Black Friday 2017 Performance Results – What Can We Learn for 2018?

Black Friday 2017 was the biggest day yet for our clients. Analysing the data from last year shows some clear trends that we all need to be aware of for 2018.

Black Friday has evolved over the past few years from a single day event to sometimes a fortnight of deals and offers. Black Friday itself is usually, but not always, the peak of trading during the period. Shoppers are becoming savvier in their buying habits and are being conditioned to expect Black Friday to be a deluge of sales and offers. This does however mean that the days and weeks leading up to Black Friday are slow for transactions with shoppers holding onto their money for the Black Friday splurge. One of the main features of last year was the massive rise in mobile traffic and speed at which conversions picked up early in the day. We’ve complied a couple of reports below which will give you an idea of where the traffic is and when best to push. There are 2 reports; the first is around clicks during the day. There are some very clear trends during the course of the day that all advertisers must consider.

Click Traffic By Device:

Click Traffic By Hour:

The table above shows the percentage traffic, for each hour, per device, for the day. Nearly 10% of all Mobile traffic occurred between 9pm and 10pm. It was expected that the mobile traffic would peak in the morning between 8-9am, however this wasn’t the case for our clients. For our biggest clients the mobile traffic in the evening was often 5 times that of the morning hours. It’s clear that the shift to mobile is pretty drastic. What is most interesting in the data above is the computer traffic peaked just after lunch, which is surprising as we would have expected the evening to have been busier. It’s clear that people are browsing more in the evening on their phone than on their computers now.

Sales Reports by Device:

When looking at the sales information for the day there again clear distinctions on the sales data per device with a big split.

Sales by Device:

Average Order Value:

Conversion Rate by Hour by Device:

Revenue by day by Device:

Analysis:

So what does all this data show us:

• Traffic peaks in the evening, but sales peak earlier
• Early in the day gives the best conversion rates
• Mobile devices contribute the majority of orders, but gives the lowest average basket value
• Mobile has a double peak; lunchtime and between 8-9pm
• Tablets show the best time for conversions and traffic in the evening.
• Computer sales are in the morning and into lunchtime, this is coupled with a much stronger conversion rate.

Give the data above it gives a clear layout of when and where to push and perhaps where to pull back. As part of our management we are constantly monitoring the performance reports and making adjustments where necessary. We feel this biggest take-away from this is perhaps giving you an idea of where to be especially aggressive in your bidding. Black Friday is often a fantastic day of sales and revenue so it’s all about enhancing the day to get the absolutely most from it.

Onefeed manages close to 165 client accounts in Google Shopping. The data above is from our top 10 retailers. If you need any advice on Google Shopping please get in touch, we build packages bespoke to all our customers.