Every November, the same thing happens: search volume skyrockets, the competition steps up its game, and everyone is vying for the same clicks. The question many businesses ask themselves before investing time in this is simple: Do we really need a specific landing page, or is it enough to just post the discount on the homepage? The answer is still yes, but what «Black Friday landing page» means has changed quite a bit in recent years.
What Has Changed
First of all: It's no longer a one-day affair. What used to be a page that stayed up for 24–48 hours now has to last for several weeks, because the Black Friday has become an event that lasts throughout November rather than focusing on a single weekend. This requires thinking of the landing page as something that can handle sustained traffic, not just a one-time spike.
Second: Discounts are no longer the only tool at their disposal. More and more brands are using these dates to cSign up or promote your loyalty program rather than direct sales.
The North Face, for example, devotes a significant portion of its Black Friday landing page to offering early access and exclusive perks to those who join its club, rather than focusing on the discount itself, because in the long run, that information is worth more than a one-time sale.
And third, the most striking thing: there is Brands that keep their landing pages active all year round instead of deleting it once the campaign is over. Samsung, for example, leaves the message «Our sale is over—see you next year» instead of removing the page.
It's a decision that is also part of a good search engine optimization strategy, since it allows you to maintain the rankings you've achieved and avoid having to rebuild your authority from scratch every November.
So, is it still essential to create a specific Black Friday landing page?
Yes. Without a dedicated page, all the extra traffic from the campaign ends up landing on generic categories or the home page, with a message that isn't meant for someone who's in a hurry and comparing prices. What has changed isn't the need to have one, but the approach: it's no longer enough to set it up for a weekend and take it down on Monday.
That said, the problem is that most guides on Black Friday landing pages stick to the obvious—a visible CTA, a sense of urgency, a short form—and overlook something important: Not all businesses sell products using a shopping cart..
Here, we take a look at what the experts in this field do well, and how to apply those lessons to businesses that also want their piece of the pie without being a typical e-commerce site.
First things first: Does your landing page sell a product or a consultation?
That's the first question we need to answer, because it changes the whole approach. If you sell physical products, your goal is a direct purchase: shopping cart, checkout, confirmation.
If you sell a service (a consultation, a registration, a visit), your real goal is to generate a lead: a phone call, an email, a reservation. The sense of urgency and the discount work the same way in both cases, but the «final button» they lead to is different, and it’s important to be clear about that before designing anything.
What Major Brands Are Already Doing Well
Before reinventing the wheel, it's worth taking a look at the mechanics used by those who have been doing this for years.
MediaMarkt: The Club Comes Before the Discount
MediaMarkt doesn't just lower prices: it encourages customers to sign up for its loyalty club before the sale even begins, with Exclusive discounts for members and an extended 30-day return period. It's a smart way to build your own database while you sell, and to reduce the psychological hesitation of «what if I change my mind?».
Furniture and Decor: Breaking Down Barriers, Not Just Creating a Sense of Urgency
In the furniture sector, where the average purchase amount is high, Kave Home is a good example of another variation on the same pattern seen at MediaMarkt: discounts of up to 50% for everyone, but an additional 20% only for newsletter subscribers on purchases over 300€, with a code valid sitewide.
A big discount attracts traffic; the subscriber-only bonus drives conversions that traffic in our own database before the campaign ends.
Black Friday also works for service-based businesses
You don't need to have an e-commerce site to launch a Black Friday campaign. If your business sells services, this offer can be used to generate business opportunities instead of completing a purchase directly from the landing page.
A clinic can promote a specific treatment and encourage users to schedule an appointment; a school can offer special enrollment rates; and a gym can temporarily waive the registration fee. This also applies to other businesses where the decision to purchase requires prior contact with the customer.
In these cases, it is mainly the conversion that changes. Instead of directing the user to the shopping cart, the landing page should make it easy to make a reservation, place a call, or submit a form. The offer needs to be easy to understand, and the process for requesting information should be as simple as possible.
That's why, before designing a Black Friday landing page, it's a good idea to define what action we want to achieve. This approach should be part of a digital strategy a broader strategy, in which the landing page, campaigns, and other channels all work toward the same goal. Not all campaigns have to result in a purchase: a good landing page can also be used to capture leads that will later move forward in the sales process.
Make sure the conversion is seamless
Regardless of the industry, some rules never change. The landing page must clearly convey the offer without the user having to scroll: title, brief description, supporting image, and a call-to-action button visible from the very first second. On a day like that, no one wants to dig deeper—they want to make a quick decision—so any distraction that doesn't lead directly to the goal is unnecessary.
- The headline It's the first thing users read, and it determines—in a matter of seconds—whether they stay or leave.
- And the CTA It deserves the same attention: it needs to stand out visually (color matters more than it seems, and it’s best to choose it based on the associations it conveys, not just on whether it matches the rest of the page)
- And above all, request the necessary information But don't go overboard. The fewer fields the form has or the fewer steps the checkout process has, the higher the conversion rate will be; you can always ask for the rest of the information later.
Build trust before asking for a click
A sense of urgency sells, but only if trust has been established first. Return, privacy, and cookie policies should be just a click away, not hidden. If you sell products, offering multiple payment gateways—including the option to pay in installments—reduces cart abandonment at the final step.
And if you have well-known brands in your catalog, showcasing them helps: trust in a major brand translates into trust in the seller.
A brief FAQ section It serves the same purpose: it provides an answer before the user has to ask, and prevents them from leaving the landing page to look for the answer elsewhere.
Create a sense of urgency, but do so thoughtfully
A A stock counter or a countdown timer continues to run, and it remains the most effective way to drive a decision in the moment. The key is for it to be genuine: a feigned sense of urgency is obvious, and once the user detects it, it stops working—both in this campaign and in future ones.
There's still work to be done after the sale
A short survey after the purchase or appointment, one or two questions—no more—provide valuable information for the next campaign and make the customer feel heard. It’s a step that almost no one pays attention to, yet it costs very little to implement.
What about you—have you got your landing page ready for the next campaign? At Geotelecom, digital marketing agency We've been helping businesses of all kinds—with or without a shopping cart—for years to smake the most of this time of year. If you'd like us to take a look at yours, contact us and we'll go over it together.
