US retailers plan to allocate over 6 billion US dollars in digital advertising for Black Friday

Black Friday is the most important day of the year for US retailers, which is why many of them plan to spend most of their digital advertising budget during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend. That’s according to a survey with 100 senior digital advertising executives, conducted by advertising software company Nanigans.

Surveyors intend to allocate almost 6 billion US dollars in digital ads during this four-day period, while the total spending on digital ads is forecasted to exceed 23 billion US dollars in 2018. 63 percent of their budget will be spend on Friday alone. While a little more than half of respondents said they intend to spend the same amount on digital advertising they did last year, the remaining 48 percent is planning to increase the spending on ads.

But where will they be advertising? Facebook and Google is where advertisers are putting most of their dollars, with Google getting 35 percent of their investments and Facebook, 18 percent. However, Amazon is a close third, with 15 percent of their budget. “Nearly half of US consumers now start their product search on Amazon”, explained Nanigans’ founder and CEO, Ric Calvillo, in a statement. However, Calvillo stresses it is unlikely Amazon will be able to take Facebook and Google’s place, considering the marketplace is both an e-commerce ad platform and a competitor.

Last but not least, the study analyzed when most retailers choose to advertise. 47 percent of surveyors said they prefer to start their digital advertising efforts early in the season, with 64 percent of them implementing campaigns before Halloween. While starting early is important, Nanigans suggests them to pay just as much attention to last-minute shoppers: only 5 percent of respondents target this significant group of consumers, which the company qualifies as a “missed opportunity”.