Top Paid Search Advertisers Black Friday-Cyber Monday 2016

To assess paid search leadership over the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend, Kantar Media's AdGooroo examined U.S. Google Desktop activity on three separate keyword groups from November 25 (Black Friday) to November 28 (Cyber Monday):

• 2500 Top Retail Product Keywords
• 161 Black Friday-Related Keywords
• 70 Cyber Monday-Related Keywords

Performance on 2500 Top Retail Product Keywords

AdGooroo examined paid search activity on 2500 top retail product keywords from Black Friday through Cyber Monday and saw a significant shift in spend from text ads to product listing ads this year compared to the same period in 2015. According to AdGooroo data, advertisers sponsoring the 2500 retail product keywords spent $15.4 million on U.S. Google desktop text ads and $2.9 million on U.S. Google desktop product listing ads during Black Friday-Cyber Monday in 2015. Over the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend this year, advertisers spent $8.9 million on U.S. Google desktop text ads and $9.6 million on U.S. Google desktop product listing ads. One reason for the shift may be the fact that Google dropped text ads on the right rail of its search results pages in February this year, and additionally appears to be experimenting with putting more product listing ads on its results pages, including in the right rail. Retail advertisers may have also reacted to the elimination of right rail ads by purposefully shifting their strategy to focus more on product listing ads. Amazon led in text ad clicks on the 2500 retail product keywords over the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend, with a 6.3% click share, followed by JCPenney (5.9%), Macy’s (5.4%), Target (3.0%) and Kohl’s (3.0%) rounding out the Top 5. Walmart led in product listing ad clicks on the 2500 retail product keywords, with an 8.1% click share, followed by Kohl’s (6.7%), Best Buy (6.6%), Target (4.1%) and Macy’s (3.8%) filling out the Top 5.

Performance on 161 Black Friday-Related Keywords

To provide a fuller picture of the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend, AdGooroo also examined U.S. Google desktop text ad clicks on 161 Black Friday-related keywords: Best Buy led with an 11.8% click share on the Black Friday keyword group over the extended weekend, followed by Target (10.9%), vacuum brand Dyson (8.5%), The Home Depot (6.7%) and Macy’s (5.2%). However, the picture changes somewhat when we examined clicks on the keyword group just on Black Friday itself (November 25): Best Buy still led the field, but with a far higher click share, 20.6%. Kohl’s (11.5%), Walmart (10.0%) and JCPenney (6.2%) also had a far higher share of clicks on the actual Black Friday sale day than they did over the extended Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend, when none made the Top 5 ranking, while Target had a lower share of clicks, 10% on Black Friday vs. 10.9% over the extended weekend.

Performance on 70 Cyber Monday-Related Keywords

Finally, AdGooroo examined U.S. Google desktop text ad activity on 70 Cyber Monday-specific keywords over the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend and on Cyber Monday itself, November 28.   Best Buy again led in clicks on the 70 Cyber Monday keywords, with an 18.1% click share over the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend and a 24% click share on Cyber Monday itself. Express made a strong showing on the Cyber Monday keyword group with a 9.8% click share over the weekend and a 12.3% click share on Cyber Monday. Amazon generated a 9.4% click share over the weekend and a 17.8% share on Cyber Monday, while Kohl’s had 9.0% weekend click share and a 7.7% Cyber Monday click share. Walmart generated 6.6% of clicks on the keyword group over the long weekend and 12.3% of clicks on Cyber Monday itself.   Note: The results of this study are limited to U.S. Google desktop text ad and product listing ad activity on the 3 keyword groups cited above. Advertisers may be sponsoring additional keywords that, if measured, would change the findings on this study. Mobile search was not included in this study.