As Black Friday draws near, businesses are gearing up for one of the biggest shopping events of the year. The competition is fierce, with countless brands vying for the attention of eager consumers ready to spend.
With online shopping steadily becoming the number one way to shop, standing out in a crowded market requires more than just discounts; it demands precision in how your products are presented. This is where product feed optimisation comes into play. But what exactly is product feed optimisation, and where should you start with incorporating it into your Black Friday campaign?
In this blog, we’ll explore product feed optimisation, it’s essential role during Black Friday, best practices, and strategies to ensure your brand emerges as a winner.
Product Feed Optimisation: What Is It and Why It’s Essential for Black Friday
Product feed optimisation is the process of refining and enhancing the data used in product listings to ensure your products appear accurately and attractively across various e-commerce platforms, comparison engines, and online marketplaces. Depending on your products or services, this can involve fine-tuning product titles, descriptions, images, and other key attributes to align search queries and improve visibility.
During Black Friday, when competition is at an all-time high, having a well-optimised product feed is critical for several reasons:
- Increased Visibility: A well-optimised product feed helps your products appear in relevant search results on platforms where your customers choose to shop, like Google Shopping, Amazon, and eBay. An incomplete or inaccurate product feed risks missing potential sales, as your products won’t show up in key searches.
- Enhanced User Experience: From electronics to retail and more, consumers are flooded with options in the lead-up to Black Friday. An optimised product feed with clear titles, compelling descriptions, and high-quality images creates a smooth, user experience, making it easier for shoppers to find and purchase your products.
- Improved Ad Performance: Many businesses rely on paid search ads and product listing ads (PLAs) during Black Friday. An optimised product feed ensures your ads display the most relevant and useful information, which can reduce cost-per-click (CPC) and improve your overall return on investment (ROI).
- Better Conversion Rates: Accurate, detailed, and appealing product listings can convert browsers into buyers. By ensuring consistent, informative, and engaging product information, you increase the likelihood of a purchase, especially during high-traffic periods like Black Friday.
Transform Your Brand into One to Remember this Black Friday
As the peak shopping season approaches, optimising your product feed is crucial for maximising engagement and conversions. From developing captivating product titles to incorporating strong keywords, here’s how to effectively tailor your product listings and advertising strategies to stand out in a crowded marketplace.
Key Components of Product Titles
One significant factor in product feed optimisation is the structure of your product titles. Ensure your titles include relevant keywords, brand names, and product attributes like size, colour or model. This improves searchability, helping the right customers find your products.
Different niches require unique approaches. We’ve outlined some of the most common industries below:
- Apparel: Prioritise attributes like colour, gender, and size. This helps customers quickly identify what they’re looking for.
- Electronics: Focus on details such as model number and product type. Clear and informative titles attract potential buyers.
- Home Goods and Furniture: Include detailed descriptions with dimensions, materials, and assembly instructions. Feature product images from multiple angles, including close-ups of details, to provide customers with a complete picture.
- Books and media: Include the author’s name, publisher, and publication date. Categorise the books by genre (fiction or nonfiction) and subgenre (mystery, romance, fantasy, etc.), and display customer ratings and reviews to build trust among readers.
- Health and Beauty Products: List all product ingredients, provide detailed instructions on how to use the product, and specify suitability for certain skin or hair types.
Seasonal Keywords
Incorporating seasonal keywords in your product titles can enhance visibility. For example, using terms like “Black Friday” or “Cyber Monday” creates engaging listings during peak shopping events. In a crowded market, these keywords help your listings stand out, ultimately improving conversion rates.
Analyse past sales data to identify seasonal patterns, helping you predict which products will be in high demand at certain times of the year and allowing you to optimise your keywords accordingly.
Best Practices for Product Feed Optimisation at Online Marketing Gurus
For over a decade, Online Marketing Gurus has been the leader in digital marketing. We’ve developed an in-depth understanding of what makes a brand succesful during the holiday shopping period. Here are our recommended strategies for optimising product feeds:
- Customised Product Feeds: During Black Friday, many consumers already have an idea of which products they’re looking to pick up. To ensure your brand appears during their shopping experience, tailor your product types to organise the information effectively. This customisation helps create a clear breadcrumb trail for customers from browsing to checkout.
- Price Management: Maintain your standard price for at least 30 days before any promotional price drops to prevent disapproval of product listings. A sudden price increase followed by a drop can lead to disapproval, so consistency is vital. Additionally, ensure accurate stock levels, as nothing frustrates shoppers more than discovering an item is out of stock after they’ve added it to their cart.
- Promotion Extensions — Proper setup allows you to run promotion extensions through Google Merchant Center, enhancing your ad visibility during sales.
