10 Last Minute Tips to Get Black Friday Ready

Black Friday is right around the corner. Regardless of whether you’re an independent retailer prepping with a small budget, or an online juggernaut getting ready for your busiest time of the year, it’s important you’re prepared for peak season.  

With the days getting shorter and the festive period approaching, you may think you’re out of time to put together a Black Friday battle plan. But don’t panic – we’ve pulled our ten top tips for getting your online business Black Friday-ready.  

Tip 1: Anticipate Peak Traffic Volumes

Things are about to get busy, very busy. Understanding the times when it’s going to be the busiest will help you use your ad budget when it matters most. Start collecting data from previous peaks to gain an understanding of when your ads are likely to get the most clicks. 

Remember – This data will also allow you to estimate when your site is going to have the most visitors, this means you can tailor special promotions or deals to the periods when the most traffic will be visiting your site.  

Tip 2: Track the Customer Journey

You’ll likely be seeing a lot of new customers visiting your site during Black Friday as patient shoppers decide to pull the trigger. However, the touchpoints for these customers will likely be very similar to your usual lead acquisition cycles. Understanding how long it takes for shoppers to travel through your marketing funnel is vital for determining when to start ramping up your ad spend. 

Remember – Some customers begin scoping out Black Friday deals weeks before the actual day arrives, meaning you should start considering consumer touch points and increasing spend on awareness campaigns before the deals begin. 

Tip 3: Consider your Existing Audience

Black Friday is also the perfect time to begin retargeting some of your existing customers to ensure the latest deals are placed in front of those who’re most likely to buy from you. 

Remember – Half of consumers are more likely to shop with brands when they’re already members of an existing loyalty programme, meaning that retargeting is just as important as customer acquisition across peak. 

Tip 4: Capitalise on the Full Cyber Month

In previous years, exclusive day-of deals were the bread and butter of Black Friday – creating last-minute panic and unparalleled exclusivity. Now this is far from the truth; the brands that make the most of peak are those providing customers with deals over several weeks. From Singles’ Day to Super Saturday, your deals should stretch across the whole festive period as some of these days see up to 85% of the demand of Black Friday. 

Remember – Black Friday 2025 is on November 28th, meaning many brands will be looking to launch their deals earlier on with the main shopping day falling so late in the month. 

Tip 5: Upgrade your Campaigns

If you’re yet to make the switch to Performance Max campaigns for your Google Ads, now is the time to do it. Performance Max allows you to reach customers across all of Google’s platforms with a single campaign – perfect for pushing conversions wherever your customers are shopping. 

Remember – You can now take your Shopping campaigns to the next level by using FeedManager to unlock even better campaign reach and ROI on Performance Max ads. 

Tip 6: Capture Customers with your Creatives and Copy

When you’re competing for the attention of customers, captivating copy and eye-catching creatives can make or break your peak. There’s no reason your Black Friday content can’t also continue to tell your brand’s story while incorporating seasonal messaging to appeal to a wider audience. 

Remember – Finalise your deals and perfect your ad copy well in advance to ensure they’re optimised before going live. 

Tip 7: Prioritise your High-Performing Products

It isn’t always easy to predict what your best-selling products are going to be before Black Friday begins. However, if you can set up a dedicated campaign containing the items which you think will be in the most baskets, you’ll be able to allocate a bigger percentage of your spend towards the products which will be your big wins.  

Remember – You can use ProductTester to trial any optimisations on your product feed and perform rapid testing and analysis to improve your product’s performance across the board. 

Tip 8: Put your Sales Front and Centre

Using badges and icons on sale products will draw attention to your key promotions across peak, making it simple for customers to find the best deals. You should also clearly include any major promotions in your ad copy to help your discounts stand out on crowded search engine results pages.  

Remember – You can use FeedManager to automatically update your product pricing and promotions across all of your marketing channels.  

Tip 9: Keep an Eye on the Competition

Some of your most valuable insights in the runup to Black Friday might come directly from competitors. Peak is the most competitive period for ad bidding so it’s important to keep an eye on their strategy to aid your own. By preparing responses to aggressive bidding from your rivals, you can avoid unnecessary spend and stay on track. 

Remember – Your competitors are likely to start their Black Friday activities early; earlier than you might think. It’s good to start monitoring for any increased CPCs or unexpected activities so you can respond accordingly.  

Tip 10: Analyse Past Performance

Unless this is your first Black Friday as an online retailer, you should have data from previous years’ peak periods to learn from. Do you need to push a certain product? Do you need to increase spend earlier? These are questions which you’ll be able to answer by looking at previous performance. 

Remember – If you’re struggling to take much away from previous data, you should take this into account for this year. By keeping track of all actions and their results, your future self will be able to determine what worked, and what didn’t.

Invest in your Performance for the Best Peak Yet

There’s still time to give your full Black Friday blueprint an overhaul before we enter peak. But if you’re still not sure where to start, Productcaster’s team of experts have decades of online retail experience and are here to help businesses succeed this festive period. 

Whether you’re looking for a Comparative Shopping Service (CSS) to reduce your CPC costs by up to 20% at a time when costs are at their highest or in need of tailored insights and support, Productcaster is ready to help you maximise your performance. 

Get in touch with our experts today at info@productcaster.com and book a demo. Or check out our blogs and discover more tips for peak.