The Black Friday countdown has begun! Before you know it, your inbox will be overflowing, social feeds will be flooded, and every brand will be fighting for attention.
Here’s the reality: if you haven’t started planning your Black Friday marketing strategy yet, you’re already behind. There’s still time to put together a smart, streamlined plan that will get you through the busiest season of the year and stay on track.
To help, we’ve put together a step-by-step checklist from planning and influencer selection to outreach, launch, and post-campaign analysis so you can head into Black Friday with a clear roadmap.
This Checklist will help you:
- Plan early: Define goals, KPIs, and budgets now to avoid last-minute chaos.
- Choose influencers wisely: Focus on audience alignment, engagement rates, and past campaign experience to pick the right influencers for your brand.
- Collaborate effectively: Share detailed briefs, maintain open communication, and streamline content approvals.
- Monitor and adjust: Use real-time data to track campaign performance and make improvements.
- Run Post-campaign analysis: Review results, identify top performers, and gather feedback for future campaigns.
By following these steps, you can maximize your Black Friday sales, create campaigns that leave a lasting impact but also build stronger influencer relationships for the future.
How To Plan Your Black Friday Influencer Campaign (Step-by-Step Timeline)
Phase 1: Planning (2-3 months ahead)
Every strong Black Friday campaign starts with detailed planning. Without clear goals, a defined budget, and audience insights, your Black Friday marketing campaigns risks falling short.
Set Campaign Goals and KPIs
Start by defining what you want to achieve before reaching out to influencers. For Black Friday, prioritize performance-driven KPIs like discount code redemptions, cost per acquisition (CPA), return on investment (ROI), and new customer acquisition. Use past campaign data to set realistic but ambitious targets.
Research Your Target Audience
Analyze your customer data to understand who they are, when they shop, and what they’re looking for during Black Friday. Pay attention to platform-specific behaviors: Instagram is best for Stories and Reels, TikTok excels at authentic product demos, and Pinterest is a go-to for holiday inspiration. Use these insights to tailor your messaging and posting schedule for maximum impact.
Create Budget and Timeline
Allocate budget for influencer fees, product seeding, paid promotions, and unexpected costs. Build a timeline with milestones for outreach, content creation, and approvals. Factor in that influencer rates rise during peak season and think beyond just Black Friday; running through Cyber Monday helps sustain momentum.
Phase 2: Finding and Choosing the right influencers (1-2 months ahead)
Strong partnerships are everything, and that begins with choosing influencers carefully. You want creators who connect authentically with your target audience and can deliver results during the peak shopping season.
Define Your Selection Criteria
Don’t just chase follower counts. Decide upfront whether you’re prioritizing reach, engagement, niche expertise, or cost-efficiency. Micro and nano influencers often drive stronger engagement and conversions during short, high-pressure sales events like Black Friday.
Evaluate Content and Audience Fit
Review each influencer’s recent posts to see if their tone, style, and values align with your brand. Pay attention to how their audience engages; are there meaningful comments, shares, and saves? High-quality interactions show that the influencer’s audience is genuinely engaged.
Check Seasonal Campaign Experience
Look for influencers who have previously run Black Friday or other holiday campaigns. Past success in time-sensitive promotions suggests they understand how to create urgency and stick to tight deadlines.
How Upfluence Helps? Upfluence Search and Find Tool gives you detailed analytics on audience demographics, engagement trends, and performance history for each creator. With powerful filters such as platform, location, audience size, and interests you can quickly narrow your search and focus on the influencers that are most likely to deliver results.
Phase 3: Outreach and Follow-up with Creators (4-6 weeks ahead)
Once you’ve identified the right creators, the next challenge is getting their attention, fast! Timelines are tight, so personalization and clear negotiations are key to make the difference with other brands.
Personalized Outreach
Generic emails won’t cut it in the holiday rush. To stand out, your outreach needs to feel personal and relevant.
Reference specific posts you’ve noticed, highlight how the influencer’s audience aligns with your target market, and explain why you think they’d be a strong fit for your Black Friday campaign. This extra effort shows you’ve done your homework and makes creators more likely to respond positively.
Clarify Campaign Requirements
Make sure influencers fully understand what the campaign will require. Provide clear details such as sale duration, product features, discount codes, and any mandatory elements like hashtags, disclosures, or product shots. The more precise you are upfront, the smoother the collaboration will be and the less back-and-forth you’ll need later.
Follow Up and Stay on Schedule
Don’t let things slip through the cracks following up with those who haven’t gotten back to you yet to keep track of your deadlines.
How Upfluence Helps? Upfluence’s AI-powered outreach automations let you reach creators in seconds, personalize outreach at scale, and track every interaction in one centralized hub.
Phase 4: Negotiation and Final Briefing (2-4 weeks ahead)
Once you’ve identified the right creators, the next challenge is getting their attention, fast! Timelines are tight, so personalization and clear negotiations are key to make the difference with other brands.
Negotiate Content and Payment Terms
Generic emails won’t cut it in the holiday rush. To stand out, your outreach needs to feel personal and relevant.
Reference specific posts you’ve noticed, highlight how the influencer’s audience aligns with your target market, and explain why you think they’d be a strong fit for your Black Friday campaign. This extra effort shows you’ve done your homework and makes creators more likely to respond positively.
Clarify Campaign Requirements
Make sure influencers fully understand what the campaign will require. Provide clear details such as sale duration, product features, discount codes, and any mandatory elements like hashtags, disclosures, or product shots. The more precise you are upfront, the smoother the collaboration will be and the less back-and-forth you’ll need later.
