Black Friday is one of the busiest shopping periods of the year, and for ecommerce businesses, it can be an important opportunity to reach customers who are actively looking for products and promotions. It's also one of the most competitive times to advertise on Google.
As retailers increase their advertising budgets and promote seasonal offers, competition for valuable searches can become more intense. For businesses already running Google Ads, this often means rethinking budgets, campaign priorities, product feeds, and promotional messaging in the weeks leading up to Black Friday.
If you're considering running Black Friday Google Ads, the goal should be to make the most of the additional shopping demand without spending unnecessarily or making last-minute changes that affect campaign performance.
Here's what we'd recommend considering before the holiday shopping period begins.
Start Planning Your Black Friday Google Ads Early
One of the biggest mistakes ecommerce businesses can make is waiting until the week or two before Black Friday to start thinking about their advertising strategy. While Google Ads can generate visibility much faster than SEO for Black Friday, that doesn't mean campaigns should be created or significantly restructured at the last minute.
New campaigns and substantial changes to existing campaigns may require time to gather data and stabilize performance, particularly when automated bidding is involved. Starting early also gives you time to identify technical issues, review your product feed, and determine which products or categories deserve the most attention.
For established ecommerce advertisers, we'd recommend reviewing the previous year's performance as a starting point. Look at which campaigns generated the most revenue, how conversion rates changed throughout the promotional period, which products performed particularly well, and whether your return on ad spend (ROAS) improved or declined.
You may find that certain categories consistently perform well during holiday promotions, while others attract additional clicks without generating enough revenue to justify the increased spend. Understanding those patterns can help you make more informed decisions about where to invest this year.
Expect More Competition During Black Friday
One of the most important considerations when running ads on Black Friday is how increased competition can affect your advertising costs. As more retailers compete for shoppers, cost-per-click (CPC) can increase, particularly for popular products and highly competitive categories.
However, higher CPCs don't automatically mean your campaigns are performing poorly. If conversion rates also increase because more shoppers are ready to purchase, paying more per click may still be profitable. On the other hand, an increase in traffic without a corresponding improvement in conversions can quickly make campaigns less efficient.
This is why we'd recommend evaluating Black Friday performance using metrics that reflect your business goals, rather than focusing exclusively on clicks or traffic. For ecommerce businesses, that usually means reviewing conversion value, ROAS, cost per acquisition, and the profitability of the products being promoted. A campaign generating more revenue isn't necessarily more profitable if advertising costs and promotional discounts have increased significantly.
Review Your Google Ads Budget Before the Sale
Black Friday can create opportunities to capture additional demand, but increasing your advertising budget should be a strategic decision.
If your campaigns are already limited by budget and consistently generating profitable sales, you may have an opportunity to increase spend during the promotional period. However, we'd be cautious about automatically doubling or tripling budgets simply because Black Friday is approaching.
Consider which campaigns are already performing well, which products have sufficient inventory, and whether your promotional margins can support additional advertising costs. For example, a furniture retailer might have strong margins on certain dining tables and sofas but much smaller margins on accessories or heavily discounted clearance products. Even if both categories attract additional demand during Black Friday, they may not warrant the same advertising investment.
It's also worth considering how much you're willing to spend across the entire promotional period. Many retailers now begin their Black Friday offers days or even weeks before the actual event, meaning your budget may need to support a longer campaign rather than one particularly busy Friday.
Make Sure Your Product Feed Is Ready
For ecommerce businesses running Shopping Ads or Performance Max campaigns, your product feed is an important part of your Black Friday preparation. Google uses product information from Merchant Center to understand what you're selling and determine when your products may be relevant to shoppers.
Before the sale, review your product titles, descriptions, images, prices, availability, and other important feed attributes. Make sure your highest-priority products are approved and eligible to serve, and resolve any disapprovals or warnings that could limit visibility during the promotional period. You'll also want to confirm that pricing and availability information remain accurate as promotions begin. If a customer clicks an ad advertising a discounted product but lands on a page displaying a different price, that can create frustration and may result in Merchant Center issues.
For Shopify stores, much of this information may sync through an integration with Google Merchant Center. However, we'd still recommend reviewing the feed directly rather than assuming everything is working correctly. A successful product sync doesn't necessarily mean your titles, images, categorization, and promotional information are optimized.
Take Advantage of Google Merchant Center Promotions
If you're running eligible Shopping Ads, Merchant Center promotions can be a useful way to highlight special offers during Black Friday. Depending on your products, location, and eligibility, these promotions may allow you to display offers such as percentage discounts, dollar-off promotions, or other qualifying incentives alongside your product listings.
For example, a retailer offering 20% off a specific collection may be able to submit that promotion through Merchant Center so eligible shoppers can see the offer associated with relevant products. This can help communicate the value of your promotion before someone clicks through to your website.
It's important to distinguish Merchant Center promotions from sale pricing. They have different requirements and ways of appearing in Google's shopping experiences. Because promotions can require review and approval, we'd recommend setting them up ahead of the sale rather than waiting until the promotion begins. You should also make sure your offers are accurately reflected on your website and comply with Google's promotional policies.
Update Your Ad Messaging for Black Friday
Your existing Google Ads may already be reaching the right customers, but Black Friday gives you an opportunity to make your messaging more relevant to what shoppers are looking for.
