Black Friday Savings in January
Were you like many of us who were left a little disappointed again by Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Maybe it was internal performance that didn’t live up to the lofty forecast set by “media experts” in finance, or maybe personal disappointment from the lack of actual Black Friday deals - those t-shirts were not that expensive in the summer…
Likely the biggest disappointment you felt was how expensive your digital media costs and CPMs were over that time frame. For most digital marketing professionals, this is not a new revelation. Not only in comparison to the price versus the rest of the year but even more so in comparison to January.
Whether you believe that demand isn’t as high in January as the Black Friday/ Cyber Monday time period, or if you’re not selling clothing apparel or electronic gadgets, maybe that big push isn’t worth it after all.
Every company, vertical, campaign goal, etc. is different, and so for some businesses, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are key events for which it’s important to keep a high level of investment. But generally, Q4 media spend looks a little different than the rest of the year. Hear us out…
We analyzed all our clients Q4 campaigns to understand the variance in media spend versus the rest of the year and found CPMs over the Black Friday period to be as high as 150% more expensive than what we are seeing in the first few weeks of January. Further, we found that CPMs are actually more expensive during the weekend after Black Friday due to weekend volatility, usually caused by different browsing habits versus the work week. In many cases, it’s also because of an inability for advertisers to spend their allocated Black Friday budgets on Black Friday due to competition for media inventory.
If you don’t have specific Black Friday / Cyber Monday messaging or deals, it’s best to reduce your spend while keeping the lights on to maintain algorithmic learnings, and re-investing the savings into January where you’ll get significantly more bang for your buck. Even with the ‘demand is lower in January’ argument, most smart marketing managers should be open to the discussion of paying 75% - 150% less for media in January. With those kinds of savings, January is an excellent opportunity to drive far more reach and stand out from the competition. If you’re in a progressive company where testing is encouraged, why not try testing this theory right now? If leadership balks and asks “Why are we investing now?” We have your answer: “Because we’ll get far more reach, stand out from the noise in a relatively quiet period, and it will be easier to achieve our lofty conversion goals”.
While not being totally unaware that Q4 budgets usually don’t fall into the same financial year as the upcoming January, this is not an expiring message. These same inflated CPMs will be apparent in Q4 in 2024, 2025, and beyond, so why not take a measured approach and analyze your media costs (CPMs) from the previous Q4’s and Black Friday / Cyber Monday periods versus the following January and Q1’s.
If there’s one action item from this simplistic opinion piece; take a high-level view at your media spend and performance from Black Friday and Cyber Monday versus January… you never know, you might get a head start on those New Year’s resolutions… and you might just get more bang for your buck.
Patrick Clare, Head of Performance Media & Client Success
