Black Friday 2026 falls on 27 November, and almost everything that decides how it goes will already have happened. The redirect maps, the page speed work, the product data AI reads, the Merchant Center diagnostics: all of it needs lead time.
I've written up both halves of peak trading: how search and AI now decide who gets shortlisted, and the CRO and paid search execution I shared on stage at brightonSEO and MeasureFest, drawn from real budgets and real results.
693%
Growth in AI traffic to US retail sites, year on year
1 in 5
Global orders AI influenced during Cyber Week
228%
Of November target, on an account I led at SOZO
Speaking on this · 24 September 2026, 10:00
I'm taking this to the AI-Powered Marketing Stage at ExCeL London, covering how e-commerce brands build AI search visibility before peak demand arrives rather than during it.
Five minutes from the talk
Highlights from the session I gave at brightonSEO and MeasureFest, covering the tactics behind two long-running e-commerce accounts through peak.
The guides
AI influenced one in five global orders during Cyber Week last year, and AI traffic to US retail sites was up 693%. The brands it recommended earned that position in the months before the sale, not during it. Here's what I'd want in place before peak, and a twenty-minute check you can run on your own brand today.
The CRO and PPC tactics behind strong Black Friday and Q4 performance, from my brightonSEO and MeasureFest talk. Real campaigns, real budgets, and the 13 tips that made the difference.
Pulled from the guides
The feed that powers Shopping, your structured data, delivery and returns information and review signals are what ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews read when they decide which retailers to name.
Black Friday is won in search →Performance and infrastructure changes need discussion, implementation and testing. Leaving them until November limits the options at exactly the point you need them most.
The 13 tips from brightonSEO →When the same SKUs sit across every retailer, warranties, loyalty incentives and visible trust signals do the work that discounting can't, and the same signals help AI systems understand who you are.
The 13 tips from brightonSEO →When a bestseller sells out mid-peak, Shopping keeps serving until the feed catches up and disapprovals start stacking up. Availability belongs on the same daily view as revenue.
The 13 tips from brightonSEO →September and October. The redirect maps, page speed work, Merchant Center diagnostics and content that decide November are all things that need lead time. By the time demand arrives, the levers left are budget and bidding, which are the expensive ones. The single most useful thing you can do in September is open the conversation with whoever owns your website's development.
No, it's a month-long trading period. Demand builds from early November, peaks around Black Friday itself and tapers through Cyber Monday and into December. Brands that only show up at the peak miss the demand-building phase and end up paying more to convert people who were already deciding weeks earlier.
It changes where the shortlist gets made. Adobe measured AI traffic to US retail sites up 693% year on year across the 2025 holiday season, and Salesforce found AI influenced one in five global orders during Cyber Week. Those recommendations draw on your product data, delivery and returns information, review signals and third-party mentions, which is the same material that drives Shopping. Thin product content costs you in both places.
Stock and availability, usually. When a bestseller sells out mid-peak, Shopping keeps serving until the feed catches up, so you pay for clicks on a product nobody can buy, and price or availability mismatches start generating Merchant Center disapprovals. The other recurring one is billing: an ads account pausing on a declined payment during Cyber Weekend is an avoidable way to lose a day's revenue.
On net revenue, not gross. Q4 discounting attracts a cohort that returns more, and in some categories the gap between gross and net across November and December is wide enough to change which campaigns you'd call successful. Agree a returns assumption by category upfront, and review the period once the returns window has closed rather than calling it on 1st December.
No, and treating it that way leaves revenue on the table. December carries its own demand through to the last shipping dates, and January brings the gift-card and sale cohort. The visibility built through November keeps working across both, so winding everything down on the Tuesday is usually premature.
I write about peak trading, AI search and paid search throughout the year. Follow along on LinkedIn or get the articles by email.
18+ years in search · SEO · PPC · CRO · AI Search
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