Black Friday / Cyber Monday (BFCM)

Black Friday / Cyber Monday (BFCM) on Amazon spans roughly the Tuesday before US Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday — a 5–7 day "Cyber Week" window. The event is open to all shoppers (not Prime-restricted, unlike Prime Day) and typically delivers 12–22% of full-year revenue across one week for participating brands.

Structural differences vs. Prime Day

Dimension	Prime Day	BFCM
Audience	Prime only	All shoppers
Duration	48 hours (×2 events/year)	5–7 day Cyber Week
Discount visibility	PED auto-display	Coupons, deals, PED all visible
CPC inflation	40–80% above baseline	60–120% above baseline
Competitive intensity	High	Highest of the year
Prep timeline	8 weeks	10–12 weeks

Preparation timeline

T−12 weeks  Deal submissions for Cyber Week (Amazon deadline)
T−10 weeks  Inventory in transit; FC slots booked
T−8 weeks   Inbound inventory at FC; deal-eligible status confirmed
T−6 weeks   Coupon/PED schedules locked; A+ content updated with seasonal angle
T−4 weeks   Review velocity push; sponsored brands creative finalised
T−2 weeks   Pre-BFCM ranking deal (LD or Best Deal) to consolidate top positions
T−1 week    Budget caps released; bidding rules adjusted; dayparting disabled
T−0         Cyber Week live; hourly monitoring
T+1 week    Post-event teardown

CPC dynamics

BFCM CPCs are typically the highest of the calendar year — often 2× the steady-state baseline. The math:

BFCM Max CPC = ASP × BFCM CVR × Target ACOS

BFCM CVR is typically 1.3–1.8× baseline (higher purchase intent), which mathematically justifies a higher bid. But if competitors raise bids by 2× and you only raise by 1.5×, you lose impression share at exactly the wrong moment.

Inventory: the single largest failure mode

A SKU that stocks out on the morning of Black Friday loses the entire remaining 4 days of Cyber Week traffic. The ranking damage from a peak-event stockout typically takes 4–6 weeks to recover. Inventory planning should be sized for the upper end of the demand forecast, not the central estimate.

Common mistakes

Underpriced deals. A 10% Cyber Week deal next to competitors at 35% is visible only as the worst deal in the category.
Holding daily budget caps. Same failure mode as Prime Day.
Treating BFCM as one day. It's a week, with very different demand patterns per day (peak shifted later by category — Cyber Monday for electronics, Thanksgiving evening for toys).
No post-event harvest. Cyber Week generates the richest Search Term Report of the year; running the harvest loop the week after captures structural keyword wins for Q1.