Your Black Friday PPC Checklist: What To Do & When (Free Download)

Black Friday lands on 27 November this year (less than two months away), and a solid Black Friday PPC checklist is the difference between a smooth, profitable sale and a scramble for results. Whether you’re running Google Shopping, Search or Performance Max, the work starts well before the day itself.

Here’s our simple, expert-approved timeline to keep you on track.

Your Black Friday PPC Checklist: Pre, During and Post

Pre Black Friday: Lay the Groundwork

The weeks leading up to Black Friday are where campaigns are won or lost. Start with the basics: make sure there are no Merchant Centre feed issues, and get your ads, assets and merchant promos uploaded in plenty of time so approvals don’t catch you out.

Next, build momentum. Gradually increase your budgets and bid aggression (or set up seasonality adjustments) rather than flipping a switch at the last minute. It gives the algorithms time to adjust and helps you avoid nasty surprises.

Then tidy up the details that protect your spend:

• Set rules to make sure the right activity is enabled or paused
• Review your negative keyword lists
• Review ad scheduling
• Check site speed and make any necessary improvements
• Append “Black Friday” to relevant keywords

On the Day: Monitor and React

When the day arrives, your job is to keep a close eye on performance. Check that the ads you expect to be live are actually live, and track which areas are working so you can lean into them. Watch for products running out of stock too, so you’re not wasting money driving traffic to something customers can’t buy.

Then have some fun and watch your hard work pay off!

Post Black Friday: Learn and Wind Down

Once the rush is over, don’t switch off completely. Analyse the data and take your learnings forward into Christmas and next year’s sale. Make sure any promos running for remarketing are still active, and start pulling back bidding aggression and budgets so you’re not overspending as demand returns to normal.

Download the Full Black Friday PPC Checklist

We’ve pulled every task into The PPC Experts Black Friday Checklist (as well as an entire additional page of Black Friday tips)! Print it, share it with your team and tick things off as you go.