- Create Clear Asset Groups — Asset groups are a core component of effective product marketing. By creating separate asset groups for sales, you can streamline your marketing efforts and ensure your sales team can access all the necessary materials.
Google Ads Best Practices
With increased online shopping activity and the ability to target specific audiences, Google Ads remains a powerhouse during Black Friday sales. For Performance Max campaigns, follow these foundational practices:
- Separate Asset Groups: Build separate asset groups for sales campaigns. Use headlines and descriptions that highlight promotional offers, ensuring all products included are part of the sale.
- Utilise Site Links and Custom Labels — Incorporate site links and ad copy tailored to your sales assets. Custom labels enable efficient management of promotional offers, allowing for quick adjustments as needed.
- Ad Customisation — Implement ad customisations to facilitate rapid changes to pricing or promotional variables without affecting your quality score. This flexibility is essential during peak sales periods.
Five Strategies Outside Product Feed Optimisation for a Successful Black Friday
While product feed optimisation is vital, it’s just one piece of the puzzle. Dominating Black Friday means taking a multifaceted approach to your digital marketing, utilising all tools at your disposal. To maximise your success on Black Friday, consider integrating these other powerful tactics:
1. Leverage Email Marketing
Email marketing continues to be one of the most effective tools for driving sales during Black Friday. A recent survey by WooCommerce found that 29% of merchants consider email marketing their most important tool during the holiday shopping season.
To optimise your email marketing, start by segmenting your email list to send targeted promotions to different customer groups, such as VIPs, first-time shoppers or customers who’ve abandoned carts. Incorporate urgency in your messaging by highlighting limited-time offers and including countdown timers to create a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out).
Personalisation is Key — tailor your email content to customer preferences and previous purchases to enhance engagement. Also, ensure your emails are mobile-optimised, as many shoppers will be browsing deals on their smartphones.
2. Implement Retargeting Campaigns
Retargeting can be a game-changer during Black Friday. Many shoppers will browse your products and leave without making a purchase. Retargeting ads allow you to remind potential customers about the products they view, incentivising them with discounts or free shipping offers. Whether through Facebook, Google Display Network or even Instagram, retargeting campaigns can recapture lost opportunities and convert indecisive browsers into buyers.
3. Optimise for Mobile Shopping
It’s no secret that mobile traffic spikes during Black Friday, and if your website isn’t optimised for mobile users, you’re likely missing out on a significant portion of sales. A responsive website that loads quickly on mobile devices is essential. Simplify your checkout process by offering guest checkout, multiple payment options (like PayPal, AfterPay or Apple Pay) and minimising the number of steps required to complete a purchase.
4. Run Social Media Campaigns
Black Friday is a time when shoppers are actively scrolling through social media looking for deals. Running paid social campaigns on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok can help boost your visibility. Create engaging posts that showcase your best deals, highlight time-sensitive offers and encourage users to share with their network. Partnering with influencers who resonate with your target audience can also amplify your reach.
5. Prioritise Limited-Time Offers
One of Black Friday’s hallmarks is the sense of urgency. Time-limited offers, such as flash sales, limited two-for-one offers or doorbuster deals, can generate excitement and motivate shoppers to act quickly. To make the most of this strategy, create a promotional calendar outlining the deals you’ll offer throughout Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Final Thoughts: Turning Casual Browsers into Loyal Customers this Black Friday
Standing out during Black Friday is non-negotiable. Product feed optimisation is your secret weapon for creating a memorable customer experience and fostering long-term loyalty.
By streamlining your product feed management during the busy sales season, you ensure that algorithms run smoothly, driving traffic efficiently to your listings. With these best practices in place, you’ll be well-equipped to capitalise on peak-season shopping and enhance your overall sales performance.
While businesses can take a DIY approach to product feed optimisation, partnering with a professional digital marketing agency can significantly improve your Black Friday results.
Don’t Just Survive Black Friday; Thrive with Online Marketing Gurus
Product feed optimisation and strategic planning are essential for dominating Black Friday. However, true marketing success lies in a long-term approach. Online Marketing Gurus is a highly experienced digital marketing agency that can help you achieve your goals. Whether you aim to increase profits, expand your reach, or become a trustworthy leader in your industry, we can help. Our team of more than 200 digital marketing experts creates tailored digital marketing campaigns that drive your business forward.
From PPC campaigns to SEO strategies and social media marketing, Online Marketing Gurus’ multi-channel approach means your business will experience a comprehensive and effective online presence. We’ve worked with more than 1,000 businesses across a variety of industries, so rest assured that our digital marketing experts understand the opportunities and challenges your business faces in the digital realm.
Let’s make this Black Friday your best one yet and take that momentum into the future. Contact us today to learn more about how we can elevate your marketing efforts and discover our range of services at Online Marketing Gurus.