Finalize the Briefing
At this stage, your influencers already have a general overview of the campaign. Now it’s time to layer in the specific details they’ll need to deliver content successfully:
- Final discount codes, affiliate links, or tracking links
- Confirmed sale dates and durations
- Mandatory campaign hashtags, disclosures, or disclaimers
- Any required visual elements (logos, product placement, or unboxing shots)
- Notes on shipping status if products are being sent
Share briefs well in advance and encourage influencers’ creative input, they know what resonates with their followers. Schedule checkpoints for drafts and feedback. A collaborative approach avoids last-minute chaos while keeping content authentic.
Lock Down Logistics
If your campaign involves product seeding, send items to influencers as early as possible. The closer you get to the holidays, the more likely you’ll face shipping delays or fulfillment bottlenecks. Getting products out now ensures creators have them in hand with enough time to produce high-quality content without last-minute stress.
How Upfluence Helps? With automated workflows for discount codes, affiliate links, and product seeding. You can create tracking links and ship products, all in one click. This keeps everything easy and avoids last-minute chaos.
Phase 5: Content Approval (1-2 weeks ahead)
With only days to go, preparation is everything. This is your chance to double-check the details and make sure everyone is aligned before the sales frenzy begins.
Confirm posting schedules with all influencers
Set clear expectations with influencers on when approvals are due and in what format. Provide straightforward guidelines, for both your creators and your internal team that outline what requires approval and what doesn’t.
Share final codes, links, and assets
Make sure influencers have the final discount codes, tracking links, and campaign assets (like visuals or logos). Verify that product shipments are on track so creators have everything they need to deliver content on time. Sharing these details upfront avoids confusion and keeps posts consistent.
Prepare Backups
Even the best-laid Black Friday campaigns can hit snags, a shipment delay, a miscommunication, or an influencer who can’t deliver content on time. That’s why it’s smart to have reliable backup influencers on standby. These don’t have to be your top-tier performers; past collaborators who delivered solid results can step in if needed.
How Upfluence Helps? Upfluence centralizes content approvals, letting your team review, comment, and approve in one place. Custom statuses give you a clear view of progress, saving time and keeping campaigns on track.
Phase 6: Going Live
The planning is done, the content is ready, and your creators are prepped — now comes the exciting part: going live! This is the moment when all your work turns into real-time impact, and attention to detail makes all the difference.
Double-Check Content and Test
Verify that all scheduled influencer posts go live on time across the right platforms and ensure captions, visuals, and required disclosures (#ad, #sponsored) are included. Test discount codes and affiliate links to confirm they’re functional. Check that influencers are using the correct tracking links.
Rely on Your Backups
If an influencer misses a deadline or a product can’t be promoted, use your backup creators or pre-prepared content to fill the gap.
Pay Creators on Time
Don’t let payment delays disrupt your campaign. Make sure you’re set up to pay creators quickly, accurately, and compliantly. Creators that are paid on time will be more likely to collaborate with you in the future.
Monitor Early Performance
Keep an eye on your performance metrics and KPIs such as reach, clicks, and conversions as content starts rolling out. Monitor sales performance and product stock. If an item sells out, pause related content and shift focus to other promotions.
How Upfluence Helps? With Upfluence’s real-time tracking dashboard, you can monitor reach, clicks, conversions, and sales as content goes live. Quickly see which influencers are driving results and adjust your campaigns on the spot.
Phase 7: Post-Mortem (1–2 Weeks After Campaign)
Review Campaign Performance
Circle back to the KPIs you defined in Phase 1 to measure how close you came to your targets (sales, CPA, ROAS, new customers, etc.). Make sure you evaluate ROI performance by factoring in influencer fees, gifting costs, etc. Break down results by influencer, platform, and content type to see what drove the most conversions.
Spot Top Performers
Identify which influencers drove the best results, not just in sales, but also in engagement quality, timeliness, and professionalism. Compare content formats (Reels vs. Stories, TikToks vs. YouTube) to learn which types performed best during the Black Friday rush and document everything (hashtags, messaging, timing) that contributed to high performance.
Collect Feedback
Ask influencers for feedback on briefs, communication, and campaign processes. As Zigpoll puts it, “Influencers are not just promotional channels, they’re valuable partners in your marketing ecosystem.”
Debrief internally with your team to capture wins, challenges, and areas for improvement. Keep track of learnings in a shared document to use for future holiday campaigns.
Strengthen Relationships
Follow up with your best-performing influencers to thank them and discuss long-term collaborations. Consider offering them perks like early access to products, exclusive partnerships, or bonuses for outstanding performance.
Final Takeaways
Running a successful influencer campaign comes down to preparation, precision, and flexibility. Here’s your condensed checklist to run a winning Black Friday influencer campaign:
- Plan Ahead
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- Define campaign goals early.
- Choose the right creators for your brand.
- Organize outreach, negotiation, and approvals before the rush.
- Execute with Precision
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- Track performance in real time.
- Keep communication clear and consistent.
- Stay flexible to make quick adjustments.
- Wrap Up with Purpose
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- Run a thorough post-mortem to capture insights.
- Document what worked and what didn’t.
- Use learnings to strengthen future campaigns.
With this checklist and the right tools that Upfluence provides, you can turn Black Friday into measurable growth and long-term influencer partnerships.
