Google Shopping Ads for BFCM 2026: How to Dominate Holiday Search

If you already run Google Shopping ads and have your Merchant Center set up, you’re in a great position going into Black Friday. BFCM works a little differently from the rest of the year, though. Your sale prices need to be in your feed so Google can show your deals, and your promotions need to be approved ahead of time so they’re live when shoppers start searching. Small details in your product data can also determine whether your listings show up when people are ready to buy, and it’s not always clear what to change or when.

The good news is there’s still time to get everything ready if you start now. In this guide, we’ll walk you through what to adjust in each phase, from your feed and promotions to your bidding, all the way through Cyber Monday on November 30.

If you’re looking for the bigger picture across Google and Meta, including how to split your budget and warm up your audiences, start with our BFCM advertising strategy guide and then come back here to put your Shopping plan into action.

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How Google Shopping Performs During Black Friday

You already know Shopping puts your product, price, and image right in front of people who are searching to buy. During BFCM, those shoppers show up in huge numbers, and they’re ready to spend. Across more than 4,200 Google Ads accounts, Standard Shopping turned 6.2% of clicks into sales in the week before Black Friday and 6.7% during the four-day BFCM weekend (1).

That week before Black Friday is one of the best opportunities of the whole season. Clicks during the BFCM weekend cost 29% to 46% more than they did the week before (1), so the earlier week gives you almost the same conversion rate at a much lower price. That’s why it pays to have your feed and promotions ready before that week starts.

There’s one more thing to keep in mind as you read the rest of this guide. During BFCM, Google spends your budget based on the signals you’ve already set (2), so the work you do in the days leading up to the sale is what shapes your results the most.

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Google Shopping BFCM Timeline: What to Do and When

Google needs time to review and approve changes to your feed and promotions, so plan by working backward from Black Friday. Each phase below has one main goal. It’s worth giving the first two a little extra attention, since those changes take the longest to go live.

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Fix Your Google Shopping Feed First

Everything else in this guide depends on your feed. If a product gets disapproved during Black Friday weekend, re-approval can take several hours, or longer when Google’s review queue backs up (1), so get your feed clean well before the sale.

• Product titles: On your top-selling products, put the brand, product type, and key details like size or color in the first 70 characters, since that’s roughly what shoppers see (2). Keep “Black Friday” and “sale” out of titles, because Google doesn’t allow promotional text there (3).
• Product identifiers: Add any missing GTINs (the barcode number that tells Google exactly what you’re selling). Retailers who add them get about 20% more clicks on average (4).
• Product images: Leave Black Friday banners off your main image, since promotional overlays can get a product disapproved (3).
• Product issues: Check the Needs attention view in Merchant Center and fix anything flagged, starting with your best sellers.

A supplemental data source (often called a supplemental feed) makes all of this easier. It’s usually a Google Sheet where you can update product details without touching your main feed (4), which makes it the safest place to manage your sale prices and custom labels. If you’re testing new titles, wrap those tests up by mid-November, since BFCM traffic makes the results hard to read (5).

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Set Up Your Google Shopping Promotions and Sale Prices

Promotions and sale prices both need time to get approved, so set them up early. A Merchant Center promotion adds an offer line under your listing, like “20% off” or “Free shipping,” which helps you stand out when every other store is running a deal too (6). Since October 12, these badges also appear in Google’s AI Mode, but only for brands with approved promotions (7). Submit yours by about November 20, so you have time to fix and resubmit if one gets rejected. Place a test order with each code first, too, since Google checks that the offer works at checkout exactly as described (7).

Your sale prices need to be in your feed as well. If the discount only lives in a coupon code, your Shopping ads will keep showing the full price during the sale (1). Add the sale_price and sale_price_effective_date attributes to your supplemental sheet, with start and end times in your store’s time zone, so the right price shows up at the right moment (5). Throughout the weekend, make sure the price and availability in your feed match your product pages. A mismatch can also get the product disapproved (1).

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How to Bid on Google Shopping During Black Friday

Every time someone searches on Google, a quick auction decides whose ads show up, and your bid is how much you’re willing to pay for a click. Most Shopping campaigns let Google set that amount for you based on a goal you choose, called your target ROAS (return on ad spend, or how much revenue you want back for every dollar you spend).

Set that goal before the weekend starts, and leave it alone once the sale begins (1). To find the right number, divide 1 by your profit margin. If you keep 40% of each sale as profit, that gives you 2.5x, which is the lowest ROAS you can go without losing money. Pick a target somewhere between your usual ROAS and that number. In our BFCM advertising strategy guide, we suggest lowering your usual target by 20% to 30% the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, then switching it back after Cyber Monday.

