
A data-driven Black Friday/Cyber Monday Facebook ads strategy - sharemywin
https://sumo.com/stories/black-friday-facebook-ads/
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trentnix
These guys may be able to provide a plan to get you more clicks and purchases,
but they definitely aren’t the ones to tell you how the business of selling
stuff works. For example (from the article):

 _We have that there to remind ourselves that everything in ecommerce (in all
business, really) comes down to only three factors: \- How many visitors you
get \- How many of them purchase (conversion rate), and \- How much money they
spend when they do (average order value)

Multiply the three together and, voila, you’ve got a formula for how much
money you’re making. That’s it. That’s the whole game._

No. That's the formula for revenue. Not for income. And to show you how
shallow their thinking is, later in the article:

 _At least 20% off (anything less than this tends to be ineffective unless
your discount is at least $100 in raw dollar amount).

Don’t bother with coupon codes. Just mark down your site (or a particular
collection, if that’s your style). This makes it easier for your customers,
especially on mobile.

If you don’t discount much, you can keep that sale discount down at 20%. If
you give people 20% often, you probably need to go higher to get people to
take advantage of the offer._

Indeed, giving away your profits does tend to motivate a customer. Unless, of
course, your competitor is paying people to buy stuff.

So give these guys consulting money, give Google and Facebook ad money, and
give your customers your profits. Everyone gets to declare a big victory,
except the person making the sale.

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nerdponx
They're also (anecdotally) wrong about coupon codes. As a consumer, I am most
easily "converted" by a tasteful, non-spammy email campaign (maybe 1 or 2
emails a week) that offers short-term, deep discounts on products that I
already want to buy. And I don't mean stuff like a LABORDAY25 discount. I mean
"You're a valued customer! Enjoy 30% off for the next week, use code
NERDPONX30 to save!"

I know the economics of every industry is different, but if you're just
interested in moving a lot of product (whether it's digital or physical), it
seems like the good old "randomly mail people sweet coupons" works great.
Lyft, for example, does a great job of this. Lucky Jeans and West Elm have
great sales but they send me too many damn emails, so I never bother.

~~~
THCTC
We are speaking about how to manage a BFCM sale and the data definitely says
that coupon codes are a significantly worse alternative to a site-wide
markdown. It is all about friction reduction. Asking users to type in a coupon
code adds a step that doesn't need to be there. This doesn't mean that coupon
codes are never useful, but in this particular case we would recommend making
the experience as seamless as possible.

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kartikkumar
What I don't get with any of this stuff is that it actually works. Maybe I'm
weird, but every time I see that ads actually work and people actually buy
stuff as a result, it's a shock to the system. Perhaps that's from enjoying a
predominantly ad-free existence online, but I can't for the life of me think
of a case where I've actually clicked on an ad, let alone completed a
purchase.

I'm much more used to clicking on links that are organically ranked high in
DDG or Google, when I am specifically looking to buy something. I have to
admit, I barely make a handful of purchases per year, so perhaps I'm just
totally disconnected from this whole topic.

~~~
ams6110
I'm the same. I block ads aggressively, and never intentionally click ads. I
also don't really engage in the whole Black Friday/Cyber Monday circus in any
other way.

~~~
AFCTC
It's always weird when the data contradicts our experiences (I wrote that
article, and I myself bought my first ever products from Facebook ads just a
few weeks ago), but I suppose that's precisely the reason we check the data.

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stiglitz
My friends often complain about how early the holiday season starts. The
advice in this article sort of explains that phenomenon: competition drives up
advertising prices near the holiday, which makes earlier days more valuable
for advertisers.

Edit- plenty of cynical fodder there to equate “holiday season” with “days
with holiday-themed advertising”

~~~
THCTC
Bingo.

