When should I start preparing Google Ads for Black Friday?

In October. Smart Bidding can need around 50 conversions or 3 conversion cycles to settle after a change, so changes made in mid-November may still be settling during Black Friday week.

Should I increase my Google Ads budget for Black Friday?

Only where the extra spend clears break-even at your discounted margin. A discount raises the ROAS you need to break even, so a campaign that hits its usual target can still lose money during a sale.

Should I use a seasonality adjustment for Black Friday?

Only if you expect a sharp, short change in conversion rate. Google says seasonality adjustments suit events of 1 to 7 days and may not work as well over more than 14 days.

Can UK advertisers use the Deal Ends annotation on Shopping ads?

Not at present. Google's experimental Deal Ends annotation is available globally except the EEA, Switzerland and the UK.

Black Friday Google Ads for UK SMEs (2026)

Black Friday 2026 falls on Friday 27 November. For most UK businesses running Google Ads, the result of that week is already being decided. Not by what you spend in November, but by what you fix in October.

Here is why, and what to do in the next few weeks. It is written for owner-led businesses spending a few thousand pounds a month, who are being told that now is the time to “go big”.

Why October Decides November

Smart Bidding learns from your conversion data. When you change a bid strategy, a target, or what a campaign contains, Google says it “can take up to around 50 conversion events or 3 conversion cycles” for the strategy to settle again.

For a small account, 50 conversions can take weeks. So every change you make in mid-November risks the system still learning during the most expensive week of the year. Changes made in October have time to settle before peak.

That gives you a simple rule: fix things now, then leave them alone.

Step 1: Make Sure Your Tracking Is Telling the Truth

At peak, Smart Bidding spends faster and chases whatever you have told it counts as a conversion. If your tracking double-counts sales, misses sales, or counts junk, peak season scales that mistake.

Check three things before you touch a budget:

Conversions match reality. Compare Google Ads conversions with your shop or CRM for the last 30 days. A big gap in either direction needs explaining first. Our tracking audit checklist walks through it.
Only real outcomes count. Newsletter sign-ups, page views and “add to basket” should not sit in the main conversion goal for a sales campaign.
Lead forms are clean. For lead-gen businesses, spam and fake leads become training data. See how to stop spam leads in Google Ads.

If platform ROAS looks great but the bank balance does not agree, read platform ROAS vs incremental ROAS before peak, not after.

Step 2: Set Your Targets Now

In August 2026 Google changed how Target CPA and Target ROAS bid when a campaign is limited by budget. These campaigns used to beat their targets quietly. Now Google steers them towards the target you set.

That matters for Black Friday. Whatever targets are in your account in October are the targets Smart Bidding will chase in November. If they are old guesses, peak bidding will aim for the guesses. Set them to match what the account actually delivers, using clean data from a normal period. We explain the change in why your Google Ads CPCs went up after August.

Step 3: Plan the Budget on Margin, Not on Reported ROAS

This is where a lot of Black Friday money can be lost.

The usual advice is “raise budgets for peak”. Sometimes that is right. Demand does rise. But a bigger budget only makes sense if the extra spend buys extra customers at a profit, and reported ROAS does not tell you that on its own. Start from margin instead.

A worked example (hypothetical, for illustration only). A shop sells products with a 40% gross margin and normally spends £5,000 a month on Google Ads. At a 40% margin, the ads break even at a ROAS of 2.5: every £1 of ad spend must bring back £2.50 of sales just to cover product cost and the ad itself. Before Black Friday, someone proposes tripling the budget for the week and running 25% off everything.

At 25% off, a £100 product sells for £75 and the margin falls from £40 to £15. Break-even ROAS doubles, from 2.5 to 5 (£75 of sales for every £15 of margin). A campaign that “hit its ROAS target” at 4 in November could be losing money on every sale. The discount changed the maths, and the target did not move with it.

So, before you agree a peak budget:

Work out break-even ROAS or CPA at your discounted margin, not your normal one.
Set peak targets from that number.
Only raise budget on campaigns and products that clear it.

Our budget planner can help with the numbers. The guide to auditing waste before a budget increase covers what to check first.

Who benefits when the budget goes up?

It is worth asking who gains from a bigger November budget. Google does. So does any agency paid a percentage of your ad spend: if the fee is 15% of spend, tripling the budget for a week triples their fee for that week, whether or not you make more profit.

That does not make every budget increase wrong, or every agency on a percentage fee dishonest. It means the budget question deserves a second opinion from someone with no stake in the answer. We explain the fee models in how much a PPC agency costs in the UK.

This is the core of our paid media efficiency work: finding where the same budget can buy more before anyone asks for more.

Step 4: Get Promotions and the Feed Ready (Ecommerce)

Trade press expects retailers to lean towards product-specific discounts this year rather than blanket “everything off” sales. That fits the margin maths above: discount deeply where margin allows, hold price where it does not.

In Merchant Center:

Set up promotions and sale prices properly, with start and end dates. Do it in October so products are approved before peak, not stuck in review during Black Friday week.
Do not plan around Google's new urgency labels. Google is testing a “Deal Ends” annotation (for example “3 days left”) and a separate “X days left” label on Shopping ads. Both are experiments. The Deal Ends annotation is currently not available in the UK at all.
Check what Google writes for you. Google Ads can now read offers on your website and show them in your ads. Make sure an old banner is not one of them. See how to check automated promotions.
Fix feed basics. Clear titles, correct prices, stock accuracy and good images matter more at peak, when every wasted click costs more. See our Shopping feed optimisation guide.
Note the image rule for January. From 31 January 2027, Merchant Center will disapprove product images under 500 x 500 pixels. Google recommends 1500 x 1500 or larger. It is not a Black Friday blocker, but if you are in the feed anyway, fix it now.

Step 5: Use Seasonality Adjustments for the Sale, Not the Season

If you expect conversion rates to jump sharply during a short sale, Google's seasonality adjustment tells Smart Bidding in advance. Google says they are “ideal for short events of 1 to 7 days” and “may not work as well” if used for more than 14 days.

So use one for Black Friday to Cyber Monday if your sale is genuinely different from normal trading. Do not set one for “all of November”. And do not use one at all if you expect a normal week: Google says Smart Bidding already handles ordinary seasonal patterns.

Your October to December Timeline

Now to mid-October: check tracking, align targets, work out break-even at your discounted margin, set up promotions in Merchant Center.
Late October: freeze structural changes. Let Smart Bidding settle.
Early November: confirm promotions are approved. Agree peak budgets campaign by campaign, from margin.
Black Friday to Cyber Monday: apply a seasonality adjustment if your sale justifies it. Watch spend daily. Resist rebuilding campaigns mid-week.
Early December: bring budgets and targets back to normal. Check for waste using these signs Google Ads is wasting money.

Black Friday Google Ads for UK SMEs: What to Fix in October, Before You Raise the Budget