Black Friday doesn’t sneak up on anyone, yet somehow it still catches advertisers off guard every year.
Campaigns launch at the last minute, budgets aren’t ready, and tracking issues surface once performance starts to spike.
If you’ve managed PPC through Q4, you know how quickly small mistakes can turn into costly ones. CPCs rise, competition intensifies, and ad inventory becomes harder to win. By the time the weekend hits, there’s little room left for major fixes.
That’s why the most successful advertisers treat preparation as their advantage. They plan budgets before the rush, stabilize feeds early, and set guardrails around automation before the system starts making aggressive bids.
This article walks through the key areas worth reviewing now so you can step into the busiest retail period of the year with fewer surprises and a plan that holds up under pressure.
Let’s start with what to revisit from last year.
Take The Time To Audit Last Year’s Wins And Pitfalls
Before building anything new, it’s worth taking a closer look at last year’s performance.
The strategy here isn’t about copying old campaigns; it’s about understanding where they overdelivered, where they stalled out, and how the landscape might have changed since then.
In Google Ads, start with the attribution reports. Look beyond just last-click conversions and examine how various campaign types contributed throughout the funnel.
If Performance Max campaigns played more of an assist role, that should inform how you structure them this year.
If Standard Shopping capped out early or certain product categories were underrepresented, those are fixable issues.
You can also use auction insights to see when competitors ramped up spend, or whether you lost impression share due to budget or rank. These reports offer useful context if you’re planning to scale this year but didn’t last year.
If you’re using Microsoft Ads, review audience and device performance to see where volume shifted.
Holiday behavior isn’t always the same across platforms. What worked well on Google may not have translated to Bing or Meta, and vice versa.
The goal is to identify specific opportunities, not just assume last year’s playbook will hold up.
Build Early, Even If You’re Not Launching Yet
There’s value in building out your campaigns well in advance of Black Friday, even if you don’t plan to activate them until closer to the sale.
Whether you’re launching new campaigns or just updating ads in existing ones, getting ahead on structure gives you time to QA creative, troubleshoot disapprovals, and coordinate across teams.
If you’re planning to reuse existing campaigns, you can still stay organized using labels. For example:
- Apply labels to new Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) that include holiday-specific copy or promotions.
- Label sitelinks, callouts, or promo assets that reference Black Friday offers.
- Tag ad groups or asset groups that are tied to limited-time sale…
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