This year’s Cyber Monday sales were an astonishing $3.45 billion, making it the biggest online shopping day in U.S. history, according to Adobe Digital Insights. But what else did we find notable about this holiday for commerce?
This Container Store promo used the term “Cyber Week” in an acknowledgment of the multi-day discounts offered by many retailers, and featured different offers for every day through Friday.
One of our SEM Analysts noted a Cyber Week Instagram promo from a band offering a merchandise discount that lasts all week – but diminishes with each passing day. The discount started at 25% on Monday, dropping by 5% a day to a mere 10% on Thursday.
B2B offers weren’t limited to virtual items, though: Product Manager Josh Cuttill found a major discount to a marketing conference in his inbox.
This ad targets several possible gift-shopping audiences: those looking for “the ultimate gift,” those looking for a relatively budget-conscious gift, and those who aren’t sure what to get but know that their intended recipient likes Tory Burch.
One of our clients experienced the benefits of targeted sitelinks first-hand. Their Cyber Monday special had a not-too-shabby PPC conversion rate of 2.67 per hour… until we added a sitelink about that specific offer to the ad. After that, PPC conversions rose to 9.11 an hour – that’s more than 3.4 times the pre-sitelink amount!
One problem with date-specific PPC ads is that someone has to make sure they don’t run past their specific date.
For instance, Macy’s had this Black-Friday-centric ad running… on Tuesday afternoon. The line “Black Friday Ends 11/26” was especially cringe-worthy. It was the first non-headline text in the ad, and it made the rest of the ad, including sitelinks, seem a little dubious.
If you ever wondered what it would be like to attend a shop-from-home webinar hosted by Walmart, this was tailor-made for you. And don’t worry if you missed it on Monday, for as of Thursday at 10 am Central time, Walmart LIVE! was still looping.
While holiday sales can often be a bit stressful for those of us who manage ecommerce and lead-gen accounts, it’s also a great time to see what new ideas are being tried, from offers to tactics to strategies, and this year was no exception. We wish you a safe and festive Cyber Week!