Black Friday and Cyber Monday messaging sending guide

We want you to have the best message deliverability possible, so we’ve taken steps to ensure Bandwidth can support the large volume of traffic expected during Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM). Please review the following best practices to see which steps you can take to maintain high deliverability during these busy retail holidays.  

Key dates 

• Black Friday: November 29, 2024 
• Cyber Monday: December 2, 2024 

Peak sending times and MPS

• Peak sending times are expected to be 9 AM EST - 3 PM EST. If possible, send before or after this time to avoid message slowdowns or having to compete for network space.
• Send outside of the start of the hour to avoid peak times. Scheduling your messages to send at, for example, 3:14 pm instead of 3:00 pm can help with deliverability.
• Please send within your account’s rate limits.
  • If you max out your account level rate limit and your queue size has been exceeded, you'll receive a 429 - Too Many Requests error.
  • If you have questions about your account's rate limit, please contact your Account Manager. Not sure who your Account Manager is? Open a ticket with your Bandwidth Support Team or hit us up at (855) 864-7776.

Ensuring high deliverability

Toll-free

• All toll-free numbers must be verified prior to sending on BFCM.
• Toll-free verification applications currently take about a week to process, so please get any unregistered toll-free numbers submitted ASAP.
• Check out our Bandwidth toll-free verification handbook for questions on verifying toll-free numbers.

10DLC

• All 10DLC traffic should be properly registered before sending on BFCM.
  • We cannot remediate blocking on unregistered 10DLC numbers.
• Send within your brand’s and campaign’s sending limits.
  • These can be found in our 10DLC overview.
• Please follow our 10DLC messaging best practices for more guidance on registration.

MMS

• Make sure to only send supported file types.
• Stay under the recommended file size (525 KB is the limit for toll-free, but will also ensure better deliverability and quicker sending on long code).

Should you run into issues with your traffic, please open a ticket or give us a call at (855) 864-7776! If you're having trouble opening a technical ticket, see this support article.