Every year, Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales kick off the Holiday season. Companies offer Holiday deals on their products to draw in more customers during the gift giving season. As the Holidays fast approach, let’s look back at Cyber Monday and Black Friday ads throughout the years. In this analysis, AdImpact will use airings data to examine ads that mention Black Friday and Cyber Monday during the week before Black Friday as well as throughout the year from 2020 to 2022.
In the week leading up to Black Friday, the top 3 advertisers remain consistent from 2020 to 2022. When examining Black Friday ads each year during this time, we can see that Macy’s has the most airings by advertiser at 143,385 airings, then Ashley Home at 72,289 airings, and finally Walmart at 67,040 airings.
Macy’s released the 2 most aired ads during the week of Black Friday in 2020, 2021, and 2022. The most aired Black Friday ad in 2020 was this Macy’s ad with 17,801 airings. In 2021, the most aired ad was again a Macy’s ad with 26,665 airings. In 2022, this ad from Target took the crown with 23,050 airings. While there were no specific prices listed in the Target ad, their Black Friday deals page this year features 30-60% off. This would make the 2022 Black Friday ad the lowest sales offering of the group. However, this change becomes less drastic when examining the same advertiser across all 3 years. The most aired Macy’s ad of 2022 had 17,270 airings. While 2022 did feature Macy’s lowest mentioned deal yet at 40% off, their sales range from 40-65% off featured items were similar to 2020 offerings. Interestingly, 2021 had the highest deals with 63-86% off items featured in their ad. Finally, 2020 came in second with 50% off products featured in their spot.
During the week leading up to Black Friday, airings increased steadily each year. In 2020, there were 250,011 airings, in 2021 there were 334,574 airings, and 2022 had 358,565 airings. Many advertisers concentrate their Black Friday ads into one week of the year. In fact, 36%-39% of all Black Friday airings from 2020 to 2022 occur during the week of Black Friday.
Each year, Black Friday ads dominate during this week. Overall, from 2020 to 2022 there were 939,203 Black Friday airings compared to 717 Cyber Monday airings. Many advertisers chose to mention both deals in their ads, with 170 concurrent airings in 2020, 1,113 in 2021, and 2,664 in 2022.
The prevalence of Black Friday ads carries over when looking at airings data throughout the year. Of ads that include either Black Friday or Cyber Monday, only 2.5% of airings mention Cyber Monday in 2020, compared 2.7% in 2021, and 2.3% in 2022. The number of Black Friday airings also increases steadily each year, with 683,088 airings in 2020, 867,975 airings in 2021, and 996,041 airings in 2022. However, recently Cyber Monday airings have relatively stagnated. In 2020 there were 17,711 airings during the year, 23,775 airings in 2021, and 23,659 airings in 2022.
Taken together, we can see that Black Friday ads are far more prominent than Cyber Monday ads each year. The number of Black Friday airings increases each year, compared to the stagnant growth of Cyber Monday. The top advertisers dominate every year, and although Black Friday deals are lower this year, they are generally in line with previous deals when the advertiser remains consistent. AdImpact will continue to track advertising data to see if Black Friday retains its dominance going forward, or if Cyber Monday is able to capitalize on the rapidly growing ecommerce industry.
To learn more about seasonal sales promotions and ad intelligence, check out our Prime Day blog here.
