# Black Friday 2026 tracking pre-flight: 20 checks before 27 November

https://www.causalityengine.ai/free/black-friday-tracking-checklist · Last checked 2026-11-05 · Causality Engine

Black Friday is Friday 27 November 2026, and tracking you fix during the week can't be read afterwards. These 20 checks cover GA4 purchases, campaign links, consent and tags, Meta and Google Ads, and what to save before the week, each with where to look.

The PDF is a printable checklist with a tick box, where to click and what to do if a check fails, for you and your developer. Get it at https://www.causalityengine.ai/free/black-friday-tracking-checklist (one email address; the file downloads right away).

Black Friday: Friday 27 November 2026.

## GA4 purchases

- [ ] 1. GA4 counts one purchase per order: last week's purchases in GA4 are close to last week's orders in your shop.
  - Google for Developers: Recommended events, purchase: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/ga4/reference/events#purchase
- [ ] 2. Every purchase carries a unique transaction_id (Google: it "helps you avoid getting duplicate events for a purchase").
  - Google for Developers: Recommended events, purchase: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/ga4/reference/events#purchase
- [ ] 3. The purchase event sends value and currency (Google: "If you set value then currency is required for revenue metrics to be computed accurately").
  - Google for Developers: Recommended events, purchase: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/ga4/reference/events#purchase
- [ ] 4. 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.
  - Google, Analytics Help: Identify unwanted referrals (10327750): https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/10327750
- [ ] 5. If checkout runs on another domain, both domains are in the same tag's cross-domain settings.
  - Google, Analytics Help: Set up cross-domain measurement (10071811): https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/10071811

## Campaign links

- [ ] 6. Every Black Friday email, flow and SMS link carries utm_source and utm_medium (email or sms).
  - Google, Analytics Help: Default channel group (9756891): https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9756891
- [ ] 7. Influencer, affiliate and partner links for the week are tagged, one utm_source per partner.
  - Google, Analytics Help: Default channel group (9756891): https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9756891
- [ ] 8. Discount-code links, short links and redirects keep the utm_ values all the way to the page.
  - Google, Analytics Help: Default channel group (9756891): https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9756891
- [ ] 9. Paid social ads carry UTMs in the URL parameters field, so GA4 can file them as paid, not organic, social.
  - Google, Analytics Help: Default channel group (9756891): https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9756891

## Consent and tags

- [ ] 10. The consent banner still loads, and an accepted visit is measured from its first page.
  - Google, Analytics Help: Default channel group (9756891): https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9756891
- [ ] 11. New Black Friday landing pages have the GA4 tag and your Meta Pixel.
  - Google, Analytics Help: Default channel group (9756891): https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9756891
- [ ] 12. Your own team's visits are filtered out.
  - Google, Analytics Help: Default channel group (9756891): https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9756891

## Meta and Google Ads

- [ ] 13. 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.
  - Meta for Developers: Handling duplicate Pixel and Conversions API events: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/conversions-api/deduplicate-pixel-and-server-events
- [ ] 14. Meta's purchases over the last 7 days are close to your shop's orders for the same days.
  - Meta for Developers: Handling duplicate Pixel and Conversions API events: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/conversions-api/deduplicate-pixel-and-server-events
- [ ] 15. Google Ads has one primary purchase conversion, not the Google Ads tag and a GA4 import both counting the same order.
  - Google Ads Help: About primary and secondary conversion actions (11461796): https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/11461796

## Before the week

- [ ] 16. GA4 keeps event data for 14 months, so next year you can compare with this Black Friday in explorations.
  - Google, Analytics Help: Data retention (7667196): https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/7667196
- [ ] 17. Test orders are kept out of revenue, or noted with their dates.
  - Google for Developers: Recommended events, purchase: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/ga4/reference/events#purchase
- [ ] 18. A change log: every tracking, price or campaign change in November is written down with its date.
- [ ] 19. A baseline export: the Attribution paths report for October, saved before Black Friday, so you can compare the week with a normal month.
  - Google, Analytics Help: Key events attribution paths report (10595568): https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/10595568
- [ ] 20. 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.
  - Google for Developers: Recommended events, purchase: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/ga4/reference/events#purchase
  - Meta for Developers: Handling duplicate Pixel and Conversions API events: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/conversions-api/deduplicate-pixel-and-server-events

## After the week

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.

€99 excl. VAT, once, with a full refund within 30 days, and you keep the read. https://app.causalityengine.ai/start?utm_source=lm_bf_preflight&utm_medium=free_file&utm_campaign=lead_magnet