Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) remain the biggest shopping events of the year, and the competition in Google Ads is fierce, to say the least.
If you want to win more clicks, convert more shoppers, and make the most of your ad budget, the key is being prepared—and the time to start is now.
Are you ready? Here’s your five-step Black Friday checklist for getting your Google Ads strategy ready for BFCM this year.
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1. Analyze what you did last year
Before you can improve, you need to know what worked—and what didn’t. Review last year’s Google Ads campaigns, your email marketing performance, and any social promotions you ran.
In particular, take a look at:
- Which campaigns drove the highest ROAS
- Which keywords and audiences converted best
- How your ad copy and creative performed
- Whether your offers and discounts resonated with customers
Pro Tip: Don’t just rely on your memory. Pull reports from Google Ads, Google Analytics, and your email platform to spot trends. If you had strong results, double down on those winning strategies. If not, figure out where the drop-off happened and plan a new approach.
2. Test promotions now
Don’t wait until November to figure out what offers will work best. You can use the months leading up to Black Friday to test different promotions, such as:
- Percentage-off or dollar-off discounts
- Discounts on specific collections or bundles
- Free gifts with purchase
- Free or expedited shipping offers
By running these tests now, you’ll have hard data on which incentives move the needle for your audience. This reduces guesswork and helps you commit to the offers that will generate the highest return when your BFCM traffic peaks.
3. Analyze your competitors, too
Your biggest competition in November isn’t last year’s results. It’s the brands running BFCM ads alongside yours this year. Start monitoring competitor activity now by:
- Following them on social media
- Signing up for their email lists
- Searching for their products and seeing what ads appear
- Using tools like SEMrush to track their keywords and ad copy
Pay attention to your competitors’ messaging, promotions, and timing. If they’re known for deep discounts, you’ll need to consider how to compete—whether that’s with pricing, bundling, value-add offers, or a stronger brand message.
4. Complete website projects well before BFCM
A fast, seamless shopping experience is non-negotiable during the BFCM holiday rush. If you have any open projects that could impact your site’s conversion rate—e.g. updating product photography, reworking checkout flows, improving mobile usability, or adding reviews and testimonials—get them done in the summer or early fall. If that timeline isn’t possible, push them to after Black Friday.
The goal is to avoid launching any big changes right before BFCM. You don’t want technical glitches, unexpected downtime, or untested features disrupting your busiest sales days. Trust us: stability is your friend when traffic (and pressure) is at its highest.
5. Start building your audiences now
The most successful BFCM advertisers don’t just rely on cold traffic—they maximize performance by retargeting warm audiences ahead of time. This ensures their brand is top of mind when that shopper starts devising their holiday shopping wishlist.
Start building remarketing lists now across every platform, including:
- Google Ads (website visitors, past purchasers, YouTube viewers)
- Facebook and Instagram (past purchasers, video viewers, ad clickers)
- Email lists (past buyers, engaged subscribers)
The more audience data you collect in advance, the larger and more valuable your remarketing lists will be when you launch your campaigns.
Start preparing for Black Friday now
When it comes to preparing for Black Friday, sooner is always better. Now is the time to analyze your past results, test promotions, study your competitors, finish site improvements, and build your audiences. Then, when the biggest shopping weekend of the year arrives, you’ll be ready to capture every possible click and conversion.
Your team deserves to put their best foot forward this Black Friday. To get started, contact the advertising pros at Your Marketing People today.
