Nearing the end of the year often signals one major event for business owners: Black Friday and Cyber Monday. And in 2024, holiday spending is expected to hit new highs. According to figures by EMARKETER, Black Friday in the U.S. alone is projected to generate $10 billion in sales.
As Black Friday approaches, businesses are fine-tuning their marketing strategies to capture the spending surge. However, there’s a critical aspect that often gets overlooked: demand generation. Overlooking demand generation during this highly competitive season could cost your business more than you think.
This blog explores why demand generation is crucial during Black Friday and how ignoring it can lead to missed opportunities, reduced sales, and long-term impact.
What Is Demand Generation — and Why Does It Matter for Black Friday?
Demand generation is the strategic process of creating awareness, interest, and desire for a product or service among potential customers. It’s about generating buzz, building anticipation, and ultimately driving sales.
In short, demand generation creates interest in your product before customers are ready to buy. This mid-funnel approach ensures you’re not just capturing demand, but also actively growing it, influencing consumers, and driving sales growth.
Black Friday’s competitive, deal-driven environment is the perfect time to leverage demand generation. By reaching consumers earlier and more effectively, you can avoid competing in the last-minute scramble when everyone else is offering similar promotions. Here’s a closer look at the value demand generation brings during Black Friday:
- Increased competition — Sales really begin to heat up towards the end of the year, and it’s safe to say Black Friday is the spark that kicks off the fire. Black Friday is a highly competitive shopping season. To stand out from the crowd, you need to create a compelling narrative that captures attention and drives action.
- Limited-time offers — Black Friday deals typically have a limited window of opportunity (typically over the weekend and into Cyber Monday). Demand generation can help create a sense of urgency, encouraging customers to make a purchase before the offer expires.
- Customer loyalty — While many consumers already have their go-to brands for Black Friday, there’s still an opportunity to welcome fresh faces. A successful demand generation campaign can help build brand loyalty and encourage repeat business, even beyond the Black Friday season.
Consumer Behaviour Is Changing — So Should Your Strategy
From tighter budgets to shifting values, consumer shopping habits have changed. Today’s consumers don’t just stumble upon products and make snap decisions. Instead, they engage with multiple touchpoints, from streaming content to scrolling through social media, connecting and interacting across various platforms. This means they can discover your brand and make a purchase decision at any point in their journey.
Consumers are also more likely to choose brands that align with their values and beliefs, particularly those related to sustainability and social responsibility. Depending on your business, Black Friday presents the perfect opportunity to showcase your brand’s values to new audiences.
The power of word of mouth has evolved, too. Online reviews are only part of the equation.
Social media influences, especially on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, play a significant role in shaping purchasing decisions. Matter Communications reports that 69% of consumers trust influencers over information from brands themselves.
Moreover, modern consumers take their time. Research from a Google-commissioned Ipsos Consumer Continuous study shows that one in three shoppers is spending more time deliberating over purchases. Brands that don’t generate demand early in the process risk being left out of consideration entirely.
The Risk of Failing to Convert Early
Early conversion is critical for any marketing campaign’s success. When potential customers delay their purchases, it can lead to several negative outcomes, including:
- Increased Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) — The longer a potential customer stays in the sales funnel, the more resources are required to nurture them, leading to a higher CPA.
- Missed opportunities — Early conversions during Black Friday allow businesses capitalise on peak demand. Delays may result in missed sales opportunities.
- Negative brand perception — A complicated or lengthy purchasing process can tarnish your brand’s reputation, making it harder to attract customers during future campaigns.
By understanding and adapting to what your consumers want during Black Friday, you can get ahead and ensure your brand is a top contender. In a hyper-competitive environment like Black Friday, even loyal customers may switch brands if they find a better deal. Nearly half (48%) of consumers are willing to switch brands for a better offer.
On the other hand, businesses that make it into a consumer’s consideration set are three times more likely to win the purchase. Demand generation can help you build this top-of-mind awareness, so if you’re not focusing on it, you may be losing ground to competitors who are.
The Ceiling Effect — Why Sales Alone Aren’t Enough
Every brand has a sales ceiling — a limit to how much demand they can meet at any given point. As your business grows, this ceiling becomes more noticeable, and simply converting existing demand won’t suffice. You’ll eventually need to generate new demand to sustain growth. This can include:
- Expanding market reach — Targeting new customer segments or geographic regions.
- Developing innovative products — Introducing new offerings that meet unmet customer needs.
- Enhancing brand awareness — Increasing brand visibility and recognition through social media campaigns.
- Building customer loyalty — Fostering strong relationships with existing customers through members-only discounts and rewards, early product access and more.
