Click Frenzy 2026: How to Prepare Your Google Ads for the Sale

Click Frenzy is coming, with the 2026 Main Event running from 27–30 October.

For Australian ecommerce businesses, Click Frenzy can bring a significant increase in shopping activity, but a four-day promotional window leaves very little time to fix problems once the sale begins.

Your offer, Google Ads campaigns, Google Merchant Center account, product feed, conversion tracking and website should all be ready before the first customer starts shopping.

At AIR DIGITAL, we recommend using the weeks before Click Frenzy to prepare and test your Google Ads strategy so that once the sale begins, you can focus on performance and optimisation rather than troubleshooting.

Here’s our complete Click Frenzy Google Ads planning checklist for 2026.

What is Click Frenzy?

Click Frenzy is a major Australian online shopping event bringing together promotional offers from participating retailers across a wide range of categories.

The Click Frenzy Main Event runs from 27–30 October 2026, making it an important promotional opportunity for ecommerce businesses ahead of the wider Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas shopping period.

For advertisers, the opportunity also means increased competition for customer attention. A strong discount alone isn’t enough. Your promotional messaging, Google Ads campaigns, product feed and website all need to work together.

How much should you discount for Click Frenzy?

At a recent Google seminar attended by AIR DIGITAL, Google recommended 20–40% off as a promotional sweet spot, with discounts of up to 60% off potentially suitable for businesses with stock they genuinely want to clear.

The right discount for your business will depend on your margins, stock levels, average order value, customer acquisition costs and commercial objectives.

From our experience managing promotional Google Ads campaigns, the strength and clarity of the advertised offer also matters.

If your Click Frenzy offer is being applied to products that are already reduced, consider whether you can accurately communicate the total saving from RRP rather than simply advertising “a further X% off”.

Customers are going to see a lot of offers during Click Frenzy. Make yours easy to understand.

Don’t wait until Click Frenzy to start your Google Ads strategy

Click Frenzy runs for just four days.

That makes it particularly important to avoid leaving major Google Ads changes until the first day of the promotion.

New campaigns need time to gather data and optimise. Wherever appropriate, AIR DIGITAL prefers to build on campaigns that already have useful conversion history and a track record of performance rather than completely rebuilding an account immediately before a short promotional event.

If a dedicated promotional campaign is required, we recommend preparing and testing it ahead of Click Frenzy.

The aim is simple: spend the sale optimising performance, not discovering setup problems.

Match your Google Ads strategy to your Click Frenzy offer

There is no single Google Ads structure that will suit every Click Frenzy promotion.

The strategy should reflect what is actually on sale.

Running a site-wide Click Frenzy sale?

If most or all of your products are participating in the promotion, existing high-performing campaigns may provide the strongest foundation.

Depending on the account, this could involve updating promotional messaging and assets, reviewing budgets and bidding, and ensuring existing Shopping and Performance Max activity is ready for the increase in demand.

Discounting selected products or categories?

If your Click Frenzy offer only applies to particular products, brands or categories, a more targeted campaign structure may be appropriate.

AIR DIGITAL may recommend dedicated Shopping or Performance Max activity containing only the products participating in the promotion.

This can provide greater control over promotional spend, make performance easier to analyse and help ensure budget is focused on products that are actually included in the sale.

The right structure will always depend on the existing Google Ads account, available data, products and objectives.

Get your Click Frenzy Google Ads creative ready

Your advertising should make the promotion immediately clear.

Before Click Frenzy, review your Google Ads creative and promotional assets and make sure your messaging accurately reflects the offer available on your website.

Consider:

• Updating relevant ad copy with Click Frenzy messaging

• Clearly communicating the discount or offer

• Including promotional dates

• Adding genuine urgency where appropriate

• Updating relevant imagery and creative assets

• Adding Google Ads promotion assets

• Including promotional codes where required

• Checking that final URLs lead to the correct promotional pages

• Scheduling promotional assets to begin and end at the correct times

Google Ads promotion assets can help communicate eligible percentage or monetary discounts alongside your ads and can also support promotional codes and qualifying conditions.

Keep your messaging clear, accurate and consistent with the offer customers will see when they reach your website.

Prepare your Google Merchant Center promotion early

If you’re running Google Shopping or Performance Max, don’t forget about Google Merchant Center.

Eligible Merchant Center promotions can allow promotional offers to appear alongside products across Google.

Google's promotion review process includes a policy review and a SKU review. While Google advises that final reviews are typically completed within approximately 12–24 hours of the promotion becoming effective, AIR DIGITAL recommends preparing and submitting your Merchant Center promotion at least three business days before your sale begins.

This provides additional time to identify and resolve potential issues before Click Frenzy starts.

If your offer only applies to selected products, make sure the promotion is correctly mapped to the participating products.

Audit your Google Merchant Center product feed

Your product feed is an important part of Shopping and Performance Max performance.

Before Click Frenzy, check:

• Product disapprovals

• Broken landing page URLs

• Price mismatches

• Sale price accuracy

• Product availability

• Stock status

• Product titles

• Product images

• GTINs and product identifiers where applicable

• Shipping information

• Promotion eligibility

• Promotional product mapping

A major promotional event is not the time to discover that your best-selling products have been disapproved or that the price Google sees doesn’t match the price on your website.

Check your Google Ads conversion tracking

Before increasing your advertising spend, make sure you can accurately measure the results.

Check:

• Your primary purchase conversion is recording correctly

• Transaction values are passing correctly

• Purchases aren’t being counted twice

• Your Google Ads tag is functioning

• GA4 is recording correctly where relevant

• Enhanced Conversions are working where implemented

• Your order confirmation process is recording purchases correctly

• A test purchase has been completed where practical

Google's automated bidding strategies use conversion data to optimise performance.

