BFCM Starts Now
By November, brands should be executing their BFCM strategy, not figuring it out. September and October are the time to test creative, identify winning products, grow your list and make sure your measurement is working.
Ideally, audience building should be happening all year. Brands can use lower-cost awareness and traffic-driving activity to continuously bring new prospects into the funnel, giving them time to engage with the brand before the most competitive shopping period of the year. The larger and stronger that warm audience is heading into BFCM, the less you need to rely on getting cold customers into your funnel when advertising costs and competition are at their highest.
Think of it as filling the funnel before you need to empty it. Use the months leading up to BFCM to introduce new people to the brand, then use BFCM to re-engage those higher-intent audiences with your strongest products, offers and creative.
1) Know what you're going to sell
Review historical product performance: Which products have generated the most sales and revenue?
Look at conversion rate (CVR): Which products are most likely to turn a website visitor into a customer?
Look at average order value (AOV): Which products or combinations tend to produce larger orders?
Consider margin: A product can sell well and still be a poor BFCM choice if the discount leaves very little profit.
Check inventory: Make sure you can support increased demand without selling out too early.
Identify hero products and bundles: Decide which products should receive the most advertising support and whether bundles can help increase order value.
2) Start testing creative now
Products: Which products get the strongest response when featured in advertising?
Hooks: How do you grab your customers’ attention? This could be a product benefit, customer problem, new arrival, bestseller message or brand story.
Formats: Test static images, carousels, grid images, split screen images, creator style videos, product videos
Offers: Test how your audience responds to bundles, free shipping, gifts with purchase or other promotional messages where appropriate.
Prospecting creative: Test ads designed to introduce the brand to people who may have never heard of you.
Retargeting creative: Test messages for people who have already visited your website, engaged with your content or considered buying.
3) Build the audience before you need it
Reach prospects: Use paid social throughout the year to introduce new audiences to your brand and products.
Build website traffic: The more qualified people who visit and browse your site ahead of BFCM, the larger your pool of returning customers becomes.
Build engaged audiences: People who watch your videos, interact with your social content or visit your website can become valuable audiences to reconnect with later.
Grow your email list well before BFCM: Don’t wait until November to start collecting subscribers. Use your website, social channels, paid media, giveaways, early-access offers or other incentives to grow your list throughout the year. By the time BFCM arrives, you’ll have a larger audience you can reach directly without paying for every single interaction.
Build your SMS list where appropriate: SMS can be especially useful for time-sensitive announcements, early access and final-day reminders, but it should be built gradually rather than switched on at the last minute.
4) Get your website and tracking ready
Mobile experience: Most people browse and purchase on mobile these days, this is how you should be building your site first
Product pages: Your product detail pages should clearly communicate sizing, benefits, imagery, shipping information, returns and anything else someone needs before buying. Reviews are also helpful.
Checkout: Remove unnecessary friction and test the entire purchase journey to ensure it’s smooth.
Meta tracking: Make sure Meta's Pixel and Conversions API are correctly recording important actions such as purchases.
Google Ads tracking: Confirm Google is accurately measuring the conversions you use to optimize campaigns.
Google Analytics 4 (GA4): Make sure website traffic, purchases and revenue are being recorded correctly.
5) Plan the whole promotional period, not just the BFCM weekend
Early access: Consider giving subscribers, VIP customers or existing customers access before the broader promotion begins.
Black Friday: Decide what your primary message, products and offer will be.
Cyber Monday: Determine whether you will extend the same offer, introduce something new or create urgency around the final day.
Retargeting: Plan how you will reconnect with people who visited products, added items to their cart or engaged with your brand but did not purchase.
Post-BFCM retention: Think beyond the first transaction. Have email, cross-sell or repeat-purchase strategies in place ready to shop during holiday/Q5.
Get ahead of BFCM before it gets busy
If you want a second set of eyes on your BFCM plan, we can help identify where the biggest opportunities are and what should be prioritized between now and November.