With Black Friday on the horizon, businesses need to prioritise demand generation. Neglecting it limits both immediate sales potential and long-term growth. Without fresh demand, your business will hit that ceiling sooner, restricting future opportunities.
By investing in demand generation early, businesses can break through the ceiling effect to create new demand and sustain growth, mitigate the risks of market saturation, build brand resilience and, most importantly, unlock new revenue streams.
The Power of Lookalike Audiences in Demand Generation
One of the most effective tools in demand generation is lookalike audiences, especially in Google campaigns. These custom audiences target users who share characteristics with your existing customers.
Unlike social media targeting based solely on interests, Google allows you to leverage custom intent data from search behaviours, enabling more precise targeting. By tapping into these signals, you can better understand your audience’s needs and tailor your ads to resonate with potential buyers at different stages of their purchase journey.
Google’s demand generation campaigns span its most immersive platforms — YouTube, Discover, and Gmail — using AI to deliver personalised content. This dynamic personalisation ensures your ads feel relevant and timely, increasing the likelihood of conversion.
Multiple Formats to Capture Attention
Demand generation ads appear across YouTube, Discover, and Gmail in various sizes and formats, providing flexibility in how you present your brand. YouTube offers several options, such as YouTube Shorts, YouTube in-stream ads, and YouTube Feeds, all of which cater to different viewing preferences. Additionally, there are single-image ads, product carousels and product-specific formats, ensuring your content is engaging and visually appealing, no matter where your audience encounters it.
Picture this: a potential customer scrolling through their feed while watching soccer content or checking the latest news. A visually compelling ad with a clear call-to-action grabs their attention and encourages them to learn more about your product or service. The ability to engage consumers in these critical moments ensures that your brand remains relevant during the decision-making process.
Ignoring These Touchpoints Means Missing Key Moments
Your customers aren’t just looking for information — they’re searching for inspiration. Platforms like the Google App and Discover feed, native to all Android devices, are prime locations for consumers seeking ideas and exploring new products. Ignoring these touchpoints means missing opportunities to connect with shoppers when they’re most receptive, AKA during moments of exploration and decision-making.
By seamlessly integrating ads into the consumer’s feed during high-engagement periods like Black Friday, you capture attention in a meaningful way. That’s demand generation at work — ensuring your brand stays visible, relevant, and top of mind as consumers make purchasing decisions.
The Hidden Costs of Ignoring Demand Generation
Failing to invest in demand generation this Black Friday won’t just affect your immediate sales. The hidden costs extend far beyond the holiday weekend:
- Missed opportunities — Without early engagement, your brand risks being excluded from consumers’ consideration, leading to lost sales. Consumers start researching well before major sales events like Black Friday, and if your brand isn’t visible early in this process, you may never make it onto their radar.
- Increased competition — Without demand generation, you’re fighting for the same customers as everyone else. During high-traffic events like Black Friday, the cost of digital advertising increases, making it harder to stand out. By contrast, companies that have nurtured demand over time will have a loyal, engaged audience ready to convert, giving them a clear advantage.
- Stunted growth — Without continuously generating new demand, your business will hit a ceiling, limiting both sales and market reach. While short-term gains are possible, growth stalls without a steady influx of new customers.
Your Marketing Options Beyond Demand Generation
As we’ve learnt, demand generation carries weight in your Black Friday preparations. However, it’s only one component of your overall strategy. Beyond demand generation, it’s important for businesses to consider incorporating the following elements:
- Email marketing — Keep your customers informed about your Black Friday offerings through regular updates, reminders, and countdowns to build anticipation.
- Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising — Create targeted ads that appear at the top of search engine results pages. PPC advertising is highly effective in targeting users who have previously visited your website while capturing the attention of newcomers searching for your products.
- Product feed optimisation — Ensure your product data is accurate, complete, and appealing to potential customers to boost visibility and increase sales.
- Video ads — Create visual content as they tend to be more memorable, helping to increase brand awareness and recognition. Just keep in mind that attention spans are short, so keep your videos concise and to the point.
The Takeaway — Demand Generation as your Secret Weapon
Black Friday isn’t just about deals — it’s about strategically positioning your brand in front of the right audience at the right time. Demand generation plays a pivotal role in achieving this, helping your brand stand out, build anticipation, and ultimately drive sales.
This Black Friday don’t rely solely on performance marketing to close sales. Invest in demand generation to build a pipeline of engaged, interested customers that will fuel your business growth long after the holiday rush ends.
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Are you ready to unlock the full potential of demand generation this Black Friday? Don’t wait until it’s too late — your competitors certainly won’t. Get in touch with Online Marketing Gurus today to find out how we can help you reach your digital marketing goals.
