The 2026 BFCM Playbook
Plan a stronger Black Friday and Cyber Monday, from where shoppers are spending to how AI is changing the way they search.
This is what our paid media, creative, email, and SEO teams are telling retail clients in Canada and the US heading into the 2026 season. It covers six plays across Google’s AI campaigns, creative testing, social, Klaviyo, and AI search, plus a week-by-week countdown so you know what to do and when.
The season in numbers
- +4.0% Canadian Q4 retail sales growth in 2025, against a flat forecast Statistics Canada
- $275.1B Projected US online holiday spending in 2026, up 6.7% from last year Adobe Digital Insights, 2026
- 85% Of Canadians wait for sales before buying RCC × Leger, 2025
- 39% Of Canadians used AI to help make a purchase in the past year Leger for National Bank, 2026
What's inside
Six plays to win BFCM 2026
- 01
Pace the quarter
Start spending in October while ads cost less, then convert those audiences when the sale opens.
- 02
Feed Google's AI good inputs
Clean up your product titles, turn on AI Max for Search, and finish bid changes by early November.
- 03
Test creative beyond the black-and-yellow look
Lead with what cautious shoppers check: the real discount, star ratings, and delivery dates.
- 04
Turn social followers into subscribers
Use Instagram comment-to-DM to capture email and SMS consent before ad costs peak.
- 05
Run email and SMS like peak infrastructure
Warm your list in October and have your core flows tested and live by Nov 20.
- 06
Make your site readable to AI search
Make sure AI crawlers can read your key pages and product data.
Want the full plan? Download the playbook for a week-by-week countdown through January, our checklist for Google’s AI campaigns, and example ads built for cautious shoppers.