Plan your Black Friday video ads in October because shoppers start browsing before November and because, in a midterm election year, political ad spending drives up CPMs across the same channels you're advertising in during October and November. Launching by mid-to-late October gives your ad time to learn and optimize before both of those pressures peak, instead of fighting them cold in the final week before Black Friday.
Most retail marketing calendars still treat Black Friday as a November problem: brief the agency in late October, shoot in early November, launch the week of. That timeline was already tight. In an election year it's worse, because the same paid channels you're bidding on are also carrying a wave of political spend that gets more expensive as Election Day approaches. This guide covers why shoppers are moving earlier, what election-year ad costs actually do to your budget, and a week-by-week October planning timeline that gets ahead of both.
Why should you start planning Black Friday ads in October?
Because a large share of your shoppers already have. The holiday shopping season no longer starts the week of Thanksgiving, it starts weeks earlier, and an ad campaign that launches on schedule for "Black Friday week" is actually launching after a meaningful chunk of the audience has begun deciding where to spend.
An ad that only goes live in mid-November is invisible to that early browsing window entirely. Getting a script locked and a video in-market by October means you're advertising into the moment shoppers are actually researching and deciding, not just the moment they're checking out.
Why do ad costs spike in October and November of election years?
Because political campaigns are bidding for the same inventory retailers need for holiday launches, on the same platforms, in the same weeks. 2026 is a midterm election year (Election Day is November 3, 2026), and the closer the calendar gets to that date, the more political ad dollars flood paid social, display, and streaming, pushing up the cost to reach anyone in that inventory, holiday shopper or not.
That squeeze isn't unique to political advertisers, it raises the floor for anyone bidding in the same auctions. A retailer launching a holiday campaign in that window is competing for the same impressions, and the later you launch, the closer you are to the most expensive days on the calendar.
"It feels like we're walking into a holiday tsunami. It's like no other holiday period that I've ever overseen or any political cycle that I've overseen, there's so many factors. It's really become like the third wave of holiday, if you will." — Kim Sivillo, CEO, mSix&partners, Digiday
The practical takeaway isn't to avoid the season, it's to get your ad live and learning before the auction gets more expensive. A campaign that's already been running for two or three weeks by early November has an established performance baseline; one that launches cold into peak CPMs is paying the highest price for the least data.
Script and shoot happen in late October. Ad goes live the second week of November, straight into peak CPMs, with zero learning time before Black Friday weekend.
Script locked in the first week of October, shot and edited by mid-month, live in-market by late October. Three to four weeks of learning and optimization before Black Friday weekend.
What does an October planning timeline for Black Friday video ads look like?
Work backward from Black Friday weekend and lock the script first, since everything downstream (the shoot, the edit, the launch) depends on it being settled early. Here's what a mid-to-late October in-market date looks like worked backward.
The script is the bottleneck in almost every version of this timeline that slips. Once the offer, hook, and beats are locked, the shoot and edit can move fast. For the beat-by-beat structure and a worked example, see our Black Friday video ad script template.
What does an October planning brief look like (example)?
Here is a real prompt you can paste into PlanThatVideo in early October to lock a script well ahead of the November crunch, and the plan it turns that paragraph into.
The plan mirrors the same offer-led script structure covered in the Black Friday script guide, just moved three to four weeks earlier on the calendar so the campaign is optimized, not scrambling, when the auction gets expensive.
FAQ
Isn't October too early to plan a Black Friday ad?
No. 42% of shoppers plan to start browsing and buying before November, and in a midterm election year, ad costs climb as Election Day approaches. Planning and launching in October puts your ad in front of early shoppers and gives it optimization time before both shopper attention and CPMs peak in November.
How much more expensive do ads get in a midterm election year?
In the 2022 midterm cycle, average CPMs rose about 40% from January to November, with native ad CPMs running over 140% higher in November than January. 2026 is also a midterm year, with political ad spend projected well above 2022 levels, so a similar or larger squeeze on paid inventory is a reasonable planning assumption.
What's the single biggest reason Black Friday ad launches slip into November?
The script isn't locked early enough. Once the offer, hook, and structure are settled, the shoot and edit can move quickly; when the script is still being debated in late October, everything downstream gets pushed into the most expensive, most time-pressured week of the year.
Does this apply outside election years too?
Yes, the early-shopper argument (42% browsing before November) holds every year regardless of the election calendar. The added ad-cost pressure is specific to election years, which happen every other year, so 2026, 2028, and every even year after are worth planning around this way.
Lock your Black Friday script in October, not November.
PlanThatVideo turns a one-paragraph offer into a timed, beat-by-beat ad script, plus the matching shot list, so you can launch weeks ahead of the crunch.
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