(Note 2026-09-02: This is an archive from 2021. The dates, advertising placements and platform features described here reflect their state when the article was published and are not current recommendations.)
Black Friday 2021 is coming. November 26, to be exact. Less than a month from now. Popular in Canada since 2012, it is a period when your customers expect to hear from you.
A crucial moment of the year for every online merchant, it creates deep anxiety for those who are unprepared and excitement for those who get ahead. Let’s use this short article to place you in the second camp. I will present the “classic” tactics for this promotion, along with a few alternatives that can help you stand out from the crowd.
First, the “official” calendar for the promotion:
- Thanksgiving: Thursday, November 25
- Black Friday: Friday, November 26
- Black Friday weekend: Saturday and Sunday, November 27 and 28
- Cyber Monday: Monday, November 29
Thursday matters less in Canada than in the United States because Canadians do not have the day off like their neighbours to the south. I include it for merchants with substantial US sales, but the classic tactic will not focus on sales that day.
Here, then, is the minimum you should do for Black Friday 2021! It focuses on four channels: email, social media, your website and paid advertising. This is the minimum, which does not mean you cannot do more! We will discuss several other ideas later.
The minimum recipe for a successful Black Friday
Thanksgiving: Thursday, November 25
This is the time to build anticipation for your offer. Don’t give away the surprise! Remain mysterious, but provide enough clues for your most loyal fans to have a good idea of what is coming.
Email: Send your full list a teaser for the following day’s offer. If you have a VIP segment, you can give that group early access.
Social media: Publish the same teaser on all your social channels.
Website: Replace the main banner (Hero Image) on your homepage with a teaser for the offer.
Paid advertising: Amplify your social post to a retargeting audience.
Black Friday and the weekend: Friday, November 26 through Sunday, November 28
Email: Send your offer to the full list on Friday, followed by reminders on Saturday and Sunday. For the weekend reminders, segment the list to exclude people who have already interacted with you, whether through an email open, a click or a purchase, depending on how aggressive you want to be.
Social media: Publish the offer on all your social channels, followed by reminders on Saturday and Sunday. If possible, create urgency by mentioning the possibility of selling out, potential delivery delays or simply that the offer ends soon.
Website: Replace the main banner (Hero Image) on your homepage with the offer. Clearly state the end date to increase urgency.
Paid advertising: Amplify your social post to a retargeting audience. If you are running Google Ads acquisition campaigns during this period, add the promotional code and end date as an Ad Extension in your text ads. If you also use Google Shopping and your feed is not connected directly, update its data. (Note 2026-09-02: Google Ads features and names are described as they existed in 2021.)
Cyber Monday: Monday, November 29
This is the time for a new, one-day flash sale that differs from the weekend offer.
Be careful not to make it better than the weekend offer, which would frustrate your customers. Ideally, create something complementary or distinct. If you offered 25% off everything in the store over the weekend, not an ideal offer, as we will see later, you might offer a gift with a minimum purchase on Monday. Someone who used the 25% discount over the weekend could then buy again on Monday to receive the new offer.
Email: Send the offer to your full list. When relevant, personalize the message for weekend buyers and non-buyers.
Weekend buyers might receive an email titled “Thank you for your purchase from XYZ! Here is a new offer just for you,” while non-buyers receive “Your Cyber Monday offer is inside, valid today only!”
Social media: Publish the offer on all your social channels. Remember to say that it is valid today only.
Website: Replace the main banner (Hero Image) on your homepage with the offer. Remember to say that it is valid today only.
Paid advertising: Amplify your social post to a retargeting audience. If you are running Google Ads acquisition campaigns during this period, add the promotional code and end date as an Ad Extension in your text ads. If you also use Google Shopping and your feed is not connected directly, update its data. (Note 2026-09-02: Google Ads features and names are described as they existed in 2021.)
What makes a good offer?
Before we get to the alternative tactics, the big question is this: what makes a good offer? It deserves some thought because you will be competing with every other offer in the market. I generally recommend one or more discounts of 20% to 40% on specific categories, and offers of up to 50% on specific products. A clothing merchant, for example, might offer 20% off a collection that already sells very well to increase volume without devaluing it, 30% off a collection that needs a little help, and 40% off a summer collection that obviously is not moving in the fall. On top of that, the merchant could offer 50% off specific “Last chance” products that will never return to stock.
