Mega sales moments in Southeast Asia (SEA), including the 10.10 and 11.11 double-date events, have long been a mainstay of shopping calendars. But the sales marathon still excites customers, and small-and-medium businesses (SMBs) can ace the race if they run it well.
The SEA Mega Sales Playbook 2025 is also available in Bahasa Indonesia and Vietnamese.
The strong mega sales momentum is reflected in consumer buying behaviour. In 2024, 81% of online shoppers in SEA purchased an item during a double-date event, versus 74% in 2023.1
To help you tap into the shopping marathon and drive business growth, here’s an easy three-step plan you can follow, from Google’s mega sales marketing playbook.
1. Show up: Be where discoveries start and decisions are made
Research shows that consumers today are searching, streaming, scrolling, and shopping, seamlessly and simultaneously. And across these 4S behaviours, Google and YouTube are the platforms that meet consumers in their nonlinear purchase journeys.
Researching, in particular, is a crucial part of consumer buying behaviour and over 70% of shoppers start researching at least one week prior to a mega sales event.2
Search keywords that are top-of-mind for mega sales shoppers, besides brand and product-related keywords, include “free shipping/returns,” “discounts,” and “vouchers.”3
When your business shows up with those benefits for customers, it gives them a strong reason to buy from you. They want their purchase, and any returns, to be convenient with no hidden costs. And they want to snag the best deals to maximise their savings.
2. Start strong: Engage high-intent shoppers
The sooner you start your campaigns, the earlier you get to influence and engage high-intent shoppers.
- Kick off your Google and/or YouTube campaigns at least two weeks before each month’s mega sales event. That’s when shoppers start to show purchase intent, even before they research.
- Set the conversion goals for your campaign. Be clear about whether you’re looking to increase purchases, page views, or sign-ups.
- Use Demand Gen campaigns to create demand and drive conversions. The AI-powered campaign increases conversions by showing ads to shoppers with high purchase intent, instead of those who are only interested. So cost-wise, it’s significantly more affordable than campaigns on social platforms; its cost per click is 90% lower and its cost per impression is 74% cheaper.
Demand Gen campaigns can reach up to 3 billion users monthly,4 and do so across the devices they use and the content formats they enjoy — both long and short.
The campaign also serves ads across YouTube and Google’s most immersive visual surfaces, including the Google Display Network, Discover, and YouTube.
3. Take the lead: Optimise your campaign to supercharge results
To optimise your Demand Gen campaigns, include video assets.
On average, advertisers who run both video and image ads with Demand Gen campaigns see 6% more conversions per dollar than those running image-only ads.5
You can easily create and edit video assets and YouTube Shorts from your phone with the YouTube Create app.
It has an intuitive user interface and helpful features, such as filters, effects, transitions, and a large library of royalty-free music. Plus, the app is completely free to use.
Another way to optimise your Demand Gen campaign is to activate Lookalike segments. It’ll help you reach potential customers with similar attributes to existing customers, including those from other social media or video platforms.
You can further fine-tune it by creating Lookalike segments based on how people have interacted with your business, such as watching a video of yours or visiting a specific page on your website.
Lookalike segments are continually refreshed with your latest customer activity, so you’ll have the most up-to-date list of potential customers to optimise existing and future mega sales campaigns.
Winning the mega sales marathon doesn’t have to be a mega challenge for an SMB.
Show up where shoppers are — on Google and YouTube, with top-of-mind keywords. Start early and strong by driving demand and conversions with Demand Gen. And optimise your campaigns to maximise sales.
With this three-step plan from Google’s marketing playbook, your SMB can easily drive business growth before the year ends.
The SEA Mega Sales Playbook 2025 is also available in Bahasa Indonesia and Vietnamese.
