October 3, 2025
Read time:
10 Minutes
Thinking
Last week we covered why multi-channel matters.
This week?
The exact Google Ads strategy that helped a men's fashion brand hit £41K revenue in a single hour on Black Friday.
The Problem Most Brands Face
Every year, brands pour budget into Google Ads during BFCM. Costs spike, competition intensifies and many lose money as a result.
But it doesn't have to be that way.
Our 3-Pillar Google Ads Strategy for BFCM
- Your Product Feed is Your Foundation
Most brands treat their product feed like a set-it-and-forget-it task. That's leaving money on the table.
Your feed determines what Google shows shoppers. If it's poorly optimised, you're invisible - no matter how much you bid.
Get your promotions set up early. Google Merchant Center lets you display "20% off" or "Free Shipping" badges directly on your Shopping Ads. Shoppers see the deal before they even click. We consistently see CTR increases just from getting promotions live early.
Optimise your product titles. Don't just use your website's product names. Include keywords shoppers actually search for: brand, product type, key features, even terms like "Black Friday Deal" where allowed. Better titles = more impressions on relevant searches.
Clean up your feed data. High-quality images, accurate pricing, correct availability, rich descriptions. During BFCM when competition spikes, the brands with pristine feeds win the auctions.
This isn't glamorous work, but it's the difference between showing up or getting buried.
- Control Performance Max Before It Controls You
Performance Max can be incredibly powerful, but left unchecked, it'll cannibalise your brand traffic and burn budget on customers who were buying anyway.
You NEED to control what data you feed it.
Firstly, exclude your brand traffic completely. You can do this via the brand exclusion feature + adding as a negative keyword for good measure.
Secondly, use conversion tracking to your advantage. Tools like Tracklution let you split click-through vs view-through conversions so you can optimise for clicks only - the conversions that actually matter. Even better is to feed PMax only first-click new customer purchases. This trains the algorithm to find fresh buyers, not recycle existing ones.
Control the data flow and PMax becomes a new customer acquisition machine. Ignore this and it'll happily spend your BFCM budget on people who already know you.
- Capture Your Competitor's Traffic
Brand traffic peaks during this period and you can take this opportunity to show off why you are better. We target competitor keywords with ads highlighting your availability + unique offers & selling points.
How We Hit £41k in One Hour
This men's fashion brand needed to dominate Black Friday in one of the most competitive markets online.
We ran product-type specific Performance Max campaigns alongside Standard Shopping campaigns with aggressive bidding. This dual approach let PMax handle discovery while Shopping campaigns captured high-intent searches with precision.
We applied a 25-30% positive conversion rate seasonality adjustment the moment Black Friday started. This told Google "conversion rates are spiking RIGHT NOW - bid aggressively." While competitors' campaigns were still learning, we were dominating auctions.
Using Product Hero CSS (specifically the PRO version), we saved money on every single Shopping click, redirecting 100% of savings back into the auction. We categorised products as Hero, Villain, or Zombie products for stronger budget allocation.
The result was £41,000 in revenue in a single hour on Black Friday.
Strategy Insights
→ Feed Optimisation Is Non-Negotiable
Brands that nail their product feeds see 15%+ higher CTRs without spending an extra penny. Clean data, optimised titles, and early promotions separate winners from the buried.
→ Performance Max Needs Guard Rails
Let it run wild and it'll drain your budget on brand traffic. Control the data you feed it and it becomes a new customer acquisition machine.
→ Seasonality Adjustments Win Black Friday
When conversion rates spike on BFCM, most campaigns are still "learning." Smart brands tell Google to bid aggressively from minute one with CVR seasonality adjustments.
- Your Two Paths Forward
→ Path 1: DIY Your BFCM Google Ads Strategy
- Requires deep platform knowledge and constant monitoring
- Risk of expensive mistakes during peak traffic
- Need to implement feed optimisation, PMax controls, and seasonality adjustments yourself
- Only works for brands with experienced in-house teams
→ Path 2: Partner with a BFCM Growth Partner
- We generate millions in BFCM revenue every year (like £41k in one hour for this fashion brand)
- Every tactic has been thoroughly tested like feed optimisation, Pmax mastery, CSS implementation, seasonality adjustments
- We handle the technical execution while you focus on operations
- Often produces better results with less internal resource drain
The choice is simple - execute these strategies yourself or work with a team that's proven they work when stakes are highest.
More like this
BFCM Series - Week 4
BFCM Series - Week 4
BFCM Series - Week 4