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Amazon PPC - Black Friday Strategies

Published on November 7, 2020

About this video

In this video, we share a couple of ideas for Amazon advertising before Black Friday. Some of the things we mention:

1) holiday-specific campaigns - using holiday-specific keywords such as "black Friday 2020 deals" to drive additional traffic to your product listing 2) product targeting to improve your product discoverability - using protective campaigns to target your own product and competitive campaigns to target competitor's products, depending on the size of your marketing budget 3) campaign budget strategies - increasing the budget a week before the big holiday 4) using discounts & coupons - how offering a competitive price will give you a competitive edge 5) external traffic - building backlinks from high authority websites for niche products, and advertising your discounts on discount websites such as slickdeals and other, for general products 6) Amazon Posts - making more frequent amazon posts to improve customer engagement to the brand 7) Amazon Live - capture the attention of customers through amazon lives, that are usually easier and much cheaper to set up than PPC videos 8) custom ad copy - how holiday-specific copywriting can help you improve click-through-rates on your ads

Feel free to share any other ideas for holiday-specific campaigns. For more actionable advice tailored specifically for your Amazon business, contact us at https://www.amazoniappc.com

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Transcript

hi guys this is elena from amazonia ppc and today i wanted to share a quick update with you regarding black friday cyber monday and the rest of the q4 as all of us are very deep into q4 already i'm sure that you are exploring a lot of ideas what you could do so i hope that you you can find a couple of these ideas useful um first thing that i wanted to share with you in terms of uh promotion for black friday cyber monday is to use holiday specific campaigns that being said um using keywords like black friday deals as you can see on my screen uh black friday deals with prime maybe 2020 a different combination of long tail keywords that are all around black friday cyber monday deals all of that are value shoppers who are looking for good offers so if you have a product that you're looking to just sell out and get rid of the inventory this might be a good way to funnel that kind of traffic that's ready to buy by buy you know and they're they're in market and they're doing the research so that's the kind of market share that you will capture this way um also if you are in a specific category like it's like you can see here on the drop down toys tv electronics tablets then you can discover what kind of search volume these uh specific long tail keywords that are holiday specific have you can check either through helium 10 or some other tools um you can check that and start using these keywords with high budgets and high bits that's one of the ideas that we are applying in one of the accounts that we manage that has specific budget set aside for some inventory that they want to get rid of because it's endangering their ipi score so that's one of the good ways i can get rid of it uh second thing that i wanted to discuss with you today is product targeting so make sure you're using some kind of product targeting whether that is defensive or aggressive type of product targeting defense it being bidding on your own products um you you have to be aware that this is a very specific time of the year where a lot of customers they're browsing for products online they're browsing for gifts that they want to buy for someone else they very often get lost in the different products that they're looking at see this see that see they see that and they get lost really easily um and lose their focus so using product targeting on your own listing helps them keep them focused on your own listing and ultimately in your own brand right so um that's what we the kind of effect that we're trying to achieve with with this kind of protective product targeting when it comes to competitive targeting or the aggressive side of product targeting is appearing on your competitors listings through product targeting um so what's your thing this way is to get some unusual placements especially if you're using sponsored display ad type um this type of ads does not have a very um common placement it's above the fold right below the search bar or below the buy box some unusual placements that drive attention away from competitors listings so if you are tight on budget protective product targeting is the way to go if you have a little bit more to spend this time of the year then make sure you use some kind of competitive targeting on the competitors listings that you know have a worse offer than what you do also one of the most common ppc practices we do this time of the year is to increase budgets around holidays not just um during the black friday cyber monday during that weekend but one week before and one week after because we want to make sure that we capture all those customers that are in the research phases not necessarily focusing on profitability of our campaigns but focusing on the reach and focusing on generating engagement and generating um i i think brand awareness would be the right word to say in this case simply because this who does this this is done mostly by brands that have some kind of customer loyalty attachment to their business model meaning for example if you sell specific type of shampoo for a specific type of hair that customers will buy over and over again if they're eligible for subscribe and save you'll recognize this type of product so if you do have this type of product where customer lifetime value is much much bigger than what your average one sale is then it makes sense to increase budget before and after these big dates um while you do this it's also very wise to use discounts and coupons as much as you can discount to wow them it would be a sacrifice in profit but generating um a loyal customer will be the long-term effect and of course organic rankings as well it's a no-brainer so uh with these uh discounts and coupons also would be very beneficial to use some kind of uh competitive pricing if you can afford it meaning discount your prices lower than what your competitors are doing if they're doing it then there's a chance that they're changing their ranks they're using these big days to change the organic ranks that sometimes stay permanent after these dates so something to keep in mind if you see them decreasing their price it might be time for you to to just like you know consider what would be the lowest one you are willing to give up on external traffic also one of the the things that we do for our clients is to create backlinks from authority websites or influencers from social media that drive the listing directly drive the traffic light directly to our custom clients listings and this is um one of the ways how you can help your listing long term this is not just something you you use on that's that's holiday specific it's something you do all the time and um the reason for this is that when you set up a backlink of an seo regular seo backlink coming from an authority website you help your listing get ranked because listings backlinks is something that amazon really loves their after all website that also gets their ranking on google so they really appreciate back things especially if they are from uh links from websites that have a higher uh domain authority so external traffic and in cases of holiday specific external traffic is something where if you already offer like a really big discount and this is something that you are already doing on amazon why not showcase it on slave deals or other websites that are very similar to this and then drive the the traffic to your amazon listing knowing that uh that they can expect a discount this is something this is a different way of doing backlinks not specifically we don't consider this to be you know high authority website like when you're doing in a niche like if you're selling ski equipment from some famous people who are in that world sending licks that's of course high quality but um slick deals will also do for this kind of specific holiday specific short term in short term promotion that's that's what i meant so think about that two ways of doing external traffic uh with creating backlinks also giving out more frequent amazon posts that are going to be holiday specific about black friday about your product about the discount that you're giving it's a free way to promote a discount if you already are doing it not specifically it's a ppc thing but it's it's more on the creative side but still helps it helps build consistency if they see your ad and then a minute after they see your amazon post and then they see another ad you're going to stick in their minds for a little longer and when they try to make decision uh which product to choose the likelihood of choosing your product is going to be bigger so amazon posts making them more frequent before the holiday and making it holiday specific especially if it has you know not in this case not so much with the black friday thing but for christmas for example has an emotional note to it make sure you utilize that in your copywriting also when it comes to copywriting i wanted to mention that we write custom ad copy for also holiday specific ad copy in all the ad formats that allow some kind of customization like sponsor print ads for example um make it funny try and make him laugh try to drive attention uh and uh you know beat the competition with copywriting there's a big huge power in it you only have like small space to write something but you can if you can if you can write something funny or interesting you will drive their attention you will earn that click so and in the end that's that's all that matters so using holiday specific ad copy is also something i would recommend and the last thing uh that i wanted to mention today uh is amazon live so it's much cheaper for you to do an amazon line in a very simple setup you know just talking about the product showcasing its benefits from home it doesn't even matter you will drive attention it will do exactly the same thing as amazon posts just a lot more effective so amazon post is something uh sorry amazon live is something i would definitely recommend for sellers to do for their products do it for throughout the whole weekend uh for all i'm concerned because um the thing is that you will drive a lot more attention it's something you don't really need to pay advertising clicks for it's organic and amazon loves organic and amazon loves uh creating a branded presence for sellers and also for for customers online so they will appreciate the effort and push your amazon like even further in the search results um that's the kind of thing i would recommend because doing ppc videos is expensive and i would not always recommend it for holiday specific campaigns unless we're working with really really big budgets and it doesn't does make sense to dedicate a specific creative to a specific holiday if you're a smaller brand looking for growth customer loyalty um then this is something this is the way to go amazon live definitely do it on everybody everybody's going to be doing it so if you don't do it you're definitely missing out um so as you can see all these um tips and ideas are shared and not tightly ppc related but they do affect the success of ppc campaigns they create this energetic effect that ends up in success so hopefully um you found some good ideas here and thank you for watching and let me know if you have any other ideas for us on the black friday or any other q4 holiday i'm happy to hear that thank you for watching and

