We’re in that slightly uncomfortable late October/early November spot where you can feel the storm (a good, healthy, exciting storm!) is coming, but everything feels unnervingly quiet.

Quiet because we’ve been nurturing audiences and testing creative since the summer, so are in good shape for our Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaigns, but also quiet on the shopping activity front. Depending on your brand, it’s not uncommon for e-comm campaigns to slow up before they take off when everyone’s Black Friday offers are released.

So, what should e-comm brands be doing directly ahead of the Q4 peak?

What should you be doing to prep your funnel for your offer?

Now is the time to turn the dial up on all of the activity you’ve been working on since the summer in preparation for Q4:

1. Before ads costs start to head north, really ramp up your engaged audiences. The more traffic you can drive to your site, or video views you can capture, the easier and cheaper your conversions will be in a few weeks. Increasing your ‘teaser’ funnels using cheap reach or traffic objectives to bring audiences closer to the brand before the big offers are released, can be budget well spent at this time of year.

2. Bring your organic socials in on this too, highly engaging content in the weeks leading up to an offer will warm your audiences and lower your costs.

3. This really is your last chance to check that your website is fully optimised for check out. Priorities need to be fast loading, mobile friendly and all the main payment options available. In Q4 shoppers move quickly to grab an offer and check out, so if you have anything on your site which is slowing it down, and not essential for this season, consider making some changes for the next couple of weeks.

4. That said…. customer reviews are still essential! If yours are looking a bit thin, can you run an email campaign this week to sweep up extra reviews?

5. Are you running a leads campaign to build your email lists? Your email lists are golden at this time of year, Klaviyo should be bringing in some of your cheapest conversions amid the noise in Q4, so time to scale up the leads!

Last year’s survey results released by Meta report that a huge 46% of people start planning what they need to buy for home and family ahead of the festive season in November…. so even if they’re not buying yet, shoppers are researching and watching.

What should you be doing in your campaigns now?

If you have some steady ASC campaigns running at a comfortable ROAS you don’t want to spook them with a big budget increase when you release your offer. Even if sales slow a little in the next couple of weeks keep the momentum running and start edging up the budget so your campaigns are ready to hit as many people as possible with your Black Friday / Cyber Monday offer.

Bear in mind that, on average, e-comm brands will need to spend an extra 10% (up to 15% in certain verticals) this year to maintain their results through the peak season. And, as we know, with shopping at full frenzy, if brands have the budget to scale their spend, the gains can be huge.

For a big jump in budget you’ll most likely need to launch manual (non ASC) campaigns alongside your ASCs. Although your ASC could normally cover the retargeting element of the funnel, pulling this out into a manual campaign over an offer period can allow you to stretch the budget and take more control.

In short:

• Website views, video views, social engagement, and email leads are all worth focusing on pre peak season.

• Get some spit and polish on your website/landing pages.

• Review your campaign set-up so you’re in a position to scale your budget when you release your offer.

Good luck! 

If all of the above leaves you feeling a bit sick, or totally overwhelmed (rather than excited!) and you’d like to talk about handing it all over for 2024, book in a call any time to chat about your campaigns. We don’t shut down new client enquiries in Q4, or run waiting lists, we’re always happy to start the conversation to support brands on their journey to the next big goal.