According to Google Trends data, consumer interest in Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals starts growing as early as October. That’s why it’s essential to prepare in advance: create a communication plan, develop content and ad campaigns ahead of time, and allocate your budget. To make this process easier, we’re sharing professional insights and practical tips that will help you stay on track and achieve the best possible results.
1) Use Newsletters and Grow Your Contact List
Newsletters have long been considered one of the most effective tools for BFCM communication. Platforms like Omnisend allow you not only to send emails, but also SMS messages and push notifications. To maximize results during BFCM, we recommend combining these channels. For example, if users don’t open your email, or open it but don’t complete a purchase, you can follow up with an SMS or a push notification to remind them of your offer. According to Omnisend data, during last year’s BFCM week (11.24–12.02), SMS messages generated nearly 3 million sales.
How to grow your email contact list?
- Encourage subscriptions using different signup methods – pop-ups, landing pages, or “spin the wheel” promotions. Clearly communicate the value users will receive in exchange for their email address. As BFCM approaches, give newsletter subscribers early access to discount codes or special offers – this helps grow your list and boosts conversions.
- Segment your audience: Separate subscribers by product interest or past purchases, identify those who clicked previous BFCM campaigns, first-time visitors, and returning customers. Clear segments allow you to tailor communication and deliver personalized offers.
- Use email automation. Omnisend data shows datathat last year’s BFCM “Welcome” automations achieved the highest click-to-conversion rate at 63.33%, followed by abandoned cart automations at 44.57%, which generated 146,400 orders.,
Important: If you’ve been using newsletters for some time, review and update your contact list before BFCM, removing inactive subscribers.
2) Choose the Right Meta Ads Audiences
When preparing BFCM ad campaigns, it’s
- Custom Audiences: Users who visited your site, added items to their cart but didn’t purchase, or previous buyers.
- Lookalike Audiences: Users with demographics and interests similar to your existing customers.
- Broad Audiences: Without specifying demographics or interests – algorithms will find the most suitable users to show your ads to.
3) Analyze results and test your ads
If you have previously run BFCM campaigns, analyze their results — this will help you understand what worked and what didn’t, allowing you to apply those insights to your new campaigns.
Also, review competitors’ campaigns in the Facebook Ads Libraryhow they position their products and promotions, and what visuals and copy they use. This is especially helpful if you haven’t run BFCM campaigns before.
Since advertising costs during Black Friday and Cyber Monday are extremely high, running untested ads becomes risky. Prepare as many variations as possible and test them in advance — this will help you identify which ones perform best, allowing you to launch high-impact campaigns as BFCM approaches. Experiment with different formats such as video ads and Advantage+ Carousel ads.
Why aren’t a couple of ad creatives enough? During the BFCM period, companies advertise extremely intensively, and users see countless ads every day — which means they get bored quickly. By preparing more variations, you can refresh your ads more often and maintain audience engagement.
Important: once your Meta campaigns are live, avoid making frequent adjustments. Every time
4) Use high-quality visuals
During discount periods, users see ads everywhere — in emails, on social media, and across websites. To stand out, it’s essential to use high-quality visuals and memorable messages. Strong visual content helps convey the value and quality of your products and builds trust in your brand.
To improve ad performance in Google and Meta Ads campaigns, it’s recommended to use images where text occupies no more than 20% of the entire visual.
5) Prepare Google Performance Max (PMax) Campaigns and Use CTAs
If you use Google Performance Max campaigns, we recommend excluding brand-name keywords during the discount weekend. These keywords can inflate your ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) but won’t help attract new customers. You can exclude them directly in Google Ads (the keyword limit is 100). If you have more than 100 keywords, you’ll need to contact Google Support and arrange this in advance.
If you use Google Performance Max campaigns, we recommend excluding brand-name keywords during the discount weekend. These keywords can inflate your ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) but won’t help attract new customers. You can exclude them directly in Google Ads (the keyword limit is 100). If you have more than 100 keywords, you’ll need to contact Google Support and arrange this in advance. If you have customer lists, it’s worth uploading them so that the Google algorithm has a better initial understanding of which users to target in order to achieve your campaign goals.
When it comes to content, prepare at least one video you want to show users during the campaign. If you don’t, the system will automatically generate a video, which may look unprofessional. Also, remember that every ad must include a CTA (Call to Action).
It’s worth advertising higher-priced products in separate campaigns, as they can generate a higher ROAS.. If you include such products in the same campaign with other items, the system may allocate too little budget to them, making the ads less effective.
6) Plan your discount size, campaign types, strategies, and budget
During Black Friday and Cyber Monday, consumers expect substantial discounts, so 5–10% offers often go unnoticed. The average discount is around 25% — we recommend keeping this in mind when planning your promotions.
When planning your advertising budget, don’t be afraid to invest more in Black Friday promotions — competition is extremely high during these days. Some brands allocate up to 188% more budget than usual. A higher budget helps you compete more effectively and ensures your ads are shown more frequently to potential buyers.
We recommend running two types of campaigns — those optimized for conversions and those optimized for traffic. During Black Friday, users are already more likely to convert, so it’s important not to lose that traffic and to maintain a high share of ad impressions in the top Google positions.
It’s equally important to choose the right budget strategies: for individual campaigns or for a shared daily campaign budget, it’s best to allocate roughly double the set CPA (cost per action), if one is defined. It’s best to allocate your campaign budget between new and existing customers at approximately a 70:30 ratio. For example, if the budget is €1,000, €700 should be allocated to acquiring new users, and €300 to re-engaging existing users who have not completed the desired action.
Recommendation: During Black Friday and Cyber Monday, turn off ads or campaigns that reach the set CPA but do not generate sales (if you are using a Target CPA strategy). If ROAS remains below your target, you can reduce campaign budgets by 10% every 12 hours. For campaigns that meet or exceed your goals, you can increase budgets by 10% every hour or day.
7) Optimize Website Content for AI Search
Shoppers increasingly search not only on Google but also on AI platforms such as ChatGPT and Gemini, where they can get clear product suggestions or comparisons.
Review your website content: update outdated information, ensure clarity and structure, and align with search intent. All products should have accurate names, descriptions with prices, and images. Structured content helps AI tools understand what you offer.
By analyzing your data in advance, planning your communication strategy, preparing content and ad campaigns, and allocating your budget effectively, you can approach Black Friday and Cyber Monday with confidence and peace of mind. We hope these tips are helpful and that applying them in practice will help you achieve excellent results.