You might see a setting in Google Ads called seasonality adjustments, which lets you tell Google ahead of time that you expect your sales to jump. It’s best to leave it off. Google’s automatic bidding usually picks up the Black Friday spike on its own, and brands that use this setting pay more for clicks and get less revenue back, year after year (1).

During the weekend, use custom labels (tags you add in your feed) to mark your best sellers and highest-profit products so that you can put more budget behind them (2).

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What to Do on Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday is the biggest online shopping day of the year. In 2025, U.S. shoppers spent $14.25 billion online that day, even more than on Black Friday (9). That’s why it’s worth planning it as its own event. As Black Friday wraps up, switch your promotions over to your Cyber Monday deals and move more budget toward the products you’re featuring that day.

It’s tempting to pull back once Black Friday is over, but shoppers are just as ready to buy on Monday. Keep your ROAS target where you set it, and let your best products keep running until the sale ends.

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How to Split Your Google Shopping Budget for BFCM

The best way to split your budget is to put more of it behind the days when shoppers are most ready to buy. Here’s a simple starting point we recommend:

Keep a little money set aside in each phase, since there’s almost always a product that takes off unexpectedly, and you’ll want room to put more budget behind it. If your customers tend to shop early, you can also move more budget into the week before Black Friday, because that week can convert almost as well as the weekend at a lower cost per click (1).

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Standard Shopping vs. Performance Max for Black Friday

For most brands, the best setup is to run one Performance Max campaign and one Standard Shopping campaign side by side (10). Standard Shopping gives you more control and shows you the exact searches behind each click, so it’s a great home for your hero products. Performance Max shows your products across all of Google, including YouTube and Gmail, which helps you reach shoppers who aren’t searching for you yet. Keep each hero product in only one of the two campaigns, so you always know which one is driving the sale.

Try not to split Performance Max into lots of separate campaigns, especially if your budget is small. Every extra campaign spreads your sales data thinner, which gives Google less to learn from (10). If you want different messaging for different moments, create separate asset groups (the sets of images and text Google uses to build your ads) inside the same campaign, like one for Black Friday and one for Cyber Monday (8). A separate campaign only makes sense when a group of products needs a completely different audience or its own ROAS target.

If you don’t have a Performance Max campaign running yet, wait until after BFCM to launch one, since a new campaign needs time to learn before it performs well (8). For this season, Standard Shopping is your best option.

For a deeper comparison, check out our BFCM advertising strategy guide.

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Your BFCM Google Shopping Checklist

Here’s everything from this guide in one place, so you can check things off as you go.

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As Soon as Possible

• Titles on your top products updated, with the key details in the first 70 characters
• No “Black Friday” or “sale” in your titles or on your main product images
• Missing GTINs added
• Everything in the Needs attention view fixed
• Supplemental feed set up for sale prices and custom labels

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By November 20

• Merchant Center promotions submitted
• Each promo code tested with a real order
• Sale prices scheduled in your feed with start and end dates
• Hero and high-margin products tagged with custom labels

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The Wednesday Before Thanksgiving

• ROAS target lowered based on your margin
• Seasonality adjustments left off

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Black Friday Weekend

• Budget focused on your hero products
• Needs attention view checked every day
• Feed prices and stock matching your product pages
• Cyber Monday promotions ready to go

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Cyber Monday

• Promotions and budget switched to your Cyber Monday deals
• ROAS target kept steady until the sale ends

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After the Sale

• ROAS target switched back to normal on Tuesday

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Key Takeaways

Most of your BFCM results on Google Shopping come from the work you do before the sale, and there’s still time to get your account ready. Here’s what to keep in mind:

• Start with your feed, since Google can only show the products and prices your feed gets right.
• Add your sale prices to the feed and submit your promotions by November 20, so your deals are approved and showing when shoppers start searching.
• Set your ROAS target before the weekend based on your margin, and leave seasonality adjustments off.
• Run one Performance Max and one Standard Shopping campaign side by side, with each hero product living in just one of them.
• Check the Needs attention view every day of the sale, so a small feed error doesn’t quietly pull your products out of the auction.

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Want Help Getting Your Google Shopping Ads Ready for BFCM?

A few small fixes to your feed and promotions can make a big difference during the busiest shopping weekend of the year, and the sooner you make them, the more time Google has to approve them.

Schedule a complimentary strategy session with our team. We’ll review your Google Shopping setup and give you a clear list of what to fix first, timed to the BFCM calendar. You’ll walk away with clear next steps, whether or not we end up working together.

Schedule Your Complimentary Session!