November Marketing Ideas, Week by Week: What to Launch and When

Xidax didn't wait for Black Friday week. The PC builder teamed up with AMD on a "Black November" giveaway built to run through the month, with the winner set to be announced in a livestream on Black Friday itself.

One Action signs entrants up for the Black November deals by email. So everyone who takes it hears about the sale weeks before it starts.

Your biggest November dates all land in its last week, from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday. You can build towards them from the 1st, and the weeks before hold a few dates of their own, from Veterans Day in the US to Diwali and Bonfire Night.

Below is every November date that matters if you sell in the US or UK, week by week, with the giveaway that fits each one and when you'd launch it. Where we've written a full guide for a date, the entry here is short and links to it.

Before November starts

• Launch your Movember photo contest, so it's live on the 1st
• Launch your Diwali hamper giveaway in October, as most Diwali giveaways on Gleam do
• Close any Bonfire Night giveaway (UK), so the prize arrives in time
• Set up a month-long Black Friday giveaway if you want one to carry the whole run-up

Week of 2 November

• Christmas shopping is under way, and the big UK Christmas adverts start landing
• Bonfire Night (UK) is on the 5th
• Diwali is on the 8th (it moves with the Hindu lunar calendar, so check the date each year)
• Remembrance Sunday (UK) is on the 8th, so keep giveaways and sales posts off it

Week of 9 November

• Veterans Day (US) is on the 11th, the same day as Armistice Day in the UK
• Launch your Thanksgiving giveaway by the 12th, two weeks out
• BBC Children in Need (UK) is expected on Friday the 13th, so check the BBC's date

Week of 16 November

• Close a Thanksgiving giveaway with a physical prize by the 19th, so it arrives before the meal
• Launch your Black Friday giveaway by the 20th, a week out
• Agree a Small Business Saturday giveaway with the shops around you
• Pick your Giving Tuesday charities and build your advent calendar giveaway
• Friendsgiving weekend (US) starts on the 21st

Week of 23 November

• Thanksgiving (US) is on the 26th (the fourth Thursday in November)
• Black Friday is on the 27th (the day after Thanksgiving)
• Small Business Saturday (US) is on the 28th
• Advent Sunday is on the 29th, so have your advent giveaway ready to go live on 1 December

Week of 30 November

• Cyber Monday is on the 30th
• Giving Tuesday is on 1 December, the day your advent giveaway goes live
• Small Business Saturday (UK) is on 5 December

The Thanksgiving and Black Friday launch dates in the list above come from our holiday giveaway data.

Christmas giveaways started earliest of the November and December dates, about two and a half weeks before the day, so they're the ones you'll want to plan first.

When you close matters too. Giveaways still live over Black Friday turned 11% fewer of their viewers into entrants than giveaways of the same length that weren't. Being live over Christmas made almost no difference.

That's what brands' giveaways recorded, so it can't prove the date caused the drop. It's still a good reason to close a Black Friday giveaway before your sale starts.

Some dates barely show up at all, which could work in your favour.

Giving Tuesday, Small Business Saturday, Bonfire Night and Movember each had too few businesses running a themed giveaway for us to publish figures. That only counts giveaways on Gleam, so it can't tell you how busy a date is elsewhere. It does suggest few brands treat these as giveaway dates yet.

Movember runs all month, so your moustache photo contest can collect entries from the first shave to the last week. Our Movember giveaway guide covers the formats and prizes.

Movember has rules on how you can use its name. Its brand guidelines say not to put "Movember" in a business, account or product name. They also say you need a written agreement with the Movember Foundation before you promise a percentage or amount from each sale to it, so read them before you name your giveaway.

Veterans Day is 11 November in the US, and it's a big day for military discounts. A giveaway lets you say thank you. Lectric eBikes gave away e-bikes for Veterans Day 2025 to veterans nominated by friends and family, so every entry was a story about someone who'd served.

To run a nomination giveaway on Gleam, collect the stories with a Question Action and pick the winners with Manual Winners (Pro and above). Say how you'll judge in your Terms & Conditions, and confirm each winner's service before you send the prize.

If you'd rather keep it simple, run a random draw. BedInABox gave away a mattress and bed frame in its Veterans Day giveaway, which closed on the day itself.

In the UK, 11 November is Armistice Day, and Remembrance Sunday falls on the second Sunday of the month. Both are days of commemoration, so keep your giveaways and sales posts off them.

Your customers start their Christmas shopping well before December. In tvScientific's 2026 holiday report, 21% of shoppers said they were buying gifts by October.

In the UK, the big retailers' adverts mark the start. John Lewis released its 2025 advert on 4 November, one of its earliest launches.

By mid-November, your shoppers are writing their lists. A giveaway that closes before December gets you onto them while they're still deciding.

Byers' Choice, which makes Christmas caroler figures, ran its Christmas Countdown giveaway through November 2025. The prize was a set of its Christmas pieces, including a musical advent calendar tree, and the winner was announced in the first week of December.

In the UK, Potters Resorts' festive break giveaway gives 10 entries for reading its festive blog post and another 10 for visiting the page that sells the breaks. If you've got a gift guide, it'll work the same way. Our Christmas marketing ideas cover the campaigns that run into December.

Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of November in the US. Gleam brands typically launch their Thanksgiving giveaways about two weeks before. If your prize has to arrive before the meal, close entries a week before Thanksgiving to leave time for delivery.

