Welcome to Rankster 👊
The weekly TikTok Shop newsletter that’s more stress-tested than Ross's "PIVOT!" scene
Reading Time: 4 min
Readability: Grade 3 (my youngest is teaching ME math homework now... how did this happen?)
DEEP DIVE
Black Friday Week
What We Learned in the Trenches 🚀
Here's the thing about Black Friday on TikTok Shop.
Everyone's worried about the wrong stuff.
They're stressing about whether their ads are perfect. Whether they've got enough budget. Whether the platform's gonna crash.
But here's what actually matters:
Starting early and optimizing like your life depends on it.
Let me show you what I mean:
The Three-Week Promo Window Nobody Talks About
We kicked off Black Friday campaigns three weeks ago.
Not because we're overachievers. Because that's when the real money gets made.
And it’s paying off….. here are 3 accounts that are only 45% through their campaigns:
One of our accounts? $37K in seven days. ROI hit 3.2. Cost per order dropped to $43.49.
That didn't happen by accident.
It happened because we had three weeks to:
Test which ads actually convert
Kill the losers fast
Double down on winners
Let the algorithm learn
Plot twist: Your Black Friday success is determined in November, not on Friday.
The Unsexy Stuff That Actually Moves the Needle
Want to know what we spent most of this week doing?
Fixing shipping glitches. Watching product satisfaction scores. Making sure samples got out on time.
One client's now sitting at 4.5 product satisfaction and 4.6 for fulfillment.
"Paul, that sounds boring as hell."
It is. Until you realize that your shipping speed is the difference between a 3x ROI and a 1.5x ROI.
TikTok Shop rewards fast shipping like Amazon rewards Prime eligibility. Except on TikTok, it actually shows up in your ad performance.
What's Actually Breaking Right Now
Let's be honest about the chaos:
Amazon FBA delays is a big issues. Platform's having random technical hiccups due to BFCM (Most Amazon sellers fulfil their TikTok Shop orders using FBA stock).
TikTok Violations - 60% of our clients have some type of TikTok Shop violation…. it’s literally the worst time of year for this
But here's what we learned...
The brands winning right now aren't the ones with perfect execution. They're the ones who pivot fast when something breaks.
Underperforming ad? Kill it. Don't wait for it to "turn around."
Shipping delay? Get ahead of support tickets before reviews and shipping metrics tank.
Platform glitch? Work around it, don't wait for TikTok to fix it.
The Real Black Friday Watch-Outs
Everyone's asking me: "What should I worry about?"
Three things:
Shipping delays - If you're not already on top of this, you're too late
Platform bottlenecks - Yes, TikTok Shop will probably have issues. Have a backup plan.
Violation bombs - One batch of late orders can tank your account for weeks
The difference between brands that crush Black Friday and brands that get crushed? Daily monitoring and fast fixes.
Not sexy. But it's what works.
Where We're At
Two weeks of prep. Hundreds of ads live. Cost per order getting dialled in. Daily budget caps keeping performance tight.
The numbers are there. The infrastructure's ready.
Now it's about execution.
That's it for this week 👊
But I need to ask a favour...
What did you think of today's newsletter?
Thanks for reading.
- Paul 👊
PS…. Want to know what your profit margin could be for TikTok Shop? Built this for you