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Looking to boost ecommerce sales this summer? The 4th of July is your first major opportunity. With consumers actively searching for Independence Day sales, ecommerce store owners have a chance to attract high-intent shoppers ready to spend on everything from outdoor gear to home upgrades.

This blog breaks down exactly how to plan and execute a winning 4th of July ecommerce strategy - from trending products to promote, to high-converting campaign ideas, and tips to maximize post-sale growth.

Why the 4th of July Matters for Ecommerce Brands

The 4th of July is the first summer sale opportunity. With long weekends, outdoor gatherings, and a strong culture of promotional events, shoppers are really primed for seasonal purchases and patriotic promotions. Ecommerce stores need to tap into this by having relevant offers, themed campaigns, and quick-shipping essentials.

Think of it as the summer equivalent of Black Friday - but with less saturation.

What Shoppers Are Buying

The key to capitalizing on July 4th sales is tapping into seasonal relevance. As summer kicks into full swing, shopper interest spikes in the weeks leading up to Independence Day for products tied to outdoor living. Think grills, patio furniture, games, pool accessories, and garden gear. But this surge in buying energy isn’t limited to those traditional categories. The opportunity extends far beyond. If you don’t sell a conventionally “seasonal” product, you can still make your offer feel timely by aligning with the spirit of the holiday - whether that’s celebrating, relaxing, entertaining, or resetting. Products like loungewear, skincare, tech gadgets, wellness items, pet gear, or even planners can be reframed as part of a long weekend refresh, a family get-together, or a summer-ready lifestyle.

You could also get creative and extend your reach by partnering with complementary brands to create joint bundles or promotions that make your offer more 4th of July relevant. In the end, it’s not just about revenue, you could use the opportunity to grow brand awareness, explore partnerships or even test offerings for future sale periods.

4th of July Ecommerce Campaign Ideas That Convert

✅ Host a Flash Sale: “Stars, Stripes & Savings”

Run a 48-hour sitewide or category-specific sale with a bold hook - lean into the long weekend energy with messaging like “Shop Before the Fireworks Start” or “Deals as Hot as Your Grill.” Use timers and banners to create urgency, and push across ads, email, SMS, and social with one cohesive message.

✅ Launch Summer Bundles That Make Life Easy

Package your products around use cases, not categories. Think: “Backyard BBQ Kit,” “Family Chill Pack,” or “Long Weekend Reset.” These aren’t just themed offers - they reduce friction and increase AOV. Consider adding a small freebie or limited-edition extra to boost conversion.

✅ Collaborate With a Complementary Brand

Team up with a like-minded brand and launch a co-branded bundle, discount swap, or joint giveaway. It’s a powerful way to cross-pollinate audiences and make your sale feel broader and more valuable without reinventing the wheel.

✅ Bring in Influencers for a 4th of July Mini Event

Partner with micro-influencers or creators already aligned with your brand, and host a “July 4th at Home” content drop. This could be a series of Instagram Stories, a TikTok countdown, or even a live unboxing of your products used in a long-weekend setting. It’s low-lift, highly contextual and your brands will reap rewards in both awareness, brand equity and sale revenue. Make sure to track the impact of this style promotion so you know if it’s healthy for your bottom line.

✅ Use Teaser Emails & SMS to Build Anticipation

Don’t just drop your campaign on July 3rd. Start priming and building your lists 7–10 days in advance with messaging like:

• “You’re on the list: Our 4th of July deals drop soon”
• “BBQ-ready bundles, surprise collabs, and one epic giveaway—coming your way”
• “Want early access? Text ‘FIREWORKS’ to get in before the rush”

Post-Sale Strategy: Turn Buyers Into Repeat Customers

The sale doesn’t end on July 4th. Smart ecommerce stores plan for what comes next.

• Retarget browsers with ads that highlight missed deals or smaller follow-up offers.
• Segment your list: Send thank-you emails with personalized recommendations.
• Request reviews: Use post-purchase flows to gather testimonials and photos.

The 4th of July gives you a built-in moment to engage buyers, increase revenue, and build momentum for the rest of summer. By aligning your product messaging, optimizing for search, and executing sharp marketing, you’ll turn a holiday into a sales engine.

Need help running fast, targeted campaigns for the July 4th sale? Reach out to Blend - we help ecommerce brands unlock growth with powerful AI driven marketing, without the guesswork.

