Black Friday is coming. Is your marketing ready?
Black Friday lands on Friday 27th November this year. From where we are in September, that might feel like plenty of time away, but those next couple of months have a habit of disappearing quickly.
Whether Black Friday is one of your biggest sales periods of the year or you’re planning a campaign for the first time, now is a good time to start putting the pieces in place. There’s your offer to decide, Google Ads and social campaigns to plan, creative to produce and website updates to make.
Then there’s the journey behind it all. Before you start sending more people to your website, you want to know everything works as it should, from somebody first seeing an ad to completing a purchase or making an enquiry.
So, what should you be thinking about now?
Start with an offer worth shouting about
Before you get into ads, graphics and landing pages, you need to know exactly what you’re promoting. That might be a discount across your whole website, an offer on a particular product range, a bundle or something completely different.
You’ll also need to decide how long the promotion will run and what you want customers to do when they see it. Black Friday itself might only be part of the picture, with your campaign running across the weekend, extending into Cyber Monday or becoming a longer promotional event.
Getting those details nailed down first gives the rest of the campaign something to work around. Your messaging becomes clearer, your creative has a purpose and you know exactly where your ads need to send people.
Get your Google Ads ready
Black Friday brings plenty of people to Google searching for products, deals and places to spend their money, making paid search a useful way to put your promotion in front of people who are already looking.
If you’ve run campaigns before, your existing data is a good place to start. Look at which products tend to attract the most interest, which searches bring in valuable customers and which campaigns have delivered your strongest sales or enquiries. Those insights can help you decide where to focus your attention and how to use your Black Friday budget.
It’s just as important to think about what happens after somebody clicks. If your ad is promoting an offer on a specific range, sending people to a dedicated landing page or relevant category takes them straight to what they came looking for. The fewer hoops they have to jump through, the better.
Get social in on the action
Black Friday gives you plenty to talk about on social media, and you don’t have to save it all for the day itself. The run-up gives you an opportunity to tease what’s coming, showcase products included in the promotion and start building anticipation before the offer goes live.
Once it does, organic posts and paid social can keep the campaign visible. Rather than relying on one “Black Friday sale now on” post, you can build a sequence of product features, previews, countdowns, reminders and last-chance content to keep the promotion moving.
Consistency matters here too. Someone might first discover your offer through a Facebook or Instagram ad, come across an organic post a few days later and eventually head to Google or your website when they’re ready to buy. Keeping the look and message recognisable across those touchpoints makes the whole campaign feel connected.
Give your website the Black Friday treatment
Your ads and social content might grab someone’s attention, but your website is where you need to turn that interest into action. Giving it a Black Friday refresh helps make sure the promotion is obvious as soon as people arrive.
That could mean a new homepage banner, promotional graphics, a dedicated landing page or updates to the product and category pages included in your offer. You don’t need to cover every inch of the website in Black Friday messaging, but visitors should be able to quickly understand what’s happening, what’s included and where to go next.
It’s worth thinking about all your campaign creative at the same time too. Producing your website graphics alongside assets for paid social, organic posts, Google Ads and email makes it easier to keep everything consistent, while still adapting the message and format to suit each channel.
Make sure your website can handle the attention
Looking the part is one thing. Your website also needs to work properly when all that extra traffic starts arriving.
If Black Friday is likely to bring a noticeable increase in visitors, check that your website and hosting are ready for it. Loading times matter when people are arriving ready to browse or buy, and a sluggish product page or checkout can quickly undo the work you’ve done to get them there. It’s also worth reviewing your Core Web Vitals to spot issues with loading performance, responsiveness and page stability.
Then test the journey yourself. Try your forms, checkout, tracking and important landing pages across desktop and mobile. Follow the same route a customer might take from an ad through to conversion and look for anything that causes confusion or gets in the way. It’s much better to find those problems in October than when your Black Friday campaign is already live.
Bring it all together for Black Friday
The strongest Black Friday campaigns aren’t just a collection of ads, emails, social posts and website banners. Each part should support the next, taking somebody from first seeing your offer through to actually doing something about it.
Starting now gives you the time to build that joined-up experience without the last-minute rush. You can decide what you’re offering, work out how you’re going to promote it, create the assets you need and make sure the website is ready to turn that extra attention into sales or enquiries.
At 21Digital, we can help bring those pieces together. From SEO and Google Ads to web design, email marketing, conversion tracking and digital strategy, our team can support the areas you need or manage the campaign as a whole.
Planning your Black Friday campaign? Give us a call on 01254 660 560 or get in touch with the team today and let’s make sure you’re ready when Black Friday arrives.
