Get BFCM Ready: The Pre-Season Workflow Every Advertiser Needs

Introduction

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are just around the corner, and getting ready early can make all the difference. To help you stay ahead, we’ve put together a special 3-part Learn With Optmyzr video series that covers every stage of the season: pre-season, on-season, and post-season.

The first episode focuses on pre-season prep. You’ll learn practical steps to clean up your product feed, segment your best performers, protect your budgets, and double-check campaign health so you walk into BFCM ready, not rushed.

What You Will Learn

1. Clean your feed before the peak season frenzy

• Audit your Merchant Center feed with Shopping Feed Audit to fix missing attributes, long titles, and disapprovals.
• Use supplemental feeds to make quick updates even when you don’t own the primary feed.
• Verify sale prices, GTINs, and other product details to unlock more impressions and approvals.

2. Choose bestsellers based on your data

• Use Shopping Analysis to uncover which product types or brands deliver the highest ROAS.
• Leverage Smart Product Labeler to automatically tag “heroes” or high-performing SKUs that deserve priority spend.
• Segment campaigns based on margin, conversion rate, or historical ROAS for surgical precision.
• Structure campaigns so that every product has a clear budget purpose and there’s no wasted spend.

3. Use automation strategically

• Build or refresh entire Shopping and Performance Max campaigns in minutes with Shopping Campaign Management.
• Sync your Merchant Feed automatically to keep ads live and relevant as inventory changes.
• Use built-in automation to add or remove product groups as stock updates.
• Scale faster with Campaign Automator. Its perfect for launching search campaigns from live product data.

4. Budget smarter to avoid wasted spend

• Forecast spending trends with Budget Dashboard and Spend Projection to predict spikes before they happen.
• Set up Budget Monitoring Alerts so you’re notified the moment campaigns go off pace.
• Activate “Pause When Things Spend Too Much” scripts for real-time budget control.
• Reallocate budgets dynamically toward top-performing products when CPCs surge.

5. Audit thoroughly to spot gaps in campaigns

• Run a PPC Audit before the sale to confirm accurate conversion tracking and clean data.
• Check for overcounting or tracking breaks that could distort ROAS insights.
• Post-Cyber Monday, analyze what worked — then lock it into a repeatable blueprint for next year.
• Continuous improvement turns seasonal wins into year-round performance advantages.

Tools & Resources

• Q4 Prep Checklist for Winning Black Friday & Cyber Monday
• How to Optimize Shopping & PMax Performance
• Google Shopping: 6 Ways to Structure Campaigns
• Google Shopping Campaigns: 3 Examples You Can Copy Now
• The Complete Guide to Product Feed Optimization in Google Merchant Center
• Campaign Automator: User Guide
• Pause When Things Spend Too Much
• Budget Dashboard: User Guide
• Shopping Campaign Management: User Guide
• PPC Account Audit: User Guide