How to boost your Black Friday sales with contextual AI

This November, Black Friday is back, bringing significant opportunities for brands that aim to boost their sales. By analyzing trends of this event with the help of contextual AI, valuable insights are uncovered to help design campaigns that effectively reach a broader audience.

The busiest shopping day of the year

Black Friday, which originates from the United States, has gained global recognition with countries participating in the event worldwide. It marks the busiest shopping day of the year in many nations, and is known for significant sales, discounts, and attractive prices. In 2022, consumers collectively spent a remarkable $9.12bn on Black Friday, representing a 2.3% increase from the previous year.

Stay relevant with popular topics

During Black Friday, many articles are published, but not all receive significant readership. This is because consumer interests tend to revolve around specific topics. By aligning themselves with popular Black Friday topics, brands increase their chance to maintain relevance and engage broader audiences.

Seedtag's contextual AI, Liz, understands Black Friday topics much like a person would do and goes far beyond superficial analysis. Liz recognizes connections between articles and matches users with content interesting to them. It studies over 80 million articles daily, identifying valuable trends and areas of interest for advertisers. Thanks to its extensive dataset, Liz is able to deliver Seedtag’s Black Friday Insights.

According to Seedtag’s Black Friday Insights, the categories that get the most attention during Black Friday are beauty, fashion and tech. This aligns with the observed consumer spending trends of Black Friday in 2022, where 53% of consumers purchased clothing, shoes, and accessories, while 49% purchased electronics. Below, specific details about each category are listed. By incorporating these Black Friday insights into their campaigns, brands are more likely to reach a broader audience.

Natural beauty's dominance on Black Friday

According to Seedtag’s Black Friday Insights, makeup and fragrances are the most popular topics within the beauty category during Black Friday. Each appears in almost 40% of the articles. In contrast, sustainability is not a relevant feature for users, but natural and organic are. This corresponds with the current trend of users seeking health through nature.

Footwear's high profile in Black Friday fashion

Seedtag’s Black Friday Insights have found that celebrities are highly influential during Black Friday. As much as 30% of the fashion articles revolve around them. Also, footwear is a topic that attracts attention, and is mentioned in 36% of the fashion articles. Additionally, comfort is twice as relevant as general fashion content, making it the main topic of fashion.

Laptops' uplift in Black Friday tech

As outlined in Seedtag’s Black Friday Insights, the most uplifted tech product during Black Friday is laptops. It shows up six times more than average. In all industries, consumer tech is the category where deals and discounts gain the most interest. Tech-content is also populated with brands. 73% of the visits go to articles that mention one of the top 10 most mentioned brands.

Why contextual AI is the key to a successful Black Friday

As you're aware, contextual AI plays a crucial role in delivering these Black Friday insights. But it's important to note that its potential goes far beyond mere insights, as it can significantly empower brands to enhance their sales. For example, a study by Silverpush showed that people are 50% more likely to click on contextual ads than on non-contextual ads. The same study also found that 74% of marketers use contextual data to improve their advertising.

Contextual AI provides brands with several attractive capabilities for Black Friday marketing. It strategically displays ads to individuals within their target audience when they’re actively engaging with relevant content. For instance, if you're reading an article about Black Friday shoe deals, you'll likely be displayed ads showcasing the latest trending sneaker-models.

Not using contextual AI risks upsetting consumers, as 52% of consumers get frustrated when receiving communications and offers that aren't relevant to them.

Based on this information, contextual AI enables brands to connect with consumers when they are most interested in their offerings, and reduces the risk of frustrating potential customers with irrelevant messages. Adopting a contextual approach for your Black Friday campaigns this year is bound to boost your sales.