Black Friday has evolved into one of the most significant events on the e-commerce calendar, generating $10.8 billion in online sales in 2024.
With millions of shoppers hunting for the best deals, standing out in app stores and ad spaces is more competitive than ever for brands looking to drive engagement and cut through the noise this holiday season. To succeed, brands must combine smart ASO tactics with eye-catching creatives and timely campaigns that turn seasonal traffic into lasting growth.
We’ve created a playbook to walk you through essential Black Friday app marketing strategies, from improving your App Store Optimisation (ASO) to deploying CRM tactics.
Maximising Black Friday search visibility
Firstly, you need to ensure you maximise your app’s visibility for Black Friday search terms by optimising your app store listing.
Start by incorporating high-intent seasonal keywords like “Black Friday deals,” “holiday offers,” or “exclusive Black Friday discounts” into your app’s metadata.
Strategically place these keywords in key areas such as the app title, subtitle, and keyword field. These terms can boost your app’s visibility, whilst ensuring they still align with your app’s products or services.
Tools like App Store Connect or third-party ASO platforms like AppTweak can help you find trending Black Friday keywords to enhance your app’s ranking.
Holiday-themed creatives that convert
Your app’s icon, screenshots, and promo videos are key conversion elements and ones that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Make sure to update your screenshots to spotlight exclusive Black Friday deals and promotions, using bold text overlays with phrases like “Limited Time Offer” or “Black Friday Exclusive” to create urgency and draw attention.
Visuals that reflect Black Friday branding, such as dark tones, price tags, and discount percentages, can further attract users and make your listing stand out during this high-traffic period.
Invest your time and effort in creating a variety of creative assets for both ASO and paid campaigns. Beyond simple visual updates, A/B testing plays a crucial role in identifying which creatives drive the highest engagement and conversion rates. Test variations of your app icon, screenshot order, colour palette, and messaging to see what resonates most with your audience.
For example, one version of your creative might focus on the urgency of “limited-time offers,” while another highlights “exclusive early access.”
Running these tests ahead of major sales events allows you to enter Black Friday with data-backed creative decisions that maximise conversion potential, setting the foundation for even more impactful holiday visuals and messaging.
Diverse creatives allow you to test different messaging and visuals, helping you identify what resonates most with your audience during high-traffic periods and avoid creative ad fatigue.
These ads for Pimsleur and Quidco both demonstrate how tailored Black Friday creatives can effectively capture attention and drive conversions. Pimsleur’s ad focuses on a clear, high-value offer, “50% off”, paired with clean, minimal visuals and a calm, aspirational image that aligns with the brand’s educational tone. In contrast, Quidco uses bold colours, high contrast, and urgency-driven messaging (“Don’t miss out!”) to immediately convey excitement and scarcity.
Both approaches show how experimenting with tone, colour, and messaging can appeal to different user motivations, whether that’s relaxation and learning or fast-paced deal hunting. This kind of creative variation is essential for maximising reach and engagement across your Black Friday app marketing campaigns.
Holiday copywriting: Descriptions that resonate
Your app description is a perfect place to feature Black Friday-specific deals prominently. Here are some top tips to follow:
- On Android, keywords at the beginning of your long description carry more weight in Google’s Natural Language algorithm. This means placing your Black Friday-related keywords at the start of your description can significantly enhance the app’s discoverability, improving its chances of ranking higher in relevant searches.
- Keeping the description easy to read and using bullet points to list key features and deals will ensure users are engaged.
- Making use of action-driven copy (“Unlock Black Friday savings”, “Shop 50% off Black Friday”, etc.) will provide users with the clear value they can gain during the Black Friday period. This creates a strong incentive for them to download your app and take advantage of the offers.
In this Cashrewards Apple Search Ads (ASA) example, the app effectively highlights its Black Friday promotions by integrating seasonal keywords directly into its ad creative and metadata. The visuals and title both feature “Black Friday,” ensuring relevance to user intent during the search period.
This approach ensures that when users search for “Black Friday” on the App Store, Cashrewards appears prominently, positioning itself as a go-to app for shoppers seeking cashback deals during the holiday season. The combination of keyword-optimised copy and visually engaging creatives makes the ad more clickable and conversion-focused.
Generating Black Friday hype with waitlists
To generate excitement leading up to Black Friday, consider creating a waitlist for early access to discounts and offers.
