For many eCommerce brands, November decides the year. Black Friday 2025 is projected to generate about £3.9 billion in UK spend.

Around 58% of adults say they’ll take part. The average planned spend per person is about £124.

In 2024, online sales on the day itself reached roughly £1.12 billion.

The demand is there, but performance will come from preparation, not last-minute noise.

Getting your house in order now separates clean, profitable campaigns from expensive guesswork once CPCs rise and attention gets scarce.

The real state of Black Friday

Black Friday has evolved from a single-day sale into a rolling campaign cycle. Big retailers launch activity in early November. Search interest builds two to three weeks before the date and peaks across successive weekends, then runs into Cyber Monday. If your ads, landing pages, email flows and stock plans aren’t live before that curve, you’ll pay more and convert less.

Late starters face inflated CPCs, fatigued audiences and ad algorithms that haven’t stabilised. Early starters bank learnings, keep costs under control and hit peak weeks with warm audiences and proven creative. Quiet, methodical work in October is what pays out in November.

How buyer behaviour has shifted

Shoppers are still spending, but they’re more selective. Recent reporting points to a tilt toward practical or “meaningful” purchases. People research earlier, compare across retailers and lean towards brands they already recognise. Trust and value beat headline discounts.

Two points follow. Cold traffic is harder to convert on first touch, even with a strong offer. Warm audiences convert faster and at lower cost. If you’ve been growing lists, running steady remarketing and keeping creative consistent through autumn, you’ll feel that advantage when the sale goes live.

What ‘ready’ really means

Website and tracking

Fix data before you scale spend. GA4 events, Meta Pixel and conversion tags need to be clean and tested against real orders. Track outcomes that matter, not vanity events. Sort page speed and stability now. A fast, reliable checkout beats another creative iteration once traffic spikes.

Campaign structure

Treat November like an optimisation project, not a test bed. Consolidate scattered, low-data campaigns. Keep keyword and audience themes tight. Give automated bidding enough stable data before the rush. Patchwork accounts full of half-learning experiments slip the moment competition intensifies.

Creative and messaging

Generic “SALE” banners get ignored. Cut-through comes from clarity and proof. Lead with value, benefits and social proof, then layer urgency. If your BAU messaging already works, adapt it to the offer rather than reinventing your tone. Abrupt hard-sell shifts spook returning visitors and dent trust.

Email and automation

Your database will outperform most paid channels if you respect it. Segment by relationship and value, not just recency. Give loyal customers early access. Use a measured cadence across preview, launch, reminder and last-chance sends. Build post-purchase flows that turn one-time buyers into repeat customers in December and Q1.

Stock and service

Winning the click is pointless if fulfilment fails. Check inventory accuracy, delivery promises, cut-off times and returns. Surface those details clearly on product pages and in the cart. Clear expectations cut support load and protect reviews when volumes surge.

Search, SEO and the paid layer

SEO won’t rescue a late plan, but it improves unit economics.

Reuse last year’s Black Friday URL so it retains authority. Update content and internal links, and get the page indexed early. Add Product, Offer and AggregateRating schema where relevant. Even modest organic uplift reduces how hard paid has to work when CPCs climb.

In paid search and social, efficiency comes from intent and structure. Protect best sellers with their own campaigns and budgets. Segment by product type so you can push winners without starving the rest. Use countdowns and live inventory cues to create urgency without theatrics. Shorten attribution windows to reflect faster decisions. Avoid sweeping changes during peak days that reset learning at the worst time.

Don’t overlook Microsoft Ads. CPCs are often lower, and some categories see stronger intent than on Google during sales periods.

CRO and real user experience

Traffic will be expensive. It’s cheaper to fix conversion leaks now than to buy more clicks later. Run heatmaps and session recordings to spot friction. Strip noise from the journey. Put shipping, returns, payment options and guarantees above the fold. Keep pop-ups controlled and purposeful. Small lifts in conversion rate compound quickly when volumes hit.

After the sale

Treat Black Friday as the start of a relationship. Tag buyers properly. Build remarketing and lookalike audiences from real converters. Follow up with care, not spam. Use the momentum to seed December, Boxing Day and January activity. Teams that treat November as a one-off stunt end up rebuilding from zero every year. Teams that retain and upsell create predictable growth.

The takeaway

Black Friday rewards teams who get the basics right early.

Clean data, settled campaigns, clear messaging, and a site that holds up under pressure beat louder, later and cheaper every time.

If this is the year the numbers need to move for the right reasons, start now. Test what you can control, stabilise what you’ll scale and go into November with fewer variables and more confidence.

TL;DR

UK Black Friday spend for 2025 is forecast at £3.9bn. About 58% of adults plan to take part, with ~£1.12bn online in a single day.
Start early. Warm audiences, stable campaigns and indexed landing pages outperform late rush jobs.
Fix the foundations first: clean tracking, fast site, reliable checkout, accurate stock and delivery info.
Paid efficiency comes from intent and structure: protect best sellers, segment by product type, avoid big mid-peak changes, use countdowns and live inventory cues.
Email will carry weight. Segment properly, plan preview to last-chance sequences, and build post-purchase flows for December and Q1.
SEO supports unit economics: reuse last year’s BF URL, update content, add Product and Offer schema, get indexed early.
Treat Black Friday as customer acquisition, not a one-off stunt. Tag buyers, retarget thoughtfully, and turn November traffic into long-term value.

Black Friday 2025: Why You Need To Be Ready Now