Limited-time sales events are a great way to create urgency and push in-market shoppers to close a deal before the month’s end. Whether it’s for Black Friday or a clearance promotion, they require planning and proper execution to be successful.
These sales events are typically tied to a calendar-based holiday or a seasonal event, yet we find there are many last-minute requests to change creative or create urgent, last-minute campaigns. We know you can’t plan for everything, and you might be picking up on a theme already, but the more notice and planning time you can allocate, the better!
The challenge with entirely new campaigns with a limited time duration is that digital advertising campaigns on Google, Meta, and TikTok have to enter and exit a learning phase when they’re launched. Learning phases can last from 3-7 days during which spending is limited, and the ad platform is working to understand the campaign objective and your site – meaning a campaign may not deliver any impressions during the learning phase.
The good news is that a campaign for an event or promotion should be multi-faceted and it’s never been easier to get in front of your audience than it is today. We’ve put together a list of our best practices for launching a limited-time promotion or event to help you get started and make more of an impact, faster!
What can you do at the dealership?
- Use a series of organic posts on social media then boost them (or your provider can boost them) – the squeaky wheel gets the grease! Think variety when it comes to these posts, record simple videos of your team talking about the promotion or sale and/or use a platform like Canva to create some unique, professional posts very quickly.
- Create a Facebook event on your page and boost the event with a small budget.
- Launch a video on TikTok following their simple formula: highlight the event, showcase the unique selling proposition, and have a clear call to action.
- Set up an email & text campaign to your database (the best way to mine opportunities and leverage any recent leads).
- Update the banners on your VDPs, SRPs, and home page on your website to match the promotion and messaging.
What can sMedia do to help you with this promotion?
- We can push a broadcast (text-based ad copy update with a set time frame) to your existing relevant campaigns with an automatic end date.
- We can update banners on your Automotive Inventory Ad (AIA) campaigns to reflect the current promotion. This is where time and planning come in, as we’ll need 3 to 5 business days to create, approve, and launch these.
- We can boost your organic posts for you – just send us the link to the post you made and let us know what budget you’d like to use and the duration of the event.
- We can launch a custom static campaign on Meta to promote your event but we recommend starting the ad ahead of the event kickoff to clear the learning phase and build momentum heading into the event. We still want to ensure that your website and organic social messaging reflect the promotion.
- We can create and launch an Image or Video Carousel Ad on TikTok to increase exposure and further build that momentum.
- If you’re a Smart Offer customer we can add a Smart Offer to the relevant sections of your site or even your home page to generate leads for the event. You could even consider a pre-event registration form enticing customers to register for the event early so you capture in-market leads and have a dedicated event lead list ready to go before the event even starts. You could also tie a specific offer to your campaign, that triggers on that campaign’s unique UTM.
Remember, we’re here to help as your partner and digital marketing advisors but we need time on our side! If you want to make the most of your efforts (and marketing dollars) consider the following best practices and get our team involved in the early stages of your planning and implementation.
Holiday and Special Event Best Practices:
- Consider and leverage all of your channels to plan for cohesive messaging and maximum impact:
a.) Organic Social
b.) Website Content
c.) Paid Social
d.) Paid Search
e.) Paid Video
f.) Email/SMS
g.) Radio
h.) Billboards - Plan your promotion ahead of time (you already know what holidays are happening next year) and get the info to the appropriate vendors at least 1 week before the start date. This will allow time to design, approve, and launch your posts and ads.
- Launch early and have a set budget. Starting a campaign that includes organic and paid ads ahead of your event creates momentum and builds awareness. Give yourself a big enough budget to quickly ramp out of the learning phase and deliver impactful results while the campaign runs. A $200 budget for a week-long event will not do. Consider a minimum ad budget of $100/day per platform.
