How to schedule Black Friday creative for Meta catalog ads

Black Friday is November 27, 2026. Your catalog ads should look like Black Friday that morning, and stop looking like it when the deal ends. You do not want to be up at midnight swapping files. Here are the ways to schedule it, and the trade off of each.

The short answer

There are two kinds of approach.

You can schedule a new ad. Build a Black Friday version of your catalog ad and set it to start on the day. It is simple, but a new ad starts in the learning phase. Meta's significant edits page lists "Adding a new ad to your ad set" as a significant edit.

Or you can schedule a catalog change. Your ads stay as they are. The pictures in your catalog change on the day, through a supplementary feed. You launch no new ad and edit nothing in Ads Manager.

Four ways to schedule it, side by side

Meta also has free catalog overlays and image templates set on the ad. They are useful, but switching them on for a sale is an ad edit. Read Meta's free catalog ad templates.

Steps to schedule Black Friday pictures with a feed

1. Pick your dates. For example, Black Friday from November 27 to November 30.
2. Make the Black Friday version of each product picture, with the deal on the image.
3. Host each new picture at a new URL. Meta's product data spec says a replaced image needs a new URL.
4. Prepare a supplementary feed with id and image_link for each product.
5. A few hours before the start, add or switch the feed in Commerce Manager, and set the fetch to Hourly.

   

6. Check a few items in Commerce Manager after the first fetch.
7. When the deal ends, switch the feed back to your everyday pictures.

Steps 5 and 7 are the ones people miss. They fall on a holiday weekend, at odd hours. That is why a scheduled switch helps.

How Convinci schedules it

Convinci does steps 2 to 7 for you. You make a look for each promo, like Black Friday, Boxing Day and New Year. You pick each one's start and end dates. Your catalog switches to the look on the start date and back to your everyday look after the end date. Your ads, ad sets and campaigns are not edited. Scheduling is on the Pro plan.

The percent off comes from your Shopify compare-at price, so only products that are really on sale show a badge. You write the badge words.

To see every promo's look on your own products, try the free preview.

Timing tips

• Switch a few hours early. Meta has to fetch the feed and then show the pictures.
• Keep the fetch on Hourly during promo week.
• Set true sale prices in Shopify before the switch, so badges and prices agree.
• Plan the end too. Pictures that still say Black Friday on December 2 look careless.
• Do not change the ad in the same week. If you must edit, do it well before the promo.

For the whole month by month plan, read Black Friday catalog ads. To understand the cost of a reset, read what the Meta learning phase is.