Black Friday PPC Faceplant: Turn a Scheduling Slip Into More Calls (Not Clicks)
During Black Friday, ad schedules on top PPC campaigns were accidentally removed, stopping ads from running; the manager owned the mistake, communicated fast, and fixed it. For service contractors (HVAC, plumbing, electrical), the incident highlights the need for robust systems over assumptions that platform automation will “just work.” The recommended playbook includes pre-peak checklists, strict change control, proactive monitoring, and clear accountability, with calls (not clicks) as the primary KPI. Consolidating campaigns to feed bidding algorithms and documenting misses ensures issues happen once, not repeatedly.
Black Friday PPC Faceplant: Turn a Scheduling Slip Into More Calls (Not Clicks)
TL;DR: A top campaign didn’t run on the biggest sales day because ad schedules were removed. The fix wasn’t magic—it was ownership, communication, and better systems. For contractors: build pre-peak checklists, enforce change controls, consolidate campaigns, and monitor the only KPI that matters—ringing phones.
What happened—and why it matters
Ayisha Yousef shared a hard one: during Black Friday, ad scheduling on top campaigns was removed, and ads didn’t run. She discovered it Saturday, owned it, informed the department head and client, then fixed it fast. She protected her team, admitting the gap was technical know-how—not laziness.
That’s the right response. But if you’re running HVAC, plumbing, or electrical PPC, you can’t afford to learn this lesson the day after your phones should’ve been melting. Black Friday is retail’s Super Bowl, sure—but contractors have your own Black Fridays: the first 95-degree day, first freeze, storm surges, and holidays with clogged sinks. Same stakes. Same need for airtight systems.
The root cause wasn’t negligence—it was weak systems
This wasn’t about effort. It was about process. When platforms keep pushing “automation,” it’s easy to assume things “just work.” They don’t. Ad schedules, budgets, location targeting, and bid strategies can be nuked by one well-intended change or import. If there’s no pre-peak checklist, no change control, and no monitoring, you’re betting your busy season on luck.
The contractor playbook: prevent the scheduling gut punch
1) Pre-peak checklist (48–72 hours before big days)
- Ad schedules: Confirm campaign- and account-level schedules match dispatch capacity. Create a “Holiday/After-Hours” profile. Double-check time zones.
- Budgets: Lift caps for surge windows; set “kill switch” budgets in case leads explode and capacity fills.
- Extensions and assets: Confirm call extensions, location extensions, and emergency service messaging are live.
- Call tracking: Test the numbers. Track calls by campaign and hour. Phones ringing is the KPI.
- Bid strategy sanity: If you’re on tROAS or Max Conversions, verify the conversion actions are calls and booked jobs, not page views.
2) Change control that actually controls
- Freeze window: No structural changes 24 hours before and during peak unless approved by one owner.
- Approval protocol: Any edits to schedules, budgets, or targeting require a second set of eyes. Simple, written confirmation in Slack or email.
- Rollback plan: Keep a “known-good” export of campaigns and schedules. If something breaks, revert fast.
3) Monitoring that catches the dumb stuff
- Hourly alerting: Automated rules or scripts that alert on $0 spend during business hours on top campaigns.
- Call floor alert: If call volume drops below a threshold between 8am–6pm, text the on-call marketer and ops lead.
- Change history watcher: Daily digest of who changed what, especially schedules, locations, and negative lists.
4) Accountability that protects people and the pipeline
- One owner per account: Everyone contributes, one person is ultimately responsible.
- Psychological safety: Ownership from leadership encourages fast reporting and faster fixes. Blame culture hides problems.
Stop over-segmenting: consolidation brings more calls
Another lesson Ayisha underscored: over-segmentation starves data and stalls AI. Contractors are guilty of 20 tiny campaigns splitting the same service area by suburb, device, and match type, then complaining Smart Bidding can’t learn. It can’t—there’s nothing to learn from.
- Consolidate by intent, not hair-splitting: One Search campaign for “Emergency HVAC,” another for “Standard HVAC,” etc. Let ad groups and audiences handle nuance.
- Use broad(ish) with guardrails: Tight negatives, strong assets, and conversion actions set to calls and booked jobs, not soft leads.
- Feed the beast: Fewer, richer campaigns improve learning and stabilize CPL. Then schedule and budget actually matter.
Talk about the misses—so they happen once
Sharing failures isn’t content marketing fluff—it’s operations. When leaders admit the ugly, teams learn faster and burn out slower. Document the incident, the root cause, and the system change that prevents it. Then put it in the playbook and move on.
Calls, not clicks. Systems, not heroic saves.
If you manage PPC, hear this
- Capacity before complexity: Don’t take on management if you can’t support the team during peak hours.
- Workload sanity: Overloaded managers make anxious, quiet errors. Fewer accounts, better systems, clearer ownership.
- Automation with oversight: Use the machines, but verify outputs every morning. Trust is not a strategy.
Final take
Mistakes happen. The pros separate themselves by how fast they surface the issue, how cleanly they fix it, and what they change so it never repeats. Build checklists. Enforce freezes. Consolidate campaigns. Monitor spend and call volume like a hawk. Your busy season deserves a system that delivers ringing phones—even when someone fat-fingers a setting.