Growth Suite
Solutions Pricing Growth Masters Partner Program
Try For Free

Expert answer · 2 min read

Should I pause Black Friday ads for Cyber Monday?

As an e-commerce manager preparing for the critical holiday shopping season, I'm strategizing how to optimize my advertising spend across Black Friday and Cyber Monday. These back-to-back shopping events require careful planning to maximize return on ad spend and avoid cannibalizing my own campaigns. I need to understand the best approach for managing my advertising strategy, ensuring I'm not wasting budget or missing out on potential sales during this high-stakes period.
Muhammed Tüfekyapan

Muhammed Tüfekyapan

Founder & CEO, Growth Suite ·

The short answer

Yes - pause or significantly reduce BF-specific ad creative and audiences when CM begins. Running both simultaneously creates audience fatigue, inflates CPMs, and delivers mixed messages. Keep retargeting audiences active but swap to CM-specific creative and offer messaging.

In depth

Should You Pause Black Friday Ads for Cyber Monday?

Yes - running BF and CM ads simultaneously is a common mistake that dilutes both campaigns. BF-creative ads running on CM confuse buyers who've seen your BF messaging all week and are now looking for CM-specific offers. The audience and creative should transition cleanly between events.

What to Do With Your BF Campaigns

Campaign TypeAction for CMReason
BF-specific creative (BF messaging)Pause completelyOutdated messaging confuses and creates cognitive dissonance
BF retargeting audiencesKeep, swap to CM creativeValuable audience, needs updated offer messaging
BF cold audience campaignsPause or reduce significantlyCM cold CPMs are very high; focus on warm audiences
Brand search (Google)Update ad copy to CM messagingSame campaigns, but headline should say CM not BF

BF-to-CM Transition Timing

  • →Saturday night: Gradually reduce BF creative budget, start warming CM creative
  • →Sunday: BF creative budget at 20% of normal; CM preview ads at 40% of CM target spend
  • →Monday 12am: Pause all BF-specific creative, full CM budget active

Growth Suite BF-to-CM Site Transition

Your ads need to match your on-site experience. Growth Suite's Scheduled Campaigns handle the on-site transition automatically: BF offers end at midnight and CM offers activate, with no manual intervention. When your ads switch to CM creative Monday morning, the on-site offers have already transitioned - creating a consistent customer experience across every touchpoint.

The Risk of Running Both: If a buyer sees your BF ad on Saturday ("25% off for Black Friday!") and then your CM ad on Monday ("25% off for Cyber Monday!"), they realize both events had the same deal. This deflates the sense of urgency for both events and trains buyers to wait - knowing the discount will still be available at the next event.

Growth Suite for Shopify

Put this answer to work in your store.

Growth Suite reads what each visitor is about to do and triggers the right offer at the right second — so the strategy above runs on its own.

Start free trial Book a 30-min demo

14-day free trial · No credit card · Cancel anytime

Keep reading

More answers

All questions

· 4 min read

Should I include product recommendations?

As an e-commerce business owner, I'm constantly looking for ways to increase average order value and improve customer...

Go deeper

Resources

All resources
Shopify Upselling & Cross-Selling - Growth Suite

Topic ·4 min read

Shopify Upselling & Cross-Selling

Most Shopify stores leave 10-30% of revenue on the table because they do not upsell or cross-sell effectively. This...

Shopify Countdown Timer - Growth Suite

Topic ·4 min read

Shopify Countdown Timer

Adding a timer takes 5 minutes. Making it convert without destroying trust? That's strategy. The complete guide to...

Shopify Cart Abandonment - Growth Suite

Topic ·3 min read

Shopify Cart Abandonment

70% of Shopify carts are abandoned. Learn why customers leave, how to prevent abandonment in real-time, and recover...

Shopify Discount - Growth Suite

Topic ·3 min read

Shopify Discount

Master Shopify discounts without sacrificing your profit margins. Learn strategic discount techniques, timing...