Black Friday landing page checklist: what goes above the fold
The first phone screen of your Black Friday page has room for six things. Here they are, with a printable checklist and a Cyber Monday swap.
A shopper taps your Black Friday ad on the bus. Your page opens on a phone held in one hand. She sees a banner, your logo and half a product photo. She decides in one thumb scroll whether the deal is real.
In this article
This checklist gets you a first screen that answers three questions fast. What is the deal? Is it real? When does it end? Everything else can sit below the fold.
Design for the phone screen first
57.4%
Holiday online spend on phones
Forecast, 1 November to 31 December
$12.9B
Black Friday, 27 November
Forecast, up 9.2%
$15.1B
Cyber Monday, 30 November
Forecast, up 6.2%
More than half the money comes through a phone, on Adobe's forecast. So "above the fold" means the first phone screen. A desktop mock-up hides that.
Open the page on a real phone. A resized desktop browser hides too much. Hold it in one hand. Count what you can see before your thumb moves.
What fits on the first screen
A Black Friday landing page on a phone, top to bottom
- 1Offer and deadlineBrand-owned
One line for the deal, one line for the real end time.
- 2The product, sized for a phoneBrand-owned
This image is usually the LCP element. Load it first.
- 3Stars, count and one customer photoVerified reviews
Real proof within thumb reach of the button.
- 4One button, plus the delivery lineConversion
The order-by date for Christmas sits under the button.
- 5Shoppable video and galleryCustomer UGC
Customer clips and photos, each tagged to the product.
The checklist
| Element | What good looks like | How to check |
|---|---|---|
| Offer | What, how much off, on which products, in one line | Can a friend repeat it after one look? |
| Deadline | Real end date and time, with a time zone | It matches when the code stops working |
| Hero image | The sale product, sized for a phone | PageSpeed Insights names it as the LCP element |
| Customer proof | Stars, review count, one customer photo | Visible on the first phone screen |
| Button | One button, with the offer in its label | Reachable with a thumb, one hand |
| Delivery line | Your order-by date for Christmas | Date taken from your carriers' own pages |
| Returns line | Your returns window, in one line | It matches your returns policy page |
| Shoppable video | One short customer clip, product tagged | Light poster image, no sound on load |
| Speed | LCP of 2.5 seconds or less on mobile | PageSpeed Insights, Mobile tab |
| Cyber Monday | New headline, deadline and hero | Swap scheduled and previewed by 29 November |
Offer: one line a stranger can repeat
Say what is on sale, how much off and on which products. "30% off all winter boots" works. "Our biggest sale ever" tells the shopper nothing.
Show the sale price next to the old price. If only one product gets the top discount, say which one. A headline of "up to 40%" reads as a trick on every other page.
Deadline: the real one
Show the date and time the offer ends, with a time zone. Match it to the moment the discount code stops working.
A countdown timer is fine if it counts down to that real moment. A timer that restarts on every reload is a false claim. Shoppers who reload will see it.
Real customer proof near the button
A deal shopper arrives cold, with three other tabs open. The proof has to sit where the decision happens, beside the button.
- Star rating and review count on the same line, linked to the reviews.
- One customer photo of the sale product in use, at real size.
- A gallery just below the fold for shoppers who want more. Tag each post to the product.
- Fresh posts first. A photo from this autumn fits a Black Friday page better than one from 2023.
We make Idukki. It puts tagged customer photos and video from social and review sites into shoppable galleries. Rights requests and moderation run from the same dashboard.
Shoppable video: just below the first screen
A full-width video at the top eats the whole phone screen. It can also become the slowest thing on the page.
Put one short customer clip just under the buy box. Tag the product so a tap opens it. Keep the poster image light, and start the clip muted.
For more placement options, see shoppable video placements on product pages. The product side is on our shoppable video page.
Delivery by Christmas, and returns, in one line each
Shoppers buying gifts want to know two things. Will it arrive in time, and can it go back?
- Order-by date. Carriers publish holiday cutoffs each year. Take yours from their pages.
- Subtract your own pick-and-pack time. Then show the date under the button.
- Update it as you go. Change the line the day each cutoff passes.
- Returns window. One line, linked to the full policy.
Returns are a real cost here. The NRF and Happy Returns found retailers expected 17% of 2025 holiday sales back. A clear line now saves a support ticket in January.
Match the first screen to the traffic
Not every Black Friday page needs the same first screen. It depends on how well the shopper knows you and how much thought the product needs.
What leads the first screen
Speed: test with every widget on
Run PageSpeed Insights on the Mobile tab for each landing URL. Keep every widget, pixel and pop-up switched on, as on the day.
- Aim for an LCP of 2.5 seconds or less. That is web.dev's "good" threshold.
- Never lazy-load the hero image. Lazy-load the gallery and video below it.
- Reserve space for widgets. A page that jumps as tiles load makes shoppers mis-tap.
- Remove what the page does not need. Old pixels and second pop-ups go first.
If the score is poor, work through why your Shopify store is slow. How we build our own widget for speed is on our performance page.
The Cyber Monday swap
Cyber Monday was the biggest online day of 2025, at $14.25 billion, Adobe measured. Adobe forecasts $15.1 billion for Monday 30 November.
Build the Cyber Monday version of each page before your site freeze. Then schedule it.
- Change: headline, deadline, discount code and, if it differs, the hero product.
- Keep: the proof strip, the gallery, the video and the delivery line.
- Check the delivery line again. Some carrier cutoffs may be closer by then.
- Preview it on a phone on Sunday 29 November.
FAQs
What should be above the fold on a Black Friday landing page?
The offer in one line and the real deadline. Then the product image, stars, one customer photo and the buy button. Put the delivery-by-Christmas line under the button.
Should I use a countdown timer?
Only if it counts down to the real end of the offer. Match it to when the discount code stops working. Never reset it on reload.
Should Black Friday ads point to a product page or a collection?
A product page when the ad shows one product. A collection when the ad shows a range. Either way, the landing page needs its own customer proof.
What delivery date should I show for Christmas?
Take each carrier's published holiday cutoff, then subtract your own packing time. The dates change every year, so check them each season.
When should the Cyber Monday version go live?
At the start of Monday 30 November, on a schedule you set before your site freeze. Keep the proof and change the offer.
Starting late on the customer content itself? The five-week Black Friday plan runs from 23 October to Cyber Monday.
Black Friday landing page checklist
Print it, take it to a phone, and tick each row before the freeze.
Sources
- 1Adobe Digital Insights, 2026 holiday forecast (PDF) · Published 28 September 2026. Mobile at 57.4% of spend. Forecasts. Checked 22 October 2026.
- 2Adobe, Cyber Monday 2025 release · Measured. Cyber Monday 2025 drew $14.25 billion, the biggest online day of the year.
- 3NRF and Happy Returns, 2025 retail returns report · Retailers expected 17% of 2025 holiday sales to be returned.
- 4web.dev, Web Vitals · Good LCP is 2.5 seconds or less, at the 75th percentile of page loads.
- 5Google for Developers, About PageSpeed Insights · Field data from real Chrome users. Lab data from a simulated phone load.
- 6shopify.dev, Never lazy-load the LCP image · The main image must load straight away.
- 7web.dev, Optimize Cumulative Layout Shift · Reserve space for images, video and embeds so the page does not jump.
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