Introduction:

You have most certainly encountered people talking about how important Black Friday is for the total sales of the year. Hopefully, after reading this article, you won’t have to read or listen to anyone.

We focus on strategies that can answer what makes people buy on black week/Friday.

First things first. This is probably the best tip in this article. Define your goals! Everything tends to go crazy during this hectic period. And when sh*t hits the fan, having a defined and clear goals help you to stay focused during this period.

You can define your Black Friday goals how you want; just write them down and stick to them. You may want to make 500 sales or get 100 pre-Black Friday sign-ups. Every business has its ideal goal. Set goals that suit your business, and don’t get carried away, and start doing things that distract you from the goal.

Many successful marketers and businesses that have defined goals and a clear strategy are the ones that have the most success during black Friday.

Enough talking; let’s get to the point of this article.

Here are the best marketing strategies for Black Friday 2024:

1. Create Limited-Time Offers and Flash Sales

Flash sales and limited-time offers drive urgency, encouraging customers to purchase quickly. Try creating exclusive discounts that are only available for a few hours or for specific products.
Set Specific Time Frames and maybe offer a new discount every few hours on Black Friday to keep shoppers motivated. You can also highlight time pressure, such as the offer ending in x number of hours.
“Limited Time” or “Only 5 Left!” to create urgency.

The sense of urgency helps encourage impulse buying, which is especially effective during high-pressure shopping events like Black Friday.

Example of a limited time offer

2. Black Friday email signup list

Offering an early access Black Friday sign-up is a great way to build anticipation and reward loyal customers. Allowing customers to sign up for exclusive early access to your Black Friday deals creates a sense of VIP treatment and drives excitement for your sale.

Early sign up let customer get a head start of the best deals before it is out of stock.

It let you to nurture these customers with reminders and sneak peeks and or discounts. That way you can maximizing engagement and increasing the likelihood of conversions once Black Friday begins.

Example of a email popup

3. Offer Bundle Deals or Free Gifts

Bundle deals or free gifts are a great way to increase avg order value and make customers feel they’re getting more for their money.

Either you offer a bundle discount on sets or collection, for example, “buy sweater + pants and get 10% off. Or you can offer a free gift if the customer buys a certain product.

Both of these options can really provide added incentive and encourage higher spending to increase your total sales. Then you get an additional +, you also get higher customer satisfaction.

Example of a bundle offer

4. Decrease cart abandonment

It’s Black Friday, so the activity is high among many customers who are eager to buy products. Like many other times, but specially during this period of time, customers keep an eye on various online store offers during Black Friday and jump between their browser windows.

One way to get your potential customer to complete the purchase with you is to use an exit-intent popup to prevent someone from leaving the shopping cart but not returning.

The exit intent popup can look different but the most important thing is to give something extra to the potential customer that makes them tip over the edge and complete the purchase. It is good if the offer is lucrative enough for the user to want to complete the purchase right now. Then it’s good if the offer is guided by a deadline so the person doesn’t think they can take it at a later time.

5. Retarget Visitors Who Didn’t Buy

As always, but especially during Black Friday, shoppers compare options for what and where to buy their products. Remarketing allows businesses to re-engage potential customers who have interacted with their website, reminding them of products they viewed, added to their cart, or even left at checkout.

Remarketing can be the push that potential customers need to purchase at your online store rather than your competitors. By strategically showing ads to these high-potential customers, you keep your brand top-of-mind, show them products they visited before, encourage them to revisit your website, and increase the chances of conversion.

Here are examples of how to use remarketing with Google Ads and Meta ads.

Keep in mind that a lot can be done with those tools, these are just a few examples.

Google Ads:

Dynamic Remarketing Ads (focused on products)

Dynamic remarketing displays the products a potential customer has viewed before. This allows you to show personalized and relevant ads, which is a powerful way for an e-commerce site to attract users back to its online store. Those ads can be tailored with special offers, discounts, and time-pressure countdowns and are very effective, especially during Black Friday.

Remarketing audiences

If you are reading this in November, you should already have done this because it takes some time for Google to populate lists of audiences that you can use in campaigns for remarketing purposes.

In the audience manager inside Google Ads, you can segment audience groups based on their interaction with your website. You can also create audience groups in GA4, which you import into Google ads.

Examples of Audience Lists you can create:

Users who added products to the cart but didn’t complete the purchase, users who visited specific product pages, and users who have previously purchased, the possibilities are pretty much endless. Audience lists must be large enough and populated to be used.

Meta Ads

The tips are basically copy-pasted from the Google tips above.

Dynamic product ads

The DPA (Dynamic Product Ads) at Meta works pretty much the same as Google Dynamic Remarketing Ads. It automatically shows users the exact same products they visited before or added to their cart on your website, nudging them to return and complete their purchase.

As you can do on Google ads, you can customize these ads to include special holiday discounts, shipping deals, or other perks to drive conversions. Very effective, especially during Black Friday,

Custom audiences

With Meta’s Custom Audiences, you can create segmented lists of website visitors, focusing on groups like people who purchased before, shopping cart abandoners, or users who engaged with specific products. Custom Audiences allow for more personalized messaging in your ads, for example, during Black Friday. Shopping cart abandoners can be shown a limited-time discount, while past buyers might receive a special loyalty discount for returning.

Example of retargeting journey

Final words:

We’ve all heard it—Black Friday can make or break a business’s yearly sales. After reading this guide, you hopefully understand why this period is so critical and how to maximize it. At the heart of every successful Black Friday campaign is a defined goal. Before the chaos, map out exactly what you want to achieve. Write it down, and let it guide every decision you make.

When things get hectic, those goals will keep you anchored and focused. Businesses and marketers who succeed during Black Friday are the ones who go in with a plan. They know what they want, and they stick to it. Now it’s your turn—set your goals, apply these strategies, and make this Black Friday your most successful one yet.