How to run Black Friday Facebook ads: a step-by-step guide for 2026

Work backwards from the dates. Black Friday is Friday, November 27, 2026, and Cyber Monday is Monday, November 30. You still have time if you do the steps below in order.

Shopify lays out a rough calendar:

• September to early October: set the offer and plan the creative
• Mid to late October: test different hooks and build audience lists
• Early November: push toward purchase with the creative that worked
• The week before Black Friday: state the exact dates and times of the deal
• Black Friday: promote your priority products
• Through Cyber Monday: refresh the creative and retarget people who did not buy

The agency K6 suggests starting lead-in ads on November 1 and creating campaigns 2-3 days before launch so Meta's review is finished.

Pick one offer a stranger can understand in a few words, such as a percentage off sitewide or a free gift over a set amount. Shopify suggests stacking incentives, for example a discount plus a free gift, instead of relying on one.

Write the offer for people who have never bought from you. K6 reports that first-time buyers made up 58% of Black Friday revenue for smaller brands. Put the start and end dates in the ad text from the week before Black Friday. For wording, see our Facebook ad copy examples.

Meta's developer documentation describes the Meta pixel as "a snippet of JavaScript code that allows you to track visitor activity on your website". Without it, Meta cannot tell which visitors bought.

1. On Shopify, open the Facebook & Instagram by Meta sales channel. Shopify says you can create a Meta pixel there and choose Facebook's customer data-sharing level.
2. Check that purchases are recorded before the sale starts. If you launch through ScaleShot, a Sales campaign needs a pixel with Purchase events, a Leads campaign needs Lead events, and a Visitors campaign needs no pixel.
3. Build retargeting audiences from product viewers, cart and checkout abandoners, and recent site visitors.
4. Keep messages for those warm audiences separate from ads for new people.

Shopify recommends mobile-first vertical formats, especially Reels, and advises testing creative concepts before the competitive period begins. Aim for a handful of variations of the same offer: a plain image with the deal, a product close-up, and one short video.

You can make these by hand or with a tool. In ScaleShot we read your store link, logo, colours and fonts, then make image ads and 4-10 second video ads. Image ads cost 10-20 credits and video costs 10 credits per second. The entry plan is $19.95 for the first 2 weeks, then $42 every 2 weeks. Shopify cautions that AI-generated ads need human review, so check every price, date and claim before publishing. For more inspiration, browse our collection of ad examples.

Meta's menus change often, so match the labels loosely.

1. Create a campaign and choose the Sales objective for purchases. Meta's developer documentation says Advantage+ sales campaigns are the updated versions of what used to be called Advantage+ shopping campaigns.
2. If you use Advantage+ sales, Meta's documentation lists three automated parts: Advantage+ audience, Advantage+ campaign budget and Advantage+ placements.
3. At the ad set level, set the audience (location, gender, age), placements (manual or automatic), budget and schedule.
4. Set the schedule to a date range, from early November to the end of Cyber Monday, rather than running continuously.
5. Add your ads and publish a few days early, so review is done before the sale.

K6 recommends at least $25 per day and ideally over $100 per day for consistent results. That is one agency's rule of thumb, not Meta's. Our Facebook ads budget guide covers how to size it for a small store.

Expect costs to rise. K6 says CPMs doubled over the Black Friday weekend. K6 also puts about 80% of its budget in the period from November 1 to Black Friday.

Meta's developer documentation says budget scheduling lets you "schedule budget increases" for days when you expect higher sales. Set increases ahead of time instead of editing live. With ScaleShot's Ads Agent, nothing changes without your approval, because it asks before it changes anything.

• Launching on Black Friday itself. Review and testing take days, and Shopify's calendar starts months earlier.
• Editing ads and budgets heavily mid-campaign. Shopify advises against significant mid-campaign edits during peak shopping.
• Skipping the pixel, so there is no data and no retargeting audience.
• Stopping on Black Friday. Shopify suggests refreshing creative and retargeting non-buyers through Cyber Monday. K6 plans a pre-holiday phase through December 23; see Christmas Facebook ads.
• Publishing AI-made ads without checking them.