{
 "title": "Black Friday 2026 tracking pre-flight: 20 checks before 27 November",
 "url": "https://www.causalityengine.ai/free/black-friday-tracking-checklist",
 "checked": "2026-11-05",
 "blackFriday": "Friday 27 November 2026",
 "checks": [
  {
   "n": 1,
   "group": "GA4 purchases",
   "check": "GA4 counts one purchase per order: last week's purchases in GA4 are close to last week's orders in your shop.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "label": "Google for Developers: Recommended events, purchase",
     "url": "https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/ga4/reference/events#purchase"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "n": 2,
   "group": "GA4 purchases",
   "check": "Every purchase carries a unique transaction_id (Google: it \"helps you avoid getting duplicate events for a purchase\").",
   "sources": [
    {
     "label": "Google for Developers: Recommended events, purchase",
     "url": "https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/ga4/reference/events#purchase"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "n": 3,
   "group": "GA4 purchases",
   "check": "The purchase event sends value and currency (Google: \"If you set value then currency is required for revenue metrics to be computed accurately\").",
   "sources": [
    {
     "label": "Google for Developers: Recommended events, purchase",
     "url": "https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/ga4/reference/events#purchase"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "n": 4,
   "group": "GA4 purchases",
   "check": "Payment providers are listed as unwanted referrals, so a buyer returning from PayPal, Klarna, Mollie, Stripe, Adyen or their bank is not credited to the payment page.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "label": "Google, Analytics Help: Identify unwanted referrals (10327750)",
     "url": "https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/10327750"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "n": 5,
   "group": "GA4 purchases",
   "check": "If checkout runs on another domain, both domains are in the same tag's cross-domain settings.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "label": "Google, Analytics Help: Set up cross-domain measurement (10071811)",
     "url": "https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/10071811"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "n": 6,
   "group": "Campaign links",
   "check": "Every Black Friday email, flow and SMS link carries utm_source and utm_medium (email or sms).",
   "sources": [
    {
     "label": "Google, Analytics Help: Default channel group (9756891)",
     "url": "https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9756891"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "n": 7,
   "group": "Campaign links",
   "check": "Influencer, affiliate and partner links for the week are tagged, one utm_source per partner.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "label": "Google, Analytics Help: Default channel group (9756891)",
     "url": "https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9756891"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "n": 8,
   "group": "Campaign links",
   "check": "Discount-code links, short links and redirects keep the utm_ values all the way to the page.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "label": "Google, Analytics Help: Default channel group (9756891)",
     "url": "https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9756891"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "n": 9,
   "group": "Campaign links",
   "check": "Paid social ads carry UTMs in the URL parameters field, so GA4 can file them as paid, not organic, social.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "label": "Google, Analytics Help: Default channel group (9756891)",
     "url": "https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9756891"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "n": 10,
   "group": "Consent and tags",
   "check": "The consent banner still loads, and an accepted visit is measured from its first page.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "label": "Google, Analytics Help: Default channel group (9756891)",
     "url": "https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9756891"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "n": 11,
   "group": "Consent and tags",
   "check": "New Black Friday landing pages have the GA4 tag and your Meta Pixel.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "label": "Google, Analytics Help: Default channel group (9756891)",
     "url": "https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9756891"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "n": 12,
   "group": "Consent and tags",
   "check": "Your own team's visits are filtered out.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "label": "Google, Analytics Help: Default channel group (9756891)",
     "url": "https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9756891"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "n": 13,
   "group": "Meta and Google Ads",
   "check": "If you send purchases through both the Meta Pixel and the Conversions API, both carry the same event_id and event name, so Meta counts each order once.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "label": "Meta for Developers: Handling duplicate Pixel and Conversions API events",
     "url": "https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/conversions-api/deduplicate-pixel-and-server-events"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "n": 14,
   "group": "Meta and Google Ads",
   "check": "Meta's purchases over the last 7 days are close to your shop's orders for the same days.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "label": "Meta for Developers: Handling duplicate Pixel and Conversions API events",
     "url": "https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/conversions-api/deduplicate-pixel-and-server-events"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "n": 15,
   "group": "Meta and Google Ads",
   "check": "Google Ads has one primary purchase conversion, not the Google Ads tag and a GA4 import both counting the same order.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "label": "Google Ads Help: About primary and secondary conversion actions (11461796)",
     "url": "https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/11461796"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "n": 16,
   "group": "Before the week",
   "check": "GA4 keeps event data for 14 months, so next year you can compare with this Black Friday in explorations.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "label": "Google, Analytics Help: Data retention (7667196)",
     "url": "https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/7667196"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "n": 17,
   "group": "Before the week",
   "check": "Test orders are kept out of revenue, or noted with their dates.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "label": "Google for Developers: Recommended events, purchase",
     "url": "https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/ga4/reference/events#purchase"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "n": 18,
   "group": "Before the week",
   "check": "A change log: every tracking, price or campaign change in November is written down with its date.",
   "sources": []
  },
  {
   "n": 19,
   "group": "Before the week",
   "check": "A baseline export: the Attribution paths report for October, saved before Black Friday, so you can compare the week with a normal month.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "label": "Google, Analytics Help: Key events attribution paths report (10595568)",
     "url": "https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/10595568"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "n": 20,
   "group": "Before the week",
   "check": "One full order on a phone, from a tagged link to the thank-you page, shows up in GA4, Meta and your shop with the right source.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "label": "Google for Developers: Recommended events, purchase",
     "url": "https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/ga4/reference/events#purchase"
    },
    {
     "label": "Meta for Developers: Handling duplicate Pixel and Conversions API events",
     "url": "https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/conversions-api/deduplicate-pixel-and-server-events"
    }
   ]
  }
 ],
 "next": {
  "line": "After Black Friday, export the same Attribution paths report for the week of 23 to 30 November. The free first finding on /start reads it in your browser and shows what last-click gave each channel; the €99 read shows what each channel caused.",
  "href": "https://app.causalityengine.ai/start?utm_source=lm_bf_preflight&utm_medium=free_file&utm_campaign=lead_magnet",
  "price": "€99 excl. VAT, once, with a full refund within 30 days, and you keep the read."
 }
}