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The Black Friday ad checklist for store owners who run their own ads

By Kristoffer Nielsen, Wield · Published

Short answer

Before Black Friday (27 November 2026): set budgets and sale prices a few days early, test that a purchase shows up in Shopify, Meta and Google Ads, and check your feed and policies. From Black Friday to Cyber Monday (30 November): check yesterday's sales against ad spend each morning, look for campaigns out of budget, disapproved products and sold-out bestsellers, and avoid big changes to campaigns that are working.

Before Black Friday: set up by Tuesday 24 November

Make the big changes early, so your campaigns have a few days to settle before the busiest days of the year.

Check Where Why it matters
Budgets set for the peak Google Ads and Meta Ads Manager On Meta, a large budget change can count as a significant edit and restart the learning phase. Change it once, a few days early, rather than every day
Sale prices in your product feed Merchant Center, or your feed app The price in Google Shopping must match the product page. A sale that’s live on the site but not in the feed causes price mismatch disapprovals (see our price and availability mismatch guide)
New ads approved Google Ads and Meta Black Friday ads must pass review before they run. Submit them a few days early, scheduled to start on the day
Tracking works Shopify, Meta Events Manager, Google Ads conversions Place a real test order. Check it appears in all three
Shipping cut-offs and returns Your shipping and returns pages, and Merchant Center Holiday delivery dates and extended returns should say the same thing on your site and in Merchant Center (see our shipping, returns and contact pages guide)
Promo codes Your store’s discounts Test every code on mobile, including how it combines with automatic discounts

About seasonality adjustments: Google Ads lets you tell Smart Bidding to expect a short jump in conversion rate. Google says they suit events of 1 to 7 days, only work with Target ROAS or Target CPA bidding (and all strategies in Performance Max), and that Smart Bidding already accounts for seasonal events. Use one only if you expect a far bigger jump than last year.

Every morning from 27 to 30 November

Ten minutes, before you change anything:

# Check Where If it’s off
1 Yesterday’s sales against the same day last year and last week Shopify analytics A big drop: check the site and checkout before blaming ads
2 Total ad spend against plan Google Ads and Ads Manager Google can spend up to twice the average daily budget on a busy day. That’s normal, and evens out over the month
3 Blended ROAS: total sales divided by total ad spend Shopify sales and both ad platforms Falling for two days in a row: pull back on the weakest campaigns, not everything
4 Campaigns limited by budget Google Ads status column; delivery column in Ads Manager If a profitable campaign runs out by midday, raise its budget once, moderately
5 Disapproved products and ads Merchant Center Needs attention; Ads Manager Fix the cause the same day: disapproved products don’t show in Shopping ads
6 Sold-out bestsellers still advertised Shopify inventory against your top ads and products Pause ads for sold-out items. Google has tightened its rules for out-of-stock product pages, so make sure availability in the feed updates too
7 Checkout works on a phone Your store Add a product to the cart and go to the payment step
8 Purchases still tracked Meta Events Manager, Google Ads conversion status A platform reporting far fewer purchases than Shopify credits it with may have broken tracking

What not to do: don’t make big edits to Meta ad sets that are working, don’t switch bidding strategies in the middle of the peak, and don’t judge yesterday’s Google results too early. Google Ads puts conversions on the date of the click, so the numbers for Black Friday keep growing for days afterwards.

After Cyber Monday: from 1 December

  1. Set budgets back to normal, or to your December plan.
  2. End the sale prices in your store and feed at the same time, so Google Shopping doesn’t show old prices.
  3. Pause or end Black Friday ads that mention the sale.
  4. Review the results a week later, once delayed conversions have come in. Compare total sales and blended ROAS with last year, then compare campaigns within each platform. Our guide to why Meta, Google Ads and Shopify report different sales explains which numbers to compare.
  5. Write down what you’d change for next year while you still remember.

Questions people also ask

When are Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2026?

Black Friday is Friday 27 November 2026, the day after US Thanksgiving. Cyber Monday is 30 November 2026.

Should I raise my budgets on Black Friday itself?

Raise them a few days before if you can. On Meta, a large budget change can count as a significant edit and restart the learning phase. On Google, a campaign can already spend up to twice its average daily budget on a busy day.

Should I use a seasonality adjustment in Google Ads?

Only if you use Target ROAS or Target CPA bidding and expect a much bigger jump in conversion rate than usual for 1 to 7 days. Google says Smart Bidding already accounts for seasonal events, so most stores don't need one.

Why do my Black Friday ad results keep changing the following week?

Google Ads reports conversions on the date of the click, so people who clicked on Black Friday and bought later are added to Black Friday's numbers afterwards. Meta also needs time to count purchases within its attribution window.

Sources