The holiday season is where native advertising can pay for the whole year, and where poorly prepared campaigns burn the most money. Competition rises, costs move every day and shoppers compare offers quickly. This playbook covers how to plan Taboola campaigns for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the weeks around them.

How big the opportunity is

Adobe's data for the 2025 season shows how concentrated online spending becomes. US shoppers spent $11.8 billion online on Black Friday 2025, up 9.1% year over year, and $14.25 billion on Cyber Monday. Cyber Week as a whole reached $44.2 billion. Mobile accounted for more than half of online sales across the season, and Adobe recorded peak discounts of around 31% on electronics, 28% on toys and 25% on apparel.

Two conclusions follow for Taboola advertisers. Most of your holiday traffic will be mobile, so the landing page has to work on a phone first. And because discounts are deep across the market, a vague "holiday sale" message will not stand out; the offer has to be specific.

Timing: start before the rush

  • October: launch test campaigns with your holiday offers and landing pages. This is when conversion data is cheapest to collect.
  • Early November: keep the campaigns and creative that proved themselves, and prepare refreshed versions so you are not relying on a single ad.
  • Black Friday to Cyber Monday: raise budgets on proven campaigns in steps rather than launching brand-new ones that have no data.
  • December: shift messaging to gifting deadlines, shipping cut-offs and last-minute delivery.

Choosing what to promote

Not every product suits a native holiday push. Products that tend to perform have a clear seasonal use case, are easy to understand from one image and headline, and can carry a visible discount: winter and comfort products, gifts with a clear recipient, home and kitchen upgrades, and small electronics. Products that need a long technical evaluation usually do better in search.

Creative that works in the holiday feed

  • Write around a situation, not a feature list. "Cold mornings, warm floors: the heated mat that sold out last winter" gives readers a reason to click; "Heated floor mat, 30% off" does not tell a story.
  • Put the offer in the headline or image. A specific discount such as "30% off until Monday" is clearer than "limited-time savings".
  • Use real scene photos. The product in use, in a seasonal setting, generally beats a plain product shot on white.
  • Pair useful content with the offer. A short guide, such as winter skincare tips with the featured product, makes the click feel worthwhile and keeps the ad from reading as a hard sell.
  • Keep video hooks short. Show the problem and the product in the first few seconds.

Match the landing page to the ad

If the ad promises a specific smartwatch at 30% off, the first screen of the landing page should show that smartwatch and that price, not the store homepage or a generic sale page. Every extra step between ad and offer loses holiday shoppers who have plenty of alternatives. Make sure shipping costs, delivery dates and the return policy are visible, because these are what holiday buyers check before paying, and Taboola's landing page policy requires honest offers and clear advertiser details.

Use Taboola's automation to protect budget

Maximize Conversions

With a budget and goal set, Taboola's SmartBid adjusts bids to get as many conversions as possible. During peak days, when auction prices move quickly, automated bidding reacts faster than manual bid changes.

SpendGuard

SpendGuard is on by default. Once a campaign has 5 conversions and 200 clicks and a publisher has at least 100 clicks, it caps or blocks publishers that are likely to waste budget. For campaigns younger than 14 days it uses all available data; for older campaigns it looks back over the last 14 days. Launching your holiday campaigns early means SpendGuard has data to work with by Black Friday.

Custom Rules

Custom Rules automate the actions you would otherwise do by hand: blocking sites that miss your goals, pausing underperforming ads and raising or limiting campaign budgets. Each rule can combine up to five conditions based on metrics such as spend, CPA, CVR and ROAS. To create one in Realize, open the Rules tab, click New Rule, set the conditions and actions, and turn on "Include this rule in a scheduled report" under Advanced Settings so you are notified when it acts.

Quick Checklist

  • Launch holiday test campaigns in October to collect conversion data early.
  • Check that every landing page loads fast and reads well on a phone.
  • State a specific discount in the headline or image.
  • Match the landing page first screen to the product and offer in the ad.
  • Show shipping costs, delivery dates and the return policy before checkout.
  • Run Maximize Conversions on proven campaigns and raise budgets in steps.
  • Set up Custom Rules with scheduled reports for budget and site control.
  • Prepare refreshed creative for December gifting and shipping deadlines.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • Launching brand-new campaigns on Black Friday itself, with no data for bidding or SpendGuard.
  • Sending holiday traffic to the store homepage instead of the advertised offer.
  • Using countdown timers or fake scarcity, which can get ads and landing pages rejected.
  • Running the same creative from October to December until it fatigues.
  • Hiding shipping costs until checkout, when holiday shoppers are comparing totals.

Frequently Asked Questions

When should I start Taboola campaigns for Black Friday?

Start testing in October. Campaigns that already have conversion history scale more smoothly during peak days than campaigns launched the same week.

Are countdown timers allowed on Taboola landing pages?

Taboola's landing page policy asks advertisers to avoid false urgency such as countdown timers and claims that an offer ends when it does not. Use real deadlines and state them plainly.

Can Taboola work alongside Meta and Google during the holidays?

Yes. Many brands use Taboola to reach readers outside social feeds and search, which adds volume when Meta and Google costs peak. See our Taboola vs Google Ads comparison and our Taboola ad account service.