Data Drop: Black Friday – Cyber Monday 2022

Holiday promotions – can’t live with them, can’t live without them. Black Friday/Cyber Monday (BFCM) is the most wonderful time of the year for brands to get down to business. With the week of glorious deals behind us, Power Digital took a look under the hood to see how brands in our portfolio performed this BFCM season. 

Using our proprietary technology, nova, we uncovered compelling insights across swaths of advertiser data. The results? Even with increased promotions and a challenging economy, Power Digital’s clients outperformed last year’s BFCM (*mic drop*). 

Now, what about those insights? Grab a slice of panettone and strap in for the 2022 recap of BFCM findings straight from nova.

The high-level lowdown

Marketing is becoming more efficient across the board as a significant growth lever. This BFCM underscored that – take a peek at the numbers. 

• Brands spent -18% less on paid media than last BFCM so far…
• …but generated 4% more revenue than in 2021.
• Average Order Value (AOV) dropped 1.9% YoY, meaning consumers are still spending but are slightly more conservative about how much.
• Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) decreased by -19% YoY.
• Marketing Effectiveness Ratio (MER), calculated by total revenue divided by total spend, was at 8.37 (+21% YoY), meaning that this year, brands got more bang for their buck.
• Cyber Monday was the softest day of this time period.

What can we learn from brands over BFCM?

Advertisers ran a tight ship this season. Zoom in on major learnings across brands and BFCM promotions had some surprising findings. Straight from our paid social team – these are the highlights.  

• Various growth brands had record revenue days.
• Scaling evergreen creatives/campaigns was key for most accounts, and in some cases, evergreen creative outperformed BFCM creatives.
• Even though some brands launched sales early this year, Friday was still the strongest day.
• Black Friday performance was strong even for brands that were NOT running promotions and focused more on exclusive drops or limited edition products.
• Less variance in the promotions per day compared to last year when there were different promos on different days.

Now for the TikTok edit

How did TikTok fare this BFCM season? The short answer: exquisitely. The channel quickly took its place in the mix, driving record revenue for Power Digital’s clients. Here’s what went down: 

• TikTok spend increased by +170% YoY, meaning that brands are starting to see the value in this channel.
• CPMs from TikTok averaged at around $10.88 (up +26% YoY), which is -53% lower than the Meta CPM seen across Power Digital’s greater client roster, meaning that TikTok ads got in front of more people at a lower cost than other platforms.
• In-platform and last-click GA ROAS during this Black Friday was higher than ever. On average, our clients scaled their daily budgets by more than 40% while ROAS increased by +54% compared to the month leading up to the Black Friday weekend.
• Creative learnings: trending content that used credit card sounds drove great engagement and ROAS, evergreen content that included a countdown sticker or a display card highlighting the discounts also saw great performance and was an easy way to iterate upon existing creative content. For some brands, warehouse or behind-the-scenes ads gained popularity as they drove great engagement and returns.

Looking for a partner to help you drive sales in the new year? Send us a quick note, and we’ll be in touch.