friday deal is about offering discounts or exclusive offers for a limited time. Choose bestsellers or trending items, and think about adding extras like free delivery or small gifts with purchases. Make sure your Black Friday deals are easy to find and highlighted across your marketing channels.

6. How long do Black Friday sales last?

Typically, Black Friday sales last one day, but many retailers now extend them through the weekend and into Cyber Monday, creating a longer “Cyber Week.” Plan your Black Friday deals and campaigns accordingly to maximise reach and sales during this period.

7. Does Black Friday boost sales?

Yes, Black Friday boosts sales by attracting customers looking for great deals. With the right Black Friday deals and effective marketing, you can drive a lot of traffic and boost revenue over this shopping season.

8. Is PMax more expensive?

PMax can sometimes cost more per sale than traditional campaigns because it covers more ad spaces with automated bidding. However, it can also provide a strong return on investment, especially when you’re promoting Black Friday deals, as it can drive more conversions and reach a wider audience across Google’s platforms.

9. How can I increase sales per day?

Increasing daily sales comes down to optimising your ads, promoting limited-time offers, and encouraging customers to add more to their cart with related products. PMax campaigns let you capture intent signals across Google’s networks, ensuring your Black Friday deals reach the right people at the right time.

10. Does Black Friday boost sales?

Yes, Black Friday boosts sales by attracting customers looking for great deals. With the right Black Friday deals and effective marketing, you can drive a lot of traffic and boost revenue over this shopping season.