Creating ads that grab the Black Friday attention

Black Friday Article

Basically, the goal is to create a ton of buzz in the lead-up to Black Friday by sharing details of your biggest bargains of the season.
There’s also the ramp-up in shoppers’ search behaviours with 75% of customers comparing prices, products and conducting research ahead of purchasing on Black Friday. Retailers are going to be shouting about their low prices, hot deals, and fast delivery from every corner of the ring. If you want to stand out, you’ve got to grab attention.

However, growing competition and platform adoption among brands seeking to capture consumer attention in a crowded landscape mean that it’s more important than ever to stand out. That’s why impactful creative is so important for a successful campaign.

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Two intertwining holographic dynamic shapes

Time

Any good campaign has plenty of preparation, and that should be the month of September for your business. In order to give your business ample time to develop and fine-tune its marketing strategy, start preparing for Black Friday and get your strategy in place as early as September. By starting this early, you can take learnings from the months leading up and determine what the best way to bolster your audience for the campaigns you should be executing in October and November.

Launching promotions early to capture early search interest - getting your ads out there as soon as you can will allow you to see what’s capturing your audiences attention and what’s not, so you can tailor them effectively throughout the campaign.

Don’t fly solo

A collaborative approach between Paid Social, PPC and Creative brings much more opportunity to your ads. Figure out your audience, who should you be engaging with and where to reach them.

Develop a creative plan and testing roadmap which allows you to produce and test iterative design changes on assets to get a better understanding of customer behaviour. By working cross channel you can get an enhanced perspective on who your audience is and how best to grab their attention.

Attention

According to a 2020 study by Klaas Weima there are six strategies that can be used to capture consumer attention during the critical two seconds.

Emotion

People buy with their hearts, not their heads. That means emotions play a crucial role in consumer decision-making. Ads should be used to evoke emotions that can have a huge impact on engagement and conversion. Build rapport and engagement by using humour or sadness to capture their attention.
Factors such as colour, imagery, typography, and tone can all influence emotional responses and subsequently affect decision-making.

Status

People like to stand out, with their actions or with what they buy. One way people express and elevate their status is through what they buy. They may purchase products, services, or experiences that convey a certain image or signal a particular social standing. This can range from luxury cars and designer clothing to memberships in exclusive clubs or associations. By considering how to make your audience feel unique and supporting their desire to stand out in your creatives, you tap into their intrinsic need for recognition and self-expression.

New

Providing something fresh and unexpected, while emphasising the originality of your product and its problem-solving capabilities, can help you cut through the noise of a crowded market. It not only attracts initial attention but also fosters engagement, memorability, and customer loyalty, all of which contribute to long-term success and growth.

Inclusion

Create a sense of belonging and community for your audience to make them feel like they're a valuable part of something bigger. Our innate desire to be part of a group is a powerful motivator.

Reward

Showing your appreciation for loyal customers in your creatives and providing incentives or bonuses for repeat purchases, you reinforce their value to your brand. This not only encourages repeat business but also deepens their emotional connection with your brand. As a result, you can expect increased customer retention, word-of-mouth referrals, and a positive impact on their engagement.

Help

Make your audience’s life easier by offering them something useful. Providing valuable information, tips or tools can position your brand as a helpful resource, generating interest and engagement.
By embedding these elements of utility and value into your creative efforts, you can achieve several positive outcomes. Your audience is more likely to engage with your content when they see it as a valuable resource. Moreover, this approach positions your brand as an authority and a trusted partner, leading to increased interest, engagement, and ultimately, stronger customer relationships.

Motion

Movement in a person’s peripheral vision can trigger a shift in visual attention, It can be a nice addition to an otherwise bland creative that lacks engagement. But by adding it on top of an already engaging ad, it’s impact will be so much more.
Anything that you can do to give your creative a unique spin will more likely capture the consumers attention and increase the likelihood that they will actually remember and click on your ad.

It doesn’t have to be overly complicated animations - simple, straightforward pops of text and image work well. It's a way to tap into human attention patterns and create unique, visually appealing content that resonates with your target audience. It can draw the viewer's eye, encouraging them to pay closer attention to the message you're conveying. This added engagement can make your creative more memorable and effective.

Bottom Funnel

When it comes to marketing strategies for a specific event like Black Friday, it's essential to be highly targeted and efficient in your approach. Focusing your creative efforts predominantly on the middle and bottom funnel messaging, as well as utilising specific tools and tactics like lookalike audiences, retargeting, retention, and carousel collections, can be a highly effective strategy.

By developing a bank of creative content that focuses on these specific formats and targeting strategies, you streamline your efforts and maximise your impact. This approach allows you to deliver the right message to the right audience segment at the right stage of their customer journey.

Returns

Buyers remorse tends to show an uptick during Black Friday, often because those great deals can trigger an increase in impulse buying. Shoppers are therefore more likely to have confidence buying from retailers who communicate a good returns policy. More people browse returns pages before purchasing on Black Friday than on any other normal shopping day.

It’s worthwhile to supporting your creative messaging with how straightforward your returns policy is to remove any doubt within the shoppers mindset about whether it isn't a worthwhile purchase. Simple iconography and callouts are a smooth way to do this without cluttering your creatives and saves your audience.