With the final three months of the year upon us, every business is prepping for the busiest time in our collective calendar. With budgets being drawn up and sales being planned, now’s the time to get your marketing strategy in order. While Black Friday is arguably one of the biggest dates to look out for, there’s a new emerging trend and another event to account for: Fake Friday.
What Is Fake Friday?
Essentially, this new and important date on every marketer’s calendar stems from a bit of confusion. Like Easter, the date of Black Friday changes every year, and always falls on the 4th Friday of November (the day immediately following Thanksgiving). When the fourth Friday falls at the very end of the month – like Black Friday in 2025 will – you get people looking up online deals a week before the real day. Thus: you get Fake Friday, and with it, a new opportunity to work on your marketing funnel and get more conversions over the line on the big day (and the week leading up to it).
While it may not have the global recognition of Black Friday itself, Fake Friday is an event to watch out for if you’re planning ad campaigns – no matter whether that’s search or social media ads. Consumers are now more particular about their purchases, and will hold off on buying until they’ve done their research. That could take the form of looking through pricing, reading up about their options, or signing up for email lists for those all-important discount codes. Many buyers are now also looking for other people before the festive season, meaning that education regarding your products or services is especially important to help make it easy for them to find just the right gift.
What makes it so significant is that it’s a strong indicator that consumer behaviours are changing. Rather than jumping on whichever deal they see that’s convenient, they’re looking for more – in terms of price, quality, and convenience. Factoring all of these things in will give you and your business the best chance possible to get the most out of this busy pre-Christmas period. Not sure where to start? We can help.
What Caused the Change in Buyer Behaviour?
Along with the initial confusion stemming from Black Friday’s changeable date, there are a few reasons why we’re seeing a shift in shopping trends. During the height of COVID, everyone was online – there was no alternative while we were all inside. While that was a few years back now, the instability we were going through for that time is only just now starting to stabilise.
Combine that with the fact that there’s been a lot of economic uncertainty, the interest rate has gone up, often hitting renters just as much as those with a mortgage, and you have a recipe for change. People are more cautious with their money, and are looking for an option that gives them the best possible service and benefits all in one.
Why You Need To Start Prepping for Fake Friday
Any form of change requires adjusting your approach – and navigating the digital fatigue of potential customers, increased competition both online and on the high street, and sophisticated buying behaviours makes this especially relevant. One of the key things to keep in mind is that customers are more discerning than ever, and are doing their due diligence to make their dollar go further.
The next thing to plan for is that they’re also keen to get ahead, get in early, and avoid the mad rush that Black Friday results in – regardless of whether they’re shopping online or in store. Prospective customers are used to seeing deals pop up earlier every year and not everyone is waiting until Black Friday arrives to make their purchases.
How this impacts you, whether you’re an ecommerce, lead gen, or retail marketer, is that Fake Friday isn’t just an optional pre-sale moment. Now, it’s becoming an essential part of your strategy to win conversions, get consumer data early, and improve efficiency before advertising costs skyrocket closer to the big day.
Get Front and Centre With Early Sales – Or Start Dropping Hints
With all of that in mind, how can you use this information to your best advantage? It isn’t just consumers who are looking to save money, many businesses are keeping a close eye on their ad spend, return on ad spend, and every part of the funnel so they can turn first-time Black Friday purchases into life long customers.
When it comes to planning your moves this shopping season, there are a few things to focus on:
- People love to be first – and that’s still true when it comes to shopping. They want to skip the countdown timers that sit between them and the deal they want, and they also want to make sure they get in before things on their list sell out.
- Along with getting options early – like on Fake Friday – creating an emotional connection is fundamental for your long term success. Along with early access sales, consider things like exclusive previews, VIP offers for those who get in early, or some other extra benefit relevant to your customer base that’ll make them feel valued.
- If you’re looking to achieve the antithesis of the mad Black Friday rush, drip feed those hints, give special deals on certain days for product ranges, and stagger things out. It removes the heightened sense of urgency that can be overwhelming and gives you a softer launch into the sales season, while also preserving momentum for the official campaign later in the week.
Building Momentum Pre- Black Friday
Along with fostering those early relationships with customers, Fake Friday is also a fantastic way to learn what works, what doesn’t, and adjust your strategy accordingly before the big day (Black Friday and in the longer term, Boxing Day). Depending on your business, budgets, and goals, you may want to start as far in advance as early as the start of November, or even late October. Either way – you should start planning now.
You’ll want to cast a wide net, utilising the full scope of your channels to maximise attention, lead generation, and early sign ups (and conversions). The benefits of starting early is that you can avoid the peak in paid advertising costs that hit during Black Friday week. There’s also less competition when you start early, and you can be amongst the first ads that consumers see. Opt for social media advertising to capture attention with visuals, testimonials, and dynamic content. When it comes to Google, remarketing is your best friend – keeping you at the forefront of their mind.
Email marketing is another integral tool in your marketing kit. If you’re running campaigns to capture contact details, email is the ideal way to drop hints and let people know about the things they’re really interested in.
Getting the Benefits of an Early Launch
While it might seem like Fake Friday is just another thing to add to the “to-do” list, for early adapters, you could stand to gain plenty for a bit of early preparation. The main thing to remember is you can still have a similarly targeted approach, except you’ll want to spread your marketing efforts across a longer window. This gives you more room to learn, better budget optimisation, and takes the pressure off achieving those groundbreaking results in just one day.
Each year is different, and change is the only thing you can count on when it comes to marketing and customer behaviour. Starting early, and even finishing late (with sales wrapping up a few days after Cyber Monday to let late-comers get a deal) will help tremendously. Rather than a one-day sprint, your pipeline and conversion path is spread across a week (or month) long marathon. You’ll be revising and optimising more – but you’ll also set yourself up to gain more in the long run too.
Now’s The Time: Start Planning For Fake Friday
With the economy slowly coming out of its long period of instability, now’s the time to make the most of the changing trends and optimise your strategy to get ahead of the curve. Get amongst the retail and ecommerce brands who are already capitalising on it, improve your campaigns, and push for the extended success that this unofficial date can offer.
Whether you’re aiming to stretch your campaigns across a longer window, are ready to experiment with refining your creative more, or want to see how the data pans out, WebSavvy can help. By utilising a full-service advertising marketing mix, we can help you reduce wastage – in terms of time, creative, and ad spend – and optimise your sales funnel across the holiday period. Avoid the Black Friday burnout and contact us today for a free consultation.
