Google’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday Experiment

Originally developed last year, Google has announced it will be trialling its Promotion Extensions advertising feature in the lead up to this year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping events.

According to the Silicon-Valley tech company, instead of creating secondary ads, retailers will be able to add special offers to their existing paid campaigns. For instance, retailers will be able to add an extension advertising “30% Off” or promo codes like “$10 Discount on orders over $50”.

The experiment commenced on November 14 and is expected to run until November 27, with Google claiming that ads utilising the Promotion Extensions feature will rank highly in Google’s paid search results.

According to a Google spokesperson, the trial aims to test whether retailers are able to reach more consumers by using the ad extension. Any retailers running a paid Google ad with Black Friday and Cyber Monday labels, with ad groups targeting these holiday-themed keywords will be able to use the Promotion Extension feature.

This year, 37 percent of Australian consumers are expected to shop online during Black Friday, while 57 percent will shop both online and in-store. Aussie shoppers are also expected to drop an average of $263 on the American shopping event, which has made its way down under in recent years.

Although, this is nothing compared to shoppers across the rest of the western world, with Canadians predicted to spend $488, while Americans are expected to fork out the most cash, at $515 per person.

As a result of greater awareness and interest in Black Friday, retailers across the globe typically experience an uplift in transactions over the sale period. In 2018, New Zealand is expected to see a 261 percent boost, Australia 1764 percent and Greece a huge increase of 2600 percent.

Australian shoppers aren’t the only ones jumping on the Black Friday wave, as retailers are also offering discounts across the board to attract consumers. In Australia, Black Friday Global says the average discount will be 53 percent off in 2018, with clothing, electronics and shoes being the three most popular categories.

Last year, Black Friday was one of Australia’s biggest online shopping events. A number of local retailers – including Myer, Sephora, Portmans and David Jones – offered online and in-store Black Friday discounts. The promotional event reportedly saw Aussies drop more than $200 million in mobile purchases alone.

In Australia, Sydney had the highest percentage of Black Friday shoppers (34 percent), followed by Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and then Adelaide.

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