Black Friday is won in the weeks before 27 November. Our recipe for ecommerce brands: the ingredients, the method and what to leave out.
Black Friday is decided in the weeks before it, not on the day. By the time 27 November arrives, the stores that do well have already set their offer, tested their checkout, warmed up their audience and scheduled their content. The day itself is for watching the numbers, not scrambling to make things.
So we've written it up the way our kitchen thinks about it: a recipe. What goes in, the order to do it in, and what you should have on the plate by Cyber Monday.
One offer per audience, stated in a single sentence and set above your margin floor. If a customer needs a calculator to work out what they're getting, the offer is too complicated. Skip the stacked discounts nobody can follow.
Fast pages, a tested checkout, stock synced to what you actually hold, and courier cut-off dates published where customers can see them. Before anything goes live, we run a full purchase on a real phone. It's the simplest test there is, and the one most often skipped.
Your email list and social following should have heard from you before the day. A customer who's been reminded you exist is far easier to convert than one meeting you for the first time in a crowded feed. Early access for your best customers belongs here too.
Site visitors and add-to-carts, collected in the weeks before the sale, so your ads have someone to talk to on the day. Build these late and you're paying to introduce yourself when everyone else is already closing.
Static, short video and email, all saying the same thing. Written and scheduled ahead of time, not on the Thursday night before.
A genuine deadline or genuinely limited stock. Not a countdown timer that resets every time someone refreshes the page. Customers notice, and it costs you trust you'll need after Black Friday.
Pixel, conversion events and reporting all checked before a cent of budget is spent. If you can't measure it, you can't fix it while it's running.
Discounts below your margin. Fake countdown timers. Ad spend sent to a checkout you haven't tested. Anything you'd regret on Tuesday.
1. Audit the store. Check speed, the mobile experience, product pages and checkout. Fix what breaks before the traffic arrives, not during it.
2. Set the offer. Pick your hero products, agree your margin floor and the one clear offer, and lock in your shipping cut-offs.
3. Build the audience. Open an early-access list, warm up email and social, and start filling your retargeting pools.
4. Prepare and schedule. Finish the creative and the copy. Schedule emails, posts and ads so launch day is for monitoring, not making.
5. Test the tracking. Confirm every conversion event fires, then set budgets and daily limits.
6. Serve. Early access first, then the public launch on 27 November. Watch spend, return, stock and site speed through the day.
7. Adjust daily. Move budget to what's working and switch off what isn't. Keep chasing abandoned carts until Cyber Monday ends on 30 November.
8. Keep the guests. Send post-purchase emails and follow up, so first-time buyers come back long after Monday. Black Friday buyers are only worth chasing at those margins if some of them return at full price.
Follow the recipe and you'll have one store ready for Black Friday and the days after it:
Serving size: 1 Black Friday campaign
Contains plain talking.
Book a call and we'll go through your store, your offer and your Black Friday plan, then tell you plainly what to fix first. Bring your numbers. We'll bring the method.
The earlier we start, the more we can fix before 27 November.
How we can help
Service
Optimises the store to support active campaigns and improve conversion – landing pages, product flows, checkout and CTAs.
Service
Automated flows and campaigns that convert intent into revenue, recover abandoned sales and build customer lifetime value.
Service
Builds and manages Google Ads – Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns – connecting the store to customers actively searching to buy.
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