The BFCM Launch Playbook
Black Friday is won in October. Here's the pre-build, launch-day, and recovery sequence we run so the biggest week of the year doesn't catch us improvising.
The brands that win Black Friday Cyber Monday aren't the ones with the best discounts — they're the ones who pre-built the creative, the audiences, and the landing pages six weeks earlier, so launch day is execution rather than panic.
We start in early October. Weeks one and two are creative production: we shoot and edit the full BFCM asset set so it's ready before the ad auction gets expensive. Weeks three and four are warm-up: we run prospecting at a lighter budget to feed the pixel and build retargeting pools of recent site visitors. Week five is the teaser campaign, teasing the sale to warm audiences to build intent.
Launch day is mostly about pacing and budget. We pre-set day-parting to concentrate spend when conversion rate peaks, we double retargeting budgets for the warm pool we built, and we hold a reserve of fresh creative in case fatigue sets in by Saturday. The week after is the recovery sequence — win-back for cart abandoners and a post-sale offer for first-time buyers — which often outperforms the sale itself in profit terms.