Black Friday is 27 November 2026 and Cyber Monday is 30 November. The brands that do well will have tracking, offers and creative ready by mid-November. Here is the plan in four phases, starting now.
Ads cost more in Black Friday week. Sales cost less.
Most brands expect Black Friday to be expensive, and for impressions it is. Measurement company Billy Grace studied its e-commerce advertisers from September to December 2025. In Black Friday week, the median cost of 1,000 impressions rose from about €6.50 to €8.83, roughly a third.
Yet the median cost of winning an order fell about 18%, and return on ad spend rose about 26%. Impressions cost more, but far more of the people seeing them were ready to buy.
One caution. Those figures come from Billy Grace's own attribution model, which is the product it sells. Read them as a direction, not a forecast.
Meta got dearer faster than Google in that data, with impression costs up 45% against 22%. The starting point is higher this year too. Triple Whale's median Meta cost per 1,000 impressions rose 13% in the year to July 2026.
The lesson: do not judge Black Friday on what impressions cost. Judge it on what an order costs against your margin.
The plan at a glance.
| Phase | Dates | The job |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Foundations | Now to 31 October | Fix tracking, set the offer, build the creative |
| 2. Warm-up | 1 to 22 November | Reach new people, test creative, lock budgets |
| 3. Black Friday week | 23 to 30 November | Run the offer, protect budget, leave the structure alone |
| 4. Second window | 1 to 24 December | Gifting, last delivery dates, follow-up with new customers |
Phase 1: foundations (now to 31 October).
Check your tracking. Place a test order and confirm it shows on Meta and Google with the right value. If the platforms cannot see your sales, they cannot find more of them.
Price the offer before you promise it. A discount moves your break-even point. Take a product on a 50% margin: 20% off lifts break-even ROAS from 2× to 2.67×. Our guide to what makes a good ROAS shows the sum.
Consider offers that are not a discount. Bundles, a gift with purchase, early access or a limited drop can all give people a reason to buy without cutting your margin as deeply.
Build from what already works. Make Black Friday versions of your best-performing ads. This is not the month to gamble on an untested idea.
Check the product feed. Sale prices and stock levels need to update correctly for Shopping and Performance Max.
Confirm stock and delivery dates. The ads are wasted if the hero product sells out on Thursday night.
Phase 2: warm-up (1 to 22 November).
Use these weeks to get in front of new people, so your Black Friday ads land on an audience that already knows you. Billy Grace's playbook recommends lifting Meta spend in the two weeks before Black Friday for this reason.
- Open an early-access list. Offer first access to the sale in exchange for an email address.
- Test now, not later. Run your Black Friday creative at low budgets so you know the winners before the week starts.
- Lock it in by mid-November. Agree budgets, offers and creative, then stop making big changes. Campaigns need time to settle.
- Leave new projects for January. New channels, account restructures and new bidding strategies can wait.
Phase 3: Black Friday week (23 to 30 November).
In the Billy Grace data, Black Friday itself brought the most orders of the week and the cheapest. This is the week to keep your nerve.
- Steer on cost per order and ROAS. Ignore the rising cost of impressions.
- Watch daily budgets. If a campaign runs out of money by mid-afternoon, it misses the evening.
- Raise budgets in steps. Put more behind what is working. Do not rebuild campaigns mid-week.
- Pause ads for sold-out products. Check stock every morning.
- Have your welcome emails ready. About two thirds of orders across Black Friday and Cyber Monday came from first-time customers in that data.
Phase 4: the second window (1 to 24 December).
Black Friday is not the end. In the Billy Grace data, orders stayed well above their autumn level through December and peaked each Sunday. On the strongest days, returns held close to Black Friday week levels.
Change the message from discount to gifting. Lead with last delivery dates, and keep going until your final order date for Christmas.
We ran this window for Smokin' Brothers, an Italian smoked salmon brand. From 12 November to 19 December 2022, five Google campaigns with Meta alongside turned £2.2K of ad spend into £19K of revenue. That is 282 sales at an 8.7× ROAS.
A small budget is not a reason to sit it out.
Smokin' Brothers spent just over £2.2K across five weeks. WXM Clothing launched its SS24 collection on £1.2K of ad spend and took £16K in revenue, a 13.08× ROAS.
That was a collection launch, not Black Friday, but the principle is the same. Pick one clear moment and plan both channels around it.
Your Black Friday checklist.
- Tracking tested with a real order
- Offer priced against your margin
- Black Friday versions of your best ads built and tested
- Product feed showing the right prices and stock
- Early-access list open
- Budgets and creative locked by mid-November
- Welcome emails ready for new customers
- Gifting ads and last delivery dates ready for December