CASE STUDY (part 2): The big spenders and the big winners – Sponsored Product Ads on Black Friday
Following our last post about the volume and effectiveness of Sponsored Product Ads on Black Friday here is the second part of the study – Which product categories were the most competitive, who spent the most on Sponsored Product Ads and who got the best return on ad spend (ROAS).
As mentioned in the last post the number of Sponsored Product Ads that were served during Black Friday was double than the average, first of all due to the fact that there were more shoppers and page views and second because there was an increase in the number of brands and sellers that ran Sponsored Product Ads and an increase in their budgets.
The top 10 categories with the largest number of Sponsored Product Ads impressions on Black Friday were mobile Phones (including accessories) which was responsible for almost 20% of the ad spent and total sponsored product ads impressions, followed by furniture (sofas, beds etc), Home & Garden electronics (vacuum cleaners, kitchen accessories etc), home décor, toys, bed & bath, Audio & video (TV’s, headphones etc), luggage, fashion and video games.
The Bed & Bath and Home & Garden electronics categories were the most competitive and reached the highest average PPC, although the biggest increase in the PPC (compared to average Fridays) was in the Audio & video categories.
Video games and fashion got the highest conversion rates. The fashion category and the Bed & Bath category more than doubled their average conversion rate (compared to regular Fridays). Furniture and Bed & bath had the lowest conversion rate (although as mentioned it was still much higher than regular).
Overall the Return on Ad Spend was double than the average meaning that the Sponsored Product ads were twice more effective than usual.
Return On Ad Spend
The mobile phones category had the highest return on ad spend (ROAS), reaching an average of more than 5,000 with smartphones reaching 7,000 (more than double than regular days) and accesories reaching only 600 (still 50% higher than regular) The second best ROAS category was Home electronics and next in line were video games, Bed & Bath, Furniture and the rest.
The results once again demonstrate that Black Friday was beneficial not only for the shoppers but mostly for the sellers and brands who were able to reach a much higher than average ROAS and conversions, even when offering high competition and low margin products.
Back to the first part.
