Black Friday: Top Retailers Increase Holiday Ad Spend to Entice Reserved US Consumers

Key Takeaways:

• While Black Friday continues to break records, total US ad spend across the shopping category is down 15% YoY from Oct’24-Nov’24, driven by decreases within in Family & Parenting (-35% YoY), Beauty Retail (-28% YoY) and Computers & Consumer Electronics (-23%). However, when filtering US ad spend by holiday & Black Friday keywords, holiday-specific advertising increased by 4% YoY, led by a 40% YoY increase from the pet supplies category

• As a signal of its expectedly strong shopping season, Walmart’s holiday ad spend increased 60% YoY from Oct’24-Nov’24, unseating Target as the top holiday advertiser by US ad spend. Target pulled back its holiday ad spend by 55% YoY in the same period, with holiday ads now only accounting for 3% of its overall spend, down from 25% of spend in 2023

• Across the cohort of top Black Friday advertisers, DAUs on Black Friday 2024 jumped an average of 30%, 50%, and 65% DoD across app, mobile web, and desktop users, respectively. The DoD increase in app users was flat compared to Black Friday 2023, while desktop and mobile web users increased by 10ppts and 15ppts YoY, respectively

  • ST data shows that Amazon's early promotion of Black Friday deals via its week of deals (starting on 11/21/24) may have cannibalized engagement on the actual day of the event, as DAU growth on Black Friday 2024 lagged 2023 on desktop web (-13ppts), mobile web (-10ppts) and app (-2ppts)

• In contrast to time spent and DAU growth, there is a correlation to the uptick in conversion rates and the major retailers that ran holiday campaigns. In 2023, desktop conversions increased an average of 100% on Black Friday, but that number grew in 2024, up to 143% DoD, while Target’s desktop conversion rate went from 240% DoD in 2023, to a dismal 30% DoD in 2024

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