How do DTC brands keep Google Ads performance from dropping after Black Friday?

Zavire, Senior Google Media Buyer at Pilothouse, explains why Google results slump once the sale ends. Shoppers have already bought, and every bid, budget, ad and landing page change you made for the sale added risk to the account in the same short window. Conversion lag then hides what worked for days. He covers how to use seasonality adjustments and Google’s Promotion Mode beta so Smart Bidding paces through the sale, why he moves budgets and ROAS targets in small steps, and how to run the weeks after Cyber Monday when bigger brands switch their ads off.

Work with Pilothouse: https://dtcnews.link/pilothouse

Key takeaways:

– Your bidding burns budget early or underspends during the sale. Forecast the conversion rate lift you expect and enter it as a seasonality adjustment, so Smart Bidding knows the spike is coming and paces evenly through the event.

– You reached for a data exclusion. Exclusions tell Google to ignore a period, which suits broken conversion tracking. For a planned sale, Zavire uses seasonality adjustments.

– You have no forecast to start from. Use last year’s BFCM first, then any other sale you have run, like Memorial Day, Labor Day or a launch, then public case studies from similar brands. A rough number entered beats no adjustment at all.

– Nobody can babysit the account all weekend. Promotion Mode, a Google Ads beta, sets a temporary ROAS target and extra budget for the event and reverts on its own when it ends.

– Every change risks a new learning phase. Raise budgets and ROAS targets in steps, start well before the sale, and put new ads inside campaigns that already have history rather than launching new ones.

– Your audience lists are out of date. Refresh your customer match lists, or connect Shopify’s audiences, before the sale starts.

– Your post-sale drop is steeper than it needs to be. Bring budgets and ROAS targets back in steps too, and keep Demand Gen running with non-sale messaging through your shipping cutoff.

– Competitors go dark after Cyber Monday. Many brands turn their ads off right after the sale, which can open a window for cheaper new customers with a smaller offer or a gift with purchase.

About the guest:

Zavire is a Senior Google Media Buyer at Pilothouse, the performance marketing agency behind DTC, where he runs paid search and shopping for ecommerce brands.

https://pilothouse.co

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Timestamps:

02:00 Why Google Ads performance drops after BFCM

06:00 Forecasting and adjusting budgets for Black Friday

08:00 Using Google Ads seasonality adjustments

12:00 How Google Ads Promo Mode works

14:00 Avoiding campaign disruptions and post-BFCM performance drops