July in Australia brings a unique opportunity that most ecommerce brands overlook: the tax return season. With many Aussies receiving their refunds from the ATO, there’s a surge in disposable income and that means a greater appetite for spending on non-essentials, treats, and wish list items. For brands selling online, it’s the perfect moment to show up with timely offers that turn tax returns into revenue.

Why Tax Time Is a Golden Opportunity

Every year, millions of Australians lodge their tax returns in early July, and for many, it results in a welcome financial boost. According to the ATO, the average refund typically ranges from $2,000 to $3,000 - money that often isn’t earmarked for bills or essentials. This period creates a psychologically primed audience: shoppers with extra cash in their pocket and a mindset ready to spend it on themselves.

It also lands directly after the high-volume EOFY promotional period, when shoppers are already in buying mode and actively scanning for value. They're accustomed to seeing deals, mentally prepared to purchase, and less fatigued than they would be during bigger, noisier sales like Black Friday with Christmas coming up. On top of this, July comes with far less competition - most brands front-load their offers into June and scale back after. This creates a pretty unique white space for brands willing to show up just as consumers are most ready to spend.

Should Your Brand Be Leaning In

Tax back season is a particularly strong fit for ecommerce brands in lifestyle, fashion, beauty, fitness, homewares, tech accessories, and premium products that shoppers may hesitate to purchase at full price. These categories align closely with self-gifting, upgrading, or finally getting “that one thing” they’ve had their eye on. If your product brings joy, indulgence, or a sense of personal reward, you’re perfectly positioned to run a tax back sale. Even higher-ticket items like mattresses, furniture, and boutique electronics benefit during this period because shoppers feel more financially empowered to splurge.

Timing Is Everything

Tax return submissions typically open on July 1, and many Australians lodge theirs straight away. The bulk of refunds hit bank accounts within the first three weeks of July, with momentum tapering off toward August. That makes the first half of the month your most important window.

Plan to launch your tax back campaign in the final days of June or early July, so you’re front-of-mind when shoppers receive their refund.

Acquisition Channels & Strategies

If you’re running a sale and you already run paid ads, it’s a great channel to refresh your creative in with some relevant sale messaging, driving some cheaper clicks, but it doesn’t start and end there. Other channels like EDMs & SMS’ are a really great way to drive repeat purchases or even convert your bottom of funnel audience. If you have budget and want to build your top of funnel, you could also consider influencer, PR or an event. Running a sale is a great opportunity to drive down your cost per click and get them in your ecosystem for retargeting.

A unique opportunity that presents itself running a sale after one has just ended is going hard on the bottom of funnel customers that never checked out with some ‘missed out on EOFY sales’ messaging. Get creative, it’s a great time to test messaging, discounts and offers ahead of Black Friday.

In summary, if you’re selling online in Australia and your brand offers products that feel like a treat, a tax back sale is a winning moment that most brands overlook. Consumers have money, a mindset to spend, and a desire to indulge. If your offer lands at the right time with the right tone, you can drive powerful results. Don’t let July pass by without giving your audience a reason to splurge with you and if you want to have AI scale your paid efforts, book in a demo and we’ll show you how it works.

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EOFY is here, and with it comes a flood of shopper intent and competitor activity. But here’s the thing: if your Google Ads don’t look like they’re part of a sale - visually, instantly, and convincingly - you’re missing out on clicks. This blog isn’t about bidding strategy or campaign structure. It’s about the aesthetic side of sale period optimisation: how your ads should appear on Google during EOFY to actually get attention, build trust, and drive conversions.

What Optimised Google Ads Look Like

You need your Google Ads, both search and shopping, to look like they’re part of a sale. That means ensuring your ads visually communicate urgency, value, and trust at a glance. Blend has a built in feed management and will automatically optimise your listings but if you’re not a user just yet, here's what an optimised ad should look like during a sale period as well as some of the key things to get right for full eligibility.

1. Sale Price Formatting in Shopping Ads

If you’re using Google Shopping (via Performance Max or Standard Shopping), Google will automatically show your product’s original price crossed out and the new sale price as well as a sale badge over the product image - but only if you’ve set things up correctly. For your ad to visually reflect the discount:

• You must include both the original price and a lower sale price in your product feed
• This can also be done simply through shopify, using the ‘compare at price’ feature as long as you have a feed management app like Simprosys or use Blend AI.
• The product must have been listed at the original price for at least 30 consecutive days before the discount and will only show for up to 30 days until it needs to be reset
• Your product landing page must also clearly show the original and sale price in a way that matches the feed

When all these conditions are met, your Shopping ad will display with a strikethrough on the old price, the highlighted new price and the sale badge - one of the strongest visual cues for urgency and savings in Google’s ad formats but one that needs to be prepared for. Here’s what you can expect to see:

2. Visual Sale Badges & Promotions

If you’re eligible for Google’s Merchant Promotions, you can attach extra promotional callouts to your Shopping ads, such as:

• “Free Shipping”
• “Spend $150, Save $30”
• “Free Gift with Purchase”

These show as “special offer” tags under your Shopping ad and expand to show more details when clicked. They don’t require price drops, but must be submitted through the Promotions feed or manually in Google Merchant Center and be backed up on your site.