For Search campaigns, this might involve updating responsive search ad assets to reference your promotion, creating appropriate seasonal assets, or using promotional assets to communicate specific offers.
A retailer advertising women's clothing, for example, may want to highlight a Black Friday discount, free shipping threshold, or limited-time promotion alongside its usual product messaging. However, we'd avoid replacing every existing ad with seasonal messaging. Your evergreen campaigns may already be performing well, and making substantial changes immediately before a major sales period can introduce unnecessary uncertainty.
Instead, consider how seasonal messaging can complement what's already working. The same applies to landing pages. If an ad promotes a Black Friday sale on winter boots, customers should arrive somewhere that clearly reflects the offer and makes those products easy to find. Sending everyone to a general homepage or broad sale page can create additional friction, particularly when shoppers are comparing offers across multiple retailers.
Should You Create Separate Black Friday Campaigns?
One question ecommerce advertisers often have is whether they should create entirely new campaigns for Black Friday or use their existing Google Ads campaigns. There isn't one approach that makes sense for every account.
For some businesses, updating existing campaigns with seasonal messaging, promotional assets, and carefully planned budget adjustments may be sufficient. For others, separate campaigns may be useful when promoting a distinct group of products, targeting different search intent, or allocating a dedicated budget to a major seasonal offer.
For example, a retailer with an extensive catalogue might want to give additional attention to a particularly competitive product category during Black Friday.
However, creating multiple campaigns that target the same products and audiences can complicate reporting and budget allocation. It may also fragment conversion data that automated bidding strategies use to optimize performance.
We'd recommend reviewing the existing account structure before deciding whether additional campaigns are necessary. The goal is to support your Black Friday strategy without introducing complexity that doesn't provide a meaningful benefit.
Be Mindful With Performance Max Campaigns
Performance Max is commonly used by ecommerce businesses because it can advertise products across multiple Google channels using automated bidding and targeting. During Black Friday, these campaigns can help capture shopping demand, but they also require careful preparation.
If you're already running Performance Max, review which products are included, whether your asset groups reflect relevant categories, and whether your creative assets and promotional messaging are appropriate for the upcoming sale.
It's also important to understand how your existing campaigns are performing before making substantial changes. For example, changing ROAS targets aggressively, significantly increasing budgets, or restructuring campaigns immediately before Black Friday may affect how the campaigns deliver during an already competitive period.
If your business has a clear, short-term promotional event and sufficient historical conversion data, Google's seasonality adjustments may be worth evaluating. However, these adjustments are designed for specific situations involving expected conversion-rate changes and aren't necessary for every holiday promotion.
For most businesses, we'd prioritize making sure the existing campaign structure, product data, conversion tracking, and budget strategy are in good shape before introducing additional changes.
Don't Overlook Your Website Experience
Even a well-managed Google Ads campaign can struggle if the website isn't ready for the traffic it generates. Black Friday shoppers are often comparing products, prices, shipping options, and delivery timelines across several retailers.
If your website is slow, difficult to navigate, or unclear about the promotion, some of those visitors may leave before purchasing. Before increasing your advertising spend, review the experience customers will have after clicking an ad.
For ecommerce businesses, we'd pay particular attention to mobile usability, collection filtering, product availability, promotional pricing, shipping information, and checkout functionality. It's also worth testing your conversion tracking ahead of time.
If Google Ads isn't accurately recording purchases or conversion values, automated bidding strategies may be working with incomplete or incorrect information during one of your busiest sales periods.
Monitor Performance Throughout the Sale
Once your Black Friday campaigns are running, regular monitoring becomes particularly important.
We'd recommend keeping an eye on spend, conversion value, ROAS, product performance, and any unexpected changes in campaign delivery. You may discover that certain products are generating strong returns and could benefit from additional budget, while others are attracting expensive clicks without converting into customers. However, we'd also avoid making constant changes based on a few hours of performance.
Conversion reporting can be delayed, and customers may take time to compare products before purchasing. For higher-priced items such as furniture or appliances, that consideration period may be longer than it is for smaller purchases. The goal is to remain responsive without overreacting to short-term fluctuations.
After the promotion ends, review performance against both your usual benchmarks and the previous year's Black Friday results where available. Consider how much revenue was generated, what it cost to acquire those sales, and which products or campaigns delivered the strongest returns.
Those findings can help inform your strategy for Boxing Day, future seasonal promotions, and the following year's Black Friday.
Make Black Friday Google Ads Part of Your Broader Ecommerce Strategy
Black Friday can be a valuable opportunity for ecommerce businesses to generate additional sales, but strong results usually depend on the preparation happening before the promotional period begins.
Reviewing historical performance, preparing your product feed, planning budgets, updating promotional messaging, and ensuring your website is ready for additional traffic can all help you make better use of your advertising investment.
It's also worth considering how Google Ads fits alongside your other marketing efforts. Your ecommerce SEO strategy may help shoppers discover your products through organic search, while email and social media can communicate promotions to existing audiences. Google Ads can then help you reach customers who are actively searching and shopping during the sale.
At Searchlight, we approach paid advertising with the broader business picture in mind. That means understanding your products, margins, goals, and existing campaign performance before recommending changes to your advertising strategy.
Planning your next ecommerce promotion? Get in touch with Searchlight to learn how we can help you make more informed decisions about your Google Ads campaigns.
