Target Leading on Black Friday Keywords in Paid Search

We’re taking a different approach and re-examining paid search activity on our Black Friday keyword group, consisting of 161 keyword terms containing the words "black friday." We saw spending on Black Friday keywords surge the week of Sept. 27, a full month earlier than in 2014, which underscores the increasing importance of this key shopping day for advertisers. Since Sept. 27, up until this Sunday, 226 advertisers have spent $7.3 million sponsoring the keyword group. Target tops the list of Black Friday advertisers, beating out even Amazon.com, with $1 million spent on 158 of the 161 Black Friday keywords examined during the period. Amazon ($790,000), deal site BestBlackFriday.com ($720,000), J.C. Penney ($406,000) and Wal-Mart ($395,000) round out the top five.