Overview
The BFCM Command Center brings together three parts of your holiday workflow:
Planning and Live Tracking holds your sale goals, budget, important campaign moments, and conditions to monitor.
Live Pacing uses that plan to put actual performance in context when the sale begins and data is available.
Competitive Intelligence helps you review publicly available competitor ad activity and the insights presented in your account.
Set up the plan before the sale so you have a clear reference when results arrive. Your targets and milestones describe what you intend to do. They are not forecasts or proof that a campaign launched.
Before you begin
Have your sale dates, overall goal, planned paid-media budget, and channel allocations ready. Check which ad channels are connected to your Triple Whale account.
If you want a historical reference, choose a completed period with data in your account. A recent period can provide context for a first BFCM, but it is not a prior-year holiday comparison.
Decide which competitors you want to follow before setting up Competitive Intelligence. That view uses public ad signals, not access to a competitor’s private sales, spend, or return on ad spend.
How the Command Center works
Your plan supplies the targets and context. Live Pacing compares incoming performance with that plan during the sale.
Competitive Intelligence gives you a separate view of competitor activity alongside your own results. A competitor’s ad or offer is a signal to investigate. It is not evidence of performance or a reason to change your plan automatically.
Set up Planning and Live Tracking
Open BFCM Command Center in Triple Whale.
Select Planning and Live Tracking.
Review the Planning Reminder prompt. If you want the scheduled reminder shown in your account, review its details and select Activate automations.
Activation enables the Automation; it does not mean a reminder has already run.
Open Data Settings.
Confirm the currency and timezone for the plan.
Select the attribution model you want to use.
Select the attribution window you want to use. The attribution window is the period in which a conversion can receive credit after a marketing interaction.
Wait for the settings to show a saved state.
Choose a completed date range with available data in Historical baseline.
Select Load baseline. Review the displayed revenue, orders, average order value, ad spend, and breakdowns. Use the period as a reference, not a prediction of BFCM results.
Choose the metric you want to monitor in Goals, Budget and Guardrails.
Enter your target.
Set the goal’s scope, such as a full-sale goal. Keep only the goal cards you intend to use.
Enter Sale starts.
Enter Sale ends. Check both fields again after making your selections.
Enter your total planned paid-media budget in Channel Budget and Targets.
Add each connected channel you plan to use.
Enter each channel’s share of the budget.
Check the allocation summary. The channel amounts should add up to your total budget.
Set a relevant metric and target for each channel you want to monitor. For example, return on ad spend (ROAS) compares attributed revenue with ad spend. A channel target is separate from your overall sale goal.
Select Add Milestone in Campaign Context.
Record an important planned moment with its date and a useful note.
Confirm that the milestone appears on the timeline. A milestone records context. It does not verify that an activity happened or caused a result.
Set thresholds for the measures your team has decided to watch in Configure Live Tracking. Leave other conditions unset until you have meaningful limits for them. Setting a threshold does not mean an alert has fired.
Set up Competitive Intelligence
The walkthrough first adds two competitors, then reviews a previously saved brief with a broader watchlist. It does not show a newly completed Automation run.
Add competitors to your watchlist
Open BFCM Command Center in Triple Whale.
Select Competitive Intelligence.
Select Add a competitor.
Enter the competitor’s website.
Select Search.
Check that the result matches the intended brand. Watch for similarly named brands or public pages.
Select Track for the intended brand.
Select Track brand to confirm.
Confirm that the competitor appears under Brands.
Repeat these steps for each competitor you want to follow.
Choose how to refresh the brief
If your account offers a daily-refresh Automation, review its schedule before activating it. Activation enables the Automation. It does not prove that a scheduled run completed or delivered a brief.
Use the visible Refresh control when you need to request a manual update. Check the resulting brief or refresh state before treating the information as current.
Review a saved daily brief
Open an available daily brief.
Check the brief’s date. A saved brief reflects that report’s date, not necessarily the current watchlist or a new run.
Review What stood out for the main observations.
Review Promotion signals for offers and promotional messaging found in the public ads.
Review Creative formats for recurring formats and creative themes.
Read Scope & limits before drawing conclusions.
Compare the observations with the underlying competitor ad examples.
Open an ad’s source when you need to check the original public listing.
Competitive Intelligence uses public Meta ad activity. It does not reveal a competitor’s private sales, ad spend, ROAS, or campaign results.
