Preparing for Black Friday: a four-week countdown.

Every year I see the same pattern. A shop wakes up on the Monday before Black Friday, launches a 30% discount, triples the budget and waits. Costs per click jump, the ads are brand new, the audience has never heard of the brand, and the result is a lot of spend with very little profit.

A good Black Friday ads strategy is not about the week itself. It is about the four weeks before it. In 2026 Black Friday falls on 27 November, so if you are reading this in late October, you are exactly on time. Here is the countdown I follow for Google Ads and Meta Ads accounts.

1. Week four: decide the offer and check your numbers

Before any campaign, decide what you are actually selling and whether you can afford it. A discount that looks generous can easily wipe out your margin once you add ad costs, shipping and returns.

• Pick one clear offer. A percentage off everything, a bundle, a gift with purchase or free shipping above a threshold. One simple message beats five complicated ones.
• Calculate your break-even ROAS for the offer price, not your normal price. If your margin drops from 50% to 30%, your break-even ROAS goes from 2.0 to roughly 3.3.
• Check stock on the products you will push. Nothing burns money faster than ads sending people to sold-out pages.

If you are not sure what budget makes sense at all, start with my guide on how much to spend on ads, then adjust it for the season.

2. Week three: build warm audiences

Black Friday buyers are mostly people who already know you. Cold traffic during the most expensive week of the year rarely pays off. That is why week three is about filling the funnel while clicks are still affordable.

• On Meta, run reach or video campaigns with your best-performing content to grow video viewers and page engagers.
• On Google, let your Search and Shopping campaigns collect visitors for remarketing lists. Make sure your audience lists are actually populating.
• Start collecting emails with an early-access list: sign up and get the deal 24 hours before everyone else. Those subscribers will be your cheapest conversions later.

An early-access list also feeds your email flows. If you do not have them set up yet, here are the three email flows every online shop should have.

3. Week two: produce and test creatives

Creatives need time to exit the learning phase and prove themselves. If you launch new ads on Black Friday morning, the algorithm is still guessing while you are paying peak prices.

Two weeks out, I launch Black Friday creatives at a low budget to see which concepts get the best click-through and conversion rates. I use the same structure as in my creative testing framework for Meta Ads: three or four concepts, each with a clear angle.

• Offer-led: the discount, big and simple.
• Gift-led: who this product is perfect for.
• Urgency-led: limited stock or a clear end date.
• Proof-led: reviews and bestseller badges.

The winners of Black Friday are chosen in early November. The big week only shows you who prepared.

4. Week one: tracking, budgets and feeds

The last week before the sale is about making sure nothing breaks. This is the boring part, and it is where most money is saved.

Check your tracking

If purchases are double-counted or not counted at all, every decision during the sale is based on wrong numbers. Run a quick test order and check it in Google Ads, Meta Events Manager and GA4. My 15-minute tracking check walks you through it.

Plan the budget increase

Do not double budgets overnight. Raise them in steps of 20–30% across the days before the sale so campaigns adjust gradually. On Google, remember that daily budgets can be spent unevenly, which I explain in my article on the Google Ads daily budget. Google also offers seasonality adjustments for smart bidding, which tell the system to expect a short spike in conversion rates. Use them only for a few days, and only if you are confident the spike will happen.

Update the Shopping feed

Add sale prices to Merchant Center ahead of time, with the right sale price effective dates, so your Shopping ads show the discount the moment it goes live.

5. Black Friday week: run it, do not rebuild it

When the sale starts, your job is to watch, not to rebuild. Check spend and conversions twice a day. Pause ads that clearly do not work. Move budget to campaigns with the best return. Avoid launching new campaigns mid-week unless something is broken.

After Cyber Monday, bring budgets back down step by step, and switch off seasonality adjustments if you used them. Then write down what worked. Next year, that log is your head start.

Frequently asked questions

When should I start Black Friday ads?

Start preparing about four weeks before Black Friday. Build warm audiences three weeks out and test creatives two weeks out, so your campaigns are stable before costs peak.

Should I increase my ad budget for Black Friday?

Yes, but gradually. Increase budgets in steps of 20 to 30 percent in the days before the sale instead of doubling them overnight, and only on campaigns with proven results.

Is it worth advertising to cold audiences on Black Friday?

Usually not much. Costs are at their highest, and most Black Friday buyers already know the brand. Spend most of the budget on warm audiences and remarketing.