Planner
Amazon Q4 and Black Friday budget planner
Turn September’s daily spend and CPC into a dated budget plan for November 1 to December 7, 2026, with the days to raise and restore budgets.
- Free, no sign-up
Nov 1 to Dec 7, 37 days
Plan $6,038 from Nov 1 to Dec 7 to keep September’s clicks
That’s $488 more than holding a flat $150 a day. At the flat budget you’d get about 366 fewer clicks (8%).
The biggest day is Cyber Monday (Nov 30), when keeping September’s clicks takes $188 a day.
- Raise budgets
- Sun, Nov 1
- $158 a day
- Peak
- Nov 30
- $188 a day
- Back to September
- Tue, Dec 8
- $150 a day, the day after the plan ends
Projected ACoS stays at or under your 30% target while CPCs rise less than 20%, if conversion rate and order value hold. Rows over target are marked.
Budget changes
Make each change before the day starts in your marketplace’s time zone. Budgets are rounded up to the dollar.
- Sun, Nov 1Raise to $158 a day (from $150)
- Thu, Nov 19Raise to $165 a day (from $158)
- Thu, Nov 26Raise to $180 a day (from $165)
- Sat, Nov 28Lower to $173 a day (from $180)
- Mon, Nov 30Raise to $188 a day (from $173)
- Tue, Dec 1Lower to $165 a day (from $188)
- Tue, Dec 8Back to $150 a day, the day after the plan ends
Your Q4 plan, by week and event day
Projected ACoS holds order value at September’s level and applies any conversion lift you entered.
| Dates | CPC lift | Daily budget | Clicks lost at a flat budget | Projected ACoS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 1 to Nov 7 Early November | 5% | $158 $1,103 over 7 days | 42 | 26.3% |
| Nov 8 to Nov 14 Early November | 5% | $158 $1,103 over 7 days | 42 | 26.3% |
| Nov 15 to Nov 18 Early November | 5% | $158 $630 over 4 days | 24 | 26.3% |
| Nov 19 to Nov 25 Week before Thanksgiving | 10% | $165 $1,155 over 7 days | 80 | 27.5% |
| Thu, Nov 26 Thanksgiving | 20% | $180 | 21 | 30.0% |
| Fri, Nov 27 Black Friday | 20% | $180 | 21 | 30.0% |
| Sat, Nov 28 Saturday | 15% | $173 | 16 | 28.7% |
| Sun, Nov 29 Sunday | 15% | $173 | 16 | 28.7% |
| Mon, Nov 30 Cyber Monday | 25% | $188 | 25 | 31.3% over target |
| Dec 1 to Dec 7 Week after Cyber Monday | 10% | $165 $1,155 over 7 days | 80 | 27.5% |
| Whole plan Nov 1 to Dec 7, 37 days | $6,038 | 366 |
CPC lift by period (assumptions)
How much more a click costs than in September. These are assumptions. Edit them to match your own CPCs from last November and December. Conversion lift only changes the ACoS projection.
The published figures we found (Pacvue’s Cyber 5 CPC reports) compare each day with the same day a week earlier, which is likely already above September. We could also only read them in search summaries. So no default uses them directly, and each default sits below the figure reported.
No published figure found against September.
Pacvue, 2021 Cyber 5 CPC Report: CPC rose about 38% on Thanksgiving Day, and CPCs started rising earlier in the lead-in to Black Friday than in prior years. Week over week, not September.
Pacvue, 2021 Cyber 5 CPC Report: CPC rose about 38% on Thanksgiving Day, and CPCs started rising earlier in the lead-in to Black Friday than in prior years. Week over week, not September.
Pacvue, 2020 Cyber 5 CPC Report: Sponsored Products CPC rose 23.31% on Black Friday and 39.06% on Cyber Monday. Week over week (the same weekday a week earlier), not September.
No published figure found against September.
No published figure found against September.
Pacvue, 2020 Cyber 5 CPC Report: Sponsored Products CPC rose 23.31% on Black Friday and 39.06% on Cyber Monday. Week over week (the same weekday a week earlier), not September.
No published figure found against September.