One thing you should never, ever do is offer a major store-wide discount, such as 50% off everything. I say this because I have seen it. Although the tactic will obviously produce sales, it has two major weaknesses. The first and most serious is that it tells customers your margin on every product is large enough to sell it at half price. Consumers understand that they have been overpaying, which substantially lowers their perception of quality. Second, “a discount on everything” does not clearly communicate what the discount covers. The reality is that your customers do not know your products that well. If you discount a category instead, “20% off XYZ brand sports pants!”, you have now taught customers that XYZ makes sports pants. That opportunity is lost when you discount everything.
With that mistake behind us, creative promotions are always preferable to falling back on a percentage discount. Buy X, Get Y offers are a good way to stand out by providing a complementary product. For example:
- Buy a pair of glasses, get a scratch-resistant coating free
- Buy athletic shoes, get a free 30-minute personal training session
- Buy a sound system, get the wiring free
Notice that these offers also educate customers about your complementary products or services. The athletic-shoe customer may have had no idea that the store offered personal training. Even if they do not use the offer, you have taught them that the service exists.
If your brand focuses on social good and environmental values, and your audience strongly identifies with those values, you may worry that participating in Black Friday will alienate them. It is perceived, with good reason, as a celebration of overconsumption. An offer that increases your positive impact while giving customers something extra could be very effective. A brand that plants 10 trees for every sweater sold, cough-tentree-cough, might offer 10% off its T-shirt collection but plant 50 trees per shirt instead of the usual 10. Two birds with one stone: more sales, more trees, everyone wins!
Finally, design your offers so customers can easily reach your free-shipping threshold.1 If your threshold is fairly high, you can also lower it during Black Friday, but remember to communicate the change!
Creative tactics for standing out
The main obstacle during Black Friday weekend is the surrounding noise. Everyone is shouting from the rooftops that they have the best offer, and competition for the customer’s attention is fierce. During that weekend, and even the week before, paid-media costs and the volume of promotional email rise substantially while organic social reach falls. The customer’s attention and budget, however, remain fixed.
Here are a few ideas to try this year. One warning: all these tactics get ahead of the event and could affect your current sales. Customers will postpone purchases if they expect a discount soon.
Create a Facebook event for Black Friday
Create a Facebook event two or three weeks in advance with a teaser for your offer, specifying that the details will be revealed on Black Friday morning. Put a paid-media budget behind it in advance for retargeting, and acquisition if necessary, so customers respond that they are interested. (Note 2026-09-02: The operation of Facebook Events is described as it existed in 2021.)
This tactic builds excitement for the coming offer while paid media is still at its normal price. Facebook will also send a free push notification on the day of the event to everyone who said they would attend. (Note 2026-09-02: This feature was available in 2021.) It is a good way to stand out at a lower cost!
Send the offer to SMS subscribers 24 hours early
Two or three weeks in advance, run an SMS signup campaign through Facebook Lead Ads, a popup on your website and an email to your list, telling customers that they will receive your Black Friday offers 24 hours early. (Note 2026-09-02: The Lead Ads name and operation reflect Facebook in 2021.) SMS open rates approach 100%, and the channel was still rarely used for promotions. It is the most direct way through the flood of Black Friday communication.
Be careful, however. Your offer must fit into a short, precise message. This is not the time for a novel, like this post!
Run a Sponsored Messages campaign on Facebook Messenger
Two or three weeks in advance, create an ad inviting people to interact with you on Messenger, with the promise of learning about your Black Friday offer that day and a teaser for the offer. You can create a fun chatbot experience, but it is not required. You can also manage the messages by hand.
Then activate a Sponsored Messages campaign over Black Friday weekend to tell every customer who interacted with you during the previous year (!!!), including those from the campaign in the preceding paragraph, about your offer. (Note 2026-09-02: The Sponsored Messages placement and its eligibility rules are described as they existed in 2021.)
The placement was new that year, so I had not yet had an opportunity to try it, but it looked extremely promising. I could not wait to use it!
Footnotes
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If you do not offer free shipping above a certain amount, ignore this guide and provide that essential service first. ↩