Black Friday social strategies for e-comm success
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Black Friday has cemented itself as the biggest shopping event of the year, with billions spent globally across a single weekend (and £3.63 billion online last year in the UK). For brands, it represents a huge opportunity, but also a crowded, competitive space where standing out becomes difficult, meaning you need the right strategy, timing, and creativity in order to do so.
Social media remains one of the most powerful levers you can pull to cut through the noise, build anticipation, and even drive conversions. But simply “posting about Black Friday” won’t cut it in 2025. To really maximise results, brands need a structured approach that builds hype before the day itself, creates urgency during the sale and nurtures trust with your audience throughout.
This blog highlights the opportunities social media gives brands – from pre-sale hype to targeted ads and user-generated content – for your consideration ahead of the cyber weekend.
- In 2023, over 80% of consumers said they discovered new products on social media during Black Friday promotions (source: Adobe).
- Paid social ad spend spikes by over 30% during November, reflecting the competition for attention (source: Statista).
- Platforms like TikTok and Instagram are increasingly driving direct commerce, with shoppable posts and live shopping events becoming mainstream.
Social isn’t just about awareness. For many brands – as per the above research – it’s the direct path to purchase. Which means your Black Friday social strategy can make the difference between record sales, or being left in the dust by competitors.
Step 1: Start early and build anticipation
I’m not a planner. But even I have to admit that one of the biggest mistakes brands make is waiting until the week of Black Friday to post even a nod to their plans. By then, your audience has already been hit with a whole host of competitor ads, and likely have the brands in mind that they intend to shop from, once the big day rolls around.
Instead, the best POA is to use pre-sale hype to warm up your audience weeks (yep, weeks) in advance. You’ll see many brands ‘dropping’:
- Teaser posts: where they drop subtle hints that something big is coming – blurred product images, cryptic captions, or short teaser videos.
- Save the date: where they announce their Black Friday campaign early, even if they don’t reveal full details yet – encouraging followers to “turn on notifications”, building anticipation.
- Behind the scenes: where they use Instagram Stories or TikTok clips to show their team preparing, packaging products, trying products or testing promotions.
Ideally, you’ll do all of the above. If I was you, I’d create a content calendar that ramps up slowly: teasers in early November, product spotlights mid-month, and then daily hype-building in the final week.
Examples
X2 great examples of this come from Gymshark and ASOS (not at all shocking that their strategies are bang on, is it).
Gymshark
Gymshark are famous for teasing Black Friday “blackout” sales as early as October. They:
- Drip feed cryptic posts
- Utilise athlete shoutouts
- Blur product reveals to build hype
All of which results in huge anticipation and site queues on launch day.
They’ve even put a blog live on their site that tells their customers “everything they need to know” about Black Friday 2025 at Gymshark. So if you want to keep up with their plans, start here.
ASOS
ASOS uses TikTok teasers with Influencers showing what’s in their basket weeks before the Cyber Weekend, in order to build anticipation.
With daily posts of this nature within the feeds of their audience, fear of missing out is built, along with eagerness to shop.
Keep up with their social content this year, here.
Step 2: Use countdown mechanics to drive urgency
Urgency is everything when it comes to Black Friday. The more your audience feels that they might miss out, the more likely they are to act. Countdown mechanics have moved beyond simple timers and now play a role across multiple formats.
- Short-form video countdowns: Use TikTok or Instagram Reels to create quick daily clips in the week before launch. The regularity of these keep your brand top of mind (and the feed) and let you drip-feed product reveals out to your audience, to create anticipation and early engagement.
- Pinned launch posts: Post a bold “Sale goes live in X days” asset across Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest or TikTok and pin it to the top of your profile. Swap these daily in the final countdown to keep your profile feeling fresh and urgent.
- Stories & in-app reminders: Instead of relying only on stickers, experiment with Instagram’s “Add Reminder” feature or TikTok’s “Live event” countdowns. These send push notifications directly to users who opt in, which can dramatically increase conversion at go-live.
- Cross-channel integration: Sync your countdown across email banners, paid ads, and organic social. A customer who sees “2 days to go” in their inbox and on TikTok the same morning is much more likely to sense the urgency you’re trying to create.
- Live shopping countdowns: If live shopping is relevant to your audience, promote a one-off live event with a countdown leading into it. This works well on TikTok Shop, Instagram Live, or Amazon Live for retail.
And if you want to really go for it, think of your countdowns as “mini content campaigns” in their own right, with each day as a new chance to build hype, showcase product benefits, or add exclusivity (e.g. “Only 500 units available – go live in 48 hours”).
Examples
Amazon
Amazon tend to run daily “Countdown to Cyber Weekend” deals, heavily promoted across email & social. They pin posts and use push notifications to create ongoing urgency and awareness.
Sephora
Sephora make sure to notify their followers when deals go live, leading – as you can imagine – to huge traffic spikes. They drive urgency via prompting the use of the add reminder feature on Instagram and the live event feature on TikTok.
Step 3: Utilise paid media
Organic reach will only get you so far when feeds are saturated. Paid social is therefore really helpful through the cyber weekend, to extend your reach and where possible, cut through the noise. Instead of replying on boosts of your organic posts (although these can be effective), consider:
- Audience segmentation: Build separate campaigns for warm audiences (past customers, site visitors) and cold audiences (lookalikes, interest-based audiences).
- Dynamic creative: Use product catalogues to serve ads showing items users have already browsed.
