Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) in 2024 once again set new records, confirming the resilience of both brands and consumers amid a complex economic landscape. This year, despite easing inflation and rising consumer confidence, financial caution remained a factor. Rising energy costs, services inflation, and mortgage renewals continued to influence purchasing decisions, prompting shoppers to be more selective. What were the key trends and strategies from BFCM 2024 - from creative approaches, affiliate marketing, on-site optimisation, and performance highlights?

Advertising on Meta can be challenging for brands in smaller markets with limited testing budgets. To optimise catalogue sale ads, it’s essential to streamline your approach in order to enhance conversions, sales, and ROAS. One effective strategy is using country override feeds, which allows brands to consolidate their efforts into a single product catalogue.

In a modern eCommerce environment, pricing strategies and wholesale influence play a key role in shaping consumer behaviour and, ultimately, conversion rates. From dynamic pricing to tiered discount structures, brands can leverage various approaches to maximise profit margins, but these strategies can sometimes backfire, leading to price sensitivity or hesitancy at the checkout. As brands navigate these challenges, paid media strategies can be powerful tools to counteract the negative effects of pricing dynamics.

Online conversion rates can vary due to numerous factors, such as product availability and sizing, seasonal trends, and competitor pricing strategies. The importance of accurate product availability in conversion rate optimisation is often underestimated but is crucial. As an ecommerce store owner or marketer, it's vital to understand that stockouts, overstocks, and inaccurate inventory levels can significantly impact your conversion rate.

Short videos, ranging from five to ninety seconds, have emerged as powerful tools for sharing impactful messages with consumers. Initially originating on TikTok, short videos have quickly been incorporated into Instagram and YouTube through the introduction of Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts.

When using paid media strategies to grow your brand and acquire new customers, an often overlooked strategy is top of the funnel lead generation. As brands are looking for ways to reduce reliance on direct response campaigns, lead generation can be a key element of paid media activity that spans across the funnel.