Right, if you’re reading this in early November, you’re either incredibly organised and doing a final check, or you’ve just realised Black Friday is three weeks away and you’re starting to panic.
Either way, you’re in the right place.
Black Friday isn’t just about having a sale anymore. It’s about having everything perfectly aligned so that when the traffic hits (and it will hit like a freight train), your site doesn’t crumble, your ads don’t waste money, and your customers actually convert instead of bouncing to a competitor.
This isn’t the time for major strategic overhauls. This is your final optimisation sprint. Think of it as giving your car a service before a long road trip – you’re not rebuilding the engine, but you’re making sure everything runs smoothly when it matters most.
Here’s your comprehensive checklist to make sure you’re ready for the biggest shopping weekend of the year.
Content
The Foundation: Basic Business Prep
Before you even think about ads or landing pages, you need to make sure your house is in order. These might seem obvious, but you’d be amazed how many brands miss the basics.
First, your bestsellers absolutely must be in stock. There’s nothing worse than driving expensive traffic to products you can’t actually sell. If you’re running low on inventory, prioritise your highest-margin, best-converting products for your Black Friday push.
Your discount needs to be impossible to misunderstand. Not “up to 40% off selected items.” Not “various discounts across the site.” One clear, compelling offer that you can communicate consistently across every touchpoint. If you can’t explain your offer in six words or less, it’s too complicated.
Your customers need to know exactly when they need to order to get their purchases before Christmas. Make your shipping cut-off dates visible everywhere – website banners, ad copy, email signatures, checkout pages. And don’t forget to account for weekends and bank holidays in your calculations.
Black Friday weekend will generate more customer service enquiries than any other time of year. Make sure your contact details are visible on every page, your team is adequately staffed, and you have clear processes for handling the most common questions (order tracking, returns, product information).
Nothing kills a Black Friday sale quite like payment processing issues. Test all your payment methods, ensure you can handle increased transaction volumes, and consider offering payment plans for higher-ticket items. If you’re introducing gift cards, get them set up now with clear expiry terms.
Tracking and Landing Page Optimisation
Your tracking needs to be bulletproof during Black Friday. This is when you’ll spend the most money and generate the most revenue, so you need to know exactly what’s working.
Test every pixel, every conversion event, and every piece of tracking code. Run test purchases through your entire funnel to ensure data is flowing correctly to Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and any other platforms you’re using. Black Friday weekend is not the time to discover your tracking has been broken for weeks.
Your landing pages need to load fast and convert efficiently. Run speed tests on mobile (most of your traffic will be mobile), ensure your Black Friday offer is prominently displayed above the fold, and remove any distracting elements that might pull focus from your main offer.
Turn off any competing promotions or pop-ups. Your Black Friday offer should be the only thing customers see. Every discount code, banner, or promotional message should align with your main campaign.
Paid Search Optimisation
Google Ads during Black Friday is like driving in rush hour traffic – everyone’s competing for the same space, costs are higher, but the rewards are worth it if you do it right.
Your Google Shopping campaigns are only as good as your product feed. Ensure every product has high-quality images, accurate descriptions, correct prices, and proper categorisation. If you’re offering discounts, make sure the sale prices are reflected in your feed.
Create dedicated campaigns for your bestselling products with ad copy that emphasises both the product benefits and the Black Friday discount. These campaigns should get the majority of your budget because they’re most likely to convert.
Set up promotion extensions in Google Ads that clearly show your discount offer and end date. Test countdown copy in your ad variants – phrases like “3 days left” or “ends Monday” create urgency that drives clicks and conversions.
Update your existing ad creatives with Black Friday overlays or banners. You don’t need completely new ads, but you do need to make it obvious that you’re participating in Black Friday. A simple “Black Friday Sale” overlay can significantly improve performance.
Switch to smart bidding strategies at least two weeks before Black Friday to give Google’s algorithms time to learn. Consider being more flexible with your targets during peak period – slightly lower ROAS targets or higher CPA targets can unlock additional volume when competition intensifies.
Use your email subscriber lists to create custom audiences for remarketing. People who’ve signed up for your emails but haven’t purchased yet are prime candidates for Black Friday conversion campaigns.
Paid Social Strategy
Meta advertising during Black Friday requires a different approach than regular campaigns. Competition is fierce, but so is purchase intent.
Refresh your existing high-performing creatives with Black Friday overlays and urgency-driven copy. Don’t reinvent the wheel – if an ad was converting well in October, it’ll likely convert even better with a Black Friday angle. Test new creative concepts in the weeks leading up to Black Friday to identify potential winners before you need to scale them.
Focus on your warm audiences first – website visitors, email subscribers, and past purchasers. These audiences will have the highest conversion rates and lowest costs during the competitive Black Friday period. Layer lookalike audiences based on your best customers to efficiently find new prospects who are likely to convert.
Build retargeting funnels that show different messages to people based on their engagement level. Someone who viewed your products gets a different ad than someone who added to cart but didn’t purchase. Use Dynamic Product Ads to show people the exact products they viewed, ideally with your Black Friday discount applied.
CPMs will increase significantly during Black Friday weekend. Plan your budgets assuming 50-100% higher costs than normal, and reserve the majority of your spend for your proven winning campaigns rather than experimental new audiences.
Landing Page Conversion Optimisation
Your landing pages during Black Friday need to convert visitors faster than ever, because everyone’s in a hurry and comparison shopping.
Your Black Friday offer needs to be the first thing visitors see. Use bold banners, clear discount messaging, and make sure there’s no confusion about what you’re offering. If someone has to scroll to understand your deal, you’ve already lost half your visitors.
Remove anything that might distract from the purchase decision. Hide regular promotional pop-ups, simplify navigation to focus on your sale items, and ensure your checkout process is as smooth as possible. Every extra click is an opportunity for customers to abandon their purchase.
Most of your Black Friday traffic will be mobile, so your pages need to work perfectly on phones. Test your checkout flow on various devices, ensure buttons are easy to tap, and minimise the number of form fields required to complete a purchase.
Display countdown timers, limited stock warnings, and clear delivery cut-off dates to create urgency without seeming manipulative. Balance this with trust signals like customer reviews, clear returns policies, and prominent customer service information.
Your website needs to handle significantly more traffic than usual. Conduct stress tests, ensure your hosting can cope with increased load, and have a plan for monitoring site performance throughout the weekend.
The Final Check
Black Friday success isn’t about doing one thing perfectly – it’s about doing dozens of things competently and ensuring they all work together seamlessly.
Your ads should match your landing pages, which should match your email campaigns, which should match your social media posts. Your tracking should capture every conversion, your inventory should support your promises, and your customer service should be ready for the influx.
The brands that win Black Friday aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest discounts or the largest budgets. They’re the ones that create the smoothest, most compelling shopping experience from first click to final purchase.
Ready to Execute?
Look, Black Friday optimisation isn’t glamorous work. It’s methodical, detail-oriented, and requires checking a lot of boxes. But it’s also the difference between a successful Black Friday that funds your growth for the next year, and a chaotic weekend that costs more than it makes.
At The Graygency, we’ve managed Black Friday campaigns for brands across fashion, beauty, jewellery, and wellness. The difference between brands that thrive and brands that merely survive comes down to preparation and execution of fundamentals.
Ready to make sure every detail is perfect before the chaos begins? Let’s get your Black Friday optimisation locked down.
