Running campaigns during the Black Friday and Diwali double season in India
October and November in India means two overlapping shopping seasons, Diwali and Black Friday. Running both well requires planning that starts in September.
The October and November period is the busiest paid advertising period in India, and the cost reflects that. CPCs on Google Ads rise 30 to 60 percent during Diwali week. Meta Ads CPMs increase similarly. Competition for ad space spikes. If you show up to this season without a clear plan, you will spend more and get less.
The businesses that do best in the festive season are the ones who started preparing in September.
Why Diwali and Black Friday create a unique challenge in India
Diwali typically falls in late October or early November. Black Friday is always the last Friday of November. This means the two largest shopping events of the year are within weeks of each other, and increasingly Indian consumers expect offers for both.
Large e-commerce platforms like Amazon India, Flipkart, and Myntra run aggressive sale events for both periods, which raises consumer expectations for discounts. If you are an SMB competing in this environment, you need to be strategic about when and how you position your offers.
One approach is to run your main campaign around Diwali and use Black Friday to capture the segment of your audience that responded to Diwali campaigns but did not convert. Another approach is to treat the entire October to November period as one extended sale season with your biggest offers at specific moments.
Planning your campaign calendar from September
Six to eight weeks before Diwali, start building your audience. Run warm-up campaigns on Meta that build your pixel audience without necessarily running strong sales promotions. Retarget website visitors and video viewers. Build email and WhatsApp broadcast lists.
Four weeks before: launch your lead-up campaign. This is where you can test messaging and offers at a lower budget before the high-competition period. Identify your best-performing ad creative for use during peak week.
One week before Diwali: full campaign activation with your best offers and proven creative. Budget should be 2x to 3x your normal daily spend. CPCs will be higher but purchase intent is also higher.
During Diwali week: focus on bottom-funnel activity. Retarget everyone who visited key pages, added to cart, or interacted with your ads in the past 30 days. The audience is warm. Conversion campaigns will perform better than awareness.
Post-Diwali to Black Friday: cool-down period with a bridge campaign. Maintain presence at lower spend. Capture remaining festive intent. Begin pre-qualifying Black Friday audience.
Black Friday week: second surge campaign. Many Indian consumers who received Diwali bonuses and did not spend them are actively looking for deals in this period.
Budgeting for the double season
Set aside 35 to 45 percent of your October and November budget specifically for Diwali week and Black Friday week. Spread the rest across the build-up and bridge periods.
Do not go dark between Diwali and Black Friday. Maintaining visibility during that gap keeps you in front of a highly active audience. Reducing to 50 percent of normal spend during the bridge is better than going to zero.
Creative strategy for Indian festive campaigns
Festive season creative in India should acknowledge the occasion without being generic. "Diwali offer: 25% off" is not enough differentiation. Specific messaging about what the offer covers, what the deadline is, and what the benefit to the buyer is performs better.
Personalise where possible. If your audience includes both gifters and self-purchasers, segment your creative. Gift-focused ads resonate with people buying for family. Personal benefit messaging works for self-purchase.
Video creative performs better during festive season on Meta. Short six to fifteen second video ads with a clear offer display consistently outperform static images during high-competition periods in my experience.
Frequently asked questions
Should I raise or lower bids during Diwali week?
Raise them moderately. CPCs are higher, so your existing bids may not be competitive enough to maintain position. For your highest-performing keywords and audiences, increasing bids by 15 to 25 percent during peak days is reasonable.
Is it worth advertising on Diwali day itself?
Yes, but the audience is often distracted by family activities on Diwali day itself. The highest-performing days are typically the two days before Diwali and the first two days after. Test this against your own data.
How do I differentiate from large e-commerce platforms during festive season?
Focus on service, speed, and specificity. You can offer personal assistance, faster local delivery, custom packaging, or exclusive products that large platforms cannot. Highlight these advantages explicitly in your festive campaign creative.