Fewer than half of Thanksgiving giveaways on Gleam closed by the day itself. The ones still live over Thanksgiving turned 9% fewer of their viewers into entrants than giveaways of the same length.

Plenty of people also host Friendsgiving, a dinner with friends, the weekend before. The same hosting prizes work for both, so one giveaway can cover the two if it closes early enough for the prize to arrive.

Roborock's prize didn't need to arrive early, because it was for after the meal. Its Thanksgiving giveaway launched a week out and asked entrants how their robot vacuum had saved them from a hosting mess, and the winners were announced on Thanksgiving itself.

A story was worth five times as many entries as a follow. You can weight your own Actions the same way, so entrants put their effort where you want it.

Our Thanksgiving giveaway guide works the month back from the table, with prizes for hosts, guests and the day.

Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving, and Cyber Monday is the Monday after that. Black Friday giveaways on Gleam typically launch a week out, and a month-long one like Xidax's carries the whole run-up. Only 40% closed on or before Black Friday, so most ran into the sale weekend. Giveaways live over Black Friday turned a smaller share of viewers into entrants.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday have more Gleam guides than any other dates, so start with the one for the job you're doing:

• Black Friday marketing ideas for campaigns in launch order, from three weeks out to the weekend
• Black Friday promotion ideas for promoting your sale without cutting prices
• Black Friday giveaway ideas for giveaway formats
• Cyber Monday giveaway ideas for the evening peak on phones

Small Business Saturday is the day after Black Friday in the US, and the UK holds its own on the first Saturday of December. Both ask shoppers to spend with independent businesses, so if you're one, a shared giveaway with your neighbours is a natural fit.

The City of Alameda, California runs a shop-local giveaway with its businesses. Shoppers pick up a ticket with each purchase, enter the number online and can win one of 12 themed prize baskets.

Advent starts four Sundays before Christmas, and advent calendars count down from 1 December. If you're running an advent calendar giveaway, that's the day it needs to go live.

Christmas is the strongest holiday theme you'll find in our data. Christmas and advent giveaways turned 39% of their viewers into entrants, more than any other holiday we track. Our December marketing ideas cover the format.

You don't need a prize for every day of December. The typical advent giveaway on Gleam ran for six days. It drew about 600 entrants. Of the people who saw it, 44% entered, which is higher than for Christmas giveaways overall.

Evetech, a South African PC retailer, ran 20 Days, 20 Giveaways as an advent calendar in December 2025, with a mystery box behind each door. A daily bonus entry gave people a reason to come back each day.

The app download was worth 30 entries, more than any other Action. Making one Action worth the most entries shows entrants which one you care about most.

Giving Tuesday is the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, a day for giving to charity. Let your entrants choose where your donation goes.

Pick three charities, add a Question Action asking which one should get it, and give to the most popular. OWC did a version of this for Giving Tuesday 2025, where customers chose which charity got a share of their order.

If you promise a donation for each entry, check the rules first, because some US states regulate it. Our giveaway rules guide explains what to look for.

Hestan Culinary turned the day towards its own customers. Its Giving Tuesday sweepstakes gave away a cookware set as a thank-you, and one Action asked entrants to add Hestan's ground shipping deadline to their calendar. You could do the same with your own last order date, so it's in your customers' calendars before it passes.

Bonfire Night (5 November, UK). If you sell food, drink or homeware in the UK, give away the night in: hot chocolate, a blanket, something for the garden. Woodsman Whisky gave away a limited-edition S'more Kit for Bonfire Night, with entry by following and commenting on Instagram.

Diwali (October or November). Diwali follows the Hindu lunar calendar, so the date moves each year. Diwali giveaways are rare on Gleam, but the typical one in our data drew about 1,000 entrants, from a small sample. Get your hamper to the winner before the five days of the festival begin.

BBC Children in Need (a Friday in mid-November, UK). The name and Pudsey belong to the BBC, so you'll need to talk to its partnerships team before you use either. Without them, you can still run a giveaway that week for a children's charity near you, and say up front exactly how much you'll give. Ben's Original became a partner in 2025, selling "Pudsey Packs" of its rice.

A giveaway works best alongside a few things you'd do anyway in November.

A gift guide. Group your products by who they're for and by price ("for runners, under $50"), publish it in the first week of November and link it from every email until Christmas. Shoppers writing lists get a shortlist, and you can count the orders that come through its links.

An early sale preview. Email your list a look at your Black Friday offers a week before they go live. The people most likely to buy hear first, and it gives them a reason to stay subscribed through the busiest inbox weeks.

Singles' Day (11 November). It's China's biggest shopping day, and some Western retailers now run a one-day offer for it. If your customers shop online and skew younger, it's a low-key reason for a 24-hour deal before the Black Friday noise starts.

You could also run a giveaway every month, so your audience always has a reason to come back. Sally's Baking runs a baking challenge with a new recipe each month: readers bake it, upload a photo and are entered to win. November's recipe was a spiced cranberry cherry cobbler.

For every month in one place, see our seasonal marketing calendar.

Xidax's giveaway is built to end on Black Friday, with the winner announced live on stream. By then, anyone who signed up for its deals early in the month has been on the list for weeks.

You can borrow that shape for any date on this page by launching weeks early and collecting the signups you'll need on the day.