Rekgabile Sito is a senior analytical consultant within the Google specialist team for Sub-Saharan Africa. Sito works on automated insights and bespoke analytics to support clients to achieve their marketing objectives.
Google search interest for “Black Friday” has overtaken “Christmas” in South Africa, making it the top-searched shopping event among our major annual retail moments.1 For marketers, the months between October and January are particularly chaotic thanks to the quick succession of peak shopping events: Black Friday, Christmas, New Year’s, and back-to-school.
Here’s what South African shoppers are looking for this season — and how marketers can cut through the noise during the biggest moment of the year in retail.
Focus your Black Friday ad spend between Tuesday and Friday
Tuesdays saw the highest increase in search interest for “black friday” in the four weeks leading up to the event last year, which continued throughout the week to Friday.2 Then, search interest remained low from Saturday to Monday.3 Each week, this pattern unfolded methodically in the month leading up to Black Friday.
This implies that consumers take a break from searching over the weekend as they spend time with friends and family, or have limited time with — or access to — digital devices.
Actionable takeaways:
- Although the same pattern is not guaranteed to emerge in 2024, marketers may still heed this search behaviour by allocating advertising budget to prioritise Tuesdays to Fridays.
- Ensure specific keywords like “black friday” appear early and regularly on your website so that it is optimised for search rankings as people start exploring in the lead up to the big day.
Brand loyalty is not promised
Understanding how people search is key to success. An example of a brand-specific search includes a shopper’s favourite brand followed by the product versus just the latter for a generic search.
Interestingly, brand-specific searches attained a majority of about 60% of all searches during the week of Black Friday in South Africa last year.4 In 2022, this was still only 40%.5
However, we see brand affinity yo-yoing after Black Friday, with brand-specific and generic searches both experiencing increases and decreases throughout January and February of this year.6 This shows that brand loyalty is not guaranteed for the entirety of peak season. In fact, the cost of living is playing a large factor in decision-making these days too, with low-cost product options in the clothing category, for example, being seen as more important to South Africans than a brand name.
Actionable takeaway:
- As customer loyalty is not everlasting, regular keyword research and planning is vital to staying on top of these shifts in search behaviour. Using both branded and generic keywords on your website will attract search interest from both veins. For example, marketers in the luxury jewellery category may target “[brand name] watches” as well as “luxury watches” or simply “watches”.
Black Friday overtakes Christmas for searches of appliances
Search interest for discounts in the home appliances category increased by 280% on Black Friday last year, which did not reach anywhere near these heights for Christmas.7 Needless to say, people’s interest in home appliances seems to be highly deal-driven, with shoppers prioritising value for money around Black Friday.8
And, there was a slight uptick in interest again at the start of January this year as consumers also search for post-festive season sales in this category.9
Actionable takeaways:
- Brands and retailers wanting to attract shoppers looking for household appliances should focus on deal-driven marketing using a variety of methods and creatives. One area to look at is keyword targeting for discount-related searches incorporating keywords related to sales, deals, and Black Friday specials.
- Plan your budget accordingly: allocate ad spend for home appliances before and during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. And, again in early January when the post-festive season discount shopper is looking for deals again.
Back-to-school planning begins on Boxing Day
Search interest in “back-to-school” spikes significantly on Boxing Day, 26 December, as has been for the last two years.10 This indicates that parents begin their back-to-school planning just one day after Christmas.
Actionable takeaway:
- Launch your back-to-school campaigns early enough in December to tap into the fact that parents begin their school year planning as early as Boxing Day.
New Year’s and back-to-school: The hidden opportunity for beverage brands
With back-to-school concluding the peak shopping season, consumers — specifically parents — go from searching for gifts to stationary within a couple of days, making it a key time for marketers to shift direction and reach customers with new creative campaigns.
But this is not the only change that takes place during the back-to-school period. Search interest in the “food” and “beverage” categories spiked during the weeks of Black Friday and Christmas last year.11 Yet, food search interest dropped significantly while beverage search interest increased as back-to-school began in January 2024.12 This search trend is seen to continue throughout January as pupils get into the school routine.
Actionable takeaway:
- Drinks brands might assume that the new year will see a decline in search interest after the festive season has concluded, but data shows that search interest remains strong from a specific customer segment: parents. Marketers have the opportunity to attract these consumers by targeting back-to-school and beverage-related keywords in late December and early January.
The new year inspires hardware shoppers
Although the “hardware” category saw a seasonal dip during the 2023 festive season in December, the start of 2024 saw a 60% surge from mid-January to the last week of the month.13 This trend is set to continue, with South Africans expected to spend R95.6 billion on DIY and home improvement in 2025.
Actionable takeaway:
Instead of simply showcasing hardware products, marketers for these brands or retailers can show the potential of their range using beautiful imagery and videos of kitchens, bathrooms, and gardens via a YouTube Shorts campaign. This is the number one short-form video platform where viewers go to discover new products and brands in Europe, Middle East, and Africa.