If peer benchmarks appear in your view, use them only when the qualifying peer group is available. Keep those comparisons separate from observations about an individual competitor’s ads.
Review detailed analysis and creative recommendations
Select Read detailed analysis to review the supporting observations.
Open Moby creative recommendations.
Select a concept to review.
Review the draft preview and its source material.
Select Open draft asset when available to inspect the draft at full size.
Creative recommendations and draft assets are ideas to evaluate. They are not tested performance results. Previewing or opening a draft does not publish it or add it to a campaign.
Check your setup and use it during the sale
Return to Planning and Live Tracking and confirm that these entries appear as intended:
Measurement settings and historical baseline period
Sale dates and overall goal
Paid-media budget, channel allocations, and channel targets
Campaign milestones and chosen live-tracking conditions
In Competitive Intelligence, confirm that Brands contains the competitors you meant to follow. Check the date of the latest available brief and any visible refresh state.
Once the sale begins and data is available, use Live Pacing to compare actual performance with your plan. Review changes against your campaign milestones and other context. Investigate before attributing a change to any one event.
If a scheduled brief is missing, check the Automation’s status, run history, and destination. Do not assume it ran or was delivered. See My automation did not run or did not deliver.
If you want scheduled results in Slack, connect Moby to Slack. Invite Moby to the destination channel, then set that destination in the Automation. Opening Moby notifications alone does not configure Slack delivery.
Frequently asked questions
Can I make a BFCM plan if this is my first holiday season?
Yes. Choose a completed period with data in Historical baseline and use it as recent operating context. Do not treat it as a comparison with last year’s BFCM. You can still set your sale dates, goals, budget, and tracking conditions based on the plan you intend to run.
Why is some historical baseline data missing?
First, check the selected dates and whether your store and relevant ad channels have data for that period. A partial baseline does not necessarily mean there was no historical activity; some sources or metrics may be unavailable in the view. If you expect a metric that remains missing, share the date range, metric, and message shown in the app with Triple Whale support rather than filling the gap with an estimate.
Do I need to activate the Planning Reminder to create my plan?
No. You can work through the Planning fields without treating the reminder as a completed step in your sale plan. If you activate the Automation, check its status and schedule separately. Activated means it is enabled, not that a reminder has run or been delivered.
When will Live Pacing show results against my plan?
Live Pacing needs your sale plan and actual data from the sale period to make a comparison. Before the sale begins, or while data is unavailable, a pending or pre-live state is not a performance result. Check your sale dates and plan entries before drawing conclusions from a missing comparison.
Does setting a live-tracking threshold send an alert immediately?
No. A threshold defines a condition to watch. It does not mean that the condition occurred or that a notification was sent. Set limits your team would find meaningful, then check the relevant run or notification record when you want to confirm an alert was produced.
What does a campaign milestone tell me?
A milestone records a planned or known event, such as a promotion or campaign change, so you have context when reviewing performance. Adding a marker does not launch the campaign. If results change near that date, investigate the underlying activity and data before assigning a cause.
What competitor information can I see?
Competitive Intelligence uses publicly available Meta ad activity from the brands you follow. It can help you review ad examples, messaging, creative themes, and offers. It does not reveal a competitor’s private sales, ad spend, ROAS, or campaign results.
Does activating Competitive Intelligence mean a new brief is ready?
No. Activating an Automation enables its schedule. It does not confirm that a run completed or a brief was delivered.
Check the available brief’s date and the Automation’s run history. A previously saved brief is not proof of a new run.
Does opening a creative draft publish it?
No. Previewing a concept or selecting Open draft asset lets you inspect the draft. It does not publish the asset or add it to a campaign.
Treat the draft as an untested idea until you review it and complete a separate supported publishing or campaign action.
Will Moby automatically make changes based on the Command Center?
A plan, insight, or suggested next step is not an executed account change.
If a supported Moby Action is available, what happens next depends on the action and your account’s approval settings. Review the action’s status before assuming anything changed in a connected platform.
How do I send scheduled results to Slack?
Connect Moby to Slack, invite Moby to the destination channel, and configure that channel as the Automation’s destination.
Opening Moby notifications does not enable Slack delivery.
If a result does not arrive, check the Automation’s run and delivery status. See My automation did not run or did not deliver.