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3. What Won’t Show

If your EOFY offer is only available via a promo code at checkout, and your feed doesn’t reflect an actual price drop, Google Shopping ads will not show a crossed-out price or sale badge. This is crucial. Even if your site says “25% off with EOFY25”, your ad will just look like a regular listing unless:

• The discounted price is reflected directly in your product feed
• OR you apply a Merchant Promotion with the code clearly stated

To make sure your discount looks like a discount in Google Shopping, feed data is key. The takeaway: a visible price change works harder than a hidden one.

4. Ad Copy for Search Text Ads

While Shopping ads rely on visual formatting, Search ads are text-based - so the pressure is on your copy to convey urgency. Some best practice EOFY ad copy is:

• Clear messaging around the sale: “EOFY Sale”, “End of Financial Year Deals”
• Specific Offer Messaging: “Up to 40% Off”, “Extra 20% Off Sale Items”
• Urgency: “Ends June 30”, “Final Days”, “Limited Stock”

Use structured snippets and callouts to reinforce value - “Free Returns”, “Shop Bestsellers”, “Sale Ends Soon” and make sure you mirror this language in your headlines. This it the time to Sell, Sell, Sell! If you’re a Blend user, reach out to the team and we’ll help you create ads with your unique sale messaging to maximise this opportunity.

5. Landing Page Consistency

Even though it's not part of the ad itself, Google checks that your product pages match what you're advertising. If your ad shows a sale price, the landing page must visually support that with the same pricing, clear visibility, and no misleading conditions. If there’s a discrepancy, Google may disapprove your ad or suppress the visual enhancements and you don’t want this during one of the biggest sale periods of the year.

In summary, if you want to compete during EOFY, these are our key tips to leverage Google’s visual features. Don’t forget it’s not all about the ad, make sure your feed and website reflect your offer, and avoid relying only on promo codes unless you’re supporting them with a Merchant Promotion…or simply just use Blend!

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EOFY sales are already in full swing, with brands across Australia jumping in early to drive revenue, move inventory, and hit end-of-financial-year targets. If you haven’t launched your EOFY campaign yet, it’s not too late at all. There’s still time to plan, go live, and make the most of one of the biggest sales events in the ecommerce calendar. You can get catalogue ads live instantly but If you’re looking to get some ad creative live now and make the most of the remaining EOFY period, here are 5 ecommerce ad strategies & formats we love, that you can create today in beginner friendly software like Canva to boost your performance and maximise sales leading into the EOFY.

1. Previous Winners

No examples here but the quickest way to get effective creative live is to repurpose some of your previous winners. Edit the messaging to show your offer and consider adding some extra CRO design features like a clear before-and-after price, an urgency statement like “48 Hours Only” or a direct call-to-action.

If you’re a Blend user, Blend automatically shifts spend towards winning channels, audiences and ad creatives. So in your campaign view you can look which creatives are generating orders at a profitable cost. Remember that the customer journey involves multiple touchpoints, so an ad without direct sales may still contribute value through other actions like add-to-carts and checkout starts. Consider both direct sales metrics and engagement metrics when evaluating creative performance.

If you aren’t using Blend, look at some key stats in your ad accounts that signal strong performance, this could be Link-CTR, add to carts or even CPA. It’s important to consider that platforms attribute in their favour so this data is generally messy and not exactly accurate due to potential view through attributions or double attribution to inflate their impact on your brand.

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2. Product Flatlay + Offer

For brands with smaller products, you can create a flat lay image or even use generative AI tools like ChatGPT to feed it product photos and come up with a flatlay image that has enough whitespace for content.

Showing your products is important but what’s ever more critical during sale periods is showing your offer. Consumers see the word SALE and stop in their tracks, keen to see what sort of bargain they can grab - partner that with a strong campaign offer and consumers will click through, perfect for filling the funnel.