- Retargeting: Don’t forget abandoned carts. A gentle reminder with “items in your basket are now 30% off” can work wonders, and you don’t just need email marketing to pull this off.
- Budget planning: Costs per click rise sharply in November, so ring-fence budget in advance so you don’t run out mid-campaign.
- Testing: Run your tests in early November (if not sooner) and then use the data to double down on your best-performing creatives during cyber weekend.
Examples
Nike
Nike are pros at retargeting via ads – with always-on displays of “still want these” type messages. They segment audiences well here, too. With exclusive member deals for Nike+ members vs other deals for cold audiences.
Currys
You’ll spot Curry’s running their pre-cyber weekend tests in early November (spot the series of headlines, formats and creatives they push out). Then by the time Black Friday rolls around, only the ads delivering the highest CTR are selected, to minimise wasted/under-utilise spend.
Step 4: Leverage user-generated/ employee-generated content
UGC & EGC is gold during Black Friday. And pretty much always, honestly. There’s nothing more reassuring than hearing first hand, how a user has found a product to work – or not – for them. The same extends to your team, too. See Tala, as an example.
Here’s how you could utilise this format to drive more BF success:
- Reshare customer photos/videos using your products in everyday life, reviewing their effectiveness where possible
- Encourage customers to tag you when posting about their Black-Friday-buys, so you’ve the option of sharing the content for more social proof.
- Feature real testimonials via Stories / Reels / on TikTok. A quick “I bought this last year and loved it” video is far more persuasive than a glossy branded ad.
- Incentivise participation by offering discount codes or entries into a prize draw for anyone who shares content and tags you.
Trust is the biggest conversion driver, and social proof from other customers builds it instantly.
Step 5: Nail your creative and messaging
As mentioned, the volume of ads around Black Friday is overwhelming. So how do you stand out?
- Keep it bold and simple: high-contrast graphics, clear “Black Friday” messaging, short captions and abundantly obvious ways to purchase.
- Consistency across platforms: sounds obvious, but align your branding so users recognise your campaign instantly, whether it’s a TikTok ad or a Facebook carousel. It’s all about trust signals.
- Highlight exclusivity: phrases like “limited time only,” “exclusive to followers,” or “today only” all tap into urgency.
- Mobile-first: the majority of Black Friday browsing happens on mobile. Prioritise vertical video and ensure all assets are mobile-optimised.
Examples
Patagonia
Famously, Patagonia run “anti- Black Friday” campaigns
Ikea
Ikea tend to take a true-to-themselves stance over Cyber Weekend, with daily BAU content, overlaid with Cyber Weekend offers. It’s their way of cutting through the noise by doing something different to the standard cyber weekend crowd, quietly.
Step 6: Extend the campaign beyond Friday
Most brands run promotions for the full week or at least – tie Black Friday into Cyber Monday.
- Pre-Black Friday deals: reward loyal followers with early access codes.
- Weekend-long campaigns: don’t let momentum drop after Friday – keep posting fresh creatives across Saturday/Sunday where you can.
- Cyber Monday pivot: refresh your creative for Monday, even if discounts remain the same. It’ll prevent “blindness” where your audience are too used to your creatives to notice them/engage with them anymore.
Examples
Monki (H&M Group)
Rather than blanket discounts across the cyber period, Monki tend to offer daily drops across the weekend, offering varying promotions to their audience. And it works. Their audience engages because each day feels like a new event, building anticipation by format alone and avoiding fatigue.
Lululemon
Lululemon don’t treat Black Friday as a single-day sale either. Instead, they run a “we made too much” clearance that spans the whole weekend. And while their format is always-on, their messaging changes day to day and product line-ups too, so shoppers are prompted to return to site to shop different SKUs each day.
Find their Black Friday need-to-knows here.
Step 7: Measure, learn, and optimise
Don’t wait until after Black Friday to analyse. Track in real-time:
- Engagement on teaser content (to learn what builds hype).
- Click-through rates and conversions on ads.
- UGC participation levels (how well your audience engaged).
- ROI by channel – so you know where to scale next year.
And tweak in real-time, in a way that won’t negatively impact your performance. After the event, run an in-depth performance review. What worked, what didn’t, which audiences delivered the best ROI etc. Document everything while it’s fresh in your mind and take away with you, the lessons learned to make next year even bigger and better.
Here’s an example timeline to give you an idea of what your output might look like – before and during the cyber weekend:
- End of Oct/ early November: teaser posts, announce sale dates, start paid ad testing.
- Mid-November: daily product spotlights, UGC push, early-access codes.
- Final week: countdown posts, stories with timer stickers, ramp up paid ads.
- Black Friday weekend: multiple daily posts, retargeting ads, UGC amplification.
- Cyber Monday: refreshed creative, “last chance” messaging.
Of course, like any marketing plan, this needs to suit your business, budget, customer etc. It’s really not one-size-fits-all when it comes to any campaign plan.
In summary
Black Friday can feel overwhelming – both for brands and consumers. But with the right preparation, social media has the potential to be your most powerful sales driver.
Focus on:
- Building hype early.
- Creating urgency with countdowns.
- Running targeted, budget-smart ads.
- Leveraging authentic UGC & EGC to build trust.
- Measuring everything to learn for next year.
By approaching Black Friday as a campaign, not just a day, you’ll put your brand in the best possible position to cut through the noise and convert engagement into conversion.
