Black Friday is set up in October, not November.
Do four things before November. Build the audiences now while traffic is cheap, so you are not paying peak prices to reach people for the first time. Test your creative now, so November runs what already works instead of learning during the expensive weeks. Check your tracking now, because a broken tag discovered on the day costs the whole period. And decide the offer and its margin now, so nobody is inventing a discount under pressure. The campaign is the easy part and it is the last part.
Peak weeks are the worst time to learn anything
Costs rise, competition rises, and every mistake is multiplied by the volume going through it. A test that would cost a little in October costs a great deal in the last week of November.
So treat October as the laboratory and November as the performance. Everything you would want to know during the peak has to be known before it.
Build the audiences while attention is cheap
Retargeting works on people who already know you. Building that pool in November means paying peak prices to introduce yourself, then paying again to close.
So spend October filling the top of the funnel: visitors, video viewers, engagement, email subscribers. The cost of reaching somebody the first time is at its lowest now and its highest in six weeks.
This is also the month to make sure the list you are building is yours. Email and messaging audiences are the only ones nobody can reprice on you.
Test creative now so November has nothing to learn
Run the concepts you intend to use at peak, at low budget, this month. You are not trying to make sales with them. You are trying to find out which ones people respond to, so the expensive weeks run only winners.
Test the messages rather than the discount. The offer will change in November but the hook, the format and the opening seconds carry across, and those are what fatigue fastest once volume arrives. Our ad frequency and fatigue calculator will tell you how fast your audience will burn through them at peak spend.
Check the plumbing before the volume arrives
Four checks, all boring, all cheaper now than on the day.
- Submit a test purchase and confirm the conversion arrives, with the right value attached. Tracking that counts the wrong thing turns a good season into an unreadable one.
- Check the feed. Prices, stock and titles should already be correct, because a disapproved catalogue in peak week is the most expensive silent failure there is.
- Load the site on a phone on a normal connection and see how it behaves. Peak traffic makes a slow site slower.
- Confirm somebody is available to answer enquiries and problems during the period, including at the weekend.
Decide the offer and its floor
The discount should be decided against your margin rather than against what competitors are doing. Know before you start what you can afford to pay to acquire a customer at the discounted price, and what return on ad spend keeps the period profitable.
Our break even ROAS and target CPA calculator gives you both from figures you already have. Write them down, because the pressure to keep spending into a bad week is strongest when nobody agreed the floor in advance.
What is on your list for this week
If the honest answer is that nothing happens until November, that is the finding. The audiences, the creative tests and the tracking check all need to happen in the next fortnight to be worth anything.
If you would rather have somebody run that preparation with you, tell us what you sell and what you spent last peak through the enquiry form. There is still time to do this properly, and there will not be in three weeks.
Questions we get asked.
When should I start preparing for Black Friday?
- Six to eight weeks before, which means October for a November peak. Audience building, creative testing and tracking checks all cost less and teach more when done before competition and costs rise.
What should I do first?
- Build audiences while reaching people is cheap, and test creative at low budget so the expensive weeks run only what already works. Those two decide most of the result before the offer is ever announced.
How big should my Black Friday discount be?
- Set it against your margin rather than against competitors. Work out what you can afford to pay for a customer at the discounted price, and the return on ad spend that keeps the period profitable, then hold to both.
Should I pause my normal campaigns during peak?
- Usually not, but expect them to perform differently as costs rise. Judge them on cost per sale rather than on volume, and be ready to move budget towards whatever is converting rather than towards whatever is busiest.
What is the most common peak season mistake?
- Discovering a tracking or feed problem during the period itself. Both are silent, both are cheap to check in October, and either one can make the most expensive weeks of the year unreadable or invisible.