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3. SMS about the Sale

At first glance, this ad isn’t an ad, it’s just a screenshot of someone’s messages. It’s definitely not the most attractive ad but it piques curiosity, is a little humourous and clearly outlines the details of the sale. It’s not the best for the top of the funnel but for consumers who are brand aware and in the consideration phase of the purchasing journey, this ad could serve as a really quick win for your brand and create cut through via a refreshing break from the standard ad designs they’re used to seeing. Sale periods like EOFY are also a great opportunity to test new ad formats as well!

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4. PR Sale Announcement

This is great for your brand on so many levels. If you’ve prepared well for this sale, you might have engaged in some PR! Aside from this being great awareness, you need to maximise this opportunity for social proofing in your sale creative. It takes 30 minutes to get a screenshot of the article and upload that across all of your campaigns and channels (15 seconds if you use Blend AI 😉).

If you didn’t use PR but have previously, you can still utilise the social proofing by including an ‘as seen on’ component to your ad creative. Don’t underestimate the power of borrowing brand equity from media outlets.

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5. Cart Screenshot: Show the Discount

As mentioned before, EOFY is a great opportunity to test different ways to display your offer & discounts. The cart screenshot is an awesome way to do so, by giving consumers the satisfaction of the discounts prior to them even visiting the website. Although ‘Up to X% Off Sitewide’ messaging works well, I think there is something to say in consumers trust with this messaging. By showing some popular products and their discount in cart, consumers know what they can get up front, this might lead to lower CTRs but yield more sales, give it a test and make sure you’re looking at the metrics that matter when scaling spend.

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EOFY sales don’t have to mean stress and long lead times, take some of these quick winning static ad creatives launch them into all channels across the entire funnel within 15 seconds with Blend AI. If you’re feeling behind, don’t worry - you’ve still got time to plan, launch, and scale your EOFY sales strategy. Let us help you capture the end-of-financial-year demand and turn June into your biggest month yet.

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When you're scaling your ecommerce brand, it’s natural to keep a close eye on metrics that signal efficiency. One of those is MER - your Marketing Efficiency Ratio - and it can be tempting to panic when you see that number drop. But here’s why a reduction in MER might actually be a good sign for your business.

What Is MER?

MER = Revenue / Ad Spend

At a glance, MER looks a lot like ROAS (Return on Ad Spend), but there’s an important distinction: MER looks at the performance of your marketing spend across all channels, not just isolated ones. It's a zoomed-out view that tells you how your total marketing investment is converting into revenue.

For example:

• A MER of 30 means that for every $1 you spend on marketing, you’re generating $30 in revenue.
• A MER of 15 means you’re making $15 per $1 spent.

On the surface, that drop from 30 to 15 seems like a step backward. But let’s dig deeper.

High MER, Low Profit: The Hidden Catch

Say your MER is 30 - incredibly efficient, your marketing is really effective. But your profit margin is just 6%. Here’s what might be happening:

• You’re running hyper-efficient ads that’s delivering strong results - but only at a small scale.
• Your fixed costs are high and your revenue isn’t high enough to cover these and allow for widened margins. (e.g. once fixed costs are covered, you’re left with more profit per order)
• Your variable costs could also be too high, look at your COGS, Shipping or even pricing strategy to understand why such a high MER isn’t yielding a strong profit

So while your MER looks impressive, your actual net profit is small, and you may not be building a scalable revenue engine. As you scale your marketing spend, it’s common for your MER to decrease as you target a wider audience so creating these efficiencies are key to setting yourself up for scale.

Lower MER, Higher Profit: The Scaling Sweet Spot

Now imagine your MER drops to 15. You’re less “efficient” per dollar spent - but your profit margin jumps to 20%. What changed?

• You’ve increased your ad spend, growing your revenue to a point where your fixed costs don’t weigh you down as much.
• Your cost per acquisition likely rose - but so did your overall revenue and profit.

In this scenario, you’ve traded a small, super-efficient setup for a larger, more profitable business. There is a sweet spot where you can maximise your revenue and profitability before your profit margin begins to decrease again. As you grow, run the numbers, set targets & goals and make decisions based on your goals. For some businesses like subscription businesses, it might be more beneficial in the long term to acquire as many customers as you can at a low net profit margin to then see rapid future growth, make sure your decisions are informed by both your scaling goals and key business metrics.

Why a Lower MER Can Be a Smart Move

Let’s break it down:

MER going down while profit goes up? That’s a green light for sustainable growth.

It shows you have room to move and continue scaling.

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