Now that the dust has settled, it’s time to review results of the Turkey 5 (T5) shopping event that commenced on Thanksgiving, picked up serious steam on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday, before concluding on Cyber Monday.
In this blog post we have:
- Identified some ‘big picture’ metrics to provide some context for T5 performance on the Amazon marketplace.
- Aggregated T5 Amazon sales and advertising results for a broad selection of Bobsled clients (Beauty & Personal Care, Clothing & Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry, Electronics, Grocery & Gourmet, Home & Kitchen, Pet Supplies, Sports & Outdoors, Baby Products, Garden & Outdoor)
- Shared early T5 takeaways and insights from ad tech leader Pacvue
Interested in benchmarking your own T5 performance? Read on!
Macro T5 Performance Data
According to Adobe, overall Turkey 5 performance was strong:
- US consumers spent $9B online on Black Friday, up 21.6% compared to 2019.
- Smartphones continued to account for an increasing proportion of online sales, with this year’s total Black Friday mobile sales up 25.3% YOY to $3.6B
- Unsurprisingly, due to ongoing social distancing precautions, alternative delivery methods such as in-store and curbside pickup were up 52% YOY.
| Total Revenue ($B) | YOY Growth (%) | |
| Thanksgiving | $5.1B | 21.50% |
| Black Friday | $9.03B | 21.60% |
| Small Business Saturday | $4.68B | 30.19% |
| Cyber Monday | $10.84B | 15.10% |
Source: Adobe
Bobsled Client T5 Amazon Sales Performance Data
A broad sample of 30 Bobsled clients saw:
- Total sales boost of +178.81% on Turkey 5 2020 vs Turkey 5 2019
- Total sales boost of +189.02% on Turkey 5 vs same 5-day sales period two weeks prior
Beauty & Personal Care clients
- Up 47.90% vs same 5-day sales period two weeks prior
- Up 55.73% vs Turkey 5 2019
- Up 51.2% vs daily average sales for past month
Clothing, Shoes and Jewelry clients
- Up 107.98% vs same 5-day sales period two weeks prior
- Up 49.65% vs Turkey 5 2019
- Up 114.51% vs daily average sales for past month
Electronics clients
- Up 31.64% vs same 5-day sales period two weeks prior
- Up 40.82% vs Turkey 5 2019
- Up 68.96% vs daily average sales for past month
Grocery & Gourmet clients
- Up 64.51% vs same 5-day sales period two weeks prior
- Up 183.52% vs Turkey 5 2019
- Up 46.67% vs daily average sales for past month
Home & Kitchen clients
- Up 51.83% vs same 5-day sales period two weeks prior
- Up 273.25% vs Turkey 5 2019
- Up 19.88% vs daily average sales for past month
Pet Supplies clients
- Up 52.29% vs same 5-day sales period two weeks prior
- Up 58.54% vs Turkey 5 2019
- Up 36.33% vs daily average sales for past month
Sports & Outdoors clients
- Up 166.28% vs same 5-day sales period two weeks prior
- Up 162.69% vs Turkey 5 2019
- Up 62.23% vs daily average sales for past month
Bobsled Client T5 Amazon PPC Performance Data
As predicted, PPC spend and sales boosted in tandem across T5.
A broad sample of 30 Bobsled clients saw:
- Average daily PPC spend boosted by +188.92% on Turkey 5 2020 vs month prior
- Average daily PPC sales boosted by +173.34% on Turkey 5 2020 vs month prior
Baby Products clients
- T5 average daily PPC spend increased by 158.8% vs the daily average over 30 days before T5
- T5 average daily sales from PPC increased by 135.83% vs the daily average over 30 days before T5
Beauty & Personal Care clients
- T5 average daily PPC spend increased by 149.66% vs the daily average over 30 days before T5
- T5 average daily sales from PPC increased by 117.2% vs the daily average over 30 days before T5
Electronics clients
- T5 average daily PPC spend increased by 181.85% vs the daily average over 30 days before T5
- T5 average daily sales from PPC increased by 136.2% vs the daily average over 30 days before T5
Garden & Outdoor clients
- T5 average daily PPC spend increased by 238.56% vs the daily average over 30 days before T5
- T5 average daily sales from PPC increased by 168.93% vs the daily average over 30 days before T5
Grocery & Gourmet clients
- T5 average daily PPC spend increased by 232.96% vs the daily average over 30 days before T5
- T5 average daily sales from PPC increased by 242.13% vs the daily average over 30 days before T5
Home & Kitchen clients
- T5 average daily PPC spend increased by 166.59% vs the daily average over 30 days before T5
- T5 average daily sales from PPC increased by 138.42% vs the daily average over 30 days before T5
Sports & Outdoors clients
- T5 average daily PPC spend increased by 119.02% vs the daily average over 30 days before T5
- T5 average daily sales from PPC increased by 135.6% vs the daily average over 30 days before T5
Early T5 Insights From Pacvue
Adam Hutchinson, Director of Marketing at Bobsled’s ad tech partner Pacvue, has shared the following T5 insights based on first-party data across hundreds of advertisers.
Takeaways
- Black Friday and Cyber Monday both had record years, but the growth rate and performance was less impressive than previous years. In particular, Cyber Monday advertising was less efficient this year, and brands experienced a smaller return on their ad spend than expected.
- Having Prime Day in October seems to have negatively impacted Cyber 5 performance.
Data Insights
- Average spend on Sponsored Products advertising was up 37% on Black Friday and 35% on Cyber Monday, year over year. This is a smaller year-over-year growth rate than experienced in 2019, which saw 98% and 116% year-over-year growth respectively.
- Sponsored Brand ad spending was more pronounced, with 95% growth year-over-year on Black Friday and 122% on Cyber Monday. This aligns with the overall trend Pacvue saw in 2020, in which Sponsored Brands saw accelerated growth as Amazon made investments in this ad type and more brands leaned in.
- Both Sponsored Product and Sponsored Brand ad spending followed similar curves to the previous two year, with spend rising the day before Thanksgiving and remaining elevated over the Cyber 5 weekend.
- Interestingly, Cost-per-Click (CPC) on Black Friday did not follow the same trend as last year. Sponsored Brand CPC only rose 20.67% week-over-week and grew a mere 1.69% year-over-year on Black Friday. Cyber Monday CPCs were up only 13.23% year-over-year. The Saturday and Sunday between Black Friday and Cyber Monday saw CPCs down 7% and 21% in 2020 versus 2019.
- While less pronounced than Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Products also saw a smaller CPC growth this year, up 16.20% year-over-year on Black Friday and 20.13% on Cyber Monday. Both days had experienced yearly growth of over 30% in 2019.
- Advertisers typically see a lower ACoS (and thus, higher ROAS) on Black Friday and Cyber Monday compared to the prior week, since conversion rate increases. 2020 did not follow this trend. Sponsored Product ACoS decreased only 6.81% week-over-week on Black Friday, and ACoS increased on Cyber Monday by 15.19% week-over-week. Similarly, Sponsored Brand ACoS decreased 17.32% on Black Friday, but increased over the weekend and remained elevated up 1.46% week-over-week on Cyber Monday.
NEED HELP REVIEWING YOUR TURKEY 5 PERFORMANCE?
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Posted in Amazon Account Management