Black Week vs Black Friday: planning affiliate campaigns all week

In much of Europe, and especially in the Nordics, Black Friday is no longer a single day. Shoppers expect a Black Week, many retailers start earlier still, and the season now runs from Singles’ Day on 11 November to Cyber Monday on 30 November 2026.

For advertisers this raises a practical question: how do you plan affiliate activity across a whole week without spending all your budget and margin on day one? This guide looks at what the 2025 data says and how to phase a campaign that keeps partners and customers engaged until the end.

What the 2025 data tells us

Adtraction, which analysed more than 1,700 e-commerce programmes across 12 European markets, found that Black Week delivered around three times the sales volume of a normal week. Friday was still the strongest single day, but sales were spread more evenly across the week than in previous years, with high activity on Sunday too.

Other datasets show how much markets differ. In Viskan’s data from Swedish retailers, Cyber Monday was the strongest sales day of Black Week 2025, while Black Friday ranked only seventh in absolute sales but had the highest growth. In Awin’s UK-focused Cyber Weekend review, by contrast, Cyber Monday sales fell 11% year on year. In Denmark, MobilePay transactions across Black Week reached DKK 3.86 billion, up from DKK 3.66 billion the year before, according to Dansk Erhverv.

The lesson is simple: do not copy a plan from another market. Look at your own sales by day from last year, per country, before you decide where to put the weight.

Phase 1: warm-up and early access

Early activity is no longer just noise before the real event. Voyado reported that in several categories, including brand fashion, hobbies and DIY, home and garden, and health, Tuesday and Wednesday of Black Week showed stronger year-on-year growth than the traditional peak days, driven by earlier promotions.

• Use Singles’ Day and the weeks before Black Week to build sign-ups and wish lists through content partners and newsletters.
• Offer early access to a limited range or for a short window, so the early phase does not cannibalise the main event.
• Give content and comparison partners product information and prices early, so their guides are published before the rush.

Phase 2: peak days around Black Friday

Black Friday and the weekend that follows are still where most attention is. This is the time for your strongest offer, your most visible placements and your best-performing partners.

• Book newsletter slots and homepage placements for Thursday evening through Sunday, not just Friday.
• Update feeds and creatives before the evening peak. Dansk Erhverv reported that the busiest MobilePay hour on Black Friday 2025 was between 9pm and 10pm.
• Have someone available to answer partners, fix broken links and swap out sold-out products during the weekend.

Think about which partner types fit each phase. Content sites, bloggers and comparison partners tend to do their best work early, when shoppers research and compare. Deal sites, voucher sites and newsletters usually carry the peak days, when customers are ready to buy. Planning the week this way means you are not asking every partner for the same thing on the same day.

Phase 3: Cyber Monday and the final push

In 2026, Cyber Monday has extra weight in Denmark. Dansk Erhverv points out that many Danes are not paid until Monday 30 November, three days after Black Friday. It suggests deciding in advance whether Monday is a standalone campaign or part of an extended Black Week, and planning for Tuesday 1 December too instead of switching everything off at midnight.

• Keep part of your budget and at least one fresh offer back for Monday.
• Brief partners on the Monday plan in your main Black Friday communication, so they can reserve space.
• Use last-chance creatives and clear end times to create real urgency.

Outside Denmark, check local payday patterns and last year’s Monday results in each market before deciding how much to hold back.

Avoiding discount fatigue

A week or a month of constant discounts trains customers to wait and wears down both margin and attention. Partners notice too: if the same code runs for three weeks, there is nothing new to write about.

• Rotate offers by category or day instead of running one sitewide discount for the whole period.
• Use added value, such as free gifts, bundles or extended returns, on some days instead of deeper price cuts.
• Check the pricing rules for longer campaigns. Dansk Erhverv notes that for offers of up to 10 days, the discount is generally measured against the lowest price in the 30 days before the campaign starts, while longer campaigns follow different rules.

Checklist for a whole-week plan

• Analyse last year’s sales by day and by country before setting the plan.
• Split the period into warm-up, peak and final push, each with its own offer and creatives.
• Share the full calendar with partners in one brief, including Cyber Monday and Tuesday 1 December.
• Hold back budget for the final days.
• Vary offers to avoid discount fatigue and stay within the price rules.

Black Week works best as a planned sequence rather than one long sale. When partners know what is coming each day, they can give you visibility throughout the week, and you keep the margin to finish strongly on Cyber Monday.

Not sure how to split your budget across the week? Start with a free audit of your affiliate programme.

Kilder

1. Adtraction: Wrapping up Black Week 2025
2. Viskan: Black Week 2025 – data from Swedish retailers
3. Voyado: Black Week 2025 retail trends and results
4. Awin: Cyber Weekend 2025 wrapped
5. Dansk Erhverv: Black Friday 2025 – danskerne swipede og shoppede løs
6. Dansk Erhverv: Lønnen kommer først efter Black Friday (September 2026)