Stick To The Plan Or Go Early? Read This Before You Push The Button...

👀 Obsessively watching your competitors to see who breaks cover first and launches their Black Friday ads? Do you stick to your well-thought-out marketing plan? Or throw it out the window and GO GO GO when you see other brands going early?

This is a risky time and no mistake. Q4 performance not hitting expectations can be make or break for ecomm brands. The temptation to switch it up at the last minute is real but there can be some major advantages to sticking to your guns, if you can keep your nerve. 😬

Here are some tips to help you make your decision for all the right reasons...

🎯 Revisit the goals of your Black Friday campaign. Are you aiming to increase short-term revenue, boost new customer acquisition, shift certain lines or drive customer loyalty? Does an early launch make sense to your big picture?

📊 Stay data-driven. The big problem with last-minute changes is that they don't often have the same depth of analysis that you put into your original plan. Does it make logical sense to change lanes? No matter how pressured you feel to go early, take time to dig into the data before you push the button.

💰 Your budgets weren't decided on a spur-of-the-moment decision so it makes no sense to throw them out the window in an instant either. Yes, peak is crucial but recent Meta research shows that spreading your costs more evenly in the run-up and even after Christmas can be more beneficial than throwing everything at the last two weeks in November. There might also be better, less competitive times of the year where that budget you're blowing by going early now could have more impact.

😥 Are you actually ready to go early without sending your team into a total meltdown? It is so important to keep your team on side - a mad last-minute dash to nail creatives, web pages and every other moving part involved in a big campaign quicker than expected can be really detrimental to team morale. It might be that it is the right decision, in which case you need to rally everyone and crack on. But if you're not sure it is right, you might be upsetting the apple cart and stressing everyone out without a really good reason for doing so. 

There are no 'correct' answers to any of this. You need to walk the tightrope between keeping up with competitor trends and making decisions that are right for your wider strategy. 

My biggest recommendation? whatever you do, is not to let panic drive your choices. Competitor activity is just one of many factors you need to take into account. If you see a clear advantage in going early, do it. But be sure it makes sense and isn't a knee-jerk reaction. 

If you'd like to book a free discovery call with me, to explore how to integrate your Meta and Google Ads into your marketing strategy, contact me!. 😃 

Wishing you a profitable and low-stress Black Friday and Christmas peak! Good luck!🎄