Sources behind the assumptions
- Pacvue, 2020 Cyber 5 CPC Report: Sponsored Products CPC rose 23.31% on Black Friday and 39.06% on Cyber Monday. Week over week (the same weekday a week earlier), not September. Checked 2026-10-08 through search-engine summaries of the publisher page; the page blocks automated reading and the full report is behind a form, so the figure was not read in the original. Not used as a default for that reason.
- Pacvue, 2021 Cyber 5 CPC Report: CPC rose about 38% on Thanksgiving Day, and CPCs started rising earlier in the lead-in to Black Friday than in prior years. Week over week, not September. Checked 2026-10-08 through search-engine summaries of the publisher page; the page blocks automated reading and the full report is behind a form, so the figure was not read in the original. Not used as a default for that reason.
- Pacvue, Q4 2020 CPC Report: Sponsored Products conversion rate reached an all-time high of about 17% in November 2020. Quarter-over-quarter and prior-year comparisons, not September. Checked 2026-10-08 through search-engine summaries of the publisher page; the page blocks automated reading and the full report is behind a form, so the figure was not read in the original. Not used as a default for that reason.
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Do this every day in Merch Jar.
Automation logic you can read, adjust and preview on your account. It's saved switched off, and runs once you turn it on.
Next step
Automation logic you can read, adjust and preview on your account. It's saved switched off, and runs once you turn it on.
Next step
Automation logic you can read, adjust and preview on your account. It's saved switched off, and runs once you turn it on.
Have a search term report? Run it through the free analyzer to see which searches spent money without an order. Your file stays in your browser.
How to plan your Q4 budget
- 1Enter September’s daily spend and CPC. Spend divided by CPC gives your daily clicks, and the plan works out the daily budget that keeps them coming as CPCs rise into Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
- 2Check the CPC lift for each period. If clicks cost 20% more, the same number of clicks costs 20% more, so the budget has to rise 20% too. If it stays flat, you get 1 ÷ 1.2 of the clicks, about 17% fewer.
- 3Add September’s ACoS and a target ACoS if you want the projection. Each row’s ACoS is September’s ACoS times the CPC rise, divided by any conversion lift you enter, with order value held where it was. Leave September’s ACoS blank and give a target, and the plan assumes September ran at your target.
- 4Read the plan by date. The 2026 dates are fixed: Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26, Black Friday is November 27 and Cyber Monday is November 30. Those days and the weekend between them get a row each; the rest of November 1 to December 7 runs week by week.
FAQ
The CPC lift numbers are assumptions
We couldn’t find a public figure for how far Amazon CPCs rise against a September baseline. The numbers that get quoted come from Pacvue’s Cyber 5 reports: Sponsored Products CPC up about 23% on Black Friday 2020 and 39% on Cyber Monday 2020, and about 38% on Thanksgiving 2021. Each compares a day with the same day a week earlier, and we could only read them in search summaries. So the defaults sit below those figures, and every one can be changed.
Your own history beats any default. Download a campaign report by day for last September and another for last November into early December, work out CPC (spend divided by clicks) for each period in the table, and enter how much higher it was than September.
When to raise and restore budgets
The plan lists every budget change with its date: a small raise for early November, a step up for the week before Thanksgiving, the peak on the event days, then back down. Make each change the evening before, so the new budget is in place when the day starts in your marketplace’s time zone.
The restore date matters as much as the raise. Set a reminder for it, or the holiday budget keeps running into December.
If projected ACoS runs over target
Rising CPCs push ACoS up unless conversion rate or order value rise with them. When the plan marks days over your target, decide before the week starts.
- Accept a higher ACoS for the volume, as long as it stays under breakeven. The breakeven ACoS calculator works that out from your price and costs.
- Hold your bids at the CPC your target allows and accept fewer clicks on the most expensive days. The target CPC calculator gives that bid.
If your conversion rate rose last November, enter that as a conversion lift and the projection comes down with it.
Doing this in Merch Jar
The Adaptive Budget Management template raises daily budgets on campaigns that keep using most of their budget while ACoS stays near target, and trims budgets that go mostly unused. It’s saved switched off; you preview the budgets it would set and turn it on when you’re ready. It doesn’t know your event dates, so the raise and restore dates above are still yours to set.
For bids rather than budgets, the Seasonal bid tuner template (still in preparation in the Library) prepares a one-time bid change from the CPCs that worked in the same season last year.