Black Friday 2026: Getting the Most Out of Your Social Media Campaigns

Social media usage is higher than ever, meaning your Black Friday social media campaigns can greatly influence your Q4 eCommerce performance.

The number of social media users has rapidly increased in recent years, reaching over 5 billion users.¹

Shoppers are also actively searching out brands on the platform, with 50% of users seeking to learn more about a brand or see their social content.²

As consumers turn to the channel to discover, research, and even purchase products, a successful Black Friday requires a strong social strategy.

Continue reading to learn how to get the most from your social media platforms during this busy period.

How to create successful Black Friday social media campaigns

There’s no denying that social media can catapult your brand’s growth. It’s one of the most effective tools to market your products or services and build up a following of loyal customers.

Let’s look into some actionable ways to create successful Black Friday social media campaigns.

1. Preparation and consistency are key

Having a clear content schedule will allow you to be organised and focused on your brand goals over the holiday season. Being prepared will also give you additional time to be reactive with your marketing campaigns once a new trend emerges.

You can get started by:

• Regularly posting relevant and high-quality content: A regular and consistent posting schedule will increase visibility on social media. You may consider scheduling your Black Friday social media campaigns in advance to fully prepare a more comprehensive content plan.

• Keeping profile pictures and banners up to date: Ensure that your Black Friday promotions are front and centre across all elements of your website. You could also consider linking to a Black Friday-specific landing page to ensure shoppers can find your sale section easily.

• A consistent tone of voice (TOV): Use a recognisable and consistent tone of voice across your social media, email marketing and overall brand communications. This allows users to get to know your brand’s personality and helps build customer relationships.

Pro tip: Capitalise on shoppers interested in your brand this Black Friday by promoting your newsletter on social media. Leave space for content that highlights incentives for signing up, such as new subscriber discounts or exclusive early access to sales.

Suggested reading: Find the best incentives to drive email signups in our blog ‘How to Grow Your Email List’.

2. Post high-quality content

Now that you know how to keep things consistent, let’s look at creating content for your Black Friday social media schedule.

It’s important you have clear goals for your social media channel. This will ensure your content stays aligned and helps you achieve your wider objectives.

Examples of Black Friday social media goals:

• Increasing brand awareness
• Boosting engagement and followers
• Driving traffic to your website
• Increasing conversions

No matter your brand goals, you can create great content for your social media throughout the Black Friday period by:

• Using well-lit, high-quality photography: Stand out during the influx of Black Friday content by showcasing your products in the best light. You’ll want to shoot scroll-stopping content that also aligns with your brand aesthetics.

• Making use of all relevant social platforms: Consider creating or repurposing your content into different formats to fit across multiple platforms. Taking an omnichannel approach to your social strategy will help increase your reach.

• Capitalising on other key shopping dates: Reference other key dates before and after Black Friday, such as Singles Day, within your content. These dates can provide further ideas for content and opportunities to drive sales.

Pro tip: Encourage interactions and expand the reach of your Black Friday content by running seasonal giveaways or competitions. Requiring shoppers to reshare posts or tag friends to enter can boost your visibility and help your brand reach new audiences.

3. Get to know your audience

A big part of building a social media strategy is getting to know your audience. Understanding who they are and what they’re interested in should influence your content, TOV, and overall social media approach.

You also need to consider the differing needs of users on each social media platform.

If you get this right, social media can help you build a highly engaged, loyal audience who connect with your brand’s personality and frequently interact with your content.

With 58% of users reporting they discover new brands through social media, Black Friday is the perfect opportunity for you to build a following.³

So how can you increase visibility and find your audience?

• Use keywords: Keywords are no longer just relevant for Google. Including keywords in your social media copy can increase your brand’s exposure. Using specific keywords can help the algorithm understand your content and help your brand appear in users’ search results.

• Showcase customer reviews and content: Users want to show off their latest purchases on Instagram stories and share their experiences with their favourite brands. Encouraging this user-generated content (UGC) from your followers will help you reach new potential customers and build brand trust.

• Use trending sounds and video formats: On short-form video platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels, the algorithm often favours content with trending sounds and formats. Using these can help boost your visibility.

Increasing your visibility is critical to your social media success, so optimise your content plans and social postings correctly to reach new audiences. You can then work to nurture these new shoppers into loyal followers, who purchase all year round.

Suggested reading: Discover the value of customer loyalty and retention.

Examples to consider: TikTok’s algorithm is unmatched for organic reach, allowing users to completely personalise their recommended content in as little as 40 minutes.⁴ This can help your content reach more of the right audience.

4. Instil urgency

Urgency can be the deciding factor in whether a shopper buys from your brand now or continues their search for a better deal.

During Black Friday, when there are so many lucrative offers, creating urgency is the key to securing sales.

Social media can be an easy way to do this, particularly when you’re running limited-time discounts across the Cyber Weekend.

Use your social content to create a fear of missing out (FOMO) by:

• Leveraging scarcity marketing: Communicate to your shoppers that your Black Friday sale is not around forever, and stock supply is low. This urges customers to purchase sooner rather than later.

• Use timers and countdowns: Countdown to the end of your limited-time offers and use time-related trigger words in your copy and CTA to urge potential customers to purchase sooner.

5. Utilise ads

Last but certainly not least, ads. Social media ads are a perfect and almost necessary way to reach new customers and promote your Black Friday deals.

Social media ads are great for driving shoppers to your website, which is where purchases happen. While in-app shopping is now possible on a number of platforms, 71% of shoppers still prefer to convert on your brand website.⁵

You can use ads to link to specific pages on your site, allowing you to direct shoppers towards specific Black Friday landing pages or deals. You can also get hyper-specific about the audiences you target.

Generally with social media, you’re at the mercy of the algorithm when it comes to who sees your content. However, paid advertising provides you with more control through the ability to target select audiences.

Paid social media ads are great for:

• Finding new customers: Establish a buyer persona and use these characteristics to target ads at shoppers who are likely to buy from you. This can help you attract new visitors to your site who convert.

• Retargeting shoppers who abandoned your site: Many shoppers won’t purchase on their first visit to your site, even around Black Friday. You can use their data to retarget them with social media ads to draw them back in. Segment and target shoppers with ads based on the brands or products they’ve viewed to maximise engagement.

Pro tip: Learning from existing shoppers on your site is a great way to build accurate social media ad audiences. For example, Salesfire’s segments allow you to build highly specific audiences and feed these directly into your ad platforms.

Support your Black Friday social media campaigns with an optimised eCommerce site

It’s clear that social media is now an essential step in the customer journey. From initial brand discovery to comparing products, shoppers are looking to platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

Following our tips for an effective Black Friday social strategy will help you attract new customers and keep them coming back well after the event is over.

However, with shoppers still heading to your site to buy, optimising your website itself is the key to ensuring Black Friday social media traffic actually converts.

1 Social media – statistics & facts | Statista

2 Digital 2025: The essential guide to the global state of digital | we are social

3 80+ Industry Specific Social Media Marketing Statistics For 2025 | Synup

4 How TikTok’s Algorithm Figure You Out | Wall Street Journal

5 71% of Online Shoppers Prefer to Check Out on The Brand Website Versus Social Networks | Retail Dive