Before you launch Black Friday: 8 questions brand builders should answer

Every brand goes into Black Friday with a discount. Far fewer go in with a plan for why that discount should win when every brand in the feed is offering one too. Costs are at their peak, attention is at its thinnest, and small gaps in the plan turn into wasted spend fast.

We don't think there's one right Black Friday playbook. There are better questions. Here are the ones we ask before a single ad goes live.

1. Why would someone click your ad instead of just visiting your site?

If your ad says the same thing as your homepage banner, you may be paying for sales you would have made anyway. Know what your paid media is actually adding.

2. Where does paid traffic land, and can a shopper build a cart there?

Holiday shoppers browse, compare and stack. Look at your landing experience on a phone and ask whether it helps someone buy more than one thing.

3. Which products is the whole campaign built around?

A catalog-wide sale is not a story. If you had to pick a few products to carry the week, which would they be, and does every channel know it?

4. Is there a moment when every channel says the same thing?

Email, SMS, paid social, search and retail media often run on separate calendars. Decide if, and when, they should all hit at once.

5. Do you have enough creative for the budget you plan to spend?

Higher spend means more impressions on the same people. If you double the budget but not the ads, expect fatigue to show up mid-week.

6. Will what you make in November still work in January?

Content made for the holidays can keep earning after them, if you planned for it. Check what you can reuse, and on what terms, before you shoot.

7. How will you know what worked?

Every channel will claim credit for the same sale. Agree on how you'll measure lift, and against what baseline, before launch, not after.

8. What happens to these new customers in December?

Black Friday buyers are expensive to acquire. If there's no plan for the second purchase, the week's math rarely works.

If any of these don't have a clear answer yet, that's where the risk in your plan is. Better to find it now than in the results.