If your tracking is incorrect, increasing your budget won’t fix the underlying problem.

Should you increase your Google Ads budget for Click Frenzy?

Potentially, but increasing your budget simply because Click Frenzy is happening isn’t a strategy.

Before increasing spend, consider:

• Historical campaign performance

• Current return on ad spend

• Profit margins

• Stock availability

• Strength of the promotional offer

• Current budget limitations

• Expected changes in conversion rate

• Whether campaigns can efficiently use additional budget

If a strong campaign is regularly constrained by budget and your Click Frenzy offer is expected to improve conversion performance, there may be an opportunity to capture additional demand.

The focus should remain on profitable growth, not simply spending more.

Consider whether a seasonality adjustment is appropriate

Google Ads seasonality adjustments are designed for short periods where advertisers expect a significant temporary change in conversion rate.

This can make them relevant to short promotional events and flash sales.

However, a seasonality adjustment isn’t automatically necessary for every Click Frenzy campaign.

AIR DIGITAL assesses factors including expected conversion-rate changes, campaign history, promotional strength and the length of the event before determining whether a seasonality adjustment is appropriate.

Test your website before Click Frenzy

Google Ads can get potential customers to your website. Your website still needs to convert them.

Before the promotion starts, check:

• Homepage promotional messaging

• Sale landing pages

• Mobile experience

• Page speed

• Product pages

• Sale pricing

• Promotional codes

• Cart functionality

• Checkout

• Shipping thresholds

• Free shipping messaging

• Stock availability

• Returns information

• Promotional terms and conditions

• Sale start and end times

Then complete the customer journey yourself:

Ad → Landing Page → Product → Cart → Discount → Checkout

Make sure the experience works before you're paying to send additional traffic to the website.

Click Frenzy Google Ads planning timeline

3–4 weeks before Click Frenzy

• Confirm your promotional offer

• Confirm participating products and categories

• Review historical Google Ads performance

• Review your campaign structure

• Confirm advertising budgets

• Audit conversion tracking

• Audit Google Merchant Center

• Identify required promotional creative

2 weeks before Click Frenzy

• Prepare campaign changes

• Build promotional product segmentation where required

• Prepare Search, Shopping and Performance Max activity

• Finalise promotional messaging

• Prepare creative assets

• Test conversion tracking

• Review promotional landing pages

1 week before Click Frenzy

• QA Google Ads campaigns

• QA your Merchant Center feed

• Confirm budgets

• Confirm stock availability

• Check promotional URLs

• Prepare your Merchant Center promotion

• Test your website and checkout

At least 3 business days before Click Frenzy

AIR DIGITAL recommends:

• Having your Merchant Center promotion prepared and submitted

• Checking promotion approval status

• Resolving any feed or promotion issues

• Scheduling Google Ads promotion assets

• Completing a final campaign and website QA

During Click Frenzy: 27–30 October

Monitor:

• Advertising spend

• Revenue

• Conversion value

• Return on ad spend

• Conversion rate

• Budget limitations

• Merchant Center issues

• Product disapprovals

• Stock levels

• Website performance

Avoid making major decisions based on only a few hours of data. Use meaningful campaign and business signals when optimising performance.

After Click Frenzy

• End promotional messaging

• Check scheduled promotional assets have finished

• Review budgets and bidding

• Review campaign performance

• Compare promotional products and categories

• Record key learnings

• Use those learnings to inform Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas activity

Your complete Click Frenzy planning checklist

Frequently Asked Questions

• When is Click Frenzy 2026?

  The Click Frenzy Main Event runs from 27–30 October 2026.

• When should I start preparing Google Ads for Click Frenzy?

  Ideally, preparation should begin several weeks before Click Frenzy, particularly if you need to make campaign changes, segment promotional products, prepare new creative, update landing pages or resolve Google Merchant Center issues.

• Should I create a new Performance Max campaign for Click Frenzy?

  Not necessarily.

  For a short promotional window, existing campaigns with strong historical conversion data can often provide a better foundation.

  If dedicated promotional campaigns are required, AIR DIGITAL recommends preparing and testing them ahead of the event rather than launching everything on the first day of Click Frenzy.

• How early should I submit a Google Merchant Center promotion?

  Google advises that final promotion reviews are typically completed within approximately 12–24 hours of the promotion effective start time.

  AIR DIGITAL recommends preparing and submitting promotions at least three business days before the sale to provide additional time to identify and resolve potential issues.

• Should I increase my Google Ads budget during Click Frenzy?

  Only where campaign performance, profitability, available stock and customer demand support the increase.

  Increasing your budget simply because Click Frenzy is happening does not guarantee better results.

• What Google Ads campaigns can be used for Click Frenzy?

  Depending on your business, offer and existing account, a Click Frenzy strategy may incorporate Google Search, Shopping and Performance Max.

  The right campaign mix depends on your promotional offer, participating products, historical performance, available data and commercial objectives.

Need help getting your Google Ads ready for Click Frenzy?

Click Frenzy is only four days, so preparation matters.

AIR DIGITAL helps Australian ecommerce businesses plan, build and optimise Google Ads campaigns across Search, Shopping and Performance Max.

If you're preparing for Click Frenzy, Black Friday, Cyber Monday or the wider Q4 sales period, we can help make sure your Google Ads, Google Merchant Center and conversion tracking are ready before the traffic arrives.

Get in touch with AIR DIGITAL today to start planning your Q4 Google Ads strategy.