Black Friday, an American shopping holiday, is now one of the busiest online shopping days in Australia. Research by the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) and Roy Morgan predicts that Australians will spend $11 billion on gifts this year with a main focus on e-commerce purchases.
Un sitio web que ofrece las mejores ofertas en compras de comercio electrónico es OzBargain.com.au. Es uno de los 100 sitios web principales de Australia con 44 millones de visitas mensuales. El fundador del sitio, Scott Yang, le dijo a Publift, una startup de tecnología publicitaria de Sydney, lo importante que es el Black Friday para su sitio: los eCPM más altos logrados durante el año han caído constantemente durante el fin de semana del Black Friday, con un aumento del 93% con respecto a su promedio anual y casi una quinta parte de sus ingresos de noviembre se generarán ese fin de semana.
Teniendo en cuenta los logros de OzBargain, no se puede pasar por alto la importancia del Black Friday para los editores digitales. Este día festivo ha ganado popularidad a nivel mundial y muchos minoristas locales e internacionales inician sus ventas antes del Black Friday para generar expectación por el Día D el 29 de noviembre. A medida que más usuarios acuden en línea para buscar ofertas, los anunciantes querrán aprovecharlo al máximo buscando ofertas. inventario de anuncios de calidad en los sitios web de los editores. Las tasas de eCPM y los ingresos suelen dispararse durante este período, ya que los compradores están dispuestos a pagar un eCPM más alto si los usuarios de un sitio tienen una mayor intención de compra.
Desde 2006, Scott ha estado a cargo de OzBargain, un sitio que muchos usuarios visitarán para buscar ofertas en preparación para una de las mayores ventas del año. Publift entrevista a Scott sobre cómo se prepara OzBargain para este ajetreado fin de semana y cómo otros editores pueden maximizar sus ingresos por publicidad durante este período.
- Why is Black Friday such an important day for online businesses specifically?
With Black Friday (plus the week leading into it and the Cyber Monday afterward), it's the time of the year where consumers all get online looking for bargains, with the intent to purchase. As we don't have Thanksgiving here in Australia and most brick and mortar shops don't do Black Friday promotions, that means most sales are done online.
- What are the key user activities that you notice a few weeks leading up to the shopping season?
Users are anticipating those upcoming sales. They join discussion forums speculating about the bargains. There will also be an increasing number of discussions over hot products or users' wish lists. Users will also be checking last year's Black Friday sale to get an idea of the hottest bargains.
- What are the key metrics publishers should look at when making plans for the season?
For us, it's pretty much just the unique users, sessions, and pageviews — set targets and try to beat it.
- How far ahead should businesses start planning for Black Friday?
This depends on the importance of Black Friday to the business. As it's the biggest day of the year for some publishers, many start preparing right after the previous year's Black Friday has ended. OzBargain.com.au usually starts preparing during the quieter months of August to October.
- What exactly can you do to be ready for it?
Search engine optimization (SEO) — we make sure all Black Friday/Cyber Monday related pages are ready weeks before the event and ensure internal links point to the right page. Social media — we engage with our community on other social media platforms and direct them onto our Black Friday landing pages. Setting expectations of existing users — we kick-start discussions on Black Friday at least a week before the event. Make sure hosting/servers have enough capacity to handle the extra load. Lots of coffee on the day!
- What do you do with the extra traffic?
I will be glued to the server monitor throughout Friday to ensure the website stays up. Hopefully, the extra traffic will be converted to our newsletter subscribers or even members.
- And what about suppliers and partners — what is their role in preparing for it?
Make sure every party in the stack works flawlessly on the day. As a publisher, the seller side of the ad stack will also get increased impressions and will need to make sure ads are filled. Hosting is also crucial — make sure your resources are scalable and new resources can be deployed when needed.
- What are some other challenges you face with Black Friday?
One challenge that happens again and again over the years is making sure the website is keeping up with the traffic. Websites and tech stack evolve every year. Usually, many new features are added but not everything has been tested under the load. Another challenge with the community is finding out how to turn the increased traffic on Black Friday into regular users.
- Any notable learnings from past Black Fridays?
Get the preparation started early. Don't underestimate the traffic and have someone technical monitoring the health of your website!
- How is Publift helping you make the most of Black Friday?
With Publift taking care of monetization and related optimization, we can focus on our core business of publishing and managing an online community. Instead of dealing with the advertisers, we can put our effort into dealing with the real users of the website.