Sales are often held not only in stores but also online, such as New Year’s sales, new life sales, summer sales, Christmas sales, and year-end sales.
In Japan, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which spread mainly on Amazon, are becoming more well-known among users, and more and more companies are starting to incorporate them into their own EC sites.
Sales that stimulate users’ desire to purchase are also important in programmatic advertising. In addition, the measures taken for the sale will greatly affect the results of programmatic advertising and ultimately the results of the entire sale.
In this article, we have summarized what EC site operators should prepare for sales. We hope you will incorporate these into your measures, taking into account the media and resource situation you are currently using.
What you want to do to prepare for the sale with advertising
Once you have decided to hold a sale on your EC site, you should also prepare for programmatic advertising to maximize the effect of the sale. It depends on the scale of the sale, but the most important thing is to let users know that the sale is taking place.
Just the word “sale” is enough to catch users’ attention, so you should allocate a wider budget and adjust bids than usual. From here, we will introduce the measures for each medium and advertising menu in order of priority.
Google Shopping Ads
Search Ads
Display Ads
Facebook Ads
Criteo
Twitter/LINE Ads
Google Shopping Ads
Google Shopping Ads is one of the most important options for advertising on an EC site. Shopping Ads are ads that show the products themselves, so you want to be able to handle cases where all or some of the products on the site are on sale.
When you set up Shopping Ads for a sale, a sale badge will be displayed and the price will be displayed for the sale, so you can see how much you save from the original price.
Compared to other products that are not on sale, it will be eye-catching, so you’ll want to be sure to use it during sales. Also, the same display will be displayed not only in Shopping Ad slots, but also in free listing slots.
Add sale price and sale validity period
The feed items used for Shopping ads have “sale price (sale_price)” and “sale effective date (sale_price_effective_date)” prepared for sales. Set these for sales.
As the name suggests, “sale price (sale_price)” is where you enter the price at the sale. As with normal prices, enter the value in the format “10000 JPY”.
There is no need to change the “price” portion that has already been entered at this time. When both price and sale price are entered, if the sale price is higher, the sale will not be displayed.
Next, add the “Sale Effective Period (sale_price_effective_date)”. Register the start and end dates and times of the sale, and the time zone in the format “YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm[±hhmm]” or “YYYY-MM-DDThh:mmZ”.
If you do not specify a time zone, the UTC time zone will be applied, so if you want to set it in Japan time, you need to set it to +9 hours.
For example, if you want to run a sale in Japan time from 0:00 on January 1, 2022 to 23:59 on January 11, 2022, enter “2022-01-01T10:00+0900 / 2022-01-11T23:59+0900”.
This completes the setup. Sale badges will be displayed at any time during the sale period.
Search Ads
You can also prepare to take advantage of sales with search ads. Online shoppers often search for the best deal.
Even if they know what product they want, they may compare prices, including point rewards and shipping costs, to choose the site with the best deal. Prepare to approach users who are looking for such sites with great deals with search ads.
For example, it might be a good idea to add keywords related to sales, such as “sale” or “outlet,” only during the sale period.
Preparation for sale ads and countdown ads
By running ads announcing sales, you can let users know that they’re getting a good deal. We recommend preparing dedicated ads for sale periods. You can also redirect users to a special page for the sale.
You can use “countdown ads” for sale ads in search ads. Countdown ads are an advertising method that allows you to dynamically display a countdown in the ad text.
To set it up, simply enter the following into the section where you want the countdown to appear.
Adding promotion extensions
Google Ads offers an ad display option called the Promotion Extension for sales. This is an ad display option that allows you to include sale information in search ads, and can be set up in the same way as other ad display options.
The input information includes “Annual Events,” which allows you to display sales that correspond to events such as “Black Friday,” “End of Year,” and “Summer Sale” in bold. Depending on the content, the period in which it can be delivered is limited, so be sure to check the official help page.
Display Advertising
The role of display ads during sales is to let people know that there is a sale. To do this, you should strengthen delivery to people who already know about your site or service, such as by strengthening delivery to past visitors or extending the period.
Preparing ads to let people know about the sale
To let people know that there is a sale, it is first necessary to prepare a banner that explains the sale period and sale contents. We recommend not only changing the ad text but also creating a banner, as this will make the sale period and contents more noticeable.
Facebook Ads
Facebook and Instagram ads have the same role as display ads.
Prepare an image for the sale
As with display ads, prepare a banner for the sale image that clearly explains the sale details. Also, in the case of Facebook and Instagram ads, the first two to three lines of main text are visible, so include the sale details in that section to clearly highlight the sale.
Adding sale prices and sale validity periods
If you are using catalog ads in Facebook Ads, you can add sale prices and sale validity periods to the catalog just like with Shopping Ads. The settings are the same as for Google Shopping Ads. Don’t forget to set this up as well.
However, unlike Google Shopping Ads, sale badges will not be displayed on the ad. Therefore, it is important to prepare an appeal for the sale in the main text as well.
X Ads / LINE Ads
As with the display ads and SNS ads we have introduced so far, for Twitter ads and LINE ads, you should prepare images for the sale.
Since these media provide a way to approach users who know about your service or website, such as followers, friends, and similar users, it may be a good idea to use them as a one-off announcement during and just before the sale period to make the sale more widely known.
Impact of sales on advertising
When a sale begins, it will have an impact on sales and both inside and outside the site. After holding a sale, be sure to check not only sales but also other indicators. Here we will introduce the possible impacts of a sale.
Increased CVR
First of all, sales tend to increase CVR. Naturally, sales are limited-time, so there is a period during which you can make a good purchase. Therefore, users think, “I have to buy now,” and CVR tends to increase, especially on the last day.
Increased click-through rate
Display ads and SNS ads announcing sales, as well as shopping ads with sale badges, tend to have higher click-through rates than usual to attract users’ attention.
Therefore, pay-per-click media may cost more than expected. Of course, it is good to have more clicks to spread awareness, but be sure to adjust your budget carefully.
Sales can decrease after a sale
The sale period is a “harvest” period. Therefore, for a few days after the sale ends, you tend not to be able to earn as much sales as you would normally.
Also, if you announce a sale in advance, sales before the sale may decrease. When planning a sale, make sure to prepare and analyze not only during the sale period, but also in anticipation of a drop in sales a few days after the sale period.
Sales are opportunities, so prepare well
In programmatic advertising, a sale that increases CVR and click-through rate is an opportunity. First, secure a solid budget and prepare with the mindset of “doing everything you can.”
After the sale is over, carefully analyze the impact each event had and prepare for the next sale, including product selection.
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