Black Friday. Some love it, some hate it, but one thing’s for sure – it’s here to stay. It’s the second-biggest shopping event of the year, with several retailers choosing to expand their offers across the whole of November to capitalise on shoppers’ need for a good bargain.
36% of UK shoppers say they spend more than they usually would during Black Friday and 71% say they’re motivated by discounts and offers during this period. So, chances are, you need a plan for how your brand is going to approach it.
But how do you plan for it, and how do you ensure your marketing and eCommerce strategy hits all the right notes to take advantage? That’s where our experts are ready to weigh in.
Planning for a successful Black Friday
Over the past few years, Black Friday has really found its legs online. Where we would once see queues of people camping overnight to secure discounted TVs, mobile is now the primary shopping channel for Black Friday offers.
However, this doesn’t mean that you can simply rely on a strong performance marketing strategy to generate results. An omnichannel approach remains the key driver for effectiveness, generating both short-term sales and long-term customer lifetime value (CLTV).
Trends to consider
- Mobile will remain the primary shopping channel.
- The shift to early shopping will persist – use it to your advantage.
- AI-driven efficiencies will play an increasing role. Shoppers will use AI as a co-pilot for research, price comparison, and personalised product recommendations – and AI has a better chance of finding and understanding your offers when they are multi-channel.
- Omnichannel campaigns will reign supreme. Shoppers are more intentional than impulsive, so will be looking at multiple sources for inspiration, reviews and deals. Consistency is key across these touchpoints.
- Technology (48%)is the most purchased product category, followed by clothing (38%), stocking fillers (28%) and health and beauty (28%). Source: PwC UK
- More shoppers will rely on credit to make their purchases in 2026.
- Free delivery holds the biggest sway with shoppers (37% shoppers state this is most important), followed by being a trusted brand (33%), price matching (20%), and free returns (20%). Source: IPA
Gen Z and Millennials are the most active demographic, with 91% shopping during the period. Source: DHL
Mintel’s 2026 Black Friday Market Report also highlights the over-55s as an untapped market. If this demographic is your sweet spot, read our piece on how to harness the power of ‘want’ in older audiences.
Six tips to prepare for Black Friday
- Learn from what worked (and what didn’t). Consider your position in the market and what it is that your customers really value – is it convenience, cost, comfort or customisation? These drivers are key to defining your strategies and tactics.
- Proper segmentation. Evaluate your target audience and segment into smaller groups. Think demographics, user behaviours, physical location.
- Personalise promotions. Now is the time to make the most of all that information you’ve got on your users’ activity – email and retargeting campaigns really pull their weight here!
- Do a stock take. Don’t make promises you can’t fulfil. Make sure you’ve got the stock and the infrastructure to deliver products in the time you state online to avoid customer frustration.
- Plan ahead with paid. Get your PPC and paid social media channels optimised in advance of the period. This ensures you have brand awareness on side to reduce your cost-per-click during a very competitive period. If you’re running manual campaigns, be ready to adjust your bids appropriately. If you’re using more automated bidding strategies, you should consider how the AI will respond to the increased demand. Most importantly, keep on top of negative keywords to reduce wastage!
- Optimise your website. You’re expecting a spike in traffic, so make sure your site can handle it. Nothing will tarnish trust and frustrate customers more than a slow (or crashed) site.
Pricing for Black Friday deals
Don’t do your brand a disservice when it comes to Black Friday pricing. If you’re unsure of the right approach, we recommend using Google Merchant Center (GMC) pricing benchmark to understand how you stack up against competitors.
GMC also provides suggested pricing insight by analysing historical price points, price elasticity, current performance, and the impact of price changes for similar businesses. This can inform sale price discounts so your brand remains competitive in the auction – a win-win for you and your customers.
The role of SEO
It could be easy to rule out SEO when it comes to Black Friday. After all, many search engines are looking for long term performance that’s built over time, and a relatively brief event like Black Friday might feel better suited to a robust paid media strategy. That’s where many brands fall short.
Having a strong SEO team and using digital PR wisely can be the difference between a lacklustre seasonal campaign and a long-term driver of brand advocacy.
When it comes to your website, here are a few SEO tips for success:
- Keep your Black Friday page(s) live all year, and take it with you through migrations. It needs to remain indexed, so just reduce its position in the site architecture and remove internal links. Don’t use the current year in the URL – make it more generic to enable use year-on-year.
- Think long term. When you’re not in the current Black Friday period, you can always add content around previous offers and a hold message to your Black Friday landing page(s). It’s also the perfect spot for a captcha box to keep customers notified when offers go live.
- Break your offers into multiple pages if possible. People often search for specific products they’re looking to purchase, such as “Black Friday TV offers” etc and this helps both shoppers and AI to find your products.
It’s really hard to rank for Black Friday terms organically. The most worthwhile activity is to reach out to journalists (or get your marketing agency to do it) with the aim of getting your Black Friday deal featured in roundups and feature articles during the sale period.
Digital PR is key for Black Friday visibility
Now you’ve got your offer down to a tee, it’s time to let the world know what they could be missing out on. And our Digital PR experts know just how to write the hook that gets your products noticed.
- Get in early. Journalists start drafting Black Friday coverage way ahead of time. If you’re pitching in mid-November, you’re already late. Start feeding stories in September or October and be prepared to keep re-pitching throughout.
- Don’t just pitch discounts. Every brand will be shouting about ‘up to 70% off’. Journalists don’t need another one. Instead, try angle your story around:
- Weirdest deals (quirky or niche products)
- Eco-friendly shopping/anti-Black Friday stance
- Regional or generational shopping trends
- Lead with data if possible. On the same note, stand out from a news cycle crowded with “best deals” lists with data-led stories – surveys on shopping habits, regional breakdowns of spending, or Google Trends analysis on what’s hot this year.
- Have expert commentary ready! Journalists need quick, confident takes (avoid AI-generated responses for ultimate authenticity).
- Be reactive. The news cycle is fast and messy on Black Friday. Make sure you have all your monitoring for trending deal stories, outages, or scams and pitch expert comments within hours. That speed often lands more coverage than planned campaigns.
- Package content well. It might seem simple, but making sure your content is packaged well – easy to read, easy to download, aesthetically pleasing – is massively helpful for journalists scrambling through an inbox of thousands. If you’ve got a survey or analysis, make the release bullet-point heavy, include regional stats, and add quotable commentary.
- Don’t forget post-Black Friday. Cyber Monday is its own story. Then you’ve got ‘returns surge’ angles, delivery delays, and ‘how much people really spent’ reports… then it’s Christmas. Keep something in your back pocket for follow ups the days after.
Optimising your Google Shopping feed
- Keep your shopping feed consistent and up to date. Make sure your creative is relevant, product USPs are clearly highlighted, and messaging and visuals are aligned across all channels – paid search, Google Shopping, paid and organic social, your website, print and TV advertising.
- Make the most of your product titles. You’ve got 150 characters to play with, so use them wisely. Add your best-performing product or category-related keywords and ensure that your ads appear for the most relevant searches during peak period to reduce wastage.
- Optimise key product attributes. Update everything that can help your products stand out in Google Shopping, including images, sale prices, reviews, and delivery and returns information.
- Use labels to structure your campaigns. Add labels to your primary feed for products that are on sale, making it easier to segment and structure your paid campaigns ahead of Black Friday.
- Use supplemental feeds for quick updates. If editing your primary feed isn’t possible, use a supplemental feed to make fast changes. Be sure to adjust your Google Merchant Centre rules so the supplemental feed takes priority over the primary feed, ensuring your updates are applied correctly.
Making the most of paid social media
With most Black Friday purchases being made on mobile, paid social media marketing is a no-brainer. There’s just one problem.
Every other brand has the same idea.
Our paid media experts have shared their insights on how to get ahead of the competition.
- Test early. Don’t wait until November to start testing. Use September and October to find the hooks, formats, products and offers that actually work, then take those learnings into Black Friday.
- Build the audience first. Black Friday doesn’t have to start with the discount. Use the weeks beforehand to build awareness, engagement and site traffic, so you’re not starting from scratch when the sale goes live. Giving people the option to ‘prep their baskets’ beforehand is another way to get ahead of the curve.
- Build on what already works. Don’t reinvent your creative for Black Friday. Take your best-performing evergreen ads and adapt the messaging and offer for the event.
- Get your catalogue creative ready. Don’t leave catalogue ads until the sale starts. Have your Black Friday templates ready beforehand so you can quickly switch products, prices and offers as needed.
- Expect more competition. CPMs will rise and everyone will be pushing an offer. Have a few creative angles ready to go (UGC, product, social proof or urgency) rather than relying on one single Black Friday ad.
The recipe for a Black Friday offer that performs
- Data-driven offers based on customer demand and buying habits (consider CLTV)
- Optimised omnichannel distribution.
- Emphasised extra value: free delivery, price matching, free returns or well-known credit partners rate highly with shoppers looking for a deal.
- Creative and messaging that actually resonates. Think about why your customers want these products and what problem(s) you’re solving. Black Friday is a time when consumers are willing to buy from brands they haven’t previously purchased from; emphasising this messaging is key to driving them through the door.
Other essential tips for a successful Black Friday
Go early
We hear people talking about Black Friday earlier and earlier each year, and there’s a good reason for this. Demand is there, and retailers want to get in early before shoppers get Black Friday fatigue So why not go early? Black Friday demand and offers can start from as early as the penultimate week of October – get in there first to make the most of the sales period.
Think ‘Sale’, not just ‘Black Friday’
Instead of simply pushing ‘Black Friday’ related keywords, we recommend generic sale-related search terms like ‘deals’, ‘discount’, ‘sale’, ‘offer’, alongside your products/services.
Black Friday keywords can get expensive during this period and are notoriously hard for SEO to rank for; we’ve generated results by using generic sale keywords, as they too should be more popular during the peak period. It’s also a good idea to review search terms more consistently during this period, to keep adding relevant search terms to your account and removing anything that isn’t performing well.
Keep on top
Once you’ve planned your strategy and your Black Friday campaign has officially launched, it’s crucial to keep your foot on the gas and stay responsive. Remember to review auction insights for brand terms more frequently, as competitors can take advantage by bidding on your brand terms – be prepared to increase brand budget if necessary.
Just to go the extra mile…
Standing out during the Black Friday period can be tough. Everyone wants a piece of the action, and it can feel like a race to the bottom. So it’s worth considering anything extra you can do to nudge yourself ahead of the competition:
- CTV – A key channel for advertisers as a lower-funnel tactic rather than just awareness. Connected TV advertising can be very effective if paired with a good omnichannel strategy and the creative is aligned across the campaign.
- Consider sustainability – Over 50% of the UK market is worried about overconsumption during Black Friday. Got a great sustainability initiative that could offset the environmental impact of your products or delivery? Now is the time to talk about it – or consider making one.
- Plan for new customers – Ensure you have a plan in place for managing new customers you gain through Black Friday promotions – how can you build a relationship with them and encourage them to shop again?
Need anything more specific? Our team of experts is brimming with knowledge, insight and ideas on how to win the race for Black Friday supremacy.
Get in touch with us today and let us know how we can help your brand!