Frequently asked questions

Should I create separate holiday-specific campaigns for Black Friday and Cyber Monday or adjust my existing ones?

Both approaches have value and serve different purposes. Adjusting existing campaigns by increasing budgets and bids captures more of the same traffic you are already converting. Creating separate holiday-specific campaigns allows you to target holiday intent keywords such as gift-oriented terms and deal-seeking search phrases that your standard campaigns are not covering. Running both in parallel gives you the broadest possible reach during the highest-traffic period of the year. Holiday-specific campaigns should be set up two to three weeks before the event so they have time to collect data and stabilize before traffic peaks.

How much should I increase my PPC budgets and bids before Black Friday?

Campaign budgets should be significantly higher than normal, with many experienced sellers increasing them by at least double starting one week before the event. Keyword bids typically need to increase by twenty to thirty percent to remain competitive as more advertisers enter the auction. Campaigns that run out of budget mid-day during Black Friday are missing the highest-intent traffic of the year, so it is better to overshoot your budget than to underspend. Monitor your campaigns closely during the event and adjust in real time rather than setting everything in advance and walking away.

Is it worth running discounts and coupons during Black Friday even if it reduces my margin?

For products where customer lifetime value extends beyond a single purchase, the margin sacrifice on one discounted sale is often justified by the repeat purchase potential that follows. A customer acquired at a deep discount during Black Friday who then subscribes to a replenishment product or returns to buy repeatedly is worth far more than the initial sale margin suggests. For products with no repeat purchase element, the calculus is different: discounting primarily helps with ranking and sell-through during the event but does not generate the same long-term return.

How can I use external traffic and discount websites to amplify Black Friday promotions?

If you are already running a meaningful discount on Amazon, listing that offer on deal and coupon platforms drives additional shoppers who are specifically browsing for deals across the internet. These visitors arrive with high purchase intent and the discount removes the price objection. The backlink from the deal platform to your Amazon listing also has an SEO benefit, since Amazon values external traffic and the signal it sends about your listing's relevance. For niche products, partnerships with influencers or niche editorial websites carry even more weight because the traffic is highly qualified rather than broadly promotional.

What is Amazon Live and why is it worth using during the holiday season?

Amazon Live is a free livestreaming format on Amazon where sellers and creators showcase products in real time. During the holiday shopping period when shoppers are actively browsing and comparing products, a live demonstration keeps a buyer's attention on your product for longer than any static listing can. It is significantly cheaper to set up than producing a Sponsored Brands video ad, requires minimal production, and drives organic engagement that Amazon rewards. Because Amazon is actively promoting the format, live content receives placement visibility that sellers are not paying for directly, which makes it a cost-effective complement to paid advertising during the most competitive advertising period of the year.

How should I use custom ad copy in Sponsored Brands during Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

Sponsored Brands ads allow a customizable headline, which is the one place in search results where you can speak directly to the shopper's current mindset. During a period when everyone is looking for deals, a headline that references the offer, the occasion, or even uses humor to stand out from the rows of standard product ads can meaningfully improve click-through rates. A slightly higher click-through rate on Sponsored Brands during peak season compresses your effective cost per sale across all of the traffic the campaign generates, so the investment in writing compelling holiday-specific copy pays off more than it would at any other time of year.