2014 Thanksgiving weekend_trends

Thanksgiving Weekend: Results, Trends, Insights

About NetElixir

Mission: To Help Digital Marketers Succeed Online.

Incorporated: 2005.

Global Offices: Princeton (HQ). London. Hyderabad.

Team: 75+ fanatically analytical search marketers with over

5.5 MM hours of hands-on retail search marketing

experience.

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Client List

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About NetElixir University

NetElixir University was launched in 2012 with a vision of “democratizing the

digital marketing industry through exceptional knowledge and expertise

sharing.”

Our goal is to share the best practices in retail + digital marketing with 10,000

businesses worldwide by 2015.

NetElixir University

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About Udayan Bose

Founder & CEO, NetElixir.

Founded PartyBingo.com (PartyGaming, Plc).

Guest Lecturer:

• Johnson School of Management, Cornell University.

• City University of New York, Baruch.

• Indian School of Business.

RESULTS: IMPRESSIONS, CLICKS, CONVERSIONS

5 INTERESTING INSIGHTS

HOLIDAY MARKETING CALENDAR

TOPICS

Basis of Our Analysis

50,000,000+ Paid Search Impressions Analyzed

Holiday Marketing Calendar

• 12 Holiday Categories.

• Nov.27-Dec1,2014 (Thanksgiving Day – Cyber Monday).

• Hourly Tracking of Results.

• Estimates based on analysis of 2011-2013 data.

• Re-calibration because of an “abnormal start to holiday season”.

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Key Metrics Table (Y/Y Comparison)

Y/Y Change (%)

Impressions 21%

Conversions 14%

AOV 0.6%

CPC, Google ($) -7.2%

Y/Y decline in CPC was due to a

higher % of mobile searches.

Average mobile CPCs are 15-18%

lower than non-mobile clicks.

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When Did Shoppers Search and When Did They Buy?

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0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

Hourly Contribution - Black Friday

Impressions Clicks Orders

Shouldn’t the shoppers be

in stores during these

hours?

Maybe shoppers had checked

their local store deals on

Thanksgiving Day and were

not impressed.

Maybe the possibility of better deals online caused this shift.

In any case, there appears to be clear evidence that buyer behavior

is changing..

Or, has it changed?

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When Did Shoppers Search and When Did They Buy?

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1.00%

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6.00%

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10.00%

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

Hourly Contribution - Cyber Monday

Impressions Clicks Orders

44% of all online

purchases happened

between 6pm-midnight.

11am-3pm was a strong

“search-period”.

However, the purchases

happened post office

hours.

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Thanksgiving Day Continues to Gain Importance as a Big Shopping Day

17%

20%

37%

26%

Impressions

21%

26%28%

25%

Clicks

17%

25%

35%

23%

Orders

From less than 10% of total Thanksgiving weekend sales just two years back (2012) to

17% this year... the emergence of Thanksgiving Day as a key shopping day has been dramatic.

In 2012, Black Friday sales were 3.7x higher than Thanksgiving Day sales.

This year, that ratio dropped to 1.4x.

Thanksgiving

Black Friday

Cyber Monday

Weekend

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Unique Observation #1

Sophisticated Marketers: Changing Promo Based on Real-Time ROAS Tracking

Predictive Analytics helps retailers in finding the right time to introduce the appropriate deals

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Unique Observation #2

Retargeting & Gmail Sponsored Ads Delivered Exceptional Results.

59% of online shopping occurred outside of working hours on Cyber Monday

Evenings, 6 PM to Midnight, turned out to be

the best converting hours.

RLSA Campaigns were very impactful in

converting visitors that had visited the site

but didn’t buy earlier.

Gmail Sponsored Ads delivered an incredible

R/C of 4x (normally, less than 2x).

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Unique Observation #3

Mobile Search Queries Go “Bottom-of-Funnel”

Arguably, the most interesting observation was

the increase in search query length of mobile search queries.

Search Trend YoY Comparison

Avg. no. of Words in Search (All Device) -7.79%

Avg. no. of words in Desktop Searches -7.97%

Avg. no. of words in Mobile Searches 23.98%

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Unique Observation #4

Product Listing Ads on Smartphones Outperform Desktop and Tablets

CTRs for PLAs on mobiles

were higher than the desktop

counterparts on Thanksgiving,

Black Friday and Cyber

Monday.

CPCs for PLAs on

smartphones were 50% lower

than desktop. This presents an

enormous opportunity for savvy

marketers.0.00%

0.50%

1.00%

1.50%

2.00%

2.50%

3.00%

3.50%

Thanksgiving Black Friday Cyber Monday

2014 Holiday CTR : Product Listing Ads in Electronics

PCs Smartphones Tablets

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Strategic search

advertising to lower post-

purchase dissonance as

well as re-affirm the

service commitment.

Has been proven to

“lower the return rate.”

Unique Observation #5Addressing the Post-Purchase Dissonance

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Holiday Calendar 2014

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DECEMBER

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

4 5 6

7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24

Expect more frequent Promo Changes by

larger retailers. (Promo-changes by day parts)

Forecasted Y/Y CPC increase:

40%+ 25%+ 15%+

Mobile Search will be critical from 12/15-12/19.

(% mobile searches and purchases will increase

as we get to the end of holidays)

Recommend “Go Local Strategy”

from 12/20-12/23.

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NetElixir Prediction: Biggest Online Shopping

Day in December: 12/15

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Summary

• Overall 14% Y/Y growth in online sales over Thanksgiving weekend.

• Change in consumer behavior is quite clear based on Black Friday mid-day spike in

searches and orders when shoppers are supposed to be in stores.

• Thanksgiving Day is cannibalizing Black Friday sales. But, is it also causing

“shopping fatigue”?

• Increase in mobile search query length indicates that mobile is also moving down

the search-to-purchase funnel. Thus, mobile orders accounted for over 20% of

online orders this Thanksgiving weekend.

• Re-look at your marketing plan based on NetElixir’s Holiday Calendar.

• % sales during the week of December 14 is going to hit an all time high. In fact, we

believe Dec 15 has the potential to beat Black Friday as second biggest online

shopping day for 2014.

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