Here are 10 tips you should check out before Black Friday!

Black Friday checklist

Are you ready for Black Friday this year? The most anticipated Friday of the year in the retail world will take place on the last Friday in November. And we've prepared a complete checklist with 10 essential points for you to get the best results from paid media.

1. Credit on the Platforms

If you invest in paid media, you've certainly suffered from balance problems in your campaigns. Refused cards and late payment slips are the most common problems. To avoid having balance problems on Friday, the number one tip is: review the platforms' payment model.

Check with your bank manager that you will have a sufficient limit for the card and that the transactions will be approved.

For prepaid payments, add credit to the account at least 7 days in advance. And don't forget to add a margin of error to the credit, as the balance may run out before the end of the day and the credit added on Friday won't be deposited until Monday.

2. Conversion tracking

Tracking is the stage of recording events that occur within your site, commonly referred to as conversions. In paid media, it is mandatory that you have all the contact points relevant to the business duly registered, from the WhatsApp button to the product purchase.

Conversions are the source of the platforms' intelligence, providing algorithms with information to optimize audiences and guaranteeing managers a complete view of the results.

Tip number 2 is: review all touchpoints and check that tags have been properly triggered.

Events must be tracked on all media platforms: Google ads, Facebook Ads, Bing Ads, Programmatic and Google Analytics.
Tip: To do this, you can use Google Tag Manager (GTM) to implement multiple tags without changing the code structure on the site.
So if you don't have any conversion records yet, we can help! Contact us at Pareto.io and we can implement tracking via the Pareto Tracking Monitor.

3. Goals in Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a platform that records global events, identifying their origin/media. It is also possible to track all conversions on the site in real time, allowing for analysis on time during the promotion.

Tip number 3 is: Check that transactions and goals are being accounted for in Analytics according to the source of the conversion.

To do this, you will have to carry out conversion tests from an access via a campaign. Ensure that the data is with the source/media will allow precise analysis during BF, quickly identifying the channel with gaps or opportunities.

4. Pareto Ratio

The Pareto Ratio is a metric created to measure the risk of your search network campaigns by analyzing the efficiency of search terms and keywords.

Don't know the difference? It's simple!

The keywords are the segments you choose on Google for an ad to appear, in other words, they are under your control. The search terms are searches made by users who have activated your ad, meaning you have no control over them.

So, the Pareto Ratio measures the ratio of terms spent on more than one conversion versus terms without any conversion.

A high-risk Pareto Ratio can indicate two situations. Your account has few keywords added, which is very conservative and not recommended. Or you're wasting a lot of money on search terms that don't bring in conversions.

Our tip number 4 is: Check your Pareto Ratio and aim for a ratio above 70%.

If you're already a Pareto client, check out this metric in the Pareto Ads Risk Analysis tab.

5. Remarketing lists

Remarketing lists are segmentations of users who have already interacted with your brand, through a video or website access. In the purchasing journey, it's unlikely that a user will take action on your site when they first interact with an ad.

Tip number 5 is: Create remarketing lists of more qualified audiences and add them to your campaigns. We recommend creating 5 lists:

Who initiated the Checkout;
Who accessed the Cart page;
That you have viewed a Product page;
Who accessed the Home Page;
Who Viewed a Video on Facebook or Youtube.

6. Ad Extensions

Google's search network campaigns allow you to add communication extensions, giving additional information to the text ad.

Tip number 6 is: Create promotional extensions for Black Friday.

For each featured category or product, consider having at least one Sitelink extension, Snippet and Featured Phrase.
We also recommend using the promotion extension, which already has the Black Friday and Cyber Monday dates pre-defined.

Attention: Remember to always put the end date on your extensions! This will prevent extensions created for Black Friday from continuing to be advertised after the end date.

Tip: Customize communication by adding extensions at more specific levels such as campaign and ad group. This way, you're increasing the effectiveness of the communication, so your Ad Performance metrics in the Risk Analysis will reach 100% (low risk).

7. Quality Ranking

On Google, the ranking of your ad is given by the monetary investment of the auction (bid) multiplied by the quality index of your keyword (1 to 10).

According to WordStream, for a Quality Score of 1, you can pay a CPC up to 400% more than the competition and for values above 7, a saving of 28.60%.

Imagine that on Black Friday you invest R$1,000 in a campaign and the average CPC is R$1.00. So you'll get 1,000 clicks and with a conversion rate of 1%, you'll get 10 sales. Depending on your quality score (QS), your sales could vary between 2 and 14 in this case!

So tip number 7 is: Review your account's quality score. In Pareto Ads Risk Analysis, you'll get the account's overall value (which doesn't exist in Google Ads) for the three metrics that influence the quality score:

Landing page experience
Ad Relevance
Expected CTR

Take action on the metrics that most affect the overall result and gain in efficiency! See this article for tips on how to improve your QS metrics.

8. Merchant Center and Catalog

This tip is for you who are an e-commerce company and work with product promotion in the Facebook catalog and Google Shopping campaigns. Tip number 8: Check your Catalog and Merchant Center for errors.

Avoid disapproved items as much as possible! They can cause the account to be disapproved and prevent products from being advertised during Black Friday.

9. Adjusting Smart Strategies

If you use a Smart bidding strategy on Google Ads, the Black Friday period is an important time to ensure that your campaigns are as effective as possible.

Tip number 9 is: adjust Smart strategies correctly to avoid learning and losing opportunities in the auction!

Desired Roas: consider 7 days before Friday reducing your ROAS target by up to 30%. This change will allow Google's algorithm to be more competitive during the week's cost-per-click inflation, giving you a better chance of participating in the auction in better positions.
Desired CPA: Following the same logic as ROAS, an increase of up to 30% is also recommended for the CPA target.
Maximize Conversions: If your campaigns don't have enough conversions in the week to use a CPA or ROAS strategy, the recommendation is to use this strategy. The algorithm will then try to use up the money earmarked for the campaign, generating as many conversions as possible.

10. Logistics planning

It's not enough to review your paid media campaign structures. Tip number 10 focuses on delivery logistics and product stock, which are critical factors for campaign performance.

Perforated grid
A gridlock consists of not having all the models available for a product. In the case of a fashion e-commerce store, for example, this means having a blouse in a size that is in low demand and with only one color available.

When advertising a product with paid media, it's important to ensure that all sizes are available. That way, you'll reduce the chances of losing a sale due to a product not being available.

Tip: For Black Friday, make an analysis of the products that have sold the most throughout the year and ensure that they have enough stock during the promotion.
Delivery Logistics
The adoption of delivery strategies is important for campaign performance. According to Google, in BF 2020, advertisers with free shipping and express delivery will have greater competitive advantages.

If you have this availability in some markets, consider using this communication in your ads to attract customers during the promotion.