Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) represent the most lucrative period of the year for eCommerce businesses. In 2023, UK shoppers spent over £3 billion during this shopping extravaganza, with nearly 50% of sales driven online. If your brand is ready to capitalise on this frenzy, having a strategic Facebook and Instagram Ad setup is non-negotiable.
Here, we outline a four-pronged campaign strategy tailored for eCommerce businesses, complete with real-life examples and practical insights to maximise your return on ad spend (ROAS).
Advantage Plus Shopping Campaign (ASC)
The ASC leverages Facebook’s machine learning to automate audience targeting, ad placements, and optimisation. This is the best choice for maximising conversions with minimal manual intervention.
Case Study:
ASOS, a leading UK fashion retailer, reported a 36% boost in conversions during BFCM 2022 by using automated Advantage+ campaigns. By targeting a broad audience of previous website visitors and app users, they captured interest at scale.
Setup:
- Audience: Website visitors, shop users, and those who engage with your brand’s Instagram/Facebook pages.
- Attribution: 7-day click, 1-day view.
- Budget Allocation: 40% of your daily ad spend. For example, if your total budget is £2,000/day, allocate £800 here.
- Placements: Advantage+ placements (fully automated).
- Pro Tip: Avoid using bid or cost caps to allow Facebook to optimise spending freely.
Prospecting Campaign (CBO)
This campaign helps you acquire new customers by targeting broad and interest-based audiences. It’s ideal for scaling your reach during BFCM.
Case Study:
Gymshark, a Birmingham-based activewear brand, generated a 25x ROAS by targeting broad audiences and layering in interests like “Fitness Enthusiasts” and “Running Gear.” This approach brought in high-quality first-time buyers.
Setup:
- Ad Groups:
- Broad Audience: No interest targeting; focus on age, gender (if relevant), and location.
- Proven Interests: Select top-performing interests based on past campaigns (one interest group per ad group).
- Attribution: 7-day click, 1-day view.
- Budget Allocation: 40% of your daily ad spend.
- Placements: Advantage+ placements.
- Pro Tip: Use Facebook’s historical data to identify top interests—look for those with high spend and consistent ROAS.
Retargeting Campaign
Retargeting campaigns aim to convert warm leads who have engaged but haven’t yet purchased. This is crucial during BFCM to re-engage high-intent audiences.
Case Study:
John Lewis retargeted 30-day website visitors with personalised carousel ads featuring discounted products they had previously viewed. This strategy contributed to a 17% uplift in conversions.
Setup:
- Ad Groups:
- 30-Day Visitors: Target users who have visited your site in the last 30 days.
- 90-Day Add-to-Cart or Checkout: Focus on users who added items to their cart or initiated checkout but didn’t complete the purchase. Exclude purchasers from the past 90 days.
- Attribution: 7-day click, 1-day view.
- Budget Allocation: 10% of your daily ad spend.
- Placements: Advantage+ placements.
- Pro Tip: Avoid exclusions for recent purchasers in your 30-day visitor audience—every conversion counts during BFCM.
Retention Campaign
Retention campaigns focus on driving repeat purchases from your existing customers. These campaigns are often the most profitable, as they target those who have already transacted with your brand.
Case Study:
Lush Cosmetics targeted 180-day purchasers with exclusive BFCM discounts and early access deals. This approach increased their repeat purchase rate by 40%.
Setup:
- Ad Groups:
- 180-Day Purchasers: Target customers who purchased in the past 180 days.
- All-Time Purchasers: Target historical buyers while excluding 180-day purchasers to avoid overlap.
- Attribution: 7-day click, 1-day view.
- Budget Allocation: 10% of your daily ad spend.
- Placements: Advantage+ placements.
- Pro Tip: Highlight loyalty rewards or exclusive deals to incentivise repeat purchases.
Why This Campaign Strategy Works
As business owners and marketers, we want to make data-driven decisions by leveraging historical campaign data to ensure you’re targeting the right audiences with proven strategies.
With a balanced budget allocation, you are distributing your budget across these four campaigns ensuring maximum efficiency based on an audience funnel split that’s proven to work.
Advantage+ automates what works, while manual targeting ensures precision where it’s needed, ensuring a symbiotic approach of both automation and manual adjustments.
Key Stats:
- 70% of shoppers are more likely to buy during BFCM if they see relevant ads. (Statista)
- Retargeting campaigns deliver 10x higher ROAS compared to prospecting campaigns. (Facebook Data)
- Customers acquired during BFCM have a 25% higher lifetime value. (Shopify)
Budget Allocation Guidance for BFCM Campaigns
Once you’ve set up the four key campaigns, the next step is determining how to allocate your budget effectively. Budget allocation during Black Friday and Cyber Monday is critical to ensure maximum return on investment (ROI) while maintaining the flexibility to scale high-performing campaigns. Below, we break down the process into actionable steps for UK businesses.
Start with a Total Daily Budget
Begin by deciding your total daily ad spend. For small to medium-sized ecommerce businesses in the UK, this could range from £100 to £1,000 per day, depending on your revenue goals and available funds. Larger brands with higher order volumes may scale beyond £5,000 daily.
Allocating Your Budget
Use the 40-40-10-10 split as a starting point:
- 40% to Advantage Plus Shopping Campaign (ASC)
Focus on broad audiences and automated optimisation to reach as many potential customers as possible. - 40% to Prospecting Campaign (CBO)
Leverage broad and proven interest-based targeting to acquire new customers. - 10% to Retargeting Campaign
Target recent site visitors and cart abandoners to drive conversions from warm leads. - 10% to Retention Campaign
Focus on re-engaging your most loyal customers and driving repeat purchases.
Example Budget Scenario
| Daily Budget | Advantage Plus (£) | Prospecting (£) | Retargeting (£) | Retention (£) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £100 | £40 | £40 | £10 | £10 |
| £500 | £200 | £200 | £50 | £50 |
| £1,000 | £400 | £400 | £100 | £100 |
| £5,000 | £2,000 | £2,000 | £500 | £500 |
Adjust these allocations based on your priorities and campaign performance. For example, if your retargeting campaign is converting at a high ROAS, consider shifting more budget to that campaign.
Scaling Your Budget
Consistently monitor performance using key metrics like ROAS, CTR, and CPA to identify top-performing campaigns. We monitor our campaigns daily as a reference.
For high-performing campaigns, scale gradually, increasing the budget by 20-30% per day if they’re consistently hitting KPIs. Avoid massive spikes to prevent performance drops.
Make real-time adjustments by reallocating funds from underperforming campaigns to the best-performing ones.
Keep a Reserve Budget
Allocate 10-15% of your total BFCM budget as a reserve to scale winning campaigns rapidly or to counter rising ad costs during peak times. This is honestly for more advanced marketers trying to improve results by 3-5% on average, but if you have the time availability and want to give it your best, then follow through with this one. It’s often these small details that set ad accounts apart from the competition.
Final Thoughts
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are about scaling smart, not guessing. By implementing this four-campaign strategy, UK businesses can drive record-breaking sales and build long-term customer relationships without overcomplicating things.
Remember, this ad strategy should run alongside your evergreen campaigns, the ones you are running all year long. However, if you are running a small budget, temporarily switch off your evergreen ad campaigns and only focus on running your BFCM campaigns for the season.