This tactic not only builds anticipation but also gives users a reason to sign up and engage with your app or website.
The events app Fever effectively utilises this strategy by offering a Black Friday waitlist that promises users early access to exclusive event deals. This approach helps them capture initial interest and create a sense of exclusivity, driving higher conversions when the promotions go live.
Online beauty retailer LookFantastic builds momentum via email communications a week before Black Friday by introducing a sense of urgency around their Black Friday deals.
The concept here is that the discount declines every couple of hours.
By creating a sense of urgency with a declining discount, they motivate customers to act quickly.
This use of time-sensitive offers encourages immediate purchases and generates excitement before the main event, effectively driving early sales and engagement.
Using Black Friday offers to drive app downloads
Promoting your app alongside Black Friday discounts is a powerful way to boost downloads this Q4, with many brands offering exclusive or early access to deals through their apps.
Retailers like Zara and Pull & Bear effectively use this strategy, encouraging customers to download their apps for first access to limited-time Black Friday deals.
This approach not only increases app installs but also drives engagement and sales during the period.
Building your basket early on the app offers users added convenience, especially during busy Q4 sales like Black Friday. Highlighting this feature in ad messaging can drive downloads by showcasing the app as the easiest way to shop and secure deals quickly.
Screwfix’s Black Friday campaign strategically connects app promotion with limited-time discounts to boost engagement and app installs.
By offering app-exclusive deals and using bold, high-contrast creative featuring urgent CTAs like “Download Today” and“A Deal a Day for 7 Days,” Screwfix clearly positions its app as the only place to access these offers.
This tactic builds excitement, rewards app users with exclusive perks, and encourages quick action before deals expire. The limited-time framing, with a clear end date for offers, creates urgency and drives repeat visits throughout the Black Friday week.
This campaign demonstrates how app-exclusive deals can effectively drive downloads while reinforcing customer loyalty and engagement across the promotional period.
Boosting Black Friday app installs through paid ads
Another way to boost installs during the peak shopping season is to run paid campaigns ahead of Black Friday. Brands can identify what performs best by testing different creatives, audiences, and bidding approaches across platforms like Meta, Google, Snapchat, and TikTok.
These learnings allow for fine-tuning campaigns before the peak shopping period, ensuring maximum effectiveness and return on ad spend during Black Friday.
Retargeting campaigns further enhance this by re-engaging potential customers who showed interest but didn’t convert, using personalised offers to drive them back to the app for limited-time Black Friday deals.
Repurposing your content for greater impact
While Black Friday is a key opportunity for app marketers, the momentum shouldn’t stop there. Cyber Monday and the wider holiday shopping season present an extended window to engage users, drive conversions, and maximise your app’s performance.
After the Black Friday rush, keep your campaigns running with refreshed creatives and updated copy. Swap “Black Friday” keywords for “Cyber Monday,” “holiday savings,” or “Christmas offers” to maintain relevance in search results and ad placements. You can use third-party tools like AppTweak or data.ai to help identify trending seasonal search terms to guide your keyword updates.
A great example of this approach is seen with the Rakuten app. Right after Black Friday, Rakuten updated its long description to focus on “Cyber Week” and “holiday shopping”keywords, replacing its Black Friday messaging. This subtle shift kept the app relevant for ongoing high-intent searches, ensuring it continued to appear for users looking for seasonal deals beyond the main event. The refreshed metadata and creative assets helped maintain visibility and engagement well into December.
Use this time to re-engage new users who downloaded your app over Black Friday. Send push notifications and in-app messages highlighting post-Black Friday exclusives, limited-time Cyber Week offers, or loyalty rewards. This helps convert short-term shoppers into long-term, engaged customers.
Bringing it all together for Black Friday success
As Black Friday approaches, combining ASO, CRM and paid media strategies can make or break your app’s performance during this high-stakes shopping season.
By refining keywords, enhancing visuals, crafting compelling descriptions, and running targeted paid media campaigns, you set the stage for success.
Incorporating a thoughtful CRM strategy ensures that you not only attract new users but also build long-term loyalty.
Now is the time to fine-tune your approach and maximise the opportunities Black Friday deals bring. Aligning all these elements will position your app for sustained growth, making this holiday season your most successful yet.
Get in touch with our team today to discover how we can help you build, optimise, and execute a campaign that drives installs and